VIEW 


OF    THE 


STATE     OF     EUROPE 

» 


DURING 


THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 


BY     HENRY     HALLAM. 


EK  Xaeoj  <5'  Ep£&5c  re 
NVKTOS  5'  a&r'  At0'p  re  xaiV 


|  iyevovro' 
ivovro. 
HZIOAOS. 


FROM    THE    ^IXTH     LONDON    EDITION. 


COMPLETE       IN      ONE      VOLUM 


N  E  W-Y  0  R  K  : 


PUBLISHED    BY    HARPER    &    BROTHERS, 

NO.      82     CLIFF-STREET. 

1837. 


\ 


PREFACE. 


IT  is  the  object  of  the  present  work  to  exhibit,  in  a  series  of  historical 
dissertations,  a  comprehensive  survey  of  the  chief  circumstances  that  can 
interest  a  philosophical  inquirer  during  the  period  usually  denominated  the 
Middle  Ages.  Such  an  undertaking  must  necessarily  fall  under  the  class  of 
historical  abridgments  :  ye.t  there  will  perhaps  be  found  enough  to  distinguish 
it  from  such  as  have  already  appeared.  Many  considerable  portions  of  time, 
especially  before  the  twelfth  century,  may  justly  be  deemed  so  barren  of 
events  worthy  of  remembrance,  that  a  single  sentence  or  paragraph  is  often 
sufficient  to  give  the  character  of  entire  generations,  and  of  long  dynasties 
of  obscure  kings. 

"  Non  ragioniam  di  lor,  ma  guarda  e  passa." 

And  even  in  the  more  pleasing  and  instructive  parts  of  this  middle  period,  it 
has  been  my  object  to  avoid  the  dry  composition  of  annals,  and  aiming,  with 
what  spirit  and  freedom  I  could,  at  a  just  outline  rather  than  a  miniature,  to 
suppress  all  events  that  did  not  appear  essentially  concatenated  with  others, 
or  illustrative  of  important  conclusions.  But  as  the  modes  of  government 
and  constitutional  laws  which  prevailed  in  various  countries  of  Europe,  and 
especially  in  England,  seemed  to  have  been  less  fully  dwelt  upon  in  former 
works  of  this  description  than  military  or  civil  transactions,  while  they  were 
deserving  of  far  mofe  attention,  I  have  taken  pains  to  give  a  true  representa- 
tion of  them,  and  in  every^nstance  to  point  out  the  sources  from  which  the 
reader  may  derive  more  complete  and  original  information. 

Nothing  can  be  farther  from  my  wishes  than  that  the  following  pages 
should  be  judged  according  to  the  critical  laws  of  historical  composition. 
Tried  in  such  a  balance,  they  would  be  eminently  defective.  The  limited 

t*.nt  of  this  work,  compared  with  the  subjects  it  embraces,  as  well  as  its 
partaking  more  of  the  character  of  political  dissertation  than  of  narrative, 
must  necessarily  preclude  that  circumstantial  delineation  of  events  and  of 
.characters  upon  which  the  beauty  as  well  as  usefulness  of  a  regular  history 
N^or  can  I  venture  to  assert  that  it  will  be  found  alto- 
gether perspicuous  to  those  who  are  destitute  of  any  previous  acquaintance 
k  it  relates  ;  though  I  have  only  presupposed,  strictly 
wdedge  of  the  common  facts  of  English  history,  and  have 
endeavoured  to  avoid,  in  treating  of  other  countries,  those  allusive  references, 
which  imply  more  information  in  the  reader  than  the  author  designs  to  com- 
municate.    But  the  arrangement  which  I  have  adopted  has  sometimes  ren- 
dered it  necessary  to  anticipate  both  names  and  facts,  which  are  to  find  a 
more  definite  place  in  a  subsequent  part  of  the  work. 

This  arrangement  is  probably  diiferent  from*that  of  any  former  historical 
retrospect.  Every  chapter  of  the  following  volumes  completes  its  particular 
subject,  and  may  be  considered  in  some  degree  as  independent  of  the  rest. 
The  order,  consequently,  in  which  they  are  read,  will  not  be  very  material, 
though  of  course  I  should  rather  prefer  that  in  which  they  are  at  present  dis- 


X  PREFACE. 

posed.  A  solicitude  to  avoid  continual  transitions,  and  to  give  free  scope  to 
the  natural  association  of  connected  facts,  has  dictated  this  arrangement,  to 
which  I  confess  myself  partial.  And  I  have  found  its  inconveniences  so  trifling 
in  composition,  that  I  cannot  believe  they  will  occasion  much  trouble  to  the 
reader. 

The  first  chapter  comprises  the  history  of  France  from  the  invasion  of 
Clovis  to  the  expedition,  exclusively,  of  Charles  VIII.  against  Naples.  It 
is  not  possible  to  fix  accurate  limits  to  the  Middle  Ages  :  but  though  the  ten 
centuries  from  the  fifth  to  the  fifteenth  seem,  in  a  general  point  of  view,  to 
constitute  that  period,  a  less  arbitrary  division  was  necessary  to  render  the 
commencement  and  conclusion  of  an  historical  narrative  satisfactory.  The 
continuous  chain  of  transactions  on  the  stage  of  human  society  is  ill  divided 
by  mere  lines  of  chronological  demarcation.  But  as  the  subversion  of  the 
western  empire  is  manifestly  the  natural  termination  of  ancient  history,  so 
the  establishment  of  the  Franks  in  Gaul  appears  the  most  convenient  epoch 
for  the  commencement  of  a  new  period.  Less  difficulty  occurred  in  finding 
the  other  limit.  The  invasion  of  Naples  by  Charles  VIII.  was  the  event 
that  first  engaged  the  principal  states  of  Europe  in  relations  of  alliance  or 
hostility  which  may  be  deduced  to  the  present  day,  and  is  the  point  at  which 
every  man  who  traces  backward  its  political  history  will  be  obliged  to  pause. 
It  furnishes  a  determinate  epoch  in  the  annals  of  Italy  and  France,  and  nearly 
coincides  with  events  which  naturally  terminate  the  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages  in  other  countries. 

The  feudal  system  is  treated  in  the  second  chapter,  which  I  have  subjoined 
to  the  history  of  France,  with  which  it  has  a  near  connexion.  Inquiries  into 
the  antiquities  of  that  jurisprudence  occupied  more  attention  in  the  last  age 
than  at  present,  and  their  dryness  may  prove  repulsive  to  many  readers. 
But  there  is  no  royal  road  to  the  knowledge  of  law  ;  nor*can  any  man  render 
an  obscure  and  intricate  disquisition  either  perspicuous  or  entertaining. 
That  the  feudal  system  is  an  important  branch  of  historical  knowledge  will 
not  be  disputed,  when  we  consider  not  only  its  influence  upon  our  own  con- 
stitution, but  that  one  of  the  parties  which  at  present  divide  a  neighbouring 
kingdom  professes  to  appeal  to  the  original  principles  of  its  monarchy,  as 
they  subsisted  before  the  subversion  of  that  polity. 

The  four  succeeding  chapters  contain  a  sketch,  more  or  less  rapid  arid 
general,  of  the  histories  of  Italy,  of  Spain,  of  Germany,  and  of  the  Greek 
and  Saracenic  empires.  In  the  seventh  I  have  endeavoured  to  develop  the 
progress  of  ecclesiastical  power,  a  subject  eminently  distinguishing  the  Mid- 
dle Ages,  and  of  which  a  concise  and  impartial  delineation  has  long  been 
desirable. 

The  English  constitution  furnishes  materials  for  the  eighth  chapter.  I 
cannot  hope  to  have  done  sufficient  justice  to  this  theme,  which  has  cost  me 
considerable  labour ;  but  it  is  worthy  of  remark,  that  since  the  treatise  of 
Nathaniel  Bacon,  itself  open  to  much  exception,  there  has  been  no  historical 
development  of  our  constitution,  founded  upon  extensive  researches,  or  calcu- 
lated to  give  a  just  notion  of  its  character.  For  those  parts  of  Henry's  his- 
tory which  profess  to  trace  trie  progress  of  government  are  still  more  jejune 
than  the  rest  of  his  volumes  ;  and  the  work  of  Professor  Millar,  of  Glasgow, 
however  pleasing  from  its  liberal  spirit,  displays  a  fault  too  common  among 
the  philosophers  of  his  country,  that  of  theorizing  upon  an  imperfect  induc- 
tion, and  very  often  upon  a  total  misapprehension  of  particular  facts. 


PREFACE.  Xi 

The  ninth  and  last  chapter  relates  to  the  general  state  of  society  in  Europe 
during  the  Middle  Ages,  and  comprehends  the  history  of  commerce,  of  man- 
ners, and  of  literature.  None  however  of  these  are  treated  in  detail,  and  the 
whole  chapter  is  chiefly  designed  as  supplemental  to  the  rest,  in  order  to  vary 
the  relations  under  which  events  may  be  viewed,  and  to  give  a  more  adequate 
sense  of  the  spirit  and  character  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

In  the  execution  of  a  plan  far  more  comprehensive  than  what,  with  a  due 
consideration  either  of  my  abilities  or  opportunities,  I  ought  to  have  under- 
taken, it  would  be  strangely  presumptuous  to  hope  that  I  can  have  rendered 
myself  invulnerable  to  criticism.  Even  if  flagrant  errors  should  not  be  fre- 
quently detected,  yet  I  am  aware  that  a  desire  of  conciseness  has  prevented 
the  sense  of  some  ^passages  from  appearing  sufficiently  distinct ;  and  though 
I  cannot  hold  myself  generally  responsible  for  omissions,  in  a  work  which 
could  only  be  brought  within  a  reasonable  compass  by  the  severe  retrench- 
ment of  superfluous  matter,  it  is  highly  probable  that  defective  information, 
forgetfulness,  or  too  great  a  regard  for  brevity,  has  caused  me  to  pass  over 
many  things  which  would  have  materially  illustrated  the  various  subjects  of 
these  inquiries. 

I  dare  not,  therefore,  appeal  with  confidence  to  the  tribunal  of  those  supe- 
rior judges,  who,  having  bestowed  a  more  undivided  attention  on  the  particu- 
lar objects  that  have  interested  them,  may  justly  deem  such  general  sketches 
imperfect  and  superficial ;  but  my  labours  will  not  have  proved  fruitless,  if 
they  shall  conduce  to  stimulate  the  reflection,  to  guide  the  researches,  to  cor- 
rect the  prejudices,  or  to  animate  the  liberal  and  virtuous  sentiments  of  in- 
quisitive youth : 

"  Mi  satis  ampla 

Merces,  et  mihi  grande  decus,  sira  ignotus  in  aevum 
Turn  licet,  externo  penitusque  inglorius  orbi." 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE,  FROM  ITS 
CONQUEST  BY  CLOVIS  TO  THE  INVA- 
SION OF  NAPLES  BY  CHARLES  VIII. 

PART  I. 

Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire.— Invasion  of  Clovis  — 
First  race  of  French  Kings. — Accession  of  Pe- 
pin  —  State  of  Italy.— Charlemagne.— His  Reign 
and  Character. — Louis  the  Debonair. — His  Suc- 
cessors.— Calamitous  state  of  the  Empire  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  Centuries. — Accession  of  Hugh 
Capet.  —  His  first  Successors.  —  Louis  VII. — 
Philip  Augustus. — Conquest  of  Normandy. — 
War  in  Languedoc.— Louis  IX.— His  Charac- 
ter.— Digression  upon  the  Crusades. — Philip  III. 
— Philip  IV. — Aggrandizement  of  French  Mon- 
archy under  his  Reign.— Reigns  of  his  Children. 
— Question  of  Salique-Law. — Claim  of  Edward 
III.  --------  Page  17 

PART  II. 

War  of  Edward  III.  in  France.  —  Causes  of  his 
Success.— Civil  Disturbances  of  France. — Peace 
of  Bretigni  —  its  Interpretation  considered. — 
Charles  V.— Renewal  of  the  War.— Charles  VI. 
— his  Minority  and  Insanity. — Civil  Dissensions 
of  the  Parties  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy. — Assas- 
sination of  both  these  Princes.  —  Intrigues  of 
their  Parties  with  England  under  Henry  IV. — 
Henry  V.  invades  France.— Treaty  of  Troyes.— 
State  of  France  in  the  first  Years  of  Charles  VII. 
— Progress  and  subsequent  Decline  of  the  Eng- 
lish Arms  —  their  Expulsion  from  France.  — 
Change  in  the  Political  Constitution.— Louis  XI. 
— his  Character. — Leagues  formed  against  him. 
—Charles,  Duke  of  Burgundy— his"  Prosperity 
and  Fall. — Louis  obtains  Possession  of  Burgun- 
dy—his Death.— Charles  VIII.— Acquisition  of 
Britany 39 


CHAPTER  II. 

ON  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM,  ESPECIAL- 
LY IN  FRANCE. 

PART  I. 

State  of  Ancient  Germany. — Effects  of  the  Con- 
quest of  Gaul  by  the  Franks. — Tenures  of  Land. 
— Distinction  of  Laws. — Constitution  of  the  an- 
cient Frank  Monarchy. — Gradual  Establishment 
of  Feudal  Tenures.— Principles  of  a  Feudal  Re- 
lation.— Ceremonies  of  Homage  and  Investiture. 
—Military  Service. — Feudal  Incidents  of  Relief, 
Aid,  Wardship,  &c.— Different  Species  of  Fiefs. 
—Feudal  Law-books  64 


PART  II.      . 

Analysis  of  the  Feudal  System. — Its  local  extent. 
— View  of  the  different  Orders  of  Society  during 
the  Feudal  Ages. — Nobility — their  Ranks  and 
Privileges.— Clergy. — Freemen.  —  Serfs  or  Vil- 
leins.— Comparative  State  of  France  and  Ger- 
many.— Privileges  enjoyed  by  the  French  Vas- 
sals.— Right  of  coining  Money — and  of  private 
War.  —  Immunity  from  Taxation.  •=—  Historical 
View  of  the  Royal  Revenue  in  France. — Meth- 
ods adopted  to  augment  it  by  depreciation  of  the 
Coin,  &c. — Legislative  Power— its  state  under 
the  Merovingian  Kings  — and  Charlemagne. — 
His  Councils.— Suspension  of  any  general  Legis- 
lative Authority  during  the  prevalence  of  Feudal 
Principles. — The  King's  Council. — Means  adopt- 
ed to  supply  the  Want  of  a  National  Assembly. 
—  Gradual  Progress  of  the  King's  Legislative 
Power. — Philip  IV.  assembles  the  States  Gen- 
eral.—  Their  Powers  limited  to  Taxation. — 
States  under  the  Sons  of  Philip  IV.— States  of 
1355  and  1356.  — They  nearly  effect  an  entire 
Revolution. — The  Crown  recovers  its  Vigour. — 
States  of  1380,  under  Charles  VII— Subsequent 
Assemblies  under  Charles  VI.  and  Charles  VII. 
— The  Crown  becomes  more  and  more  absolute. 
— Louis  XI. — States  of  Tours  in  1484. — Histori- 
cal View  of  Jurisdiction  in  France. — Its  earli- 
est stage  under  the  first  Race  of  Kings,  and 
Charlemagne. — Territorial  Jurisdiction.  —  Feu- 
dal Courts  of  Justice. — Trial  by  Combat. — Code 
of  St.  Louis. — The  Territorial  Jurisdictions  give 
way.  —  Progress  of  the  Judicial  Power  of  the 
Crown.  —  Parliament  of.  —  Paris.  —  Peers  of 
France. — Increased  Authority  of  the  Parliament. 
— Registration  of  Edicts. — Causes  of  the  Decline 
of  Feudal  System. — Acquisitions  of  Domain  by 
the  Crown. — Charters  of  Incorporation  granted 
to  Towns.  —  Their  previous  Condition.  —  First 
Charters  in  the  twelfth  Century.  —  Privileges 
contained  in  them. — Military  Service  of  Feudal 
Tenants  commuted  for  Money. — Hired  Troops. 
— Change  in  the  Military  System  of  Europe. — 
General  View  of  the  Advantages  and  Disadvan- 
tages attending  the  Feudal  System  -  -  83 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ITALY,  FROM  THE 
EXTINCTION  OF  THE  CARLOVINGIAN 
EMPERORS  TO  THE  INVASION  OF  NA- 
PLES BY  CHARLES  VIII. 

PART  I. 

State  of  Italy  after  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat- 
Coronation  of  Otho  the  Great.— State  of  Rome. 
— Confld  II.— Union  of  the  Kingdom  of  Italy 


XIV 


CONTENTS. 


with  the  Empire. — Establishment  of  the  Nor- 
mans in  Naples  and  Sicily.— Roger  Guiscard.— 
Rise  of  the  Lombard  Cities. — They  gradually 
become  more  independent  of  the  Empire.— Their 
Internal  Wars.  —  Frederick  Barbarossa.  —  De- 
struction of  Milan. — Lombard  League. — Battle 
of  Legnano.— Peace  of  Constance.— Temporal 
Principality  of  the  Popes. — Guelf  and  Ghibelm 
Factions. — Otho  IV". — Frederick  II.  —  Arrange- 
ment of  the  Italian  Republics. — Second  Lombard 
War.— Extinction  of  the  House  of  Swabia.— 
Causes  of  the  Success  of  Lombard  Republics. — 
Their  prosperity — and  Forms  of  Government. — 
Contentions  between  the  Nobility  and  People. 
— Civil  Wars. — Story  of  Giovanni  di  Vicenza 

Page  125 

PART  II. 

State  of  Italy  after  the  Extinction  of  the  House  of 
Swabia.— Conquest  of  Naples  by  Charles  of 
Anjou. — The  Lombard  Republics  become  sever- 
ally subject  to  Princes  or  Usurpers.— The  Vis- 
conti  of  Milan— their  Aggrandizement.— Decline 
of  the  Imperial  Authority  over  Italy.— Internal 
State  of  Rome. — Rienzi. — Florence— her  forms 
of  Government  historically  traced  to  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  Century.— Conquest  of  Pisa.— 
Pisa— its  Commerce,  Naval  Wars  with  Genoa, 
and  Decay. — Genoa — her  Contentions  with  Ven- 
ice.— War  of  Chioggia. — Government  of  Genoa. 
—Venice— her  Origin  and  Prosperity.— Vene- 
tian Government— its  Vices.— Territorial  Con- 
quests of  Venice.— Military  System  of  Italy  — 
Companies  of  Adventure. — 1.  foreign;  Guarni- 
eri,  Hawkwood — and  2.  native ;  Braccio,  Sforza. 
Improvements  in  Military  Service. — Arms,  offen- 
sive and  defensive. — Invention  of  Gunpowder. — 
Naples.— First  Line  of  Anjou. — Joanna  I. — La- 
dislaus. — Joanna  II.— Francis  Sforza  becomes 
Duke  of  Milan.— Alfonso,  king  of  Naples.— 
State  of  Italy  during  the  fifteenth  Century. — 
Florence.— Rise  of  the  Medici,  and  Ruin  of  their 
Adversaries. — Pretensions  of  Charles  VIII.  to 
Naples  -  148 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN  TO  THE  CON 
QUEST  OF  GRANADA. 

Kingdom  of  the  Visigoths.— Conquest  of  Spain  by 
the  Moors.— Gradual  Revival  of  the  Spanish 
Nation.— Kingdoms  of  Leon,  Aragon,  Navarre 

.  and  Castile,  successively  formed. — Charterec 
Towns  of  Castile.— Military  Orders.— Conques 
of  Ferdinand  III.  and  James  of  Aragon.— Causer 
of  the  delay  in  expelling  the  Moors.— History  o 
Castile  continued.— Character  of  the  government 
—Peter  the  Cruel.— House  of  Trastamare.— 
John  II.— Henry  IV.— Constitution  of  Castile.— 
National  Assemblies  or  Cortes.— Their  constitu 
ent  parts.— Right  of  Taxation.— Legislation.— 
Privy  Council  of  Castile.— Laws  for  the  protec 
tion  of  Liberty.— Imperfections  of  the  Constitu 
tion. — Aragon. — Its  history  in  the  fourteenth  an 
fifteenth  centuries. — Disputed  succession.— Con 
stitution  of  Aragon.— Free  spirit  of  its  Aristoc 
racy.— Privilege  of  Union. — Powers  of  the  Jus 
tiza.—  Legal  Securities.— Illustrations.— Othe 
Constitutional  Laws. — Valencia  and  Catalonif 
—Union  of  two  Crowns  by  the  Marriage  of  Fe: 
dinand  and  Isabella,— Conquest  of  Granada  10 


CHAPTER  V. 

ISTORY  OF  GERMANY  TO  THE    DIET 
OF  WORMS  IN  1495. 

ketch  of  German  History  under  the  Emperors  of 
the  House  of  Saxony. — House  of  Franconia. — 
Henry  IV. — House  of  Swabia.— Frederick  Bar- 
barossa.— Fall  of  Henry  the  Lion.— Frederick  II. 
— Extinction  of  House  of  Swabia. — Changes  in 
the  Germanic  Constitution.— Electors.— Terri-  O^ 
torial  Sovereignty  of  the  Princes. — Rodolph  of 
Hapsburg. — State  of  the  Empire  after  his  Time. 
—Causes  of  Decline  of  Imperial  Power. — House 
of  Luxemburg. — Charles  IV. — Golden  Bull. — 
House  of  Austria. — Frederick  III. — Imperial 
Cities. — Provincial  States. — Maximilian. — Diet 
of  Worms. — Abolition  of  private  Wars. — Im- 
perial Chamber. — Aulic  Council. — Bohemia. — 
Hungary.— Switzerland  -  -  -  Page  227 


CHAPTER  VI. 

HISTORY  OF  THE   GREEKS  AND  SARA- 
CENS. 

lise  of  Mahometanism.— Causes  of  its  Success. — 
Progress  of  Saracen  Arms. — Greek  Empire. — 
Decline  of  the  Khalifs. — The  Greeks  recover 
part  of  their  Losses. — The  Turks. — The  Cru- 
sades.— Capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Lat- 
ins.—Its  Recovery  by  the  Greeks.— The  Mo- 
guls.— The  Ottomans. — Danger  at  Constantino- 
ple.— Timur. — Capture  of  Constantinople  by  Ma- 
homet II. — Alarm  of  Europe  -  -  -  249 


CHAPTER  VII. 

HISTORY  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER 
DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

Wealth  of  the  Clergy— its  Sources. — Encroach- 
ments on  Ecclesiastical  Property— their  Juris- 
diction —  arbitrative  —  coercive  —  their  Political 
Power.  —  Supremacy  of  the  Crown. — Charle- 
magne.— Change  after  his  Death,  and  Encroach- 
ments of  the  Church  in  the  ninth  Century.— Pri- 
macy of  the  See  of  Rome— its  early  Stage. — 
Gregory  I. — Council  of  Frankfort — false  Decre- 
tals.—Progress  of  Papal  Authority.— Effects  of 
Excommunication.  —  Lothaire.  —  State  of  the 
Church  in  the  tenth  Century.  —  Marriage  of 
Priests.  —  Simony. —  Episcopal  Elections. — Im- 
perial Authority  over  the  Popes. — Disputes  con- 
cerning Investitures. — Gregory  VII.  and  Henry 
IV. — Concordat  of  Calixtus. — Election  by  Chap- 
ters—general System  of  Gregory  VII. — Progress 
of  Papal  usurpations  in  the  twelfth  Century. — 
Innocent  III. — his  Character  and  Schemes — con- 
tinual Progress  of  the  Papacy. — Canon  Law. — 
Mendicant  Orders— dispensing  Power.— Taxa- 
tion of  the  Clergy  by  the  Popes. — Encroachments 
on  Rights  of  Patronage. — Mandats,  Reserves, 
&c. — General  Disaffection  towards  the  See  of 
Rome  in  the  thirteenth  century.— Progress  of 
Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction.  —  Immunity  of  the 
Clergy  in  Criminal  Cases. — Restraints  imposed 
upon  their  Jurisdiction — upon  their  Acquisition 
of  Property.— Boniface  VIII.— his  Quarrel  with 
Philip  the  Fair— its  Termination.— Gradual  De- 
cline of  Papal  Authority.— Louie  of  Bavaria.— 


CONTENTS. 


XV 


Secession  to  Avignon  and  Return  to  Rome. — 
Conduct  of  Avignon  Popes — contested  Election 
of  Urban  and  Clement  produces  the  great  Schism. 
— Council  of  Pisa  —  Constance — Basle. — Meth- 
ods adopted  to  restrain  the  Papal  usurpations  in 
England,  Germany,  and  France. —  Liberties  of 
the  Gallican  Church.— Decline  of  the  Papal  In- 
fluence in  Italy  ....  Page  261 


CHAPTER  VIII 

PART  I. 

THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF 
ENGLAND. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Constitution. — Sketch  of  An- 
glo-Saxon History. — Succession  to  the  Crown. 
— Orders  of  Men. — Thanes  and  Ceorls. — Wit- 
tenagemot.  —  Judicial  System.  —  Division  into 
Hundreds. — County-Court. — Trial  by  Jury— its 
Antiquity  investigated. — Law  of  Frank-pledge — 
its  several  Stages. — Question  of  Feudal  Ten- 
ures before  the  Conquest  -  -  -  -  318 

PART  II. 
THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  CONSTITUTION. 

The  Anglo-Norman  Constitution. — Causes  of  the 
Conquest. — Policy  and  character  of  William — 
his  Tyranny. — Introduction  of  Feudal  Services. 
— Difference  between  the  Feudal  Governments 
of  France  and  England. — Causes  of  the  great 
Power  of  the  first  Norman  Kings. — Arbitrary 
Character  of  their  Government.— Great  Council. 
— Resistance  of  the"  Barons  to  John. — Magna 
Charta— its  principal  Articles. — Reign  of  Henry 
III. — The  Constitution  acquires  a  more  liberal 
Character.— Judicial  System  of  the  Anglo-Nor- 
mans.— Curia  Regis,  Exchequer,  &c. — Estab- 
lishment of  the  Common  Law — its  effect  in  fix- 
ing the  Constitution. — Remarks  on  the  Limita- 
tion of  Aristocratical  Privileges  in  England  332 

PART  III. 
THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 

Reign  of  Edward  I. — Confirmatio  Chartarum. — 
Constitution  of  Parliament— the  Prelates — the 
Temporal  Peers.  —  Tenure  by  Barony  — its 
Changes. — Difficulty  of  the  Subject. — Origin  of 
Representation  of  the  Commons. — Knights  of 
Shires  —  their  Existence  doubtfully  traced 
through  the  Reign  of  Henry  III.  —  Question 
whether  Representation  was  confined  to  Ten- 
ants in  capite  discussed. —  State  of  English 
Towns  at  the  Conquest  and  afterward— their 
Progress. — Representatives  from  them  summon- 
ed to  Parliament  by  Earl  of  Leicester. — Im- 
probability of  an  earlier  Origin.— Cases  of  St.  Al- 
ban's  and  Barnstaple  considered.— Parliaments 
under  Edward  I. — Separation  of  Knights  and 
Burgesses  from  the  Peers.— Edward  II.— grad- 
ual progress  of  the  Authority  of  Parliament 
traced  through  the  Reigns  of  Edward  III.  and 
his  successors  down  to  Henry  VTI.— Privilege  of 


Parliament — the  early  instances  of  it  noticed. — 
Nature  of  Borough  Representation. — Rights  of 
Election — other  particulars  relative  to  Elec- 
tions.— House  of  Lords. — Baronies  by  Tenure 
— by  Writ. — Nature  of  the  latter  discussed. — 
Creation  of  Peers  by  Act  of  Parliament  and  by 
Patent. — Summons  of  Clergy  to  Parliament. — 
King's  Ordinary  Council— its  Judicial  and  other 
Power.— Character  of  the  Plantagenet  Govern- 
ment.— Prerogative — its  Excesses  —  erroneous 
Views  corrected. — Testimony  of  Sir  John  For- 
tescue  to  the  Freedom  of  the  Constitution. — 
Causes  of  the  superior  Liberty  of  England  con- 
sidered.— State  of  Society  in  England. — Want 
of  Police. — Villanage — its  gradual  extinction — 
latter  years  of  Henry  VI. — Regencies. — Instan- 
ces of  them  enumerated. — Pretensions  of  the 
House  of  York,  and  War  of  the  Roses.— Ed- 
ward IV. — Conclusion  -  -  -  Page  353 


CHAPTER  IX. 

PART  I. 

ON  THE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY  IN  EU- 
ROPE DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 

Introduction. — Decline  of  Literature  in  the  latter 
period  of  the  Roman  Empire. — Its  Causes. — 
Corruption  of  the  Latin  Language. — Means  by 
which  it  was  effected. — Formation  of  new  Lan- 
guages.— General  Ignorance  of  the  Dark  Ages. — 
Scarcity  of  Books. — Causes  that  prevented  the 
total  Extinction  of  Learning.— Prevalence  of 
Superstition  and  Fanaticism.— General  Corrup- 
tion of  Religion. — Monasteries — their  Effects. — 
Pilgrimages. — Love  of  Field  Sports. — State  of 
Agriculture— of  Internal  and  Foreign  Trade 
down  to  the  End  of  the  Eleventh  Century. — Im- 
provement of  Europe  dated  from  that  Age  450 

PART  II. 

Progress  of  Commercial  Improvement  in  Germany, 
Flanders,  and  England. — In  the  North  of  Europe. 
— In  the  Countries  upon  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
— Maritime  Laws. — Usury. — Banking  Compa- 
nies.—  Progress  of  Refinement  inj^lanngs^ — 
Domestic  Architecture.  —  EcclesiasticSTArchi- 
tecture.— State  of  Agriculture  in  England.— 
Value  of  Money. — Improvement  of  the  Moral 
Character  of  Society  —  its  Causes.  —  Police. — 
Changes  in  Religious  Opinion.— Various  Sects. 
—  Chivalry — its  Progress,  Character,  and  Influ- 
ence.— Causes  of  the  Intellectual  Improvement 
of  European  Society. — 1.  The  Study  of  Civil 
Law. — 2.  Institution  of  Universities— their  Cele- 
brity.—  Scholastic  Philosophy. —  3.  Cultivation 
of  Modern  Languages.  —  Provengal  Poets. — 
Norman  Poets. — French  Prose  Writers. — Italian 
—early  Poets  in  that  Language.  —  Dante.  — 
Petrarch. — English  Language— its  Progress. — 
Chaucer. — 4.  Revival  of  Classical  Learning. — 
Latin  writers  of  the  Twelfth  Century.— Litera- 
ture of  the  Fourteenth  Century. — Greek  Litera- 
ture—  its  Restoration  in  Italy.  —  Invention  of 
Printing  ....  .  474 


VIEW 


OP 


THE   STATE   OF   EUROPE 

DURING    THE    MIDDLE    AGES. 


CHAPTER  I. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  FRANCE,  FROM  ITS  CONQUEST  BY  CLOVIS  TO  THE 
INVASION  OF  NAPLES  BY  CHARLES  VIII. 


PART   I. 

Fall  of  the  Roman  Empire. — Invasion  of  Clovis. — 
First  race  of  French  Kings, — Accession  of  Pe- 
pin. — State  of  Italy. — Charlemagne. — His  Reign 
and  Character. — Louis  the  Debonair. — His  Suc- 
cessors.— Calamitous  state  of  the  Empire  in  the 
ninth  and  tenth  Centuries. — Accession  of  Hugh 
Capet.  —  His  first  Successors.  —  Louis  VII. — 
Philip  Augustus.  —  Conquest  of  Normandy. — 
War  in  Languedoc. — Louis  IX. — His  Charac- 
ter.— Digression  upon  the  Crusades. — Philip  III. 
— Philip  IV. — Aggrandizement  of  French  Mon- 
archy under  his  Reign. — Reigns  of  his  Children. 
— Question  of  Salique-Law. — Claim  of  Edward 
III. 

BEFORE  the  conclusion  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, the  mighty  fabric  of  empire,  which 
valour  and  policy  had  founded  upon  the 
subversion  of  seven  hills  of  Rome,  was  final- 
the  Roman  ly  overthrown,  in  all  the  west 

of  Europe,  by  the  barbarous 
nations  from  the  north,  whose  martial 
energy  and  whose  numbers  were  irre- 
sistible.  A  race  of  men,  formerly  un- 
known or  despised,  had  not  only  dismem- 
New  settle-  hered  that  proud  sovereignty, 
ments  of  the  but  permanently  settled  them- 
barbarousna-  selves  in  its  fairest  provinces, 

and  imposed  their  yoke  upon 
the  ancient  possessors.  The  Vandals 
were  masters  of  Africa ;  the  Suevi  held 
part  of  Spain ;  the  Visigoths  possessed 
the  remainder,  with  a  large  portion  of 
Gaul ;  the  Burgundians  occupied  the 
provinces  watered  by  the  Rhone  and  Sa- 
one ;  the  Ostrogoths  almost  all  Italy. 
The  northwest  of  Gaul,  between  the 
Seine  and  the  Loire,  some  writers  have 
filled  with  an  Armorican  republic  ;*  while 

*  It  is  impossible  not  to  speak  skeptically  as  to 
tiua  republic,  or  rather  confederation  of  independ- 
B 


the  remainder  was  still  nominally  subject 
to  the  Roman  empire,  and  governed  by 
a  certain  Syagrius,  rather  with  an  inde- 
pendent than  a  deputed  authority. 

[A.  D.  486.]  At  this  time,  Clovis,  king 
of  the  Salian  Franks,  a  tribe  of  invasion  of 
Germans  long  connected  with  Clovis- 
Rome,  and  originally  settled  upon  the 
right  bank  of  the  Rhine,  but  who  had  lat- 
terly penetrated  as  far  as  Tournay  and 
Cambray,*  invaded  Gaul,  and  defeated  Sy- 
agrius at  Soissons.  The  result  of  this  vic- 
tory was  the  subjugation  of  those  prov- 
inces which  had  previously  been  consid- 
ered as  Roman.  But  as  their  allegiance 
had  not  been  very  strict,  so  their  loss  was 
not  very  severely  felt ;  since  the  empe- 
rors of  Constantinople  were  not  too  proud 
to  confer  upon  Clovis  the  titles  of  consul 
and  patrician,  which  he  was  too  prudent 
to  refuse.f 

ent  cities  under  the  rule  of  their  respective  bish- 
ops, which  Du  Bos  has  with  great  ingenuity  raised 
upon  very  slight  historical  evidence,  and  in  defiance 
of  the  silence  of  Gregory,  whose  see  of  Tours  bor- 
dered upon  their  supposed  territory.  But  his  hy- 
pothesis is  not  to  be  absolutely  rejected,  because  it 
is  by  no  means  deficient  in  internal  probability,  and 
the  early  part  of  Gregory's  history  is  brief  and  neg- 
ligent. Du  Bos,  Hist.  Critique  de  PEtablissement 
des  Franqais  dans  les  Gaules,  t.  i.,p.  253.  Gibbon, 
c.  38,  after  following  Du  Bos  in  his  text,  whispers, 
as  usual,  his  suspicions  in  a  note. 

*  The  system  of  Pere  Daniel,  who  denies  any 
permanent  settlement  of  the  Franks  on  the  left 
bank  of  the  Rhine  before  Clovis,  seems  incapable 
of  being  supported.  It  is  difficult  to  resist  the  pre- 
sumption that  arises  from  the  discovery  of  the 
tomb  and  skeleton  of  Childeric,  father  of  Clovis,  at 
Tournay,  in  1653.  See  Montfaucon,  Monumens 
de  la  Monarchic  Fran<?aise,  tome  i.,  p.  10. 

t  The  theory  of  Du  Bos,  who  considers  Clovis 
as  a  sort  of  lieutenant  of  the  emperors,  and  as  gov- 


18 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


Some  years  after  this,  Clovis  defeated 
the  Alemanni,  or  Swabians,  in  a  great  bat- 
tle at  Zulpich,  near  Cologne.  In  conse- 
quence of  a  vow,  as  it  is  said,  made  du- 
ring this  engagement,*  and  at  the  insti- 
gation of  his  wife  Clotilda,  a  princess  of 
Burgundy,  he  became  a  convert  to  Chris- 
tianity. [A.  D.  496.]  It  would  be  a  fruit- 
less inquiry  whether  he  was  sincere  in 
this  change;  but  it  is  certain,  at  least, 
that  no  policy  could  have  been  more  suc- 
cessful. The  Arian  sect,  which  had  been 
early  introduced  among  the  barbarous  na- 
tions, was  predominant,  though  apparent- 
ly without  intolerance,!  in  the  Burgundi- 
an  and  Visigoth  courts  ;  but  the  clergy  of 
Gaul  were  strenuously  attached  to  the 
Catholic  side,  and  even  before  his  con- 
version had  favoured  the  arms  of  Clovis. 
They  now  became  his  most  zealous  sup- 
porters ;  and  were  rewarded  by  him  with 

erning  the  Roman  part  of  his  subjects  by  no  other 
title,  has  justly  seemed  extravagant  to  later  critical 
inquirers  into  the  history  of  France.  But  it  may 
nevertheless  be  true,  that  the  connexion  between 
him  and  the  empire,  and  the  emblems  of  Roman 
magistracy  which  he  bore,  reconciled  the  conquer- 
ed to  their  new  masters.  This  is  judiciously  sta- 
ted by  the  Duke  de  Nivernois.  Mem.  de  1'Acad. 
des  Inscript,  tome  xx.,  p.  174.  In  the  sixth  century. 
however,  the  Greeks  appear  to  have  been  nearly 
ignorant  of  Clovis's  countrymen.  Nothing  can  be 
made  out  of  a  passage  in  Procopius,  where  he 
seems  to  mention  the  Armoricans  under  the  name 
A-pSopv^oi ;  and  Agathias  gives  a  strangely  romantic 
account  of  the  Franks,  whom  he  extols  for  their  con- 
formity to  Roman  laws,  TroXtra?  w$  ra  TroXXa  ^?wv- 
Tdi  'Pop.aiKr],  icai  vofioig  TOI$  avrois,  K.  r.  X.  He  goes 
on  to  commend  their  mutual  union,  and  observes 
particularly  that,  in  partitions  of  the  kingdom, 
which  had  frequently  been  made,  they  had  never 
taken  up  arms  against  each  other,  nor  polluted  the 
land  with  civil  bloodshed.  One  would  almost  be- 
lieve him  ironical. 

*  Gregory  of  Tours  makes  a  very  rhetorical  story 
of  this  famous  vow,  which,  though  we  cannot 
disprove,  it  may  be  permitted  to  suspect. — L.  ii., 
c.  30. 

f  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  par  Vich  et  Vaissette, 
tome  i.,  p.  238.  Gibbon,  c.  37.  A  specious  objec- 
tion might  be  drawn  from  the  history  of  the  Gothic 
monarchies  in  Italy,  as  well  as  Gaul  and  Spain, 
to  the  great  principles  of  religious  toleration. 
These  Arian  sovereigns  treated  their  Catholic  sub- 
jects, it  may  be  said,  with  tenderness,  leaving  them 
in  possession  of  every  civil  privilege,  and  were  re- 
warded for  it  by  their  defection  or  sedition.  But, 
in  answer  to  this,  it  may  be  observed :  1.  That  the 
system  of  persecution  adopted  by  the  Vandals  in 
Africa  succeeded  no  better  ;  the  Catholics  of  that 
province  having  risen  against  them  upon  the  land- 
ing of  Belisarius :  2.  That  we  do  not  know  what 
insults  and  discouragements  the  Catholics  of  Gaul 
and  Italy  may  have  endured,  especially  from  the 
Arian  bishops,  in  that  age  of  bigotry ;  although  the 
administrations  of  Alaric  and  Theodoric  were  liber- 
al and  tolerant :  3.  That  the  distinction  of  Arian 
and  Catholic  was  intimately  connected  with  that 
of  Goth  and  Roman,  of  conqueror  and  conquered ; 
so  that  it  is  difficult  to  separate  the  effects  of  na- 
tional, from  those  of  sectarian,  animosity. 


artful  gratitude,  and  by  his  descendants 
with  lavish  munificence.  [A.  D.  507.] 
Upon  the  pretence  of  religion,  he  attack- 
ed Alaric,  king  of  the  Visigoths,  and,  by 
one  great  victory  near  Poitiers  overthrow- 
ing their  empire  in  Gaul,  reduced  them 
to  the  maritime  province  of  Septimania, 
a  narrow  strip  of  coast  between  the  Rhone 
and  the  Pyrenees.  The  exploits  of  Clovis 
were  the  reduction  of  certain  independ- 
ent chiefs  of  his  own  tribe  and  family, 
who  were  settled  in  the  neighbourhood 
of  the  Rhine.*  All  these  he  put  to  death 
by  force  or  treachery ;  for  he  was  cast  in 
the  true  mould  of  conquerors,  and  may 
justly  be  ranked  among  the  first  of  his 
class,  both  for  the  splendour  and  the 
guiltiness  of  his  ambition,  f 

[A.  D.  511.]  Clovis  left  four  sons  ;  one 
illegitimate,  born  before  his  His  descend- 
conversion ;  and  three  by  his  ants, 
queen  Clotilda.  These  four  made,  it  is 
said,  an  equal  partition  of  his  dominions ; 
which  comprehended  not  only  France,  but 
the  western  and  central  parts  of  Germa- 
ny, besides  Bavaria,  and  perhaps  Swabia, 
which  were  governed  by  their  own  de- 
pendant, but  hereditary,  chiefs.  Thierry, 
the  eldest,  had  what  was  called  Austra- 
sia,  the  eastern  or  German  division,  and 
fixed  his  capital  at  Metz ;  Clodomir,  at 
Orleans ;  Childebert,  at  Paris ;  and  Clo- 
taire,  at  Soissons. ;{:  During  their  reigns 
the  monarchy  was  aggrandized  by  the 
conquest  of  Burgundy.  [A.  D.  558.]  Clo- 


*  Modern  historians,  in  enumerating  these  reg- 
uli,  call  one  of  them  King  of  Mans.  But  it  is  dif- 
ficult to  understand  how  a  chieftain,  independent 
of  Clovis,  could  have  been  settled  in  that  part  of 
France.  In  fact,  Gregory  of  Tours,  our  only  au- 
thority, does  not  say  that  this  prince,  Regnomeris, 
was  King  of  Mans,  but  that  he  was  put  to  death  in 
that  city :  apud  Cenomannis  civitatem  jussu  Chlo- 
dovechi  interfectus  est. 

f  The  reader  will  be  gratified  with  an  admirable 
memoir,  by  the  Duke  de  Nivernois,  on  the  policy 
of  Clovis,  in  the  twentieth  volume  of  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions. 

J  Quatuor  filii  regnum  accipiunt,  et  inter  se 
sequ4  lance  dividunt. — Greg.  Tur.,  1.  iii.,  c.  1.  It 
would  rather  perplex  a  geographer  to  make  an 
equal  division  of  Clovis's  empire  into  portions,  of 
which  Paris,  Orleans,  Metz,  and  Soissons  should 
be  the  respective  capitals.  I  apprehend,  in  fact, 
that  Gregory's  expression  is  not  very  precise.  The 
kingdom  of  Soissons  seems  to  have  been  the  least 
of  the  four,  and  that  of  Austrasia  the  greatest. 
But  the  partitions  made  by  these  princes  were  ex- 
ceedingly complex ;  insulated  fragments  of  terri- 
tory, and  even  undivided  shares  of  cities,  being  al- 
lotted to  the  worse  provided  brothers,  by  way  of 
compensation,  out  of  the  larger  kingdoms.  It 
would  be  very  difficult  to  ascertain  the  limits  of 
these  minor  monarchies.  But  the  French  empire 
was  always  considered  as  one,  whatever  might  be 
the  number  of  its  inheritors  ;  and  from  accidental 
circumstances  it  was  so  frequently  reunited  as  fully 
to  keep  up  this  notion. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


19 


taire,  the  youngest  brother,  ultimately  re- 
united all  the  kingdoms :  but  upon  his 
death  they  were  again  divided  among  his 
four  sons,  and  brought  together  a  second 
time  by  another  Clotaire  [A.  D.  613],  the 
grandson  to  the  first.  It  is  a  weary  and 
unprofitable  task  to  follow  these  changes 
in  detail,  through  scenes  of  tumult  and 
bloodshed,  in  which  the  eye  meets  with 
no  sunshine,  nor  can  rest  upon  any  inter- 
esting spot.  It  would  be  difficult,  as 
Gibbon  has  justly  observed,  to  find  any- 
where more  vice  or  less  virtue.  The 
names  of  two  queens  are  distinguished 
even  at  that  age  for  the  magnitude  of 
their  crimes :  Fredegonde,  the  wife  of 
Chilperic,  of  whose  atrocities  none  have 
doubted ;  and  Brunehaut,  queen  of  Aus- 
trasia,  who  has  met  with  advocates  in 
modern  times,  less,  perhaps,  from  any 
fair  presumptions  of  her  innocence,  than 
from  compassion  for  the  cruel  death 
which  she  underwent.* 

[A.  D.  628-638.]  But  after  Dagobert, 
son  of  Clotaire  II.,  the  kings  of  France 
Their  degen-  dwindled  into  personal  insig- 
eracy.  nificance,  and  are  generally- 

treated  by  later  historians  as  insensati, 
or  idiots. f  The  whole  power  of  the  king- 
Mayors  of  the  dom  devolved  upon  the  may- 
paiace.  ors  of  the  palace,  originally 

officers  of  the  household,  through  whom 
petitions  or  representations  were  laid  be- 
fore the  king.  The  weakness  of  sover- 
eigns rendered  this  office  important,  and 
still  greater  weakness  suffered  it  to  be- 
come elective ;  men  of  energetic  talents 
and  ambition  united  it  with  military  com- 
mand; and  the  history  of  France,  for 
half  a  century,  presents  no  names  more 
conspicuous  than  those  of  Ebroin  and 

*  Every  history  will  give  a  sufficient  epitome  of 
the  Merovingian  dynasty.  The  facts  of  these  times 
are  of  little  other  importance  than  as  they  impress 
on  the  mind  a  thorough  notion  of  the  extreme 
wickedness  of  almost  every  person  concerned  in 
them,  and  consequently  of  the  state  to  which  soci- 
ety was  reduced.  But  there  is  no  advantage  in 
crowding  the  memory  with  barbarian  wars  and  as- 
sassinations. For  the  question  about  Brunehaut's 
character,  who  has  had  partisans  almost  as  enthu- 
siastic as  those  of  Mary  of  Scotland,  the  reader 
may  consult  Pasquier,  Recherches  de  la  France,  1. 
viii.,orVelly,  Hist,  de  France,  tome  i.,  on  one  side, 
and  a  dissertation  by  Gaillard,  in  the  Memoirs  of 
the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  tome  xxx.,  on  the 
other.  The  last  is  unfavourable  to  Brunehaut, 
and  perfectly  satisfactory  to  my  judgment. 

t  An  ingenious  attempt  is  made  by  the  Abbe" 
Vertot,  Mem.  de  PAcademie,  tome  vi.,  to  rescue 
these  monarchs  from  this  long-established  imputa- 
tion. But  the  leading  fact  is  irresistible,  that  all  the 
royal  authority  was  lost  during  their  reigns.  How- 
ever, the  best  apology  seems  to  be,  that,  after  the 
victories  of  Pepin  Heristal,  the  Merovingian  kings 
were,  in  effect,  conquered,  and  their  inefficiency 
was  a  matter  of  necessary  submission  to  a  master. 
B2 


Grimoald,  mayors  of  Neustria  and  Aus- 
trasia,  the  western  and  eastern  divisions 
of  the  French  monarchy.*  These,  how- 
ever, met  with  violent  ends  ;  but  a  more 
successful  usurper  of  the  royal  authority 
was  Pepin  Heristal,  first  mayor,  and  af- 
terward duke,  of  Austrasia  ;  who  united, 
with  almost  an  avowed  sovereignty  over 
that  division,  a  paramount  command  over 
the  French  or  Neustrian  provinces,  where 
nominal  kings  of  the  Merovingian  family 
were  still  permitted  to  exist.  This  au- 
thority he  transmitted  to  a  more  renown- 
ed hero,  his  son,  Charles  Martel,  who, 
after  some  less  important  exploits,  was 
called  upon  to  encounter  a  new  and  ter- 
rible enemy.  The  Saracens,  after  sub- 
jugating Spain,  had  penetrated  into  the 
very  heart  of  France.  Charles  Martel 
gained  a  complete  victory  over  them  be- 
tween Tours  and  Poitiersf  [A.  D.  732], 
in  which  300,000  Mahometans  are  hyper- 
bolically  asserted  to  have  fallen.  The 
reward  of  this  victory  was  the  province 
of  Septimania,  which  the  Saracens  had 
conquered  from  the  Visigoths.! 

Such  powerful  subjects  were  not  like- 
ly to  remain  long  contented  change  in  the 
without  the  crown;  but  the  royal  family. 


*  The  original  kingdoms  of  Soissons,  Paris,  and 
Orleans,  were  consolidated  into  that  denominated 
Neustria,  to  which  Burgundy  was  generally  appen- 
dant,  though  distinctly  governed  by  a  mayor  of  its 
own  election.  But  Aquitaine,  the  exact  bounds  of 
which  I  do  not  know,  was,  from  the  time  of  Dago- 
bert I.,  separated  from  the  rest  of  the  monarchy, 
under  a  ducal  dynasty,  sprung  from  Aribert,  brother 
of  that  monarch. 

f  Tours  is  above  seventy  miles  distant  from  Poi- 
tiers ;  but  I  do  not  find  that  any  French  antiquary 
has  been  able  to  ascertain  the  place  of  this  great 
battle  with  more  precision ;  which  is  remarkable, 
since,  after  so  immense  a  slaughter,  we  should  ex- 
pect the  testimony  of  "  grandia  effossis  ossa  se- 
pulcris." 

The  victory  of  Charles  Martel  has  immortalized 
his  name,  and  may  justly  be  reckoned  among  those 
few  battles  of  which  a  contrary  event  would  have 
essentially  varied  the  drama  of  the  world  in  all 
its  subsequent  scenes ;  with  Marathon,  Arbela, 
the  Metaurus,  Chalons,  and  Leipsic.  Yet  do  we 
not  judge  a  little  too  much  by  the  event,  and  fol- 
low, as  usual,  in  the  wake  of  fortune  ?  Has  not 
more  frequent  experience  condemned  those  who 
set  the  fate  of  empires  upon  a  single  cast,  and  risk 
a  general  battle  with  invaders,  whose  greater  peril 
is  in  delay  ?  Was  not  this  the  fatal  error  by  which 
Roderic  had  lost  his  kingdom  ?  Was  it  possible 
that  the  Saracens  could  have  retained  any  perma- 
nent possession  of  France,  except  by  means  of  a 
victory  ?  And  did  not  the  contest  upon  the  broad 
campaign  of  Poitou  afford  them  a  considerable 
prospect  of  success,  which  a  more  cautious  policy 
would  have  withheld  ? 

J  This  conquest  was  completed  by  Pepin  in  759. 
The  inhabitants  preserved  their  liberties  by  treaty ; 
and  Vaissette  deduces  from  this  solemn  assurance 
the  privileges  of  Languedoc.  Hist,  de  Lang.,  tome 
i.,  p.  412. 


20 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP. 


Accession  of  circumstances  under  which 
Pepin.  jt  was  transferred  from  the 

race  of  Clovis  are  connected  with  one 
of  the  most  important  revolutions  in 
the  history  of  Europe.  [A.  D.  752.] 
The  mayor  Pepin,  inheriting  his  father 
Charles  Martel's  talents  and  ambition, 
made,  in  the  name  and  with  the  con- 
sent of  the  nation,  a  solemn  reference 
to  the  pope,  Zacharias,  as  to  the  dep- 
osition of  Childeric  III.,  under  whose 
nominal  authority  he  himself  was  reign- 
ing. The  decision  was  favourable  ;  that 
he  who  possessed  the  power,  should  also 
bear  the  title  of  king.  The  unfortunate 
Merovingian  was  dismissed  into  a  con- 
vent, and  the  Franks,  with  one  consent, 
raised  Pepin  to  the  throne,  the  founder 
of  a  more  illustrious  dynasty.  In  order 
to  judge  of  the  importance  of  this  revo- 
lution to  the  see  of  Rome,  as  well  as  to 
France,  we  must  turn  our  eyes  upon  the 
affairs  of  Italy. 

The  dominion  of  the  Ostrogoths  was 

annihilated  by  the   arms   of  Belisarius 

.    ,     and  Narses  in  the  sixth  cen- 

The  Lombards. 


ward,  the  Lombards,  a  people  for  some 
time  settled  in  Pannonia,  not  only  sub- 
dued that  northern  part  of  Italy  which 
has  retained  their  name,  but,  extending 
themselves  southward,  formed  the  pow- 
erful dutchies  of  Spoleto  and  Benevento. 
The  residence  of  their  kings  was  in  Pa- 
via  ;  but  the  hereditary  vassals,  who  held 
those  two  dutchies,  might  be  deemed  al- 
most independent  sovereigns.*  The  rest 
of  Italy  was  governed  by  exarchs,  depu- 
ted by  the  Greek  emperors,  and  fixed  at 
Ravenna.  In  Rome  itself,  neither  the 
people,  nor  the  bishops,  who  had  already 
conceived  in  part  their  schemes  of  am- 
bition, were  much  inclined  to  endure  the 
superiority  of  Constantinople  ;  yet  their 
disaffection  was  counterbalanced  by  the 
inveterate  hatred,  as  well  as  jealousy, 
with  which  they  regarded  the  Lombards. 
But  an  impolitic  and  intemperate  perse- 
cution, carried  on  by  two  or  three  Greek 
emperors  against  a  favourite  superstition, 
the  worship  of  images,  excited  commo- 
tions throughout  Italy,  of  which  the 
Lombards  took  advantage,  and  easily 
They  reduce  wrested  the  exarchate  of  Ra- 
the exarchate  venna  from  the  eastern  em- 

of  Ravenna,     pire        [A      D     ?52  j      It    wag 

far  from  the  design  of  the  popes  to 
see  their  nearest  enemies  so  much  ag- 


*  The  history,  character,  and  policy  of  the  Lom- 
bards are  well  treated  by  Gibbon,  c.  45.  See,  too, 
the  fourth  and  fifth  books  of  Giannone,  and  some 
papers  by  Gaillard  in  the  Memoirs  of  the  Academy 
of  Inscriptions,  tomes  xxxii.,  xxxv.,  xlv. 


grandized;  and  any  effectual  assistance 
from  the  Emperor  Constantine  Coprony- 
mus  would  have  kept  Rome  still  faithful. 
But  having  no  hope  from  his  arms,  and 
provoked  by  his  obstinate  intolerance, 
the  pontiffs  had  recourse  to  France;* 
and  the  service  they  had  rendered  to  Pe- 
pin led  to  reciprocal  obligations  of  the 
greatest  magnitude.  At  the  wnichPepin 

request    Of    Stephen    II.,   the   reconquers,  and 

new  king  of  France  descend-  bestows  on  the 
ed  from  the  Alps,  drove  the  p( 
Lombards  from  their  recent  conquests, 
and  conferred  them  upon  the  pope.  This 
memorable  donation  nearly  comprised  the 
modern  provinces  of  Romagna  and  the 
March  of  Ancona.f 

[A.  D.  768.]  The  state  of  Italy,  which 
had  undergone  no  change  for  CharlemaKne 
nearly  two  centuries,  was 
now  rapidly  verging  to  a  great  revolu- 
tion. Under  the  shadow  of  a  mighty 
name,  the  Greek  empire  had  concealed 
the  extent  of  its  decline.  That  charm 
was  now  broken :  and  the  Lombard 
kingdom,  which  had  hitherto  appeared 
the  only  competitor  in  the  lists,  proved 
to  have  lost  its  own  energy  in  awaiting 
the  occasion  for  its  display.  France 
was  far  more  than  a  match  for  the  pow- 
er of  Italy,  even  if  she  had  not  been 
guided  by  the  towering  ambition  and 
restless  activity  of  the  son  of  Pepin. 
It  was  almost  the  first  exploit  of  Charle- 
magne, after  the  death  of  his  brother 
Carloman  had  reunited  the  Frankish  em- 
pire under  his  dominion^  [A.  D.  772], 

tO   Subjugate    the   kingdom   Of    He  conquers 

Lombardy.  [A.  D.  774.]  Nei-  Lombardy; 
ther  Pavia  nor  Verona,  its  most  con- 
siderable cities,  interposed  any  mate- 
rial delay  to  his  arms ;  and  the  chief  re- 
sistance he  encountered  was  from  the 
dukes  of  Friuli  and  Benevento,  the  latter 
of  whom  could  never  be  brought  into 
thorough  subjection  to  the  conqueror. 
Italy,  however,  be  the  cause  what  it 
might,  seems  to  have  tempted  Charle- 
magne far  less  than  the  dark  forests  of 


*  There  had  been  some  previous  overtures  to 
Charles  Martel,  as  well  as  to  Pepin  himself ;  the 
habitual  sagacity  of  the  court  of  Rome  perceiving 
the  growth  of  a  new  western  monarchy,  which 
would  be,  in  faith  and  arms,  their  surest  ally. — 
Muratori,  Ann.  d'ltal.,  A.  D.  741. 

t  Giannone,  1.  v.,  c.  2. 

j  Carloman,  younger  brother  of  Charles,  took 
the  Austrasian  or  German  provinces  of  the  em- 
pire. The  custom  of  partition  was  so  fully  estab- 
lished, that  those  wise  and  ambitious  princes, 
Charles  Martel,  Pepin,  and  Charlemagne  himself, 
did  not  venture  to  thwart  the  public  opinion  by 
introducing  primogeniture.  Carloman  would  not 
long  have  stood  against  his  brother  ;  who,  after 
his  death,  usurped  the  inheritance  of  his  two  in- 
fant children. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


21 


Germany.      For   neither   the    southern 
provinces,  nor  Sicily,  could  have  with- 
stood his  power,  if  it  had  been  steadily 
directed  against  them.    Even 

f  Spain;     ^[n  hardly  drew   SQ   much 

of  his  attention,  as  the  splendour  of  the 
prize  might  naturally  have  excited.  He 
gained,  however,  a  very  important  ac- 
cession to  his  empire,  by  conquering 
from  the  Saracens  the  territory  contain- 
ed between  the  Pyrenees  and  the  Ebro. 
This  was  formed  into  the  Spanish  March, 
governed  by  the  Count  of  Barcelona,  part 
of  which,  at  least,  must  be  considered  as 
appertaining  to  France  till  the  twelfth 
century.* 

But  the  most  tedious  and  difficult 
and  saxony,  achievement  of  Charlemagne 
was  the  reduction  of  the  Sax- 
ons. The  wars  with  this  nation,  who 
occupied  nearly  the  modern  circles  of 
Westphalia  and  Lower  Saxony,  lasted  for 
thirty  years.  Whenever  the  conqueror 
withdrew  his  armies,  or  even  his  person, 
the  Saxons  broke  into  fresh  rebellion; 
which  his  unparalleled  rapidity  of  move- 
ment seldom  failed  to  crush  without  de- 
lay. From  such  perseverance  on  either 
side,  destruction  of  the  weaker  could 
alone  result.  A  large  colony  of  Saxons 
were  finally  transplanted  into  Flanders 
and  Brabant,  countries  hitherto  ill-peo- 
pled, in  which  their  descendants  pre- 
served the  same  unconquerable  spirit  of 
resistance  to  oppression.  Many  fled  to 
the  kingdoms  of  Scandinavia,  and,  min- 
gling with  the  Northmen,  who  were  just 
preparing  to  run  their  memorable  career, 
revenged  upon  the  children  and  subjects 
of  Charlemagne  the  devastation  of  Sax- 
ony. The  remnant  embraced  Christi- 
anity, their  aversion  to  which  had  been 
the  chief  cause  of  their  rebellions,  and 
acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of  Char- 
lemagne ;  a  submission,  which  even  Witi- 
kind,  the  second  Arminius  of  ^Germany, 
after  such  irresistible  conviction  of  her 
destiny,  did  not  disdain  to  make.  But 
they  retained,  in  the  main,  their  own 
laws ;  they  were  governed  by  a  duke  of 
their  own  nation,  if  not  of  their  own 
election ;  and  for  many  ages  they  were 


The  counts  of  Barcelona  always  acknowl- 
edged the  feudal  superiority  of  the  kings  of  France, 
till  some  time  after  their  own  title  had  been  mer- 
ged in  that  of  kings  of  Aragon.  In  1180,  legal  in- 
struments executed  in  Catalonia  ceased  to  be  da- 
ted by  the  year  of  the  King  of  France ;  and  as 
there  certainly  remained  no  other  mark  of  depend- 
ance,  the  separation  of  the  principality  may  be 
referred  to  that  year.  But  the  rights  of  the  French 
crown  over  it  were  finally  ceded  by  Louis  IX.,  in 
1258.— De  Marca,  Marca  Hispanica,  p,  514.  Art 
de  verifier  les  Dates,  t.  ii.,  p.  291. 


distinguished  by  their  original  character 
among  the  nations  of  Germany. 

The  successes  of  Charlemagne  on  the 
eastern  frontier  of  his  empire  against  the 
Sclavonians  of  Bohemia,  and  Huns  or 
Avars  of  Pannonia,  though  obtained  with 
less  cost,  were  hardly  less  eminent.  In 
all  his  wars,  the  newly-conquered  na- 
tions, or  those  whom  fear  had  made  de- 
pendant allies,  were  employed  to  subju- 
gate their  neighbours ;  and  the  incessant 
waste  of  fatigue  and  the  sword  was  sup- 
plied by  a  fresh  population 
that  swelled  the  expanding 
circle  of  dominion.  I  do  not 
know  that  the  limits  of  the  new  western 
empire  are  very  exactly  defined  by  con- 
temporary writers,  nor  would  it  be  easy 
to  appreciate  the  degree  of  subjection  in 
which  the  Sclavonian  tribes  were  held. 
As  an  organized  mass  of  provinces,  regu- 
larly governed  by  imperial  officers,  it 
seems  to  have  been  nearly  bounded,  in 
Germany,  by  the  Elbe,  the  Saale,  the  Bo- 
hemian mountains,  and  a  line  drawn  from 
thence  crossing  the  Danube  above  Vien- 
na, and  prolonged  to  the  Gulf  of  Istria. 
Part  of  Dalmatia  was  comprised  in  the 
dutchy  of  Friuli.  In  Italy,  the  empire 
extended  not  much  beyond  the  modern 
frontier  of  Naples,  if  we  exclude,  as  was 
the  fact,  the  dutchy  of  Benevento  from 
any  thing  more  than  a  titular  subjection. 
The  Spanish  boundary,  as  has  been  said 
already,  was  the  Ebro.* 

[A.  D.  800.]  A  seal  was  put  to  the  glo- 
ry of  Charlemagne,  when  Leo  His  Corona. 
III.,  in  the  name  of  the  Ro-  tionasempe- 
man  people,  placed  upon  his  ror- 
head  the  imperial  crown.  His  father, 
Pepin,  had  borne  the  title  of  patrician, 
and  he  had  himself  exercised,  with  that 
title,  a  regular  sovereignty  over  Rome.f 


*  I  follow  in  this  the  map  of  Koch,  in  his  Ta- 
bleau des  Revolutions  de  1'Europe,  tome  i.  That 
of  Vaugondy,  Paris,  1752,  includes  the  dependant 
Sclavonic  tribes,  and  carries  the  limit  of  the  em- 
pire to  the  Oder  and  frontiers  of  Poland.  The  au- 
thors of  L'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates  extend  it  to  the 
Raab.  It  would  require  a  long  examination  to  give 
a  precise  statement. 

t  The  patricians  of  the  lower  empire  were  gov- 
ernors sent  from  Constantinople  to  the  provinces. 
Rome  had  long  been  accustomed  to  their  name 
and  power.  The  subjection  of  the  Romans,  both 
clergy  and  laity,  to  Charlemagne,  as  well  before  as 
after  he  bore  the  imperial  name,  seems  to  be  estab- 
lished.— See  Dissertation  Historique,  par  Le  Blanc, 
subjoined  to  his  Traite  des  Monnoyes  de  France, 
p.  18,  and  St.  Marc,  AbregS  Chronologique  de 
1'Histoire  de  1'Italie,  t.  i.  The  first  of  these  wri- 
ters does  not  allow  that  Pepin  exercised  any  author- 
ity  at  Rome.  A  good  deal  of  obscurity  rests  over  its 
internal  government  for  near  fifty  years  ;  but  there 
is  some  reason  to  believe  that  the  nominal  sover- 
eignty of  the  Greek  emperors  was  not  entirely  ab- 
rogated.—Muratori,  Annali  d'ltalia,  ad  ann.  772. 


22 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   I. 


Money  was  coined  in  his  name,  and  an 
oath  of  fidelity  was  taken  by  the  clergy 
and  people.  But  the  appellation  of  em- 
peror seemed  to  place  his  authority  over 
all  his  subjects  on  a  new  footing.  It  was 
full  of  high  and  indefinite  pretension, 
tending  to  overshadow  the  free  election 
of  the  Franks  by  a  fictitious  descent  from 
Augustus.  A  fresh  oath  of  fidelity  to  him 
as  emperor  was  demanded  from  his  sub- 
jects. His  own  discretion,  however,  pre- 
vented him  from  affecting  those  more 
despotic  prerogatives,  which  the  imperial 
name  might  still  be  supposed  to  convey. 
In  analyzing  the  characters  of  he- 
roes, it  is  hardly  possible  to  separate 

altogether  the  share  of  for- 
ms character.    tim(f  from    their   Qwn>      The 

epoch  made  by  Charlemagne  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  world,  the  illustrious  families 
which  prided  themselves  in  him  as  their 
progenitor,  the  very  legions  of  romance, 
which  are  full  of  his  fabulous  exploits, 
have  cast  a  lustre  around  his  head,  and 
testify  the  greatness  that  has  imbodied 
itself  in  his  name.  None  indeed  of  Char- 
lemagne's wars  can  be  compared  with 
the  Saracenic  victory  of  Charles  Martel ; 
but  that  was  a  contest  for  freedom,  his 
for  conquest ;  and  fame  is  more  partial 
to  successful  aggression  than  to  patriotic 
resistance.  As  a  scholar,  his  acquisitions 
were  probably  little  superior  to  those  of 
his  uninspected  son ;  and  in  several  points 
of  view  the  glory  of  Charlemagne  might 
be  extenuated  by  an  analytical  dissec- 
tion.* But,  rejecting  a  mode  of  judging 
equally  uncandid  and  fallacious,  we  shall 
find  that  he  possessed  in  every  thing 
that  grandeur  of  conception  which  dis* 
tinguishes  extraordinary  minds.  Like 
Alexander,  he  seemed  born  for  universal 
innovation:  in  a  life  restlessly  active, 
we  see  him  reforming  the  coinage,  and 
establishing  the  legal  divisions  of  money ; 

St.  Marc,  t.  i.,  p.  356,  372.  A  mosaic,  still  extant 
in  the  Lateran  palace,  represents  our  Saviour  giv- 
ing the  keys  to  St.  Peter  with  one  hand,  and  with 
the  other  a  standard  to  a  crowned  prince,  bearing 
the  inscription,  Constantino  V.  But  Constantine 
V.  did  not  begin  to  reign  till  780 ;  and  if  this  piece 
of  workmanship  was  made  under  Leo  III.,  as  the 
authors  of  L'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates  imagine,  it 
could  not  be  earlier  than  795.— T.  i.,  p.  262.  Mura- 
tori,  ad  ann.  798.  However  this  may  be,  there  can 
be  no  question  that  a  considerable  share  of  juris- 
diction and  authority  was  practically  exercised  by 
the  popes  during  this  period. — Vid.  Murat.,  ad  ann. 
789. 

*  Eginhard  attests  his  ready  eloquence,  his  per- 
fect mastery  of  Latin,  his  knowledge  of  Greek,  so 
far  as  to  read  it,  his  acquisitions  in  logic,  grammar, 
rhetoric,  and  astronomy.  But  the  anonymous  au- 
thor of  the  life  of  Louis  the  Debonair  attributes 
most  of  these  accomplishments  to  that  unfortu- 
nate prince 


gathering  about  him  the  learned  of  every 
country ;  founding  schools,  and  collect- 
ing libraries ;  interfering,  but  with  the 
tone  of  a  king,  in  religious  controversies ; 
aiming,  though  prematurely,  at  the  for- 
mation of  a  naval  force  ;  attempting,  for 
the  sake  of  commerce,  the  magnificent 
enterprise  of  uniting  the  Rhine  and  Dan- 
ube;* and  meditating  to  mould  the  dis- 
cordant codes  of  Roman  and  barbarian 
laws  into  a  uniform  system. 

The  great  qualities  of  Charlemagne 
were  indeed  alloyed  by  the  vices  of  a 
barbarian  and  a  conqueror.  Nine  wives, 
whom  he  divorced  with  very  little  cere- 
mony, attest  the  license  of  his  private 
life,  which  his  temperance  and  frugality 
can  hardly  be  said  to  redeem. f  Unspa- 
ring of  blood,  though  not  constitution- 
ally cruel,  and  wholly  indifferent  to  the 
means  which  his  ambition  prescribed,  he 
beheaded  in  one  day  four  thousand  Sax- 
ons ;  an  act  of  atrocious  butchery,  after 
which  his  persecuting  edicts,  pronoun- 
cing the  pain  of  death  against  those  who 
refused  baptism,  or  even  who  ate  flesh 
during  Lent,  seem  scarcely  worthy  of 
notice.  This  union  of  barbarous  ferocity 
with  elevated  views  of  national  improve- 
ment, might  suggest  the  parallel  of  Peter 
the  Great.  But  the  degrading  habits  and 
brute  violence  of  the  Muscovite  place 
him  at  an  immense  distance  from  the  re- 
storer of  the  empire. 

A  strong  sympathy  for  intellectual  ex- 
cellence was  the  leading  characteristic  of 
Charlemagne,  and  this  undoubtedly  bias- 
ed him  in  the  chief  political  error  of  his 
conduct,  that  of  encouraging  the  power 
and  pretensions  of  the  hierarchy.  But, 
perhaps,  his  greatest  eulogy  is  written  in 
the  disgraces  of  succeeding  times,  and 
the  miseries  of  Europe.  He  stands  alone 
like  a  beacon  upon  a  waste,  or  a  rock  in 
the  broad  ocean.  His  sceptre  was  as 
the  bow  of  Ulysses,  which  could  not  be 
drawn  by  any  weaker  hand.  In  the  dark 
ages  of  European  history,  the  reign  of 
Charlemagne  affords  a  solitary  resting- 
place  between  two  long  periods  of  turbu- 
lence and  ignominy,  deriving  the  advan- 


*  See  an  essay  upon  this  project  in  the  Memoirs 
of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  tome  xviii.  The 
rivers  which  were  designed  to  form  the  links  of 
this  junction  were  the  Altmuhl,  the  Regnitz,  and 
the  Maine  ;  but  their  want  of  depth,  and  the  spon- 
giness  of  the  soil,  appear  to  present  insuperable 
impediments  to  its  completion. 

t  I  apprehend  that  there  is  no  foundation  for  the 
charge  of  an  incestuous  passion  for  his  daughters, 
which  Voltaire  calls  une  foiblesse.  The  error 
seems  to  have  originated  in  a  misinterpreted  pas- 
sage of  Eginhard.  These  ladies,  indeed,  were  far 
from  being  models  of  virtue,  and  their  lives  brought 
scandal  upon  the  royal  palace. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


^       ^. 

23 


tages  of  contrast  both  from  that  of  the 
preceding  dynasty,  and  of  a  posterity  for 
whom  he  had  formed  an  empire  which 
they  were  unworthy  and  unequal  to  main- 
tain.* 

[A.  D.  814.]  Pepin,  the  eldest  son  of 
Louis  the  Charlemagne,  died  before  him, 
Debonair,  leaving  a  natural  son,  named 
Bernard.f  Even  if  he  had  been  legit- 
imate, the  right  of  representation  was 
not  at  all  established  during  these  ages ; 
indeed,  the  general  prejudice  seems  to 
have  inclined  against  it.  Bernard,  there- 
fore, kept  only  the  kingdom  of  Italy, 
which  had  been  transferred  to  his  father ; 
while  Louis,  the  younger  son  of  Charle- 
magne, inherited  the  empire.  [A.  D. 
817.]  But,  in  a  short  time,  Bernard,  hav- 
ing attempted  a  rebellion  against  his  un- 
cle, was  sentenced  to  lose  his  eyes,  which 
occasioned  his  death;  a  cruelty  more 
agreeable  to  the  prevailing  tone  of  man- 
ners, than  to  the  character  of  Louis,  who 
bitterly  reproached  himself  for  the  sever- 
ity he  had  been  persuaded  to  use. 

Under  this  prince,  called  by  the  Italians 
the  Pious,  and  by  the  French  the  Debonair, 
or  Good-natured,!  the  mighty  structure 
of  his  father's  power  began  rapidly  to  de- 
cay. I  do  not  know  that  Louis  deserves 
so  much  contempt  as  he  has  undergone ; 
but  historians  have  in  general  more  in- 
dulgence for  splendid  crimes,  than  for 
the  weaknesses  of  virtue.  There  was  no 
defect  in  Louis's  understanding  or  cour- 
age ;  he  was  accomplished  in  martial  ex- 
ercises, and  in  all  the  learning  which  an 
education,  excellent  for  that  age,  could 
supply.  No  one  was  ever  more  anxious 
to  reform  the  abuses  of  administration; 
and  whoever  compares  his  capitularies 
with  those  of  Charlemagne,  will  perceive 
that,  as  a  legislator,  he  was  even  superior 
to  his  father.  The  fault  lay  entirely  in 
his  heart ;  and  this  fault  was  nothing  but 
a  temper  too  soft,  and  a  conscience  too 
strict. $  It  is  not  wonderful  that  the  em- 


*  The  life  of  Charlemagne,  by  Gaillard,  without 
being  made  perhaps  so  interesting  as  it  ought  to 
have  been,  presents  an  adequate  view  both  of  his 
actions  and  character.— Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Alle- 
mands,  tome  ii.,  appears  to  me  a  superior  writer. 

f  A  contemporary  author,  Thegan,  ap.  Muratori, 
A.  D.  810,  asserts  that  Bernard  was  born  of  a  con- 
cubine. I  do  not  know  why  modem  historians 
represent  it  otherwise. 

t  These  names,  as  a  French  writer  observes, 
meant  the  same  thing.  Pius  had,  even  in  good 
Latin,  the  sense  of  mitts,  meek,  forbearing,  or  what 
the  French  call  debonair. — Synonymes  de  Rouband, 
tome  i.,  p.  257.  Our  English  word  debonair  is 
hardly  used  in  the  same  sense,  if  indeed  it  can  be 
called  an  English  word;  but  I  have  not  altered 
Louis's  appellation,  by  which  he  is  so  well  known. 

$  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  tome  ii.,  has 
done  more  justice  than  other  historians  to  Louis's 


pire  should  have  been  speedily  dissolved ; 
a  succession  of  such  men  as  Charles  Mar- 
tel,  Pepin,  and  Charlemagne,  could  alone 
have  preserved  its  integrity ;  but  the  mis- 
fortunes of  Louis  and  his  people  were 
immediately  owing  to  the  following  er- 
rors of  his  conduct. 

[A.  D.  817.]  Soon  after  his  acces- 
sion, Louis  thought  fit  to  asso-  HJS  mi8for. 
ciate  his  eldest  son  Lothaire  to  tunes  and 
the  empire,  and  to  confer  the  erro-rs> 
provinces  of  Bavaria  and  Aquitaine,  as 
subordinate  kingdoms,  upon  the  two 
younger,  Louis  and  Pepin.  The  step 
was,  in  appearance,  conformableto  his 
father's  policy,  who  had  acted  fowards 
himself  in  a  similar  manner.  But  such 
measures  are  not  subject  to  general  rules, 
and  exact  a  careful  regard  to  characters 
and  circumstances.  The  principle,  how- 
ever, which  regulated  this  division,  was 
learned  from  Charlemagne,*  and  could 
alone,  if  strictly  pursued,  have  given  uni- 
ty and  permanence  to  the  empire.  The 
elder  brother  was  to  preserve  his  superi- 
ority over  the  others,  so  that  they  should 
neither  make  peace  nor  war,  nor  even 
give  answer  to  ambassadors,  without  his 
consent.  Upon  the  death  of  either,  no 
further  partition  was  to  be  made;  but 
whichever  of  his  children  might  become 
the  popular  choice,  was  to  inherit  the 
whole  kingdom,  under  the  same  superior- 
ity of  the  head  of  the  family. f  This  com- 
pact was,  from  the  beginning,  disliked  by 
the  younger  brothers ;  and  an  event,  upon 
which  Louis  does  not  seem  to  have  cal- 
culated, soon  disgusted  his  colleague  Lo- 
thaire. Judith  of  Bavaria,  the  emperor's 
second  wife,  an  ambitious  woman,  bore 
him  a  son,  by  name  Charles,  whom  both 
parents  were  naturally  anxious  to  place 
on  an  equal  footing  with  his  brothers. 
But  this  could  only  be  done  at  the  ex- 
pense of  Lothaire,  who  was  ill-disposed 
to  see  his  empire  still  further  dismember- 
ed for  this  child  of  a  second  bed.  Louis 
passed  his  life  in  a  straggle  with  three 
undutiful  sons,  who  abused  his  paternal 
kindness  by  constant  rebellions. 

These  were  rendered  more  formidable 
by  the  concurrence  of  a  different  class  of 


character.  Vaissette  attests  the  goodness  of  his 
government  m  Aquitaine,  which  he  held  as  a  sub- 
ordinate kingdom  during  his  father's  life.  It  ex- 
tended from  the  Loire  to  the  Ebro,  so  that  the  trust 
was  not  contemptible. — Hist,  de  Languedoc,  tome 
i.,  p.  476. 

*  Charlemagne  had  made  a  prospective  arrange- 
ment in  806,  the  conditions  of  which  are  nearly  the 
same  as  those  of  Louis ;  but  the  death  of  his  two 
elder  sons,  Charles  and  Pepin,  prevented  its  taking 
effect. — Baluz.  Capitularia,  p.  44] . 

t  Baluzii  Capitularia,  tome  i.,  p.  575. 


24 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


enemies,  whom  it  had  been  another  error 
of  the  emperor  to  provoke.  Charlemagne 
had  assumed  a  thorough  control  and  su- 
premacy over  the  clergy;  and  his  son 
was  perhaps  still  more  vigilant  in  chasti- 
sing their  irregularities,  and  reforming 
their  rules  of  discipline.  But  to  this, 
which  they  had  been  compelled  to  bear 
at  the  hands  of  the  first,  it  was  not  equal- 
ly easy  for  the  second  to  obtain  their  sub- 
mission. Louis,  therefore,  drew  on  him- 
self the  inveterate  enmity  of  men,  who 
united  with  the  turbulence  of  martial 
nobles,  a  skill  in  managing  those  engines 
of  offence  which  were  peculiar  to  their 
order,  and  to  which  the  implicit  devotion 
of  his  character  laid  him  very  open.  Yet, 
after  many  vicissitudes  of  fortune,  and 
many  days  of  ignominy,  his  wishes  were 
eventually  accomplished.  [A.  D.  840.] 
Charles,  his  youngest  son,  sur- 
fherem°jL  named  the  Bald,  obtained,  up- 
amonghis  on  his  death,  most  part  of 
f0"?' .  France,  while  Germany  fell  to 

Lothaire,  ,  ,  /•    T        •  j    *u 

Lou  is,  and  the  share  of  Louis,  and  the 
Charles  the  rest  of  the  imperial  dominions, 
with  the  title,  to  the  eldest, 
Lothaire.  [A.  D.  847.]  This  partition 
was  the  result  of  a  sanguinary,  though 
short,  contest ;  and  it  gave  a  fatal  blow 
to  the  empire  of  the  Franks.  For  the 
treaty  of  Mersen,  in  847,  abrogated  the 
sovereignty  that  had  been  attached  to 
the  eldest  brother  and  to  the  imperial 
name  in  former  partitions ;  each  held  his 
respective  kingdom  as  an  independent 
right.* 

The  subsequent  partitions  made  among 
the  children  of  these  brothers 
the°  cariovin-  are  of  too  rapid  succession  to 
gian  family,  be  here  related.  In  about 
FaTeXe?or  forty  years,  the  empire  was 
881.  King  of  nearly  reunited  under  Charles 
France  885  the  Fat,  son  of  Louis  of  Ger- 
'  many ;  but  his  short  and  in- 
glorious reign  ended  in  his  deposition. 
From  this  time  the  possession  of  Italy 
was  contested  among  her  native  prin- 
ces ;  Germany  fell  at  first  to  an  illegit- 
imate descendant  of  Charlemagne,  and 


Dismember-  in  a  shor.t  time  was  entirely 
ment  of  the  lost  by  his  family ;  tWO  king- 
empire,  doms,  afterward  united,!  were 


formed  by  usurpers,   out  of  what  was 
then  called  Burgundy,  and  comprised  the 
provinces  between  the  Rhone   and  the 
Alps,  with  Tranche  Comte,  and  great  part 
of  Switzerland.      In  France, 
the   Carlovingian  kings   con-  France  °f 
tinued   for   another   century;  Eudes887. 
but  their  line  was  interrupted  gjj^ggg8 
two   or   three   times   by  the  Robert?  922. 
election   or   usurpation   of  a  Ralph  933. 
powerful  family,  the  counts  of  gS  Lothaire 
Paris  and  Orleans,  who  end-  954.  Louis  v. 
ed,  like   the   old   mayors   of  9^p^nia 
the  palace,  in  dispersing  the 
phantoms  of  royalty  they  had  profess- 
ed to   serve.*     Hugh    Capet,   the  rep- 
resentative   of    this    house,    upon    the 
death  of  Louis  V.  placed  himself  upon  the 
throne  ;  thus  founding  the  third  and  most 
permanent  race  of  French   sovereigns. 
Before  this  happened,  the  descendants  of 
Charlemagne    had   sunk    into    insignifi- 
cance, and  retained  little  more  of  France 
than  the  city  of  Laon.     The  rest  of  the 
tingdom  had  been  seized  by  the  powerful 
lobles,  who,  with  the  nominal  fidelity  of 
the  feudal  system,  maintained  its  practi- 
cal independence  and  rebellious  spirit. 

These  were  times  of  great  misery  to 
he  people,  and  the  worst,  per- 
laps,  that  Europe  has  ever  s^teleof  the 
mown.  Even  under  Charle- 
magne, we  have  abundant  proofs  of  the 
calamities  which  the  people  suffered. 
The  light  which  shone  around  him  was 
that  of  a  consuming  fire.  The  free  pro- 
prietors, who  had  once  considered  them- 
selves as  only  called  upon  to  resist  for- 
eign invasion,  were  harassed  with  end- 
less expeditions,  and  dragged  away  to  the 
Baltic  Sea  or  the  banks  of  the  Drave. 
Many  of  them,  as  we  learn  from  his  ca- 
pitularies, became  ecclesiastics  to  avoid 
military  conscription. f  But  far  worse 


*  Baluzii  Capitularia,  tome  ii.,  p.  42.  Velly, 
tome  ii.,  p.  75.  The  expressions  of  this  treaty  are 
perhaps  equivocal ;  but  the  subsequent  conduct  of 
the  brothers  and  their  family  justifies  the  construc- 
tion of  Velly,  which  I  have  followed. 

t  These  kingdoms  were  denominated  Provence 
and  Transjurane  Burgundy.  The  latter  was  very 
small,  comprising  only  part  of  Switzerland  ;  but  its 
second  sovereign,  Rodolph  II.,  acquired  by  treaty 
almost  the  whole  of  the  former;  and  the  two  uni 
ted  were  called  the  kingdom  of  Aries.  This  lastec 


from  933  to  1032,  when  Rodolph  III.  bequeathed 
his  dominions  to  the  Emperor  Conrad  II. — Art  de 
verifier  les  Dates,  tome  ii.,  p.  427-432. 

*  The  family  of  Capet  is  generally  admitted  to 
possess  the  most  ancient  pedigree  of  any  sovereign 
line  in  Europe.  Its  succession  through  males  is 
unequivocally  deduced  from  Robert  the  Brave, 
made  governor  of  Anjou  in  864,  and  father  of  Eu- 
des,  king  of  France,  and  of  Robert,  who  was  cho- 
sen by  a  party  in  922,  though,  as  Charles  the  Sim- 
ple was  still  acknowledged  in  some  provinces,  it  is 
uncertain  whether  he  ought  to  be  counted  in  the 
royal  list.  It  is,  moreover,  highly  probable  that 
Robert  the  Brave  was  descended,  equally  through 
males,  from  St.  Arnoul,  who  died  in  640,  and  con- 
sequently nearly  allied  to  the  Carlovingian  family, 
who  derive  their  pedigree  from  the  same  head. — 
See  Preuves  de  la  Genealogie  de  Hughes  Capet,  hi 
1'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,  tome  i.,  p.  566. 

t  Capitularia,  A.  D.  805.  Whoever  possessed 
three  mansi  of  allodial  property,  was  called  upon 
for  personal  service,  or  at  least  to  furnish  a  substi- 
tute. Nigellus,  author  of  a  poetical  Life  of  Louis 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


must  have  been  their  state  under  the  lax 
government  of  succeeding  times,  when 
the  dukes  and  counts,  no  longer  checked 
by  the  vigorous  administration  of  Char- 
lemagne, were  at  liberty  to  play  the  ty- 
rants in  their  several  territories,  of  which 
they  now  became  almost  the  sovereigns. 
The  poorer  landholders  accordingly  were 
forced  to  bow  their  necks  to  the  yoke  ; 
and  either  by  compulsion,  or  through 
hope  of  being  better  protected,  submitted 
their  independent  patrimonies  to  the  feu- 
dal tenure. 

But  evils  still  more  terrible  than  these 
political  abuses  were  the  lot  of  those  na- 
tions who  had  been  subject  to  Charle- 
magne. They,  indeed,  may  appear  to 
us  little  better  than  ferocious  barbari- 
ans :  but  they  were  exposed  to  the  as- 
saults of  tribes,  in  comparison  of  whom 
they  must  be  deemed  humane  and  pol- 
ished. Each  frontier  of  the  empire  had 
to  dread  the  attack  of  an  enemy.  The 
coasts  of  Italy  were  continu- 
'•  ally  alarmed  by  the  Saracens 
of  Africa,  who  possessed  themselves  of 
Sicily  and  Sardinia,  and  became  masters 
of  the  Mediterranean  Sea.*  [A.  D.  846 
-849.]  Though  the  Greek  dominions  in 
the  south  of  Italy  were  chiefly  exposed 
to  them,  they  twice  insulted  and  ravaged 
the  territory" of  Rome ;  nor  was  there  any 
security  even  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the 
maritime  Alps,  where,  early  in  the  tenth 
century,  they  settled  a  piratical  colony. f 
-*'''  Much  more  formidable  were  the  foes 
The  Hun-  by  whom  Germany  was  assail- 
garians.  ed.  The  Sclavonians,  a  widely- 
extended  people,  whose  language  is  still 
spoken  upon  half  the  surface  of  Europe, 
had  occupied  the  countries  of  Bohemia, 
Poland,  and  Pannonia,J  ,on  the  eastern 

I.,  seems  to  implicate  Charlemagne  himself  in  some 
of  the  oppressions  of  his  reign.  It  was  the  first 
care  of  the  former  to  redress  those  who  had  been 
injured  in  his  father's  time. — Recueil  des  Histo- 
riens,  tome  vi.  N.  B.  I  quote  by  this  title  the 
great  collection  of  French  historians,  charters,  and 
other  documents  illustrative  of  the  middle  ages, 
more  commonly  known  by  the  name  of  its  first 
editor,  the  Benedictine  Bouquet.  But  as  several 
learned  men  of  that  order  were  successively  con- 
cerned in  this  work,  not  one  half  of  which  has  yet 
been  published,  it  seemed  better  to  follow  its  own 
title-page. 

*  These  African  Saracens  belonged  to  the  Agla- 
bites,  a  dynasty  that  reigned  at  Tunis  for  the  whole 
of  the  ninth  century,  after  throwing  off  the  yoke 
of  the  Abbassite  Khalifs.  They  were  overthrown 
themselves  in  the  next  age  by  the  Fatimites.  Si- 
cily was  first  invaded  in  827  ;  but  the  city  of  Syra- 
cuse was  only  reduced  in  878. 

t  Muratori,  Annali  d'ltalia,  ad  ann.  906,  et  alibi. 
These  Saracens  of  Frassineto,  supposed  to  be  be- 
tween Nice  and  Monaco,  were  extirpated  by  a 
Count  of  Provence  in  972. 

%  I  am  sensible  of  the  awkward  effect  of  intro- 


confines  of  the  empire,  and  from  the 
time  of  Charlemagne  acknowledged  its 
superiority.  But  at  the  end  of  the  ninth 
century,  a  Tartarian  tribe,  the  Hunga- 
rians, overspreading  that  country  which 
since  has  borne  their  name,  and  moving 
forward  like  a  vast  wave,  brought  a 
dreadful  reverse  upon  Germany.  Their 
numbers  were  great,  their  ferocity  un- 
tamed. They  fought  with  light  cavalry 
and  light  armour,  trusting  to  their  show- 
ers of  arrows,  against  which  the  swords 
and  lances  of  the  European  armies  could 
not  avail.  The  memory  of  Attila  was 
renewed  in  the  devastations  of  these 
savages,  who,  if  they  were  not  his  com- 
patriots, resembled  them  both  in  their 
countenances  and  customs.  [A.  D.  934- 
954.]  All  Italy,  all  Germany,  and  the 
south  of  France,  felt  this  scourge  ;*  till 
Henry  the  Fowler  and  Otho  the  Great 
drove  them  back  by  successive  victo- 
ries within  their  own  limits,  where,  in  a 
short  time,  they  learned  peaceful  arts, 
adopted  the  religion,  and  followed  the 
policy,  of  Christendom. 

If  any  enemies  could  be  more  de- 
structive than  these  Hungarians,  The  Nor- 
they  were  the  pirates  of  the  man". 
north,  known  commonly  by  the  name 
of  Normans.  The  love  of  a  predatory 
life  seems  to  have  attracted  adventu- 
rers of  different  nations  to  the  Scandi- 
navian seas,  from  whence  they  infested, 
not  only  by  maritime  piracy,  but  contin- 
ual invasions,  the  northern  coasts  both 
of  France  and  Germany.  The  causes  of 
their  sudden  appearance  are  inexplicable, 
or  at  least  could  only  be  sought  in  the 
ancient  traditions  of  Scandinavia.  For, 
undoubtedly,  the  coasts  of  France  and 
England  were  as  little  protected  from  dep- 
redations under  the  Merovingian  kings, 
and  those  of  the  Heptarchy,  as  in  subse- 
quent times.  Yet  only  one  instance  of 
an  attack  from  this  side  is  recorded,  and 
that  before  the  middle  of  the  sixth"  cen- 

ducing  this  name  from  a  more  ancient  geography, 
but  it  saves  a  circumlocution  still  more  awkward. 
Austria  would  convey  an  imperfect  idea,  and  the 
Austrian  dominions  could  not  be  named  without  a 
tremendous  anachronism. 

*  In  924  they  overran  Languedoc.  Raymond- 
Pons,  count  of  Toulouse,  cut  their  army  to  pieces  ; 
but  they  had  previously  committed  such  ravages, 
that  the  bishops  of  that  province,  writing  soon  af- 
terward to  Pope  John  X.,  assert  that  scarcely  any 
eminent  ecclesiastics,  out  of  a  great  number,  were 
left  alive.— Hist,  de  Languedoc,  tome  ii.,  p.  60. 
They  penetrated  into  Guienne  as  late  as  951. — 
Flodoardi  Chronicon,  in  Recueil  des  Historiens, 
tome  viii.  In  Italy  they  inspired  such  terror,  that 
a  mass  was  composed  expressly  deprecating  this 
calamity  :  Ab  Ungarorum  nos  defendas  jaculis  ! 
In  937  they  ravaged  the  country  as  far  as  Bene- 
vento  and  Capua. — Muratori,  Ann.  d'ltalia. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   I. 


tury,*  till  the  age  of  Charlemagne.  In 
787,  the  Danes,  as  we  call  those  northern 
plunderers,  began  to  infest  England, 
which  lay  most  immediately  open  to 
their  incursions.  Soon  afterward  they 
ravaged  the  coasts  of  France.  Charle- 
magne repulsed  them  by  means  of  his 
fleets;  yet  they  pillaged  a  few  places 
during  his  reign.  It  is  said  that,  perceiv- 
ing one  day,  from  a  port  in  the  Mediter- 
ranean, some  Norman  vessels  which  had 
penetrated  into  that  sea,  he  shed  tears, 
in  anticipation  of  the  miseries  which 
awaited  his  empire. f  In  Louis's  reign 
their  depredations  upon  the  coasts  were 
more  incessant,!  but  they  did  not  pene- 
trate into  the  inland  country  till  that  of 
Charles  the  Bald.  The  wars  between 
that  prince  and  his  family,  which  exhaust- 
ed France  of  her  noblest  blood,  the  in- 
subordination of  the  provincial  govern- 
ors, even  the  instigation  of  some  of 
Charles's  enemies,  laid  all  open  to  their 
inroads.  They  adopted  a  uniform  plan 
of  warfare  both  in  France  and  England ; 
sailing  up  navigable  rivers  in  their  vessels 
of  small  burden,  and  fortifying  the  islands 
which  they  occasionally  found,  they  made 
these  intrenchments  at  once  an  asylum 
for  their  women  and  children,  a  reposito- 
ry for  their  plunder,  and  a  place  of  retreat 
from  superior  force.  After  pillaging  a 
town,  they  retired  to  these  strongholds 
or  to  their  ships  ;  and  it  was  not  till  872 
that  they  ventured  to  keep  possession 
of  Angers,  which,  however,  they  were 
compelled  to  evacuate.  Sixteen  years 
afterward  they  laid  siege  to  Paris,  and 
committed  the  most  ruinous  devastations 
on  the  neighbouring  country.  As  these 
Normans  were  unchecked  by  religious 
awe,  the  rich  monasteries,  which  had 
stood  harmless  amid  the  havoc  of  Chris- 
tian war,  were  overwhelmed  in  the  storm. 
Perhaps  they  may  have  endured  some  ir- 
recoverable losses  of  ancient  learning; 
but  their  complaints  are  of  monuments 
disfigured,  bones  of  saints  and  kings  dis- 
persed, treasures  carried  away.  St. 


*  Greg.  Turon,  1.  iii.,  c.  3. 

t  In  the  ninth  century  the  Norman  pirates  not 
only  ravaged  the  Balearic  isles,  and  nearer  coasts 
of  the  Mediterranean,  but  even  Greece. — DeMarca; 
Marca  Hispanica,  p.  327. 

J  Nigellus,  the  poetical  biographer  of  Louis, 
gives  the  following  description  of  the  Normans  : — 
Nort  quoque  Francisco  dicuntur  nomine  manni. 
Veloces,  agiles,  armigerique  nimis ; 
Ipse  quidem  populus  late  pemotus  habetur, 
Lintre  dapes  quaerit,  incoh'tatque  mare. 
Pulcher  ad  est  facie,  vultuque  statuque  deco- 
rus. — 1.  iv. 

He  goes  on  to  tell  us  that  they  worshipped  Nep 
tune.  Was  it  a  similarity  of  name,  or  of  attributes 
that  deceived  him  ? 


Denis  redeemed  its  abbot  from  captivity 
with  six  hundred  and  eighty-five  pounds 
f  gold.  All  the  chief  abbeys  were  strip- 
Ded  about  the  same  time,  either  by  the 
nemy,  or  for  contributions  to  the  public 
necessity.  So  empoverished  was  the 
dngdom,  that  in  860  Charles  the  Bald 
lad  great  difficulty  in  collecting  three 
housand  pounds  of  silver,  to  subsidize  a 
body  of  Normans  against  their  country- 
Tien.  The  kings  of  France,  too  feeble 
,o  prevent  or  repel  these  invaders,  had 
•ecourse  to  the  palliative  of  buying  peace 
at  their  hands,  or  rather  precarious  armis- 
ices,  to  which  reviving  thirst  of  plunder 
soon  put  an  end.  At  length  Charles  the 
Simple,  in  918,  ceded  a  great  province, 
which  they  had  already  partly  occupied, 
partly  rendered  desolate,  and  which  has 
lerived  from  them  the  name  of  Normandy, 
[gnominious  as  this  appears,  it  proved  no 
mpolitic  step.  Rollo,  the  Norman  chief, 
with  all  his  subjects,  became  Christians 
and  Frenchmen;  and  the  kingdom  was 
at  once  relieved  from  a  terrible  enemy, 
and  strengthened  by  a  race  of  hardy  col- 
onists.* 

The  accession  of  Hugh  Capet  had  not 
the  immediate  effect  of  resto-  Accession  of 
ring  the  royal  authority  over  HughCapet. 
France.  His  own  very  extensive  fief 
was  now  indeed  united  to  the  crown; 
but  a  few  great  vassals  occupied  the  re- 
mainder of  the  kingdom.  [A.  D.  987.] 
Six  of  these  obtained,  at  a  sub-  state  of 
sequent  time,  the  exclusive  ap-  France  at 
pellation  of  peers  of  France ;  the  that  time> 
Count  of  Flanders,  whose  fief  stretched 
from  the  Scheldt  to  the  Somme;  the 
Count  of  Champagne  ;  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy, to  whom  Britany  did  homage ; 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  on  whom  the 
Count  of  Nivernois  seems  to  have  de- 
pended; the  Duke  of  Aquitaine,  whose 
territory,  though  less  than  the  ancient 
kingdom  of  that  name,  comprehended 
Poitou,  Limousin,  and  most  of  Guienne, 
with  the  feudal  superiority  over  the  An- 
goumois,  and  some  other  central  dis- 
tricts ;  and,  lastly,  the  Count  of  Toulouse, 
who  possessed  Languedoc,  with  the  small 
countries  of  Quercy  and  Rouergue,  and 
the  superiority  over  Auvergne. f  Besides 


*  An  exceedingly  good  sketch  of  these  Norman 
incursions,  and  of  the  political  situation  of  France 
during  that  period,  may  be  found  in  two  Memoirs 
by  M.  Bonamy,  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscrip.,  tomes 
xv.  and  xvii.  These  I  have  chiefly  followed  in  the 
text. 

f  Auvergne  changed  its  feudal  superior  twice. 
It  had  been  subject,  to  the  Duke  of  Aquitaine  till 
about  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century.  The  counts 
of  Toulouse  then  got  possession  of  it ;  but  early  in 
the  twelfth  century  the  counts  of  Auvergne  again 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


27 


these  six,  the  Duke  of  Gascony,  not  long 
afterward  united  with  Aquitaine,  the 
counts  of  Anjou,  Ponthieu,  and  Verman- 
dois,  the  Viscount  of  Bourges,  the  lords 
of  Bourbon  and  Coucy,  with  one  or  two 
other  vassals,  held  immediately  of  the  last 
Carlovingian  kings.*  This  was  the  aris- 
tocracy of  which  Hugh  Capet  usurped  the 
direction ;  for  the  suffrage  of  no  general 
assembly  gave  a  sanction  to  his  title.  On 
the  death  of  Louis  V.  he  took  advantage 
of  the  absence  of  Charles,  duke  of  Lor- 
raine, who,  as  the  deceased  king's  uncle, 
was  nearest  heir,  and  procured  his  own 
consecration  at  Rheims.  At  first  he  was 
by  no  means  acknowledged  in  the  king- 
dom; but  his  contest  with  Charles  pro- 
ving successful,  the  chief  vassals  ulti- 
mately gave  at  least  a  tacit  consent  to 
the  usurpation,  and  permitted  the  royal 
name  to  descend  undisputed  upon  his 
posterity. f  But  this  was  almost  the  sole 
attribute  of  sovereignty  which  the  first 
kings  of  the  third  dynasty  enjoyed.  For 
a  long  period  before  and  after  the  acces- 
sion of  that  family,  France  has,  properly 
speaking,  no  national  history.  The  char- 
acter or  fortune  of  those  who  were  called 
its  kings,  was  little  more  important  to 
the  majority  of  the  nation  than  that  of 
foreign  princes.  Undoubtedly,  the  de- 
gree of  influence  which  they  exercised 

Robert    996    W^^  resPect  to  tne   vassals  of 

the  crown  varied  according  to 
their  power  and  their  proximity.  Over 
Guienne  and  Toulouse,  the  four  first  Ca- 
pets had  very  little  authority;  nor  do 
they  seem  to  have  ever  received  assist- 
Henryi  ance  from  them  either  in  civil 
losi.  or  national  wars.J  With  provin- 


did  homage  to  Guienne.  It  is  very  difficult  to  fol- 
low the  history  of  these  fiefs. 

*  The  immediacy  of  vassals,  in  times  so  ancient, 
is  open  to  much  controversy.  I  have  followed  the 
authority  of  those  industrious  Benedictines,  the 
editors  of  1'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates. 

t  The  south  of  France  not  only  took  no  part  in 
Hugh's  elevation,  but  long  refused  to  pay  him  any 
obedience,  or  rather  to  acknowledge  his  title,  for 
obedience  was  wholly  out  of  the  question.  The 
style  of  charters  ran,  instead  of  the  king's  name, 
Deo  regnante.  rege  expectante,  or  absente  rege  terreno. 
He  forced  Guienne  to  submit  about  990.  But  in 
Limousin  they  continued  to  acknowledge  the  sons 
of  Charles  of  Lorraine  till  1009.— Vaissette,  Hist, 
de  Lang.,  t.  ii.,  p.  120,  150-  Before  this,  Toulouse 
had  refused  to  recognise  Eudes  and  Raoul,  two 
kings  of  France,  who  were  not  of  the  Carlovingian 
family,  and  even  hesitated  about  Louis  IV.  and 
Lothaire,  who  had  an  hereditary  right. — Idem. 

These  proofs  of  Hugh  Capet's  usurpation  seem 
not  to  be  materially  invalidated  by  a  dissertation  in 
the  50th  volume  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions, 
p.  553.  It  is  not,  of  course,  to  be  denied,  that  the 
northern  parts  of  France  acquiesced  in  his  assump- 
tion of  the  royal  title,  if  they  did  not  give  an  express 
consent  to  it. 

t  I  have  not  found  any  authority  for  supposing 


ces  nearer  to  their  own  domains, 
such  as  Normandy  and  Flanders,  106°- 
they  were  frequently  engaged  in  alliance 
or  hostility ;.  but  each  seemed  rather  to 
proceed  from  the  policy  of  independent 
states,  than  from  the  relation  of  a  sover- 
eign towards  his  subjects. 

It  should  be  remembered  that  when 
the  fiefs  of  Paris  and  Orleans  are  said  to 
have  been  reunited  by  Hugh  Capet  to 
the  crown,  little  more  is  understood  than 
the  feudal  superiority  over  the  vassals  of 
these  provinces.  As  the  kingdom  of 
Charlemagne's  posterity  was  split  into  a 
number  of  great  fiefs,  so  each  of  these 
contained  many  barons,  possessing  ex- 
clusive immunities  within  their  own  ter- 
ritories, waging  war  at  their  pleasure, 
administering  justice  to  their  military 
tenants  and  other  subjects,  and  free  from 
all  control  beyond  the  conditions  of  the 
feudal  compact.*  At  the  acces-  . 
sion  of  Louis  VI.,  in  1108,  the 
cities  of  Paris,  Orleans,  and  Bourges, 
with  the  immediately  adjacent  districts, 
formed  the  most  considerable  portion  of 
the  royal  domain.  A  number  of  petty 
barons,  with  their  fortified  castles,  in- 
tercepted the  communication  between 
these,  and  waged  war  against  the  king 
almost  under  the  walls  of  his  capital. 
It  cost  Louis  a  great  deal  of  trouble  to 
reduce  the  lords  of  Montlehery,  and 
other  places  within  a  few  miles  of  Paris. 
Under  this  prince,  however,  who  had 
more  activity  than  his  predecessors,  the 
royal  authority  considerably  revived. 
From  his  reign  we  may  date  the  syste- 


that  the  provinces  south  of  the  Loire  contributed 
their  assistance  to  the  king  in  war,  unless  the 
following  passage  of  Gulielmus  Pictaviensis  be 
considered  as  matter  of  fact,  and  not  rather  as  a 
rhetorical  flourish.  He  tells  us  that  a  vast  army 
was  collected  by  Henry  I.  against  the  Duke  of 
Normandy:  Burgundiam,  Arverniam,  atque  Vas- 
coniam  properare  videres  horri  biles  ferro;  immo 
vires  tanti  regni  quantum  in  climata  quatuor  mundi 
patent  cunctas. — Recueil  des  Historians,  t.  xi.,  p. 
83.  But  we  have  the  roll  of  the  army  which  Louis 
VI.  led  against  the  Emperor  Henry  V.,  A.  D.  1120, 
in  a  national  war :  and  it  was  entirely  composed 
of  troops  from  Champagne,  the  Isle  of  France,  the 
Orleannois,  and  other  provinces  north  of  the  Loire. 
— Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  62.  Yet  this  was  a  sort  of  convo- 
cation of  the  ban  :  Rex  ut  eum  tota  Francia  sequa- 
tur,  invitat.  Even  so  late  as  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus,  in  a  list  of  the  knights  bannerets  of 
France,  though  those  of  Britany,  Flanders,  Cham- 
pagne, and  Burgundy,  besides  the  royal  domains, 
are  enumerated,  no  mention  is  made  of  the  prov- 
inces beyond  the  Loire. — Du  Chesne,  Script  Re- 
rum  Gallicarum,  t.  v.,  p.  262. 

*  In  a  subsequent  chapter,  I  shall  illustrate,  at 
much  greater  length,  the  circumstances  of  the 
French  monarchy  with  respect  to  its  feudal  vas- 
sals. It  would  be  inconvenient  to  anticipate  the 
subject  at  present,  which  is  rather  of  a  legal  than 
narrative  character. 


28 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


malic  rivalry  of  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish monarchies.  Hostilities  had  sever- 
al times  occurred  between  Philip  I.  and 
the  two  Williams ;  but  the  wars  that  be- 
gan under  Louis  VI.  lasted,  with  no  long 
interruption,  for  three  centuries  and  a 
half,  and  form,  indeed,  the  most  leading 
feature  of  French  history  during  the  mid- 
dle ages.*  Of  all  the  royal  vassals,  the 
dukes  of  Normandy  were  the  proudest 
and  most  powerful.  Though  they  had 
submitted  to  do  homage,  they  could  not 
forget  that  they  came  in  originally  by 
force,  and  that  in  real  strength  they  were 
fully  equal  to  their  sovereign.  Nor  had 
the  conquest  of  England  any  tendency 
to  diminish  their  pretensions. f 

Louis  VII.  ascended  the  throne  with 
T  ™  •  VTT  better  prospects  than  his  father. 
L  [A.  D.  1137.]  He  had  married 
Eleanor,  heiress  of  the  great  dutchy  of 
Guienne.  But  this  union,  which  prom- 
ised an  immense  accession  of  strength 
to  the  crown,  was  rendered  unhappy 
by  the  levities  of  that  princess.  Re- 
pudiated by  Louis,  who  felt  rather  as  a 
husband  than  a  king,  Eleanor  immedi- 
ately married  Henry  II.  of  England; 
who,  already  inheriting  Normandy  from 
his  mother,  and  Anjou  from  his  father, 
became  possessed  of  more  than  one  half 
of  France,  and  an  overmatch  for  Louis, 
even  if  the  great  vassals  of  the  crown 
had  been  always  ready  to  maintain  its 
supremacy.  One  might  venture  perhaps 
to  conjecture  that  the  sceptre  of  France 
would  eventually  have  passed  from  the 
Capets  to  the  Plantagenets,  if  the  vexa- 
tious quarrel  with  Becket  at  one  time, 
and  the  successive  rebellions  fomented 
by  Louis  at  a  later  period,  had  not  em- 
barrassed the  great  talents  and  ambitious 
spirit  of  Henry. 

[A.  D.  1180.]  But  the  scene  quite  chan- 
Phiiip  AU-  ged  when  Philip  Augustus,  son 
gustus.  of  Louis  VII.,  came  upon  the 
stage.  No  prince  comparable  to  him  in 
systematic  ambition  and  military  enter- 
prise had  reigned  in  France  since  Char- 
lemagne. From  his  reign  the  French 
monarchy  dates  the  recovery  of  its  lus- 
tre. He  wrested  from  the  Count  of 
Flanders  the  Vermandois  (that  part  of 
Pieardy  which  borders  on  the  Isle  of 


*  Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  40. 

f  The  Norman  historians  maintain  that  their 
dukes  did  not  owe  any  service  to  the  King  of 
France,  but  only  simple  homage,  or,  as  it  was 
called,  per  paragium. — Recueil  des  Historiens, 
t.  xi. ,  pref.,  p.  161.  They  certainly  acted  upon  this 
principle;  and  the  manner  in  which  they  first 
came  into  the  country  is  not  very  consistent  with 
dependance. 


France  and  Champagne),*  and,  subse- 
quently, the  county  of  Artois.  But  the 
most  important  conquests  of  Philip  were 
obtained  against  the  kings  of  England. 
Even  Richard  L,  with  all  his  prowess, 
lost  ground  in  struggling  against  an  ad- 
versary, not  less  active,  and  more  pol- 
itic than  himself.  [A.  D.  1203.]  But  when 
John  not  only  took  possession  conquest  of 
of  his  brother's  dominions,  but  Normandy, 
confirmed  his  usurpation  by  the  mur- 
der, as  was  very  probably  surmised,  of 
the  heir,  Philip,  artfully  taking  advantage 
of  the  general  indignation,  summoned 
him  as  his  vassal  to  the  court  of  his 
peers.  John  demanded  a  safe  conduct. 
Willingly,  said  Philip ;  let  him  come  un- 
molested. And  return  ?  inquired  the  Eng- 
lish envoy.  If  the  judgment  of  his  peers 
permit  him,  replied  the  king.  By  all  the 
saints  of  France,  he  exclaimed,  when 
farther  pressed,  he  shall  not  return  un- 
less acquitted.  The  Bishop  of  Ely  still 
remonstrated,  that  the  Duke  of  Nor- 
mandy could  not  come  without  the  King 
of  England;  nor  would  the  barons  of 
that  country  permit  their  sovereign  to 
run  the  risk  of  death  or  imprisonment. 
What  of  that,  my  lord  bishop?  cried 
Philip.  It  is  well  known  that  my  vas- 
sal, the  Duke  of  Normandy,  acquired 
England  by  force.  But,  if  a  subject 
obtains  any  accession  of  dignity,  shall 
his  paramount  lord  therefore  lose  his 
rights  If 

It  may  be  doubted  whether,  in  thus 
citing  John  before  his  court,  the  King  of 
France  did  not  stretch  his  feudal  sover- 
eignty beyond  its  acknowledged  limits. 
Arthur  was  cjertainly  no  immediate  vas- 
sal of  the.  crown  for  Britany  ;  and  though 
he  had  done  homage  to  Philip  for  Anjou 
and  Maine,  yet  a  subsequent  treaty  had 
abrogated  his  investiture,  and  confirmed 
his  uncle  in  the  possession  of  those  prov- 
inces.! But  tn.e  vigour  of  Philip,  and  the 
meanness  of  his  adversary,  cast  a  shade 
over  all  that  might  be  novel  or  irregular 
in  these  proceedings.  John,  not  appear- 
ing at  his  summons,  was  declared  guilty 
of  felony,  and  his  fiefs  confiscated.  The 
execution  of  this  sentence  was  not  in- 


*  The  original  counts  of  Vermandois  were  de- 
scended from  Bernard,  king  of  Italy,  grandson  of 
Charlemagne :  but  their  fief  passed  by  the  dona- 
tion of  Isabel,  the  last  countess,  to  her  husband, 
the  Earl  of  Flanders,  after  her  death  in  1183.  The 
principal  towns  of  the  Vermandois  are  St.  Quentin 
and  Peronne. — Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,  t.  ii., 
p.  700. 

t  Mat.  Paris,  p.  238,  edit.  1684. 

J  The  illegality  of  Philip's  proceedings  is  well 
argued  by  Mably,  Observations  sur  PHistoire  de 
France,  1.  iii.,  c,  6. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


Misted  to  a  dilatory  arm.  Philip  poured 
his  troops  into  Normandy,  and  took  town 
after  town,  while  the  King  of  England,  in- 
fatuated by  his  own  wickedness  and  cow- 
ardice, made  hardly  an  attempt  at  defence. 
In  two  years  Normandy,  Maine,  and  An- 
jou  were  irrecoverably  lost.  [A.  D.  1223.] 
Poitou  and  Guienne  resisted  longer :  but 
the  conquest  of  the  first  was  completed 
Louis  vm  by  L°uis  VIII.,  successor  of 
Philip,  and  the  subjection  of  the 
second  seemed  drawing  near,  when  the 
arms  of  Louis  were  diverted  to  differ- 
ent, but  scarcely  less  advantageous  ob- 
jects. 

The  country  of  Languedoc,  subject  to 
Affairs  of  the  counts  of  Toulouse,  had 
Languedoc.  been  unconnected,  beyond  any 
other  part  of  France,  with  the  kings 
of  the  house  of  Capet.  Louis  VII.  hav- 
ing married  his  sister  to  the  reigning 
count,  and  travelled  himself  through  the 
country,  began  to  exercise  some  de- 
gree of  authority,  chiefly  in  confirming 
the  rights  of  ecclesiastical  bodies,  who 
were  vain,  perhaps,  of  this  additional 
sanction  to  the  privileges  which  they  al- 
ready possessed.*  But  the  remoteness 
of  their  situation,  with  a  difference  in 
language  and  legal  usages,  still  kept  the 
people  of  this  province  apart  from  those 
of  the  north  of  France. 

About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  centu- 
ry, certain  religious  opinions,  which  it  is 
not  easy,  nor,  for  our  present  purpose, 
material  to  define,  but,  upon  every  suppo- 
sition, exceedingly  adverse  to  those  of 
the  church,f  began  to  spread  over  Lan- 
guedoc. Those  who  imbibed  them  have 
borne  the  name  of  Albigeois.  though  they 
were  in  no  degree  peculiar  to  the  district 
of  Albi.  In  despite  of  much  preaching 
and  some  persecution,  these  errors  made 
a  continual  progress;  till  Innocent  III., 
in  1198,  despatched  commissaries,  the 

*  According  to  the  Benedictine  historians,  Vich 
and  Vaissette,  there  is  no  trace  of  any  act  of  sover- 
eignty exercised  by  the  kings  of  France  in  Lan- 
guedoc from  955,  when  Lothaire  confirmed  a  char- 
ter of  his  predecessor  Raoul,  in  favour  of  the  Bish- 
op of  Puy,  till  the  reign  of  Louis  VII. — (Hist,  de 
Languedoc,  tome  ii.,  p.  88.)  They  have  published, 
however,  an  instrument  of  Louis  VI.  in  favour 
of  the  same  church,  confirming  those  of  former 
princes. — (Appendix,  p.  473.)  Neither  the  counts  of 
Toulouse,  nor  any  lord  of  the  province,  were  pres- 
ent in  a  very  numerous  national  assembly,  at  the 
coronation  of  Philip  I. — (Id.,  p.  200.)  I  do  not  rec- 
ollect to  have  ever  met  with  the  name  of  the  Count 
of  Toulouse  as  a  subscribing  witness  to  the  char- 
ters of  the  first  Capetian  kings  in  the  Recueil  des 
Historiens,  where  many  are  published  :  though 
that  of  the  Duke  of  Guienne  sometimes  occurs. 

t  For  the  real  tenets  of  the  Languedocian  secta- 
ries, I  refer  to  the  last  chapter  of  the  present  work, 
where  the  subject  will  be  taken  up  again. 


seed  of  the  inquisition,  with  ample  pow- 
ers both  to  investigate  and  to  chastise. 
Raymond  VI.,  count  of  Toulouse,  wheth- 
er inclined  towards  the  innovators,  as 
was  then  the  theme  of  reproach,  or,  as 
is  more  probable,  disgusted  with  the  inso- 
lent interference  of  the  pope  and  his  mis- 
sionaries, provoked  them  to  pronounce 
a  sentence  of  excommunication  against 
him.  [A.  D.  1208.]  Though  this  was 
taken  off,  he  was  still  suspected ;  and 
upon  the  assassination  of  one  of  the  in- 
quisitors, in  which  Raymond  had  no  con- 
cern, Innocent  published  a  crusade  both 
against  the  count  and  his  subjects,  calling 
upon  the  King  of  France,  and  the  nobil- 
ity of  that  kingdom,  to  take  up  the  cross, 
with  all  the  indulgences  usually  held 
out  as  allurements  to  religious  warfare. 
Though  Philip  would  not  interfere,  a 
prodigious  number  of  knights  undertook 
this  enterprise,  led  partly  by  ecclesias- 
tics, and  partly  by  some  of  the  first 
barons  in  France.  It  was  prosecuted 
with  every  atrocious  barbarity  which  su- 
perstition, the  mother  of  crimes,  could 
inspire.  Languedoc,  a  country,  for  that 
age,  flourishing  and  civilized,  was  laid 
waste  by  these  desolaters;  her  cities 
burnt ;  her  inhabitants  swept  away  by 
fire  and  the  sword.  And  this  was  to 
punish  a  fanaticism  ten  thousand  times 
more  innocent  than  their  own,  and  er- 
rors which,  according  to  the  worst  im- 
putations, left  the  laws  of  humanity  and 
the  peace  of  social  life  unimpaired.* 

The  crusaders  were  commanded  by 
Simon  de  Montfort,  a  man,  like  crusade 
Cromwell,  whose  intrepidity,  against  the 
hypocrisy,  and  ambition,  mark-  Albiseois' 
ed  him  for  the  hero  of  a  holy  war. 
The  energy  of  such  a  mind,  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  enthusiastic  war- 
riors, may  well  account  for  successes 
which  then  appeared  miraculous.  But 
Montfort  was  cut  off  before  he  could 
realize  his  ultimate  object,  an  independ- 
ent principality  ;  and  Raymond  was  able 
to  bequeath  the  inheritance  of  his  an- 
cestors to  his  son.  [A.  D.  1222.]  Rome, 
however,  was  not  yet  appeased ;  upon 
some  new  pretence,  she  raised  up  a 
still  more  formidable  enemy  against  the 
younger  Raymond.  Louis  VIII.  suffer- 


*  The  Albigensian  war  commenced  with  the 
storming  of  Bezieres,  and  a  massacre,  wherein 
15,000  persons,  or,  according  to  some  narrations, 
60,000,  were  put  to  the  sword.  Not  a  living  soul 
escaped,  as  witnesses  assure  us.  It  was  here  that 
a  Cistertian  monk,  who  led  on  the  crusaders,  an- 
swered the  inquiry,  how  the  Catholics  were  to  be 
distinguished  from  heretics.  Kill  them  all !  God 
will  know  his  own.  Besides  Vaissette,  see  Sismon- 
di,  Litterature  du  Midi,  t.  i.,  p.  201. 


30 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHIP.   1. 


ed  himself  to  be  diverted  from  the  con- 
quest of  Guienne,  to  take  the  cross 
against  the  supposed  patron  of  heresy. 
After  a  short  and  successful  war,  Louis, 
dying  prematurely,  left  the  crown  of 
France  to  a  son  only  twelve  years  old. 
But  the  Count  of  Toulouse  was  still 
pursued,  till,  hopeless  of  safety  in  so 
unequal  a  struggle,  he  concluded  a  trea- 
ty upon  very  hard  terms.  [A.  D.  1229.] 
By  this  he  ceded  the  greater  part  of 
Languedoc  ;  and  giving  his  daughter  in 
marriage  to  Alphonso,  brother  of  Louis 
IX.,  confirmed  to  them,  and  to  the  king 
in  failure  of  their  descendants,  the  rever- 
sion of  the  rest,  in  exclusion  of  any  other 
children  whom  he  might  have.  Thus  fell 
the  ancient  house  of  Toulouse,  through 
one  of  those  strange  combinations  of  for- 
tune which  thwart  the  natural  course  of 
human  prosperity,  and  disappoint  the 
plans  of  wise  policy  and  beneficent  gov- 
ernment.* 

[A.  D.  1226.]  The  rapid  progress  of 
Lo  •  ix  roval  P°wer  under  Philip  Au- 
gustus and  his  son  had  scarce- 
ly given  the  great  vassals  time  to  re- 
flect upon  the  change  which  it  produ- 
ced in  their  situation.  The  crown,  with 
which  some  might  singly  have  measured 
their  forces,  was  now  an  equipoise  to 
their  united  weight.  And  such  a  union 
was  hard  to  be  accomplished  among  men 
not  always  very  sagacious  in  policy,  and 
divided  by  separate  interests  and  animos- 
ities. They  were  not,  however,  insensi- 
ble to  the  crisis  of  their  feudal  liberties ; 
and  the  minority  of  Louis  IX.,  guided 
only  by  his  mother,  the  regent  Blanche 
of  Castile,  seemed  to  offer  a  favourable 
opportunity  for  recovering  their  former 
situation.  Some  of  the  most  considera- 
ble barons,  the  counts  of  Britany,  Cham- 
pagne, and  la  Marche,  had,  during  the 
time  of  Louis  VIII.,  shown  an  unwilling- 
ness to  push  the  Count  of  Toulouse  too 
far,  if  they  did  not  even  keep  up  a  se- 
cret understanding  with  him.  They  now 
broke  out  into  open  rebellion;  but  the 
address  of  Blanche  detached  some  from 
the  league,  and  her  firmness  subdued  the 
rest.  For  the  first  fifteen  years  of  Louis's 
reign,  the  struggle  was  frequently  renew- 
ed ;  till  repeated  humiliations  convinced 
the  refractory  that  the  throne  was  no 
longer  to  be  shaken.  A  prince  so  feeble 
as  Henry  III.  was  unable  to  afford  them 

*  The  best  account  of  this  crusade  against  the 
Albigeois  is  to  be  found  in  the  third  volume  of 
Vaissette's  History  of  Languedoc  :  the  Benedictine 
spirit  of  mildness  and  veracity  tolerably  counter- 
balancing the  prejudices  of  orthodoxy.  Velly, 
Hist,  de  France,  t.  lii.,  has  abridged  this  work. 


that  aid  from  England,  which,  if  ms 
grandfather  or  son  had  then  reigned, 
might  probably  have  lengthened  these 
civil  wars. 

But  Louis  IX.  had  methods  of  preserv- 
ing his  ascendency  very  dif-  His  charac. 
ferent  from  military  prowess,  ter.  itsex- 
That  excellent  prince  was  per-  c 
haps  the  most  eminent  pattern  of  un- 
swerving probity  •  and  Christian  strict- 
ness of  conscience,  that  ever  held  the 
sceptre  in  any  country.  There  is  a  pe- 
culiar beauty  in  the  reign  of  St.  Louis, 
because  it  shows  the  inestimable  ben- 
efit which  a  virtuous  king  may  confer 
on  his  people,  without  possessing  any 
distinguished  genius.  For  nearly  half  a 
century  that  he  governed  France,  there 
is  not  the  smallest  want  of  moderation 
or  disinterestedness  in  his  actions;  and 
yet  he  raised  the  influence  of  the  mon- 
archy to  a  much  higher  point  than  the 
most  ambitious  of  his  predecessors.  [A. 
D.  1259.]  To  the  surprise  of  his  own  and 
later  times,  he  restored  great  part  of  his 
conquests  to  Henry  III.,  whom  he  might 
naturally  hope  to  have  expelled  from 
France.  It  would  indeed  have  been  a 
tedious  work  to  conquer  Guienne,  which 
was  full  of  strong  places,  and  the  subju- 
gation of  such  a  province  might  have 
alarmed  the  other  vassals  of  his  crown. 
But  it  is  the  privilege  only  of  virtuous 
minds  to  perceive  that  wisdom  resides  in 
moderate  counsels ;  no  sagacity  ever 
taught  a  selfish  and  ambitious  sovereign 
to  forego  the  sweetness  of  immediate 
power.  An  ordinary  king,  in  the  circum- 
stances of  the  French  monarchy,  would 
have  fomented,  or,  at  least,  have  rejoiced 
in  the  dissensions  which  broke  out  among 
the  principal  vassals;  Louis  constantly 
employed  himself  to  reconcile  them.  In 
this,  too,  his  benevolence  had  all  the  ef- 
fects of  far-sighted  policy.  It  had  been 
the  practice  of  his  three  last  predecessors 
to  interpose  their  mediation  in  behalf  of 
the  less  powerful  classes ;  the  clergy,  the 
inferior  nobility,  and  the  inhabitants  of 
chartered  towns.  Thus  the  supremacy 
of  the  crown  became  a  familiar  idea  ;  but 
the  perfect  integrity  of  St.  Louis  wore 
away  all  distrust,  and  accustomed  even 
the  most  jealous  feudatories  to  look  upon 
him  as  their  judge  and  legislator.  And 
as  the  royal  authority  was  hitherto  shown 
only  in  its  most  amiable  prerogatives, 
the  dispensation  of  favour,  and  the  re- 
dress of  wrong,  few  were  watchful  enough 
to  remark  the  transition  of  the  French 
constitution  from  a  feudal  league  to  an 
absolute  monarchy. 

It  was  perhaps  fortunate  for  the  dis- 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


31 


play  of  St.  Louis's  virtues,  that  the 
throne  had  already  been  strengthened 
by  the  less  innocent  exertions  of  Philip 
Augustus  and  Louis  VIII.  A  century 
earlier,  his  mild  and  scrupulous  character, 
unsustained  by  great  actual  power,  might 
not  have  inspired  sufficient  awe.  But  the 
crown  was  now  grown  so  formidable,  and 
Louis  was  so  eminent  for  his  firmness 
and  bravery,  qualities,  without  which 
every  other  virtue  would  have  been  in- 
effectual, that  no  one  thought  it  safe  to 
run  wantonly  into  rebellion,  while  his 
disinterested  administration  gave  no  one 
a  pretext  for  it.  Hence  the  latter  part 
of  his  reign  was  altogether  tranquil,  and 
employed  in  watching  over  the  public 
peace  and  the  security  of  travellers; 
administering  justice  personally  or  by 
the  best  counsellors ;  and  compiling  that 
code  of  feudal  customs,  called  the  Estab- 
lishments of  St.  Louis,  which  is  the  first 
monument  of  legislation  after  the  acces- 
sion of  the  house  of  Capet.  Not  satisfi- 
ed with  the  justice  of  his  own  conduct, 
Louis  aimed  at  that  act  of  virtue  which 
is  rarely  practised  by  private  men,  and 
had  perhaps  no  example  among  kings, 
restitution.  Commissaries  were  appoint- 
ed to  inquire  what  possessions  had 
been  unjustly  annexed  to  the  royal  do- 
main during  the  two  last  reigns.  These 
were  restored  to  the  proprietors,  or, 
where  length  of  time  had  made  it  diffi- 
cult to  ascertain  the  claimant,  their  value 
was  distributed  among  the  poor.* 

It  has  been  hinted  already  that  all  this 
„„,*  A  f  ta    excellence   of  heart   in   Lou- 

atiu  delects.    .      -T-.T-  11        .  i 

is  IX.  was  not  attended  with 
that  strength  of  understanding  which  is 
necessary,  we  must  allow,  to  complete 
the  usefulness  of  a  sovereign.  During 
his  minority,  Blanche  of  Castile,  his  mo- 
ther, had  filled  the  office  of  regent  with 
great  courage  and  firmness.  But,  after  he 
grew  up  to  manhood,  her  influence  seems 
to  have  passed  the  limit  which  gratitude 
and  piety  would  have  assigned  to  it ;  and, 
as  her  temper  was  not  very  meek  or  pop- 
ular, exposed  the  king  to  some  degree  of 
contempt.  He  submitted  even  to  be  re- 
strained from  the  society  of  his  wife 
Margaret,  daughter  of  Raymond,  count 
of  Provence,  a  princess  of  great  virtue 
and  conjugal  affection.  Joinville  relates  a 
curious  story,  characteristic  of  Blanche's 


*  Velly,  tome  v.,  p.  150.  This  historian  has  ve"ry 
properly  dwelt  for  almost  a  volume  on  St.  Louis's 
internal  administration  ;  it  is  one  of  the  most  valu- 
able parts  of  his  work.  Joinville  is  a  real  witness, 
on  whom,  when  we  listen,  it  is  impossible  not  to 
rely. — Collection  des  Memoires  relatifs  &  1'Histoire 
de  France,  tome  ii.,  pp.  140-156. 


arbitrary  conduct,  and  sufficiently  derog- 
atory to  Louis.* 

But  the  principal  weakness  of  this  king, 
which  almost  effaced  all  the  good  effects 
of  his  virtues,  was  superstition.  It  would 
be  idle  to  sneer  at  those  habits  of  abste- 
miousness and  mortification  which  were 
part  of  the  religion  of  his  age ;  and,  at 
the  worst,  were  only  injurious  to  his  own 
comfort.  But  he  had  other  prejudices, 
which,  though  they  may  be  forgiven, 
must  never  be  defended.  No  one  was 
ever  more  impressed  than  St.  Louis  with 
a  belief  in  the  duty  of  exterminating  all 
enemies  to  his  own  faith.  With  these, 
he  thought  no  layman  ought  to  risk  him- 
self in  the  perilous  ways  of  reasoning, 
but  to  make  answer  with  his  sword  as 
stoutly  as  a  strong  arm  and  a  fiery  zeal 
could  carry  that  argument.!  Though, 
fortunately  for  his  fame,  the  persecu- 
tion against  the  Albigeois,  which  had 
been  the  disgrace  of  his  father's  short 
reign,  was  at  an  end  before  he  reach- 
ed manhood,  he  suffered  a  hypocritical 
monk  to  establish  a  tribunal  at  Paris  for 
the  suppression  of  heresy,  where  many 
innocent  persons  suffered  death. 

But  no  events  in  Louis's  life  were  more 
memorable  than  his  two  crusades,  which 
lead  us  to  look  back  on  the  nature  and 
circumstances  of  that  most  singular  phe- 
nomenon in  European  history.  Though 
the  crusades  involved  all  the  western 
nations  of  Europe,  without  belonging 
peculiarly  to  any  one,  yet  as  France  was 
more  distinguished  than  the  rest  in  most 
of  those  enterprises,  I  shall  introduce  the 
subject  as  a  sort  of  digression  from  the 
main  course  of  French  history. 

Even  before  the  violation  of  Pales- 
tine by  the  Saracen  arms,  it  had  been 
a  prevailing  custom  among  the  The  era- 
Christians  of  Europe  to  visit  sades. 
those  scenes  rendered  interesting  by 
religion,  partly  through  delight  in  the 
effects  of  local  association,  partly  in 
obedience  to  the  prejudices  or  com- 


*  Collection  des  Memoires,  tome  ii.,  p.  241. 

t  Aussi  vous  dis  je,  me  dist  le  roy,  que  nul,  si 
n'est  grant  clerc,  et  theologien  parfait,  ne  doit  dis- 
puter  aux  Juifs  ;  mais  doit  1'omme  lay,  quant  il  oit 
mesdire  d-e  la  foy  chretienne,  defendre  la  chose, 
non  pas  seulement  des  paroles,  mais  a  bonne  espee 
tranchant,  et  en  frapper  les  medisans  et  mescreans 
a  travers  le  corps,  tant  qu'elle  y  pourra  entrer. — 
Joinvilie,  in  Collection  des  Memoires,  tome  i.,  p. 
23.  This  passage,  which  shows  a  tolerable  degree 
of  bigotry,  did  not  require  to  be  strained  farther 
still  by  Mosheim,  vol.  iii.,  p.  273  (edit.  1803).  1 
may  observe  by  the  way,  that  this  writer,  who 
sees  nothing  in  Louis  IX.  except  his  intolerance, 
ought  not  to  have  charged  him  with  issuing  an 
edict  in  favour  of  the  inquisition,  in  1229,  when  he 
had  not  assumed  the  government. 


32 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


mands  of  superstition^  These  pilgrim- 
ages became  more  frequent  in  later  times, 
in  spite,  perhaps  in  consequence,  of  the 
danger  and  hardships  which  attended 
them.  For  a  while  the  Mahometan 
possessors  of  Jerusalem  permitted  or 
even  encouraged  a  devotion  which  they 
found  lucrative ;  but  this  was  interrupted 
whenever  the  ferocious  insolence  with 
which  they  regarded  all  infidels  got  the 
better  of  their  rapacity.  During  the 
eleventh  century,  when,  from  increasing 
superstition,  and  some  particular  fancies, 
the  pilgrims  were  more  numerous  than 
ever,  a  change  took  place  in  the  govern- 
ment of  Palestine,  which  was  overrun 
by  the  Turkish  hordes  from  the  north. 
These  barbarians  treated  the  visiters  of 
Jerusalem  with  still  greater  contumely, 
mingling  with  their  Mahometan  bigotry 
a  consciousness  of  strength  and  cour- 
age, and  a  scorn  of  the  Christians,  whom 
they  knew  only  by  the  debased  natives 
of  Greece  and  Syria,  or  by  these  humble 
and  defenceless  palmers.  When  such 
insults  became  known  throughout  Eu- 
rope, they  excited  a  keen  sensation  of 
resentment  among  nations  equally  cour- 
ageous and  devout ;  which,  though  want- 
ing as  yet  any  definite  means  of  satisfy- 
ing itself,  was  ripe  for  whatever  favoura- 
ble conjuncture  might  arise. 

Twenty  years  before  the  first  crusade, 
Gregory  VII.  had  projected  the  scheme 
of  imbodying  Europe  in  arms  against 
Asia;  a  scheme  worthy  of  his  daring 
mind,  and  which,  perhaps,  was  never  for- 
gotten by  Urban  II.,  who  in  every  thing 
loved  to  imitate  his  great  predecessor.* 
This  design  of  Gregory  was  founded  upon 
the  supplication  of  the  Greek  Emperor 
Michael,  which  was  renewed  by  Alexius 
Comnenus  to  Urban  with  increased  im- 
portunity. The  Turks  had  now  taken 
Nice,  and  threatened,  from  the  opposite 
shore,  the  very  walls  of  Constantinople. 
Every  one  knows  whose  hand  held  a 
torch  to  that  inflammable  mass  of  enthu- 
siasm that  pervaded  Europe  ;  the  hermit 
of  Picardy,  who,  roused  by  witnessed 
wrongs  and  imagined  visions,  journeyed 
from  land  to  land,  the  apostle  of  a  holy 
war.  The  preaching  of  Peter  was  pow- 
erfully seconded  by  Urban.  [A.  D.  1095.] 
In  the  councils  of  Piacenza  and  of  Cler- 


*  Gregory  addressed,  in  1074,  a  sort  of  encyclic 
letter  to  all  who  would  defend  the  Christian  faith, 
enforcing  upon  them  the  duty  of  taking  up  arms 
against  the  Saracens,  who  had  almost  come  up  to 
the  walls  of  Constantinople.  No  mention  of  Pal- 
estine is  made  in  this  letter. — Labbe",  Concilia,  t.  x., 
p.  44.  St.  Marc,  AbrSge  Chron.  de  1'Hist.  de 
i'ltalie,  t.  iii.,  p.  614. 


mont,  the  deliverance  of  Jerusalem  was 
eloquently  recommended  and  exultingly 
undertaken.  It  is  the  will  of  God !  was 
the  tumultuous  cry  that  broke  from  the 
heart  and  lips  of  the  assembly  at  Cler- 
mont ;  and  these  words  afford  at  once 
the  most  obvious  and  most  certain  ex- 
planation of  the  leading  principle  of  the 
crusades.  Later  writers,  incapable  of 
sympathizing  with  the  blind  fervour  of 
zeal,  or  anxious  to  find  a  pretext  for  its 
effect  somewhat  more  congenial  to  the 
spirit  of  our  times,  have  sought  political 
reasons  for  that  which  resulted  only  from 
predominant  affections.  No  suggestion 
of  these  will,  I  believe,  be  found  in  con- 
temporary historians.  To  rescue  the 
Greek  empire  from  its  imminent  peril, 
and  thus  to  secure  Christendom  from 
enemies  who  professed  towards  it  eter- 
nal hostility,  might  have  been  a  legiti- 
mate and  magnanimous  ground  of  interfe- 
rence ;  but  it  operated  scarcely,  or  not  at 
all,  upon  those  who  took  the  cross.  In- 
deed, it  argues  strange  ignorance  of  the 
eleventh  century  to  ascribe  such  refine- 
ments of  later  times  even  to  the  princes 
of  that  age.  The  Turks' were  no  doubt 
repelled  from  the  neighbourhood  of  Con- 
stantinople by  the  crusaders ;  but  this 
was  a  collateral  effect  of  their  enterprise. 
Nor  had  they  any  disposition  to  serve  the 
interest  of  the  Greeks,  whom  they  soon 
came  to  hate,  and  not  entirely  without 
provocation,  with  almost  as  much  ani- 
mosity as  the  Moslems  themselves. 

Every  means  was  used  to  excite  an  ep- 
idemical phrensy ;  the  remission  of  pen- 
ance, the  dispensation  from  those  prac- 
tices of  self-denial  which  superstition  im- 
posed or  suspended  at  pleasure,  the  ab- 
solution of  all  sins,  and  the  assurance  of 
eternal  felicity.  None  doubted  that  such 
as  perished  in  the  war  received  immedi- 
ately the  reward  of  martyrdom.*  False 
miracles  and  fanatical  prophecies,  which 
were  never  so  frequent,  wrought  up  the 
enthusiasm  to  a  still  higher  pitch.  And 
these  devotional  feelings,  which  are  usu- 
ally thwarted  and  balanced  by  other  pas- 
sions, fell  in  with  every  motive  that  could 
influence  the  men  of  that  time  ;  with  cu- 
riosity, restlessness,  the  love  of  license, 
thirst  for  war,  emulation,  ambition.  Of 
the  princes  who  assumed  the  cross,  some, 
probably,  from  the  beginning  speculated 
upon  forming  independent  establishments 
in  the  East.  In  later  periods,  the  tempo 

*  Nam  qui  pro  Christi  nomine  decertantes,  IB 
acie  fidelium  et  Christiana  militia  dicuntur  occum 
bere,  non  solum  infamiae,  verum  et  peccaminum  et 
delictorum  omnimodam  credimus  abolitionem  pro 
mereri.— Will.  Tyr.,  1.  x.,  c.  20. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


33 


ral  benefits  of  undertaking  a  crusade  un- 
doubtedly blended  themselves  with  less 
selfish  considerations.  Men  resorted  to 
Palestine  as  in  modern  times  they  have 
done  to  the  colonies,  in  order  to  redeem 
their  time  or  repair  their  fortune.  Thus 
Gui  de  Lusignan,  after  flying  from  France 
for  murder,  was  ultimately  raised  to  the 
throne  of  Jerusalem.  To  the  more  vul- 
gar class  were  held  out  inducements 
which,  though  absorbed  in  the  overruling 
fanaticism  of  the  first  crusade,  might  be 
exceedingly  efficacious  when  it  began 
rather  to  flag.  During  the  time  that  a 
crusader  bore  the  cross,  he  was  free  from 
suit  for  his  debts,  and  the  interest  of  them 
was  entirely  abolished ;  he  was  exempt- 
ed, in  some  instances  at  least,  from  tax- 
es, and  placed  under  the  protection  of  the 
church,  so  that  he  could  not  be  im- 
pleaded  in  any  civil  court,  except  on 
criminal  charges,  or  disputes  relating  to 
land.* 

None  of  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  took 
a  part  in  the  first  crusade  ;  but  many  of 
their  chief  vassals,  great  part  of  the  in- 
ferior nobility,  and  a  countless  multitude 
of  the  common  people.  The  priests  left 
their  parishes,  and  the  monks  their  cells ; 
and,  though  the  peasantry  were  then  in 
general  bound  to  the  soil,  we  find  no 
check  given  to  their  emigration  for  this 
cause.  Numbers  of  women  and  children 
swelled  the  crowd ;  it  appeared  a  sort  of 
sacrilege  to  repel  any  one  from  a  work 
which  was  considered  as  the  manifest 
design  of  Providence.  But  if  it  were 
lawful  to  interpret  the  will  of  Providence 
by  events,  few  undertakings  have  been 
more  branded  by  its  disapprobation  than 
the  crusades.  So  many  crimes  and  so 
much  misery  have  seldom  been  accumu- 
lated in  so  short  a  space  as  in  the  three 
years  of  the  first  expedition.  We  should 
be  warranted  by  contemporary  writers  in 
stating  the  loss  of  the  Christians  alone 
during  this  period  at  nearly  a  million ; 
but,  at  the  least  computation,  it  must  have 
exceeded  half  that  number,  f  To  engage 
in  the  crusade,  and  to  perish  in  it,  were 
almost  synonymous.  Few  of  those  myr- 
iads who  were  mustered  in  the  plains  of 

*  Otho  of  Frisingen,  c.  35,  has  inserted  a  bull 
of  Eugenius  III.,  in  1146,  containing  some  of  these 
privileges.  Others  are  granted  by  Philip  Augustus 
in  1214. — Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  France,  tome  i. 
See  also  Du  Cange,  voc.  Crucis  Privilegia. 

f  William  of  Tyre  says,  that  at  the  review  be- 
fore Nice  there  were  found  600,000  of  both  sexes, 
exclusive  of  100,000  cavalry  armed  in  mail. — L.  ii., 
c.  23.  But  Fulk  of  Chartres  reckons  the  same 
number,  besides  women,  children,  and  priests.  An 
immense  slaughter  had  previously  been  made  in 
Hungary  of  the  rabble  under  Gaultier  Sans- Avoir. 
C 


Nice  returned  to  gladden  their  friends  in 
Europe  with  the  story  of  their  triumph 
at  Jerusalem.  Besieging  alternately  and 
besieged  in  Antioch,  they  drained  to  the 
lees  the  cup  of  misery:  three  hundred 
thousand  sat  down  before  that  place; 
next  year  there  remained  but  a  sixth  part 
to  pursue  the  enterprise.  But  their  loss- 
es were  least  in  the  field  of  battle ;  the 
intrinsic  superiority  of  European  prow- 
ess was  constantly  displayed ;  the  angel 
of  Asia,  to  apply  the  bold  language  of 
our  poet,  lugh  and  unmatchable,  where 
her  rival  was  not,  became  a  fear ;  and  the 
Christian  lances  bore  all  before  them  in 
their  shock  from  Nice  to  Antioch,  Edes- 
sa  and  Jerusalem.  [A.  D.  1099.]  It  was 
here,  where  their  triumph  was  consum- 
mated, that  it  was  stained  with  the  most 
atrocious  massacre ;  not  limited  to  the 
hour  of  resistance,  but  renewed  deliber- 
ately even  after  that  famous  penitential 
procession  to  the  holy  sepulchre,  which 
might  have  calmed  their  ferocious  dispo- 
sitions, if,  through  the  misguided  enthu- 
siasm of  the  enterprise,  it  had  not  been 
rather  calculated  to  excite  them.* 

The  conquests  obtained  at  such  a  price 
by  the  first  crusade  were  chiefly  com- 
prised in  the  maritime  parts  Latin  con. 
of  Syria.  Except  the  state  of  quests  in 
Edessa  beyond  the  Euphrates,!  Syria- 
which,  in  its  best  days,  extended  over 
great  part  of  Mesopotamia,  the  Latin 
possessions  never  reached  more  than 
a  few  leagues  from  the  sea.  Within 
the  barrier  of  Mount  Libanus,  their  arms 
might  be  feared,  but  their  power  was 
never  established;  and  the  prophet  was 
still  invoked  in  the  mosques  of  Aleppo 
and  Damascus.  The  principality  of  An- 
tioch to  the  north,  the  kingdom  of  Jeru- 
salem, with  its  feudal  dependances  of 
Tripoli  and  Tiberias,  to  the  south,  were 
assigned,  the  one  to  Boemond,  a  brother 
of  Robert  Guiscard,  count  of  Apulia,  the 
other  to  Godfrey  of  Boulogne,!  whose  ex- 


*The  work  of  Mailly,  entitled  L'Esprit  des 
Croisades,  is  deserving  of  considerable  praise  for 
its  diligence  and  impartiality.  It  carries  the  his- 
tory, however,  no  farther  than  the  first  expedition. 
Gibbon's  two  chapters  on  the  crusades,  though  not 
without  inaccuracies,  are  a  brilliant  portion  of  his 
great  work.  The  original  writers  are  chiefly  col- 
lected in  two  folio  volumes,  entitled  Gesta  Dei  per 
Francos.  Hanover,  1611. 

t  Edessa  was  a  little  Christian  principality,  sur- 
rounded by,  and  tributary  to,  the  Turks.  The  in- 
habitants invited  Baldwin,  on  his  progress  in  the 
first  crusade,  and  he  made  no  great  scruple  of  sup- 
planting, the  reigning  prince,  who  indeed  is  repre- 
sented as  a  tyrant  and  usurper.  Esprit  des  Croi- 
sades, t.  iv.,  p.  62.  De  Guignes,  Hist,  des  Huns, 
t.  ii.,  pp.  135-162. 

t  Godfrey  never  took  the  title  of  King  of  Jeru- 
salem, not  choosing,  he  said,  to  wear  a  crown  of 


34 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


traordinary  merit  had  justly  raised  him  to 
a  degree  of  influence  with  the  chief  crusa- 
ders, that  has  been  sometimes  confound- 
ed with  a  legitimate  authority.*  In  the 
course  of  a  few  years,  Tyre,  Ascalon, 
and  the  other  cities  upon  the  seacoast, 
were  subjected  by  the  successors  of 
Godfrey  on  the  throne  of  Jerusalem.  But 
as  their  enemies  had  been  stunned,  not 
killed,  by  the  western  storm,  the  Latins 
were  constantly  molested  by  the  Mahom- 
etans of  Egypt  and  Syria.  They  were 
exposed,  as  the  outposts  of  Christendom, 
with  no  respite  and  few  resources.  [A.  D. 
Second  cru-  1147.]  A  second  crusade,  in 
sade.  which  the  Emperor  Conrad  III. 

and  Louis  VII.  of  France  were  engaged, 
each  with  seventy  thousand  cavalry, 
made  scarce  any  diversion;  and  that 
vast  army  wasted  away  in  the  passage 
of  Natolia.f 

The  decline  of  the  Christian  establish- 
ments in  the  East  is  ascribed  by  William 

Decline  of  °.f  Tvre  to  tlie  extreme  vi- 
the  Latin  ciousness  of  their  manners,  to 
principalities  the  adoption  of  European  arms 
by  the  orientals,  and  to  the 
union  of  the  Mahometan  principalities 
under  a  single  chief.J  Without  denying 
the  operation  of  these  causes,  and  espe- 
cially the  last,  it  is  easy  to  perceive  one 
more  radical  than  all  the  three,  the  in- 
adequacy of  their  means  of  self-defence. 
The  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  guarded 

gold  in  that  city  where  his  Saviour  had  been 
crowned  with  thorns.  Baldwin,  Godfrey's  brother, 
who  succeeded  him  within  two  years,  entitles 
himself,  Rex  Hierusalem,  Latinorum  primus. — 
Will.  Tyr.,  1.  ii.,  c.  12. 

*  The  heroes  of  the  crusade  are  just  like  those 
of  romance.  Godfrey  is  not  only  the  wisest,  but 
the  strongest  man  in  the  army.  Perhaps  Tasso 
has  lost  some  part  of  this  physical  superiority  for 
the  sake  of  contrasting  him  with  the  imaginary 
Rinaldo.  He  cleaves  a  Turk  in  twain  from  the 
shoulder  to  the  haunch.  A  noble  Arab,  after  the 
taking  of  Jerusalem,  requests  him  to  try  his  sword 

rn  a  camel,  when  Godfrey  with  ease  cuts  off 
head.  The  Arab,  suspecting  there  might  be 
something  peculiar  in  the  blade,  desires  him  to  do 
the  same  with  his  sword ;  and  the  hero  obliges 
him  by  demolishing  a  second  camel. — Will.  Tyr.,  1. 
ix.,  c.  22. 

t  Vertot  puts  the  destruction  in  the  second  cru- 
sade at  two  hundred  thousand  men. — Hist,  de 
Malthe,  p.  129  :  and  from  William  of  Tyre's  lan- 
guage, there  seems  no  reason  to  consider  this  an 
exaggeration. — L.  xvi.,  c.  19. 

t  L.  xxi.,  c.  7.  John  of  Vitry  also  mentions  the 
change  of  weapons  by  the  Saracens  in  imitation  of 
the  Latins,  using  the  lances  and  coat  of  mail  in- 
stead of  bows  and  arrows,  c.  92.  But,  according 
to  a  more  ancient  writer,  part  of  Soliman's  (the 
Kilidge  Arslan  of  de  Guignes)  army  in  the  first 
crusade  was  in  armour,  loricis  et  galeis  et  clypeis 
aureis  valde  armati. — Albertus  Aquensis,  1.  ii.,  c. 
27.  I  may  add  to  this  a  testimony  of  another  kind 
not  less  decisive.  In  the  Abbey  of  St.  Denis, 


only,  exclusive  of  European  volunteers, 
by  the  feudal  service  of  eight  hundred 
and  sixty-six  knights,  attended  each  by 
four  archers  on  horseback,  by  a  militia 
of  five  thousand  and  seventy-five  burgh- 
ers, and  by  a  conscription,  in  great  exi- 
gencies, of  the  remaining  population.* 
William  of  Tyre  mentions  an  army  of 
one  thousand  three  hundred  horse  and 
fifteen  thousand  foot  as  the  greatest 
which  had  ever  been  collected,  and  pre- 
dicts the  utmost  success  from  it  if  wise- 
ly conducted-!  This  was  a  little  before 
the  irruption  of  Saladin.  In  the  last 
fatal  battle  Lusignan  seems  to  have  had 
somewhat  a  larger  force.J  Nothing  can 
more  strikingly  evince  the  ascendency 
of  Europe,  than  the  resistance  of  these 
Prankish  acquisitions  in  Syria  during 
nearly  two  hundred  years.  Several  of 
their  victories  over  the  Moslems  were 
obtained  against  such  disparity  of  num- 
bers, that  they  may  be  compared  with 
whatever  is  most  illustrious  in  history 
or  romance. $  These  perhaps  were  less 
due  to  the  descendants  of  the  first  crusa- 
ders, settled  in  the  Holy  Land,||  than  to 
those  volunteers  from  Europe,  whom 
martial  ardour  and  religious  zeal  impel- 
led to  the  service.  It  was  the  penance 
commonly  imposed  upon  men  of  rank 
for  the  most  heinous  crimes,  to  serve  a 
number  of  years  under  the  banner  of  the 
cross.  Thus  a  perpetual  supply  of  war- 
riors was  poured  in  from  Europe ;  and  in 


there  were  ten  pictures  in  stained  glass,  repre- 
senting sieges  and  battles  in  the  first  crusade. 
These  were  made  by  order  of  Suger,  the  minister 
of  Louis  VI.,  and  consequently  in  the  early  part 
of  the  twelfth  century.  In  many  of  them  the 
Turks  are  painted  in  coats  of  mail,  sometimes 
even  in  a  plated  cuiras.  In  others  they  are  quite 
unarmed,  and  in  flowing  robes. — Montfaucon,  Mon- 
umens  de  la  Monarchic  Fran9aise,  t.  i.,  pi.  50. 

*  Gibbon,  c.  98,  note  125.  Jerusalem  itself  was 
very  thinly  inhabited.  For  all  the  heathens,  says 
William  of  Tyre,  had  perished  in  the  massacre 
when  the  city  was  taken  ;  or,  if  any  escaped,  they 
were  not  allowed  to  return :  no  heathen  being 
thought  fit  to  dwell  in  the  holy  city.  Baldwin  in- 
vited some  Arabian  Christians  to  settle  in  it. 

t  £.  xxii.,  c.  27. 

J  A  primo  introitu  Latinorum  in  terrain  sanc- 
tam,  says  John  de  Vitry,  nostri  tot  milites  in  uno 
proelio  congregare  nequiverunt.  Erant  enim  mille 
ducenti  milites  loricati ;  peditum  autem  cum  ar- 
mis,  arcubus  et  balistis  circiter  viginti  millia,  in- 
faustse  expeditioni  interfuisse  dicuntur. — Gesta  Dei 
per  Francos,  p.  1118. 

§  A  brief  summary  of  these  victories  is  given  by 
John  of  Vitry,  c.  93. 

||  Many  of  these  were  of  a  mongrel  extraction, 
descended  from  a  Frank  parent  on  one  side,  and 
Syrian  on  the  other.  These  were  called  Poulains, 
Pullani ;  and  were  looked  upon  as  a  mean,  degen- 
erate race. — Du  Cange ;  Gloss,  v.,  Pullani ;  and 
Observations  sur  Joinville,  in  Collection  des  Me 
moires  relatifs  a  PHistoire  de  France,  t.  ii.,  p.  190 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE 


35 


this  sense,  the  crusades  may  be  said  to 
have  lasted  without  intermission  during 
the  whole  period  of  the  Latin  settle- 
ments. Of  these  defenders,  the  most  re- 
nowned were  the  military  orders  of  the 
Knights  of  the  Temple  and  of  the  Hos- 
pital of  St.  John  ;*  instituted,  the  one  in 
1124,  the  other  in  1118,  for  the  sole  pur- 
pose of  protecting  the  Holy  Land.  The 
Teutonic  order,  established  in  1190,  when 
the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  was  falling, 
soon  diverted  its  schemes  of  holy  war- 
fare to  a  very  different  quarter  of  the 
world.  Large  estates,  as  well  in  Pales- 
tine as  throughout  Europe,  enriched  the 
two  former  institutions ;  but  the  pride, 
rapaciousness,  and  misconduct  of  both, 
especially  of  the  Templars,  seem  to  have 
balanced  the  advantages  derived  from 
their  valour. f  [A.  D.  1187.]  At  length, 
the  famous  Saladin,  usurping  the  throne 
of  a  feeble  dynasty  which  had  reigned  in 
Egypt,  broke  in  upon  the  Christians  of 
Jerusalem;  the  king  and  the  kingdom 
fell  into  his  hands  ;  nothing  remained  but 
a  few  strong  towns  upon  the  seacoast. 

[A.  D.  1189.]  These  misfortunes  rous- 
Thirdcru-  ed  once  more  the  princes  of 
sade.  Europe,  and  the  third  crusade 
was  undertaken  by  three  of  her  sover- 
eigns, the  greatest  in  personal  estima- 
tion as  well  as  dignity;  by  the  Empe- 
ror Frederick  Barbarossa,  Philip  Au- 
gustus of  France,  and  our  own  Richard 
Cceur  de  Lion.  But  this,  like  the  "pre- 
ceding enterprise,  failed  of  permanent  ef- 
fect ;  and  those  feats  of  romantic  prow- 
ess, which  made  the  name  of  Richard 
so  famous  both  in  Europe  and  Asia,J 
proved  only  the  total  inefficacy  of  all 
exertions  in  an  attempt  so  impractica- 
ble. Palestine  was  never  the  scene  of 
another  crusade.  [A.  D.  1204.]  One 
great  armament  was  diverted  to  the  siege 
of  Constantinople;  and  another  [A.  D. 
1218]  wasted  in  fruitless  attempts  upon 
Egypt.  The  Emperor  Frederick  II.  after- 
ward procured  the  restoration  of  Jerusa- 
lem by  the  Saracens  ;  but  the  Christian 

*  The  St.  John  of  Jerusalem  was  neither  the 
Evangelist,  nor  yet  the  Baptist,  but  a  certain  Cyp- 
riot,  surnamed  the  Charitable,  who  had  been  pa- 
triarch of  Alexandria. 

t  See  a  curious  instance  of  the  misconduct  and 
insolence  of  the  Templars,  in  William  of  Tyre,  1. 
xx.,  c.  32.  The  Templars  possessed  nine  thou- 
sand manors,  and  the  knights  of  St.  John  nineteen 
thousand,  in  Europe.  The  latter  were  almost  as 
much  reproached  as  the  Templars  for  their  pride 
and  avarice. — L.  xviii.,  c.  6. 

t  When  a  Turk's  horse  started  at  a  bush,  he 
would  chide  him,  Joinville  says,  with,  Guides  tu 
qu'y  soit  le  roi  Richard  ?  Women  kept  their  chil- 
dren quiet  with  the  threat  of  bringing  Richard  to 
them. 

C2 


princes  of  Syria  were  unable  to  defend 
it,  and  their  possessions  were  gradually 
reduced  to  the  maritime  towns.  Acre, 
the  last  of  these,  was  finally  taken  by 
storm  in  1291 ;  and  its  ruin  closes  the 
history  of  the  Latin  dominion  in  Syria, 
which  Europe  had  already  ceased  to 
protect. 

The  two  last  crusades  were  under- 
taken by  St.  Louis.  [A.  D.  Crusades  of 

1248.]  In  the  first  he  was  at-  st.  Louis. 
tended  by  2800  knights  and  50,000  or- 
dinary troops.*  He  landed  at  Damiet- 
ta  in  Egypt,  for  that  country  was  now 
deemed  the  key  of  the  Holy  Land,  and 
easily  made  himself  master  of  the  city. 
But,  advancing  up  the  country,  he  found 
natural  impediments,  as  well  as  enemies, 
in  his  way ;  the  Turks  assailed  him  with 
Greek  fire,  an  instrument  of  warfare  al- 
most as  surprising  and  terrible  as  gun- 
powder ;  he  lost  his  brother,  the  Count  of 
Artois,  with  many  knights,  at  Massoura, 
near  Cairo ;  and  began  too  late  a  retreat 
towards  Damietta.  Such  calamities  now 
fell  upon  this  devoted  army,  as  have 
scarce  ever  been  surpassed ;  hunger  and 
want  of  every  kind,  aggravated  by  an  un- 
sparing pestilence.  At  length  the  king 
was  made  prisoner,  and  very  few  of  the 
army  escaped  the  Turkish  cimeter  in 
battle  or  in  captivity.  Four  hundred 
thousand  livres  were  paid  as  a  ransom 
for  Louis.  He  returned  to  France,  and 
passed  near  twenty  years  in  the  exercise 
of  those  virtues  which  are  his  best  title 
to  canonization.  But  the  fatal  illusions 
of  superstition  were  still  always  at  his 
heart ;  nor  did  it  fail  to  be  painfully  ob- 
served by  his  subjects,  that  he  still  kept 
the  cross  upon  his  garment.  [A.  D.  1270.] 
His  last  expedition  was  originally  design- 
ed for  Jerusalem.  But  he  had  received 
some  intimation  that  the  King  of  Tunis 
was  desirous  of  embracing  Christianity. 
That  these  intentions  might  be  carried 
into  effect,  he  sailed  out  of  his  way  to 
the  coast  of  Africa,  and  laid  siege  to  that 
city.  A  fever  here  put  an  end  to  his  life, 
sacrificed  to  that  ruling  passion  which 
never  would  have  forsaken  him.  But  he 
had  survived  the  spirit  of  the  crusades ; 
the  disastrous  expedition  to  Egypt  had 
cured  his  subjects,  though  not  himself,  of 
their  folly  ;f  his  son,  after  making  terms 

*The  Arabian  writers  give  him  9500  knights, 
and  130,000  common  soldiers.  But  I  greatly  pre- 
fer the  authority  of  Joinville,  who  has  twice  men- 
tioned the  number  of  knights  in  the  text.  On  Gib- 
bon's authority,  I  put  the  main  body  at  50,000  ;  but 
if  Joinville  has  stated  this,  I  have  missed  the  pas- 
sage. Their  vessels  amounted  to  1800. 

t  The  refusal  of  Joinville  to  accompany  the  king 


36 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


with  Tunis,  returned  to  France;  the 
Christians  were  suffered  to  lose  what 
they  still  retained  in  the  Holy  Land ;  and 
though  many  princes  in  subsequent  ages 
talked  loudly  of  renewing  the  war,  the 
promise,  if  it  were  ever  sincere,  was  nev- 
er accomplished. 

[A.  D.  1270.]  Louis  IX.  had  increased 
the  royal  domain  by  the  an- 
hihp  m.  nexation  of  several  counties  and 
other  less  important  fiefs ;  but,  soon  af- 
ter the  accession  of  Philip  III.  (sur- 
named  the  Bold),  it  received  a  far  more 
considerable  augmentation.  Alfonso,  the 
late  king's  brother,  had  been  invested  with 
the  county  of  Poitou,  ceded  by  Henry 
III.,  together  with  part  of  Auvergne  and 
of  Saintonge ;  and  held  also,  as  has  been 
said  before,  the  remains  of  the  great  fief 
of  Toulouse,  in  right  of  his  wife  Jane, 
heiress  of  Raymond  VII.  [A.  D.  1271.] 
Upon  his  death,  and  that  of  his  countess, 
which  happened  about  the  same  time, 
the  king  entered  into  possession  of  all 
these  territories.  This  acquisition  brought 
the  sovereigns  of  France  into  contact 
with  new  neighbours,  the  kings  of  Aragon 
and  the  powers  of  Italy.  [A.  D.  1285.] 
The  first  great  and  lasting  foreign  war 
which  they  carried  on  was  that  of  Phil- 
ip III.  and  Philip  IV.  against  the  former 
kingdom,  excited  by  the  insurrection  of 
Sicily.  Though  effecting  no  change  in 
the  boundaries  of  their  dominions,  this 
war  may  be  deemed  a  sort  of  epoch  in 
the  history  of  France  and  Spain,  as  well 
as  in  that  of  Italy,  to  which  it  more  pe- 
culiarly belongs. 

There  still  remained  five  great  and 
ancient  fiefs  of  the  French  crown; 
Philip  the  Champagne,  Guienne,  Flanders, 
Fair.  Burgundy,  and  Britany.  [A.  D. 
1285.]  But  Philip  IV.,  usually  called  the 
Fair,  married  the  heiress  of  the  first,  a 
little  before  his  father's  death;  and,  al- 

in  this  second  crusade  is  very  memorable,  and  gives 
us  an  insight  into  the  bad  effects  of  both  expedi- 
tions. Le  Roy  de  France  et  le  Roy  de  Navarre 
me  pressoient  fort  de  me  croiser,  et  entreprendre 
le  chemin  du  pelerinage  de  la  croix.  Mais  je  leur 
respondi,  que  tandis  que  j'avoie  este  oultre-mer  au 
service  de  Dieu,  que  les  gens  et  officers  du  Roy  de 
France,  avoient  trop  greve  et  foulle  mes  subjets, 
tant  qu'ils  en  estoient  apovris ;  tellement  que  james 
il  ne  seroit,  que  eulx  et  moy  ne  nous  en  sortissons. 
Et  veoie  clerement,  si  je  me  mectoie  au  pelerinage 
de  la  croix,  que  ce  seroit  la  totale  destruction  de 
mesdiz  povres  subjets.  Depuis  ouy-je  dire  a  plu- 
sieurs,  que  ceux  qui  luy  conseillerent  1'enterprinse 
de  la  croix,  firent  un  trez  grant  mal,  et  peche- 
rent  mor tellement.  Car  tandis  qu'il  fust  au  roy- 
aume  de  France,  tout  son  royaume  vivoit  en  paix, 
et  regnoit  justice.  Et  incontinent  qu'il  en  fust 
ors,  tout  commenqa  a  decliner,  et  a  empirer. — T.  ii., 
p.  158. 
In  the  Fabliaux  of  Le  Grand  d'Aussy,  we  have 


though  he  governed  that  county  in  her 
name,  without  pretending  to  reunite  it 
to  the  royal  domain,  it  was  at  least,  in 
a  political  sense,  no  longer  a  part  of 
the  feudal  body.  With  some  of  his 
other  vassals  Philip  used  more  violent 
methods.  A  parallel  might  be  drawn 
between  this  prince  and  Philip  Augus- 
tus. But  while  in  ambition,  violence 
of  temper,  and  unprincipled  rapacity, 
as  well  as  in  the  success  of  their  at- 
tempts to  establish  an  abso- 
lute authority,  they  may  be 
considered  as  nearly  equal,  Frenchmen. 
we  may  remark  this  differ-  ^J"^61- 
ence,  that  Philip  the  Fair,  who 
was  destitute  of  military  talents,  gain- 
ed those  ends  by  dissimulation  which 
his  predecessor  had  reached  by  force. 

The  dutchy  of  Guienne,  though  some- 
what abridged  of  its  original  extent,  was 
still  by  far  the  most  considerable  of  the 
French  fiefs ;  even  independently  of  its 
connexion  with  England.*  Philip,  by 
dint  of  perfidy,  and  by  the  egregious  in- 
capacity of  Edmund,  brother  of  Edward 
I.,  contrived  to  obtain,  and  to  keep  for 
several  years,  the  possession  of  this  great 
province.  [A.  D.  1292.]  A  quarrel  among 
some  French  and  English  sailors  having 
provoked  retaliation,  till  a  sort  of  pirati- 
cal war  commenced  between  the  two 
countries,  Edward,  as  Duke  of  Guienne, 
was  summoned  into  the  king's  court  to 
answer  for  the  trespasses  of  his  subjects. 
Upon  this  he  despatched  his  brother  to 
settle  terms  of  reconciliation,  with  fuller 
powers  than  should  have  been  intrusted 
to  so  credulous  a  negotiator.  Philip  so 
outwitted  this  prince,  through  a  fictitious 
treaty,  as  to  procure  from  him  the  surren- 
der of  all  the  fortresses  in  Guienne.  He 
then  threw  off  the  mask,  and  after  again 


a  neat  poem  by  Rutuboeuf,  a  writer  of  St.  Louis's 
age,  in  a  dialogue  between  a  crusader  and  a  non- 
crusader,  wherein,  though  he  gives  the  last  word 
to  the  former,  it  is  plain  that  he  designed  the  oppo- 
site scale  to  preponderate. — T.  ii.,  p.  163. 

*  Philip  was  highly  offended  that  instruments 
made  in  Guienne  should  be  dated  by  the  year  of 
Edward's  reign,  and  not  of  his  own.  This  almost 
sole  badge  of  sovereignty  had  been  preserved  by 
the  kings  of  France  during  all  the  feudal  ages.  A 
struggle  took  place  about  it,  which  is  recorded  in 
a  curious  letter  from  John  de  Greilli  to  Edward. 
The  French  court  at  last  consented  to  let  dates  be 
thus  expressed: — Actum  fuit,  regnante  P.  rege 
Francis,  E.  rege  Angliae  tenente  ducatum  Aquita- 
niae.  Several  precedents  were  shown  by  the  Eng- 
lish, where  the  counts  of  Toulouse  had  used  the 
form,  Regnante  A.  comite  Tolosae. — Rymer,  t.  ii., 
p.  1083.  As  this  is  the  first  time  that  1  quote  Ry- 
mer, it  may  be  proper  to  observe  that  my  referen- 
ces are  to  the  London  edition,  the  paging  of  which 
is  preserved  on  the  margin  of  that  printed  at  the 
Hague. 


PART  I.] 


FRANCE. 


37 


summoning  Edward  to  appear,  pronoun- 
ced the  confiscation  of  his  fief.*  This 
business  is  the  greatest  blemish  in  the 
political  character  of  Edward.  But  his 
eagerness  about  the  acquisition  of  Scot- 
land rendered  him  less  sensible  to  the 
danger  of  a  possession  in  many  respects 
more  valuable  ;  and  the  spirit  of  resist- 
ance among  the  English  nobility,  which 
his  arbitrary  measures  had  provoked, 
broke  out  very  opportunely  for  Philip  [A. 
D.  1303],  to  thwart  every  effort  for  the 
recovery  of  Guienne  by  arms.  But  after 
repeated  suspensions  of  hostilities,  a  trea- 
ty was  finally  concluded,  by  which  Phil- 
ip restored  the  province,  on  the  agree- 
ment of  a  marriage  between  his  daughter 
Isabel  and  the  heir  of  England. 

To  this  restitution  he  was  chiefly  in- 
duced by  the  ill  success  that  attended  his 
arms  in  Flanders,  another  of  the  great 
fiefs  which  this  ambitious  monarch  had 
endeavoured  to  confiscate.  We  have  not 
perhaps  as  clear  evidence  of  the  original 
injustice  of  his  proceedings  towards  the 
Count  of  Flanders  as  in  the  case  of  Gui- 
enne ;  but  he  certainly  twice  detained  his 
person,  once  after  drawing  him  on  some 
pretext  to  his  court,  and  again,  in  viola- 
tion of  the  faith  pledged  by  his  generals. 
The  Flemings  made,  however,  so  vigor- 
ous a  resistance,  that  Philip  was  unable  to 
reduce  that  small  country  [A.  D.  1302] ; 
and  in  one  famous  battle  at  Courtray,  they 
discomfited  a  powerful  army  with  that 
utter  loss  and  ignominy  to  which  the  un- 
disciplined impetuosity  of  the  French 
nobles  was  pre-eminently  exposed,  f 

Two  other  acquisitions  of  Philip  the 
Fair  deserve  notice  ;  that  of  the  counties 
of  Angouleme  and  la  Marche,  upon  a  sen- 
tence of  forfeiture  (and,  as  it  seems,  a 
very  harsh  one)  passed  against  the  reign- 
ing count ;  and  that  of  the  city  of  Lyons 
and  its  adjacent  territory,  which  had  not 
even  feudally  been  subject  to  the  crown 
of  France  for  more  than  three  hundred 
years.  Lyons  was  the  dowry  of  Matilda, 
daughter  of  Louis  IV.,  on  her  marriage 
with  Conrad,  king  of  Burgundy,  and  was 
bequeathed  with  the  rest  of  that  kingdom 
by  Rodolph,  in  1032,  to  the  empire.  Fred- 
erick Barbarossa  conferred  upon  the  arch- 
bishop of  Lyons  all  regalian  rights  over 


*  In  the  view  I  have  taken  of  this  transaction,  I 
have  been  guided  by  several  instruments  in  Ry- 
mer,  which  leave  no  doubt  on  my  mind.  Velly,  of 
course,  represents  the  matter  more  favourably  for 
Philip. 

t  The  Flemings  took  at  Courtray  4000  pair  of 
gilt  spurs,  which  were  only  worn  by  knights. 
These  Velly,  happily  enough,  compares  to  Hanni- 
bal's three  bushels  of  gold  rings  at  C  annas. 


the  city,  with  the  title  of  Imperial  Vicar. 
France  seems  to  have  had  no  concern 
with  it,  till  St.  Louis  was  called  in  as  a 
mediator  in  disputes  between  the  chapter 
and  the  city,  during  a  vacancy  of  the  see, 
and  took  the  exercise  of  jurisdiction  upon 
himself  for  the  time.  Philip  III.  having 
been  chosen  arbitrator  in  similar  circum- 
stances, insisted,  before  he  would  restore 
the  jurisdiction,  upon  an  oath  of  fealty 
from  the  new  archbishop.  This  oath, 
which  could  be  demanded,  it  seems,  by 
no  right  but  that  of  force,  continued  to  be 
taken,  till,  in  1310,  an  archbishop  resist- 
ing what  he  had  thought  a  usurpation,  the 
city  was  besieged  by  Philip  IV.,  and  the 
inhabitants  not  being  unwilling  to  submit, 
was  finally  united  to  the  French  crown.* 
Philip  the  Fair  left  three  sons,  who 
successively  reigned  in  France;  Louis x. 
Louis,  surnamed  Hutin,  Philip  the  1314- 
Long,  and  Charles  the  Fair;  with  a 
daughter,  Isabel,  married  to  Edward  II. 
of  England.  Louis,  the  eldest,  survived 
his  father  little  more  than  a  year,  leav- 
ing one  daughter,  and  his  queen  preg- 
nant. The  circumstances  that  ensued 
require  to  be  accurately  sta-  Question  of 
ted.  Louis  had  possessed,  in  saiique-iaw. 
right  of  his  mother,  the  king-  j^'P  v- 
dom  of  Navarre,  with  the  coun-  ; 
ties  of  Champagne  and  Brie.  Upon  his 
death,  Philip,  his  next  brother,  assumed 
the  regency  both  of  France  and  Na- 
varre; and,  not  long  afterward,  entered 
into  a  treaty  with  Eudes,  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, uncle  of  the  princess  Jane,  Louis's 
daughter,  by  which  her  eventful  rights  to 
the  succession  were  to  be  regulated.  It 
was  agreed  that,  in  case  the  queen  should 
be  delivered  of  a  daughter,  these  two 
princesses,  or  the  surviver  of  them, 
should  take,  the  grandmother's  inherit- 
ance, Navarre  and  Champagne,  on  re- 
leasing all  claim  to  the  throne  of  France. 
But  this  was  not  to  take  place  till  th&r 
age  of  consent,  when,  if  they  should  re- 
fuse to  make  such  renunciation,  their 
claim  was  to  remain,  and  right  to  be  done 
to  them  therein ;  but,  in  return,  the  release 
made  by  Philip  of  Navarre  and  Cham- 
pagne was  to  be  null.  In  the  meantime 
he  was  to  hold  the  government  of  France, 
Navarre,  and  Champagne,  receiving  hom- 
age of  vassals  in  all  these  countries  as 
governor ;  saving  the  right  of  a  male  heir 
to  the  late  king,  in  the  event  of  whose 
birth  the  treaty  was  not  to  take  effect.f 


*  Velly,  t.  vii.,  p.  404.  For  a  more  precise  ac- 
count of  the  political  dependance  of  Lyons  and  its 
district,  see  1'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,  t.  ii.,  p.  469. 

t  Hist,  de  Charles  le  Mauvais,  par  Secousse, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  2. 


38 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   I. 


This  convention  was  made  on  the  17th  of 
July,  1316 ;  and  on  the  15th  of  November 
the  queen  brought  into  the  world  a  son, 
John  I.  (as  some  called  him),  who  died  in 
four  days.  The  conditional  treaty  was 
now  become  absolute ;  in  spirit,  at  least, 
if  any  cavil  might  be  raised  about  the  ex- 
pression ;  and  Philip  was,  by  his  own 
agreement,  precluded  from  taking  any 
other  title  than  that  of  regent  or  govern- 
or, until  the  princess  Jane  should  attain 
the  age  to  concur  in  or  disclaim  the  pro- 
visional contract  of  her  uncle.  Instead 
of  this,  however,  he  procured  himself  to 
be  consecrated  at  Rheims ;  though,  on 
account  of  the  avowed  opposition  of  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  and  even  of  his  own 
brother  Charles,  it  was  thought  prudent 
to  shut  the  gates  during  the  ceremony, 
and  to  dispose  guards  throughout  the 
town.  Upon  his  return  to  Paris,  an  as- 
sembly,  composed  of  prelates, 
barons,  and  burgesses  of  that 
city,  was  convened,  who  acknowledged 
him  as  their  lawful  sovereign,  and,  if  we 
may  believe  an  historian,  expressly  de- 
clared, that  a  woman  was  incapable  of 
succeeding  to  the  crown  of  France.* 
The  Duke  of  Burgundy,  however,  made 
a  show  of  supporting  his  niece's  interests, 
till,  tempted  by  the  prospect  of  a  marriage 
with  the  daughter  of  Philip,  he  shamefully 
betrayed  her  cause,  and  gave  up  in  her 
name,  for  an  inconsiderable  pension,  not 
only  her  disputed  claim  to  the  whole 
monarchy,  but  her  unquestionable  right 
to  Navarre  and  Champagne. f  I  have 
been  rather  minute  in  stating  these  de- 
tails, because  the  transaction  is  misrepre- 
sented by  every  historian,  not  excepting 
those  who  have  written  since  the  publica- 
tion of  the  documents  which  illustrate  it.  J 

In  this  contest,  every  way  memorable, 
but  especially  on  account  of  that  which 
sprung  out  of  it,  the  exclusion  of  females 
from  the  throne  of  France  was  first  pub- 
licly discussed.  The  French  writers 
almost  unanimously  concur  in  asserting, 

*  Tune  etiam  declaratum  fuit,  quod  in  regno 
Francia  mulier  non  succedit. — Contin.  Gill.  Nan- 
gis,  in  Spicilegio  d'Achery,  tome  hi.  This  monk, 
without  talents,  and  probably  without  private  infor- 
mation, is  the  sole  contemporary  historian  of  this 
important  period.  He  describes  the  assembly 
which  confirmed  Philip's  possession  of  the  crown ; 
quamplures  proceres  et  regni  nobiles  ac  magnates 
una  cum  plerisque  praelatis  et  burgensibus  Parisi- 
ensis  civitatis. 

t  Hist,  ue  Charles  le  Mauvais,  t.  ii.,p.  6.  Jane 
and  her  husband,  the  Count  of  Evreux,  recovered 
Navarre  after  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fair. 

J  Velly,  who  gives  several  proofs  of  disingenu- 
ousness  in  this  part  of  history,  mutilates  the  treaty 
of  the  17th  of  July,  1316,  in  order  to  conceal  Philip 
the  Long's  breach  of  faith  towards  his  nieee. 


that  such  an  exclusion  was  built  upon  a 
fundamental  maxim  of  their  government. 
No  written  law,  nor  even,  so  far  as  I 
know,  the  direct  testimony  of  any  an- 
cient writer,  has  been  brought  forward  to 
confirm  this  position.  For  as  to  the  text 
of  the  Salique-law,  which  was  frequently 
quoted,  and  has  indeed  given  a  name  to 
this  exclusion  of  females,  it  can  only  by 
a  doubtful  and  refined  analogy  be  con- 
sidered as  bearing  any  relation  to  the 
succession  of  the  crown.  It  is  certain, 
nevertheless,  that,  from  the  time  of 
Clovis,  no  woman  had  ever  reigned  in 
France ;  and  although  not  an  instance  of 
a  sole  heiress  had  occurred  before,  yet 
some  of  the  Merovingian  kings  left 
daughters,  who  might,  if  not  rendered 
incapable  by  their  sex,  have  shared  with 
their  brothers  in  partitions  then  com- 
monly made.*  But,  on  the  other  hand, 
these  times  were  gone  quite  out  of 
memory,  and  France  had  much  in  the 
analogy  of  her  existing  usages  to  recon- 
cile her  to  a  female  reign.  The  crown 
resembled  a  great  fief;  and  the  great  fiefs 
were  universally  capable  of  descending 
to  women.  Even  at  the  consecration  of 
Philip  himself,  Maud,  countess  of  Artois, 
held  the  crown  over  his  head  among  the 
other  peers. f  And  it  was  scarcely  be- 
yond the  recollection  of  persons  living, 
that  Blanche  had  been  legitimate  regent 
of  France  during  the  minority  of  St. 
Louis. 

For  these  reasons,  and  much  more  from 
the  provisional  treaty  concluded  between 
Philip  and  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  it  may 
be  fairly  inferred,  that  the  Salique-law,  as 
it  was  called,  was  not  so  fixed  a  principle 
at  that  time  as  has  been  contended.  But, 
however  this  may  be,  it  received  at  the 
accession  of  Philip  the  Long  a  sanction 
which  subsequent  events  more  thorough- 
ly confirmed.  Philip  himself  leaving  only 


*  The  treaty  of  Andely,  in  587,  will  be  found  to 
afford  a  very  strong  presumption  that  females  were 
at  that  time  excluded  from  reigning  in  France. 
— Greg.  Turon.,  1.  ix. 

t  The  continuator  of  Nangis  says  indeed  of  this  : 
de  quo  aliqui  indignati  fuerunt.  But  these  were 
probably  the  partisans  of  her  nephew  Robert,  who 
had  been  excluded  by  a  judicial  sentence  of  Philip 
IV.,  on  the  ground  that  the  right  of  representation 
did  not  take  place  in  Artois ;  a  decision  considered 
by  many  as  unjust.  Robert  subsequently  renewed 
his  appeal  to  the  court  of  Philip  of  Valois :  but,  un- 
happily for  himself,  yielded  to  the  temptation  of 
forging  documents  in  support  of  a  claim  which 
seems  to  have  been  at  least  plausible  without  such 
aid.  This  unwise  dishonesty,  which  is  not  without 
parallel  in  more  private  causes,  not  only  ruined  his 
pretensions  to  the  county  of  Artois,  but  produced 
a  sentence  of  forfeiture,  and  even  of  capital  punish- 
ment, against  himself. — See  a  pretty  good  account 
of  Robert's  process  in  Velly,  t.  viii.,  p.  262. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


39 


.  three  daughters,  his  brother 
IV-  Charles  mounted  the  throne 
[A.  D.  1322] ;  and  upon  his  death,  the  rule 
was  so  unquestionably  established,  that 
his  only  daughter  was  excluded  by  the 
Philip  of  Count  of  Valois,  grandson  of 
Valois.  philip  the  Bold.  [A.  D.  1328.] 
This  prince  first  took  the  regency,  the 
queen  dowager  being  pregnant,  and,  up- 
on her  giving  birth  to  a  daughter,  was 
crowned  king.  No  competitor  or  op- 
ponent appeared  in  France ;  but  one 
more  formidable  than  any  whom  France 
could  have  produced,  was  awaiting  the 
occasion  to  prosecute  his  imagined  right 
with  all  the  resources  of  valour  and 
genius,  and  to  carry  desolation  over  that 
great  kingdom  with  as  little  scruple  as  if 
he  was  preferring  a  suit  before  a  civil  tri- 
bunal. 

From  the  moment  of  Charles  IV.'s 
Claim  *f  death,  Edward  IIL  "  of  Eng- 
Edwardin.  jan<j  buoyed  himself  up  with 
a  notion  of  his  title  to  the  crown  of 
France,  in  right  of  his  mother,  Isabel, 
sister  to  the  three  last  kings.  We  can 
have  no  hesitation  in  condemning  the  in- 
justice of  this  pretension.  Whether  the 
Salique-law  were  or  were  not  valid,  no 
advantage  could  be  gained  by  Edward. 
Even  if  we  could  forget  the  express  or 
tacit  decision  of  all  France,  there  stood 
in  his  way  Jane,  the  daughter  of  Louis 
X.,  three  of  Philip  the  Long,  and  one  of 
Charles  the  Fair.  Aware  of  this,  Edward 
set  up  a  distinction,  that,  although  females 
were  excluded  from  succession,  the  same 
rule  did  not  apply  to  their  male  issue ;  and 
thus,  though  his  mother  Isabel  could  not 
herself  become  Queen  of  France,  she 
might  transmit  a  title  to  him.  But  this 
was  contrary  to  the  commonest  rules  of 
inheritance :  and  if  it  could  have  been  re- 
garded at  all,  Jane  had  a  son,  afterward 
the  famous  King  of  Navarre,  who  stood 
one  degree  nearer  to  the  crown  than  Ed- 
ward. 

It  is  asserted  in  some  French  authori- 
ties, that  Edward  preferred  a  claim  to  the 
regency  immediately  after  the  decease 
of  Charles  the  Fair,  and  that  the  States 
General,  or  at  least  the  peers  of  France, 
adjudged  that  dignity  to  Philip  de  Valois. 
Whether  this  be  true  or  not,  it  is  clear 
that  he  entertained  projects  of  recovering 
his  right  as  early,  though  his  youth  and 
the  embarrassed  circumstances  of  his 
government  threw  insuperable  obstacles 
in  the  way  of  their  execution.*  He  did 

*  Letters  of  Edward  III.,  addressed  to  certain 
nobles  and  towns  in  the  south  of  France,  dated 
March  28,  1328,  four  days  before  the  birth  of 
Charles  IV.'s  posthumous  daughter,  intimate  this 


liege  homage  therefore  to  Philip  for 
Guienne,  and  for  several  years,  while  the 
affairs  of  Scotland  engrossed  his  atten- 
tion, gave  no  sign  of  meditating  a  more 
magnificent  enterprise.  As  he  advanced 
in  manhood,  and  felt  the  consciousness 
of  his  strength,  his  early  designs  grew 
mature,  and  produced  a  series  of  the  most 
important  and  interesting  revolutions  in 
the  fortunes  of  France.  These  will  form 
the  subject  of  the  ensuing  pages. 


PART  II. 

War  of  Edward  III.  in  France.  —  Causes  of  his 
Success.— Civil  Disturbances  of  France. — Peace 
of  Bretigni  —  its  Interpretation  considered. — 


resolution. — Rymer,  vol.  iv.,  p.  344,  et  seq.  But  an 
instrument,  dated  at  Northampton,  on  the  16th  of 
May,  is  decisive :  This  is  a  procuration  to  the  bish- 
ops of  Worcester  and  Litchfield,  to  demand  and 
take  possession  of  the  kingdom  of  France,  "in  our 
name,  which  kingdom  has  devolved  and  appertains 
to  us  as  to  the  right  heir." — P.  354.  To  this  mis- 
sion Archbishop  Stratford  refers,  in  his  vindication 
of  himself  from  Edward's  accusation  of  treason  in 
1340;  and  informs  us  that  the  two  bishops  actually 
proceeded  to  France,  though  without  mentioning 
any  further  particulars.  Novit  enim  qui  nihil  igno- 
rat,  quod  cum  quaestio  de  regno  Franciae  post  mor- 
tem regis  Caroli,  fratris  serenissimae  matris  vestrae, 
in  parliaments  tune  apud  Northampton  celebrate, 
tractata  discussaque  fuisset ;  quodque  idem  regnum 
Franciae  ad  vos  hasreditario  jure  extiterat  legitime 
devolutum ;  et  super  hoc  fuit  ordinatum,  quod,  duo 
episcopi,  Wigorniensis  tune,  mine  autern  Wintom- 
ensis,  ac  Coventriensis  et  Lichfeldensis  in  Fran- 
ciam  dirigerent  gressus  suos,  nomineque  vestro 
regnum  Franciae  vindicarent  et  prsedicti  Philippi 
de  Valesio  eoronationem  pro  viribus  impedirent ; 
qui  juxta  ordinationem  praedictam  legationem  iis 
injunctam  tune  assumentes,  gressus  suos  versus 
Franciam  direxerunt ;  quse  quidem  legatio  maxim- 
am  guerrae  praesentis  materiam  ministravit.— Wil- 
kins. — Concilia,  t.  i.,  p.  664. 

There  is  no  evidence  in  Rymer's  Foedera  to  cor- 
roborate Edward's  supposed  claim  to  the  regency 
of  France  upon  the  death  of  Charles  IV. ;  and  it  is 
certainly  suspicious,  that  no  appointment  of  am- 
bassadors or  procurators  for  this  purpose  should 
appear  in  so  complete  a  collection  of  documents. 
The  French  historians  generally  assert  this,  upon 
the  authority  of  the  continuator  of  William  of  Nan- 
gis,  a  nearly  contemporary,  but  not  always  well- 
informed  writer.  It  is  curious  to  compare  the  four 
chief  English  historians.  Rapin  affirms  both  the 
claim  to  the  regency,  on  Charles  IV.'s  death,  and 
that  to  the  kingdom,  after  the  birth  of  his  daugh- 
ter. Carte,  the  most  exact  historian  we  have, 
mentions  the  latter,  and  is  silent  as  to  the  former. 
Hume  passes  over  both,  and  intimates  that  Ed- 
ward did  not  take  any  steps  in  support  of  his  pre- 
tensions in  1328.  Henry  gives  the  supposed  trial 
of  Edward's  claim  to  the  regency  before  the  States 
General  at  great  length,  and  makes  no  allusion  to 
the  other,  so  indisputably  authenticated  in  Rymer. 
It  is,  I  think,  most  probable,  that  the  two  bishops 
never  made  the  formal  demand  of  the  throne  as 
they  were  directed  by  their  instructions.  Strat- 
ford's expressions  seem  to  imply  that  they  .did  jiot.. 


40 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


Charles  V.— Renewal  of  the  War.— Charles  VI. 
— his  Minority  and  Insanity. — Civil  Dissensions 
of  the  Parties  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy. — Assas- 
sination of  both  these  Princes. — Intrigues  of 
their  Parties  with  England  under  Henry  IV. — 
Henry  V.  invades  France. — Treaty  of  Troyes. — 
State  of  France  in  the  first  Years  of  Charles  VII. 
— Progress  and  subsequent  Decline  of  the  Eng- 
lish Arms  —  their  Expulsion  from  France.  — 
Change  in  the  Political  Constitution.— Louis  XI. 
—his  Character.— Leagues  formed  against  him. 
—Charles,  Duke  of  Burgundy— his  Prosperity 
and  Fall.— Louis  obtains  Possession  of  Burgun- 
dy— his  Death. — Charles  VIII. — Acquisition  of 
Britany. 

No  war  had  broken  out  in  Europe*  since 
War  of  Ed-  t^ie  ^  °^  ^e  Roman  Empire, 

ward  III.  in  SO  memorable  as  that  of  Ed- 
France,  ward  III.  and  his  successors 
against  France,  whether  we  consider  its 
duration,  its  object,  or  the  magnitude  and 
variety  of  its  events.  It  was  a  strug- 
gle of  one  hundred  and  twenty  years, 
interrupted  but  once  by  a  regular  paci- 
fication, where  the  most  ancient  and  ex- 
tensive dominion  in  the  civilized  world 
was  the  prize,  twice  lost  and  twice  re- 
covered in  the  conflict,  while  individual 
courage  was  wrought  up  to  that  high 
pitch  which  it  can  seldom  display  since 
the  regularity  of  modern  tactics  has  chas- 
tised its  enthusiasm,  and  levelled  its  dis- 
tinctions. There  can  be  no  occasion  to 
dwell  upon  the  events  of  this  war,  which 
are  familiar  to  almost  every  reader ;  it  is 
rather  my  aim  to  develop  and  arrange 
those  circumstances  which,  when  rightly 
understood,  give  the  clew  to  its  various 
changes  of  fortune. 

France  was,  even  in  the  fourteenth 
Causes  of  his  century,  a  kingdom  of  such 
extent  and  compactness  of 
figure,  such  population  and  resources, 
and  filled  with  so  spirited  a  nobility, 
that  the  very  idea  of  subjugating  it  by 
a  foreign  force  must  have  seemed  the 
most  extravagant  dream  of  ambition.* 
Yet,  in  the  course  of  about  twenty  years 
of  war,  this  mighty  nation  was  reduced 
to  the  lowest  state  of  exhaustion,  and  dis- 
membered of  considerable  provinces  by 
an  ignominious  peace.  What  was  the 

*  The  pope  (Benedict  XII.)  wrote  a  strong  letter 
to  Edward  (March,  1340),  dissuading  him  from  ta- 
king the  title  and  arms  of  France,  and  pointing  out 
the  impossibility  of  his  ever  succeeding.  I  have 
no  doubt  but  that  this  was  the  'common  opinion. 
But  the  Avignon  popes  were  very  subservient  to 
France.  Clement  VI.,  as  well  as  his  predecessor, 
Benedict  XII.,  threatened  Edward  with  spiritual 
arms.— Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  88  and  465.  It  required  Ed- 
ward's spirit  and  steadiness  to  despise  these  men- 
aces. But  the  time  when  they  were  terrible  to 
princes  was  rather  passed  by ;  and  the  Holy  See 
never  ventured  to  provoke  the  king,  who  treated 
the  church,  throughout  his  reign,  with  admirable 
firmness  and  temper. 


combination  of  political  causes  which 
brought  about  so  strange  a  revolution, 
and,  though  not  realizing  Edward's  hopes 
to  their  extent,  redeemed  them  from  the 
imputation  of  rashness  in  the  judgment 
of  his  own  and  succeeding  ages  ] 
The  first  advantage  which  Edward 

III.  possessed  in  this   contest,   character  of 

was  derived  from  the  splen-  Edward  in. 
dour  of  his  personal  charac-  and  his  son. 
ter,  and  from  the  still  more  eminent  vir- 
tues of  his  son.  Besides  prudence  and 
military  skill,  these  great  princes  were 
endowed  with  qualities  peculiarly  fitted 
for  the  times  in  which  they  lived.  Chiv- 
alry was  then  in  its  zenith ;  and  in  all  the 
virtues  which  adorned  the  knightly  char- 
acter, in  courtesy,  munificence,  gallantry, 
in  all  delicate  and  magnanimous  feelings, 
none  were  so  conspicuous  as  Edward  III. 
and  the  Black  Prince.  As  later  princes 
have  boasted  of  being  the  best  gentle- 
men, they  might  claim  to  be  the  prowest 
knights  in  Europe ;  a  character  not  quite 
dissimilar,  yet  of  more  high  pretension. 
Their  court  was,  as  it  were,  the  sun  of 
that  system  which  embraced  the  valour 
and  nobility  of  the  Christian  world ;  and 
the  respect  which  was  felt  for  their  ex- 
cellences, while  it  drew  many  to  their 
side,  mitigated  in  all  the  rancour  and  fe- 
rociousness of  hostility.  This  war  was 
like  a  great  tournament,  where  the  com- 
batants fought  indeed  a  outrance,  but  with 
all  the  courtesy  and  fair  play  of  such  an 
entertainment,  and  almost  as  much  for 
the  honour  of  their  ladies.  In  the  school 
of  the  Edwards  were  formed  men  not  in- 
ferior in  any  nobleness  of  disposition  to 
their  masters ;  Manni,  and  the  Captal  de 
Buch,  Felton,  Knollys,  and  Calverley, 
Chandos,  and  Lancaster.  On  the  French 
side,  especially  after  Du  Guesclin  came 
on  the  stage,  these  had  rivals  almost 
equally  deserving  of  renown.  If  we  could 
forget,  what  never  should  be  forgotten, 
the  wretchedness  and  devastation  that 
fell  upon  a  great  kingdom,  too  dear  a 
price  for  the  display  of  any  heroism,  we 
might  count  these  English  wars  in  France 
among  the  brightest  periods  in  history. 

Philip  of  Valois  and  John  his  son  show- 
ed but  poorly  in  comparison  character  of 
with  their  illustrious  enemies.  Philip  vi. 
Yet  they  had  both  considerable  and  JohIK 
virtues ;  they  were  brave,*  just,  liberal, 


*  The  bravery  of  Philip  is  not  questioned.  But 
a  French  historian,  in  order,  I  suppose,  to  enhance 
this  quality,  has  presumed  to  violate  truth  in  an 
extraordinary  manner.  The  challenge  sent  by  Ed- 
ward, ofTering  to  decide  his  claim  to  the  kingdom 
by  single  combat,  is  well  known.  Certainly  it  con- 
veys no  imputation  on  the  King  of  France  to  have 
declined  this  unfair  proposal.  But  Velly  has  rep- 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


41 


and  the  latter,  in  particular,  of  unshaken 
fidelity  to  his  word.  But  neither  was  be- 
loved by  his  subjects;  the  misgovern- 
ment  and  extortion  of  their  predecessor 
during  half  a  century  had  alienated  th 
public  mind,  and  rendered  their  own  taxe 
and  debasement  of  the  coin  intolerable 
Philip  was  made  by  misfortune,  John  ^ 
nature,  suspicious  and  austere ;  and  al 
though  their  most  violent  acts  seem  neve 
to  have  wanted  absolute  justice,  yet  thej 
were  so  ill  conducted,  and  of  so  arbitrary 
a  complexion,  that  they  greatly  impairec 
the  reputation,  as  well  as  interests,  o: 
these  monarchs.  In  the  execution  of 
Clisson  under  Philip,  in  that  of  the  Con 
netable  d'Eu  under  John,  and  still  mor< 
in  that  of  Harcourt,  even  in  the  imprison 
ment  of  the  King  of  Navarre,  though  ev- 
ery one  of  these  might  have  been  guilty 
of  treasons,  there  were  circumstance 
enough  to  exasperate  the  disaffected,  and 
to  strengthen  the  party  of  so  politic  a 
competitor  as  Edward. 

Next  to  the  personal  qualities  of  the 
Resources  of  King  of  England,  his  resour- 
ces in  this  war  must  be  ta- 
ken into  the  account.     It  was 


the  King  of 
England. 


after  long  hesitation  that  he  assumec 
the  title  and  arms  of  France,  from 
which,  unless  upon  the  best  terms,  he 
could  not  recede  without  loss  of  honour. 


resented  him  as  accepting  it,  on  condition  that  Ed- 
ward would  stake  the  crown  of  England  against 
that  of  France;  an  interpolation  which  may  be 
truly  called  audacious,  since  not  a  word  of  this  is 
in  Philip's  letter,  preserved  in  Rymer,  which  the 
historian  had  before  his  eyes,  and  actually  quotes 
upon  the  occasion. — Hist,  de  France,  t.  via.,  p.  382. 
*  The  first  instrument  in  which  Edward  disal- 
lows the  title  of  Philip,  is  his  convention  with  the 
Emperor  Louis  of  Bavaria,  wherein  he  calls  him 
nunc  pro  rege  Francorum  se  gerentem.  The  date 
of  this  is  August  26,  1337,  yet  on  the  28th  of  the 
same  month,  another  instrument  gives  him  the 
title  of  king ;  and  the  same  occurs  in  subsequent 
instances.  At  length  we  have  an  instrument  of 
procuration  to  the  Duke  of  Brabant,  October  7, 
1337,  empowering  him  to  take  possession  of  the 
crown  of  France  in  the  name  of  Edward  :  atten- 
dentes  inclitum  regnum  Franciae  ad  nos  fore  jure 
successionis  legitime  devolutum.  Another  of  the 
same  date  appoints  the  said  duke  his  vicar-general 
and  lieutenant  of  France.  The  king  assumed  in 
this  commission  the  title  Rex  Franciae  et  Anglis ; 
in  other  instruments  he  calls  himself  Rex  Angliae 
et  Franciae.  It  was  necessary  to  obviate  the  jeal- 
ousy of  the  English,  who  did  not,  in  that  age, 
admit  the  precedence  of  France.  Accordingly, 
Edward  had  two  great  seals,  on  which  the  two 
kingdoms  were  named  in  a  different  order.  But,  in 
the  royal  arms,  those  of  France  were  always  in  the 
first  quarter,  as  they  continued  to  be  until  the  ac- 
cession of  the  house  of  Brunswick. 

Probably  Edward  III.  would  not  have  entered 
into  the  war  merely  on  account  of  his  claim  to  the 
crown.  He  had  disputes  with  Philip  about  Gui- 
enne;  and  that  prince  had,  rather  unjustifiably, 
abetted  Robert  Bruce  in  Scotland.  I  am  not  in- 


In  the  meantime  he  strengthened  him- 
self by  alliances  with  the  emperor,  with 
the  cities  of  Flanders,  and  with  most  of 
the  princes  in  the  Netherlands  and  on 
the  Rhine.  Yet  I  do  not  know  that  he 
profited  much  by  these  conventions,  since 
he  met  with  no  success  till  the  scene  of 
the  war  was  changed  from  the  Flemish 
frontier  to  Normandy  and  Poitou.  The 
troops  of  Hainault  alone  were  constantly 
distinguished  in  his  service. 

But  his  intrinsic  strength  was  at  home. 
England  had  been  growing  in  riches  since 
the  wise  government  of  his  grandfather, 
Edward  I.,  and  through  the  market  open- 
ed for  her  wool  with  the  manufacturing 
towns  of  Flanders.  She  was  tranquil 
within;  and  her  northern  enemy,  the 
Scotch,  had  been  defeated  and  quelled. 
The  parliament,  after  some  slight  precau- 
tions against  a  very  probable  effect  of 
Edward's  conquest  of  France,  the  reduc- 
tion of  their  own  island  into  a  province, 
entered,  as  warmly  as  improvidently, 
into  his  quarrel.  The  people  made  it 
their  own,  and  grew  so  intoxicated  with 
the  victories  of  this  war,  that  for  some 
centuries  the  injustice  and  folly  of  the 
enterprise  do  not  seem  to  have  struck 
the  gravest  of  our  countrymen. 

There  is,  indeed,  ample  room  for  na- 
tional exultation  at  the  names  Exceilence  of 
of  Crecy,  Poitiers,  and  Az-  the  English 
incourt.  So  great  was  the  armies- 
disparity  of  numbers  upon  those  famous 
days,  that  we  cannot,  with  the  French 
historians,  attribute  the  discomfiture  of 
their  hosts  merely  to  mistaken  tactics 
and  too  impetuous  valour.  They  yield- 
ed rather  to  that  intrepid  steadiness  in 
danger,  which  had  already  become  the 
iharacteristic  of  our  English  soldiers,  and 
which,  during  four  centuries,  has  ensured 
;heir  superiority,  whenever  ignorance  or 
nfatuation  has  not  led  them  into  the 
field.  But  these  victories,  and  the  quali- 
ies  that  secured  them,  must  chiefly  be 
ascribed  to  the  freedom  of  our  constitu- 
ion,  and  to  the  superior  condition  of  the 
people.  Not  the  nobility  of  England,  not 
he  feudal  tenants,  won  the  battles  of 
>ecy  and  Poitiers ;  for  these  were  fully 
natched  in  the  ranks  of  France ;  but  the 
eomen,  who  drew  the  bow  with  strong 
and  steady  arms,  accustomed  to  its  use 
n  their  native  fields,  and  rendered  fear- 
ess  by  personal  competence  and  civil 
reedom.  It  is  well  known  that  each  of 
he  three  great  victories  was  due  to  our 
.rchers,  who  were  chiefly  of  the  middle 
lass,  and  attached,  according  to  the  sys- 


lined  to  lay  any  material  stress  upon  the  instiga- 
on  of  Robert  of  Artois. 


42 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   I. 


tern  of  that  age,  to  the  knights  and 
squires  who  fought  in  heavy  armour  with 
the  lance.  Even  at  the  battle  of  Poitiers, 
of  which  our  country  seems  to  have  the 
least  right  to  boast,  since  the  greater 
part  of  the  Black  Prince's  small  army 
was  composed  of  Gascons,  the  merit  of 
the  English  bowmen  is  strongly  attested 
by  Froissart.* 

Yet  the  glorious  termination  to  which 
Edward  was  enabled,  at  least  for  a 
Condition  time,  to  bring  the  contest,  was 
°ft1rItbleCe  rat^er  t^ie  WOfk  °f  fortune  than 
banieof  of  valour  and  prudence.  Until 
Poitiers,  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  he  had 
made  no  progress  towards  the  conquest 
of  France.  That  country  was  too  vast, 
and  his  army  too  small,  for  such  a  revo- 
lution. The  victory  of  Crecy  gave  him 
nothing  but  Calais ;  a  post  of  considera- 
ble importance  in  war  and  peace,  but 
rather  adapted  to  annoy  than  to  subjugate 
the  kingdom.  But  at  Poitiers  he  obtain- 
ed the  greatest  of  prizes,  by  taking  pris- 
oner the  King  of  France.  Not  only  the 
love  of  freedom  tempted  that  prince  to 
ransom  himself  by  the  utmost  sacrifices, 
but  his  captivity  left  France  defenceless, 
and  seemed  to  annihilate  the  monarchy 
itself.  The  government  was  already 
odious;  a  spirit  was  awakened  in  the 
people,  which  might  seem  hardly  to  be- 
long to  the  fourteenth  century ;  and  the 
convulsions  of  our  own  time  are  some- 
times strongly  paralleled  by  those  which 
succeeded  the  battle  of  Poitiers.  Al- 
ready the  States  General  had  established 
a  fundamental  principle,  that  no  resolution 
could  be  passed  as  the  opinion  of  the 
whole,  unless  each  of  the  three  orders 
concurred  in  its  adoption.!  The  right  of 
levying  and  of  regulating  the  collection 
of  taxes  was  recognised.  But  that  as- 
sembly which  met  at  Paris  immediately 
after  the  battle,  went  far  greater  lengths 
in  the  reform  and  control  of  government. 
From  the  time  of  Philip  the  Fair,  the 
abuses  natural  to  arbitrary  power  had 
harassed  the  people.  There  now  seem- 
ed an  opportunity  of  redress ;  and  how- 
ever seditious,  or  even  treasonable,  may 
have  been  the  motives  of  those  who 
guided  this  assembly  of  the  States,  espe- 
cially the  famous  Marcel,  it  is  clear  that 
many  of  their  reformations  tended  to  lib- 
erty and  the  public  good.J  But  the  tu- 

*  Au  vraydire,  les  archers  d'Angleterre  faisoient 
a  leurs  gens  grant  avantage.  Car  Us  tiroyent  tant 
espessement,  que  les  Francois  ne  S9avoyent  dequel 
coste  entendre,  qu'ilsne  fussent  consuy  vis  de  tray  t ; 
et  s'avancoyent  tousjours  ces  Anglois,  et  petit  a 
petit  enqueroyent  terre. — Part  I.,  c.  162. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  France,  t.  ii. 

t  I  must  refer  the  reader  onward  to  the  next 


multuous  scenes  which  passed  in  the 
capital,  sometimes  heightened  into  civil 
war,  necessarily  distracted  men  from  the 
common  defence  against  Edward.  These 
tumults  were  excited,  and  the  distraction 
increased,  by  Charles,  king  of  Navarre, 
surnamed  the  bad,  to  whom  the  French 
writers  have,  not  perhaps  unjustly,  at- 
tributed a  character  of  unmixed  and  in- 
veterate malignity.  He  was  grandson  of 
Louis  Hutin,  by  his  daughter  Jane,  and, 
if  Edward's  pretence  of  claiming  through 
females  could  be  admitted,  was  a  nearer 
heir  to  the  crown ;  the  consciousness  of 
which  seems  to  have  suggested  itself  to 
his  depraved  mind  as  an  excuse  for  his 
treacheries,  though  he  could  entertain 
very  little  prospect  of  asserting  the  claim 
against  either  contending  party.  John 
had  bestowed  his  daughter  in  marriage 
on  the  King  of  Navarre  ;  but  he  very  soon 
gave  a  proof  of  his  character,  by  procu- 
ring the  assassination  of  the  king's  favour- 
ite, Charles  de  la  Cerda.  An  irreconci- 
lable enmity  was  the  natural  result  of  this 
crime.  Charles  became  aware  that  he 
had  offended  beyond  the  possibility  of 
forgiveness,  and  that  no  letters  of  pardon, 
nor  pretended  reconciliation,  could  secure 
him  from  the  king's  resentment.  Thus, 
impelled  by  guilt  into  deeper  guilt,  he 
entered  into  alliances  with  Edward,  and 
fomented  the  seditious  spirit  of  Paris. 
Eloquent  and  insinuating,  he  was  the 
favourite  of  the  people,  whose  grievan- 
ces he  affected  to  pity,  and  with  whose 
leaders  he  intrigued.  As  his  paternal 
inheritance,  he  possessed  the  county  of 
Evreux  in  Normandy.  The  proximity 
of  this  to  Paris  created  a  formidable  di- 
version in  favour  of  Edward  III.,  and 
connected  the  English  garrisons  of  the 
north  with  those  of  Poitou  and  Guienne. 
There  is  no  affliction  which  did  not 
fall  upon  France  during  this  miserable 
period.  A  foreign  enemy  was  in  the 
heart  of  the  kingdom,  the  king  a  prisoner, 
the  capital  in  sedition,  a  treacherous 
prince  of  the  blood  in  arms  against  the 
sovereign  authority.  Famine,  the  sure 
and  terrible  companion  of  war,  for  sev- 
ral  years  desolated  the  country.  In 
1348,  a  pestilence,  the  most  extensive 
and  unsparing  of  which  we  have  any 
memorial,  visited  France  as  well  as  the 
rest  of  Europe,  and  consummated  the 
work  of  hunger  and  the  sword.*  The 


chapter  for  more  information  on  this  subject.  This 
separation  is  inconvenient,  but  it  arose  indispensa- 
sly  out  of  my  arrangement,  and  prevented  greater 
inconveniences. 

*  A  full  account  of  the  ravages  made  by  this 
memorable  plague  may  be  found  in  Matteo  Villa- 


PART.  II.] 


FRANCE. 


43 


companies  of  adventure,  mercenary  troops 
in  the  service  of  John  or  Edward,  find- 
ing no  immediate  occupation  after  the 
truce  of  1357,  scattered  themselves  over 
the  country  in  search  of  pillage.  No 
force  existed  sufficiently  powerful  to 
check  these  robbers  in  their  career. 
Undismayed  by  superstition,  they  com- 
pelled the  pope  to  redeem  himself  in 
Avignon  by  the  payment  of  forty  thou- 
sand crowns.*  France  was  the  passive 
victim  of  their  license,  even  after  the 
pacification  concluded  with  England,  till 

(some  were  diverted  into  Italy,  and  others 
led  by  Du  Guesclin  to  the  war  of  Castile. 
Impatient  of  this  wretchedness,  and  stung 
by  the  insolence  and  luxury  of  their  lords, 
the  peasantry  of  several  districts  broke  out 
into  a  dreadful  insurrection.  [A.  D.  1358.] 
This  was  called  the  Jacquerie,  from  the 
cant  phrase  Jacques  bon  homme,  applied 
to  men  of  that  class ;  and  was  marked  by 
all  the  circumstances  of  horror  incident 
to  the  rising  of  an  exasperated  and  unen- 
lightened populace. f 


ni,  the  second  of  that  family  who  wrote  the  Histo- 
ry of  Florence.  His  brother  and  predecessor,  John 
Villani,  was  himself  a  victim  to  it.  The  disease 
began  in  the  Levant  about  1346 ;  from  whence 
Italian  traders  brought  it  to  Sicily,  Pisa,  and  Ge- 
noa. In  1348  it  passed  the  Alps  and  spread  over 
France  and  Spam ;  in  the  next  year  it  reached 
Britain,  and  in  1350  laid  waste  Germany  and  other 
northern  states ;  lasting  generally  about  five  months 
in  each  country.  At  Florence,  more  than  three 
out  of  five  died. — Muratori,  Script.  Rerum  Itali- 
carum,  t.  xiv.,  p.  12.  The  stories  of  Boccaccio's 
Decamerone,  as  is  well  known,  are  supposed  to  be 
related  by  a  society  of  Florentine  ladies  and  gen- 
tlemen retired  to  the  country  during  this  pesti- 
lence. 

*  Froissart,  p.  187.  This  troop  of  banditti  was 
commanded  by  Arnaud  de  Ceryole,  surnamed 
1'Archipretre,  from  a  benefice  which,  although  a 
layman,  he  possessed,  according  to  the  irregularity 
of  those  ages.  See  a  memoir  on  the  life  of  Arnaud 
de  Cervole,  in  the  twenty-fifth  volume  of  the  Acad- 
emy of  Inscriptions. 

t  The  second  continuator  of  Nangis,  a  monk  of 
no  great  abilities,  but  entitled  to  notice  as  our  most 
contemporary  historian,  charges  the  nobility  with 
spending  the  money  raised  upon  the  people  by  op- 
pressive taxes,  in  playing  at  dice  "  et  alios  inde- 
centes  jocos." — D'Achery,  Spicilegium,  t.  iii.,  p. 
114  (folio  edition).  All  the  miseries  that  followed 
the  battle  of  Poitiers  he  ascribes  to  bad  govern- 
ment and  neglect  of  the  common  weal ;  but  espe- 
cially to  the  pride  and  luxury  of  the  nobles.  I  am 
aware  that  this  writer  is  biased  in  favour  of  the 
King  of  Navarre ;  but  he  was  an  eyewitness  of  the 
people's  misery,  and  perhaps  a  less  exceptionable 
authority  than  Froissart,  whose  love  of  pageantry 
and  habits  of  feasting  in  the  castles  of  the  great, 
seem  to  have  produced  some  insensibility  towards 
the  sufferings  of  the  lower  classes.  It  is  a  painful 
circumstance,  which  Froissart  and  the  continuator 
of  Nangis  attest,  that  the  citizens  of  Calais,  more 
interesting  than  the  common  heroes  of  history, 
were  unrewarded,  and  begged  their  bread  in  mis- 
ery throughout  France.  Villaret  contradicts  this, 


Subdued  by  these  misfortunes,  though 
Edward  had  made  but  slight  progress 
towards  the  conquest  of  the  country,  the 
regent  of  France,  afterward  Charles  V., 
submitted  to  the  peace  of  Bre-  peaceof 
tigni.  [A.  D.  1360.]  By  this  treaty,  Bretigni. 
not  to  mention  less  important  articles, 
all  Guienne,  Gascony,  Poitou,  Saintonge, 
the  Limousin,  and  the  Angoumois,  as 
well  as  Calais,  and  the  county  of  Pon- 
thieu,  were  ceded  in  full  sovereignty 
to  Edward ;  a  price  abundantly  compen- 
sating his  renunciation  of  the  title  of 
France,  which  was  the  sole  concession 
stipulated  in  return.  Every  care  seems 
to  have  been  taken  to  make  the  cession  of 
these  provinces  complete.  The  first  six 
articles  of  the  treaty  expressly  surren- 
der them  to  the  King  of  England.  By  the 
seventh,  John  and  his  son  engage  to  con- 
vey within  a  year  from  the  ensuing 
Michaelmas  all  their  rights  over  them, 
and  especially  those  of  sovereignty  and 
feudal  appeal.  The  same  words  are  re- 
peated still  more  emphatically  in  the 
eleventh,  and  some  other  articles.  The 
twelfth  stipulates  the  change  of  mutual  re- 
nunciations ;  by  John,  of  all  right  over  the 
ceded  countries ;  by  Edward,  of  his  claim 
to  the  throne  of  France.  At  Calais,  the 
treaty  of  Bretigni  was  renewed  by  John, 
who,  as  a  prisoner,  had  been  no  party  to 
the  former  compact,  with  the  omission 
only  of  the  twelfth  article,  respecting  the 
exchange  of  renunciations.  But  that  it 
was  not  intended  to  waive  them  by  this 
omission,  is  abundantly  manifest  by  in- 
struments of  both  the  kings,  in  which 


on  the  authority  of  an  ordinance  which  he  has  seen 
in  their  favour.  But  that  was  not  a  time  when 
ordinances  were  very  sure  of  execution. — Vill.,  t. 
ix.,  p.  470.  I  must  add,  that  the  celebrated  story 
of  the  six  citizens  of  Calais,  which  has  of  late  been 
called  in  question,  receives  strong  confirmation 
from  John  Villani,  who  died  very  soon  afterward. 
— L.  xii.,  c.  96.  Froissart  of  course  wrought  up  the 
circumstances  after  his  manner.  In  all  the  colour- 
ing of  his  history,  he  is  as  great  a  master  as  Livy ; 
and  as  little  observant  of  particular  truth.  M.  de 
Brequigny,  almost  the  latest  of  those  excellent 
antiquaries  whose  memoirs  so  much  illustrate  the 
French  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  has  discussed  the 
history  of  Calais,  and  particularly  this  remarkable 
portion  of  it. — Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions, 
1. 1. 

Petrarch  has  drawn  a  lamentable  picture  of  the 
state  of  France  in  1360,  when  he  paid  a  visit  to 
Paris.  I  could  not  believe,  he  says,  that  this  was 
the  same  kingdom  which  I  had  once  seen  so  rich 
and  flourishing.  Nothing  presented  itself  to  my 
eyes  but  a  fearful  solitude,  an  extreme  poverty, 
lands  uncultivated,  houses  in  ruins.  Even  the 
neighbourhood  of  Paris  manifested  everywhere 
marks  of  destruction  and  conflagration.  The 
streets  are  deserted;  the  roads  overgrown  with 
weeds :  the  whole  is  a  vast  solitude.— Mem,  de 
Petrarque,  t.  iii.,  p.  541. 


44 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   I. 


reference  is  made  to  their  future  inter- 
changes at  Bruges,  on  the  feast  of  St. 
Andrew,  1361.  And,  until  that  time 
should  arrive,  Edward  promises  to  lay 
aside  the  title  and  arms  of  France  (an 
engagement  which  he  strictly  kept),*  and 
John  to  act  in  no  respect  as  king  or  su- 
zerain over  the  ceded  provinces.  Finally, 
on  November  15,  1361,  two  commission- 
ers are  appointed  by  Edward  to  receive 
the  renunciations  of  the  King  of  France 
at  Bruges  on  the  ensuing  feast  of  St.  An- 
drew,f  and  to  do  whatever  might  be  mu- 
tually required  by  virtue  of  the  treaty. 
These,  however,  seem  to  have  been 
withheld,  and  the  twelfth  article  of  the 
treaty  of  Bretigni  was  never  expressly 
completed.  By  mutual  instruments,  exe- 
cuted at  Calais,  October  24,  it  had  been 
declared,  that  the  sovereignty  of  the 
ceded  provinces,  as  well  as  Edward's 
right  to  the  crown  of  France,  should  re- 
main as  before,  although  suspended  as  to 
its  exercise,  until  the  exchange  of  renun- 
ciations, notwithstanding  any  words  of 
present  conveyance  or  release  in  the 
treaties  of  Bretigni  and  Calais.  And 
another  pair  of  letters  patent,  dated 
October  26,  contains  the  form  of  renun- 
ciations, which,  it  is  mutually  declared, 
should  have  effect  by  virtue  of  the  pres- 
ent letters,  in  case  one  party  should  be 
ready  to  exchange  such  renunciations 
at  the  time  and  place  appointed,  and 
the  other  should  make  default  therein. 
These  instruments,  executed  at  Calais, 
are  so  prolix,  and  so  studiously  envel- 
oped, as  it  seems,  in  the  obscurity  of 
technical  language,  that  it  is  difficult  to 
extract  their  precise  intention.  It  ap- 
pears, nevertheless,  that  whichever  par- 
ty was  prepared  to  perform  what  was 
required  of  him  at  Bruges  on  November 
30, 1361,  the  other,  then  and  there  making 
default,  would  acquire  not  only  what  our 
lawyers  might  call  an  equitable  title,  but 
an  actual  vested  right,  by  virtue  of  the 
provision  in  the  letters  patent  of  October 
26,  1360.  The  appointment  above  men- 
tioned of  Edward's  commissioners  on 
November  15, 1361,  seems  to  throw  upon 
the  French  the  burden  of  proving  that 
John  sent  his  envoys  with  equally  full 
powers  to  the  place  of  meeting,  and  that 
the  non-interchange  of  renunciations  was 
owing  to  the  English  government.  But 
though  an  historian,  sixty  years  later 
(Juvenal  des  Ursins),  asserts  that  the 

*  Edward  gives  John  the  title  of  King  of  France, 
in  an  instrument  bearing  date  at  Calais,  October 
22, 1360.— Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  217.  The  treaty  was 
signed  October  24— Id.,  p.  219. 

t  Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  339. 


French  commissioners  attended  at  Bru- 
ges, and  that  those  of  Edward  made 
default,  this  is  certainly  rendered  improb- 
able, by  the  actual  appointment  of  com- 
missioners made  by  the  King  of  England 
on  the  15th  of  November,  by  the  silence 
of  Charles  V.  after  the  recommencement 
of  hostilities,  who  would  have  rejoiced  in 
so  good  a  ground  of  excuse,  and  by  the 
language  of  some  English  instruments, 
complaining  that  the  French  renuncia- 
tions were  withheld.*  It  is  suggested  by 
the  French  authors,  that  Edward  was  un- 
willing to  execute  a  formal  renunciation 
of  his  claim  to  the  crown.  But  we  can 
hardly  suppose  that,  in  order  to  evade 
this  condition,  which  he  had  voluntarily 
imposed  upon  himself  by  the  treaties  of 
Bretigni  and  Calais,  he  would  have  left 
his  title  to  the  provinces  ceded  by  those 
conventions  imperfect.  He  certainly 
deemed  it  indefeisible,  and  acted  with- 
out any  complaint  from  the  French 


*  It  appears  that,  among  other  alleged  infrac- 
tions of  the  treaty,  the  King  of  France  had  re- 
ceived appeals  from  Armagnac,  Albret,  and  other 
nobles  of  Aquitaine,  not  long  after  the  peace.  For, 
in  February,  1362,  a  French  envoy,  the  Count  de 
Tancarville,  being  in  England,  the  privy  council 
presented  to  Edward  their  bill  of  remonstrances 
against  this  conduct  of  France ;  et  semble  au  con- 
seil  le  roy  d'Angleterre  que  consider^  la  fourme  de 
la  ditte  paix,  qui  tant  estoit  honourable  et  proffita- 
ble  au  royaume  de  France  et  a  tout  chretiente,  que 
la  reception  desdittes  appellacions,  n'a  mie  este 
bien  faite,  ne  passee  si  ordenement,  ne  a  si  bon  af- 
fection et  amour  comme  il  droit  avoir  este  faite  de 
raison  parmi  1'effet  et  1'intention  de  la  paix,  et  ail- 
liances  affermees  et  entr'eux  semble  estre  moult 
prejudiciables  et  contraires  &  1'onneur  et  a  1'estat 
du  roy  et  de  son  fils  le  prince  et  de  toute  la  maison 
d'Angleterre,  et  pourra  estre  evidente  matiere  de 
rebellion  des  subgiez,  et  aussi  donner  tres-grant 
occasion  d'enfraindre  la  paix,  si  bon  remede  sur 
ce  n'y  soit  mis  plus  hastivement.  Upon  the  whole, 
they  conclude  that,  if  the  King  of  France  would  re- 
pair this  trespass,  and  send  his  renunciation  of 
sovereignty,  the  king  should  send  his  of  the  title 
of  France.— Martenne,  Thes.  Anec.,  t.  i.,  p.  1487. 

Four  princes  of  the  blood,  or,  as  they  are  termed, 
Seigneurs  des  Fleurdelys,  were  detained  as  hos- 
tages for  the  due  execution  of  the  treaty  of  Bre- 
tigni, which,  from  whatever  pretence,  was  delayed 
for  a  considerable  time.  Anxious  to  obtain  their 
liberty,  they  signed  a  treaty  at  London  in  Novem- 
ber, 1362,  by  which,  among  other  provisions,  it  was 
stipulated  that  the  King  of  France  should  send 
fresh  letters,  under  his  seal,  conveying  and  releas- 
ing the  territories  ceded  by  the  peace,  without  the 
clause  contained  in  the  former  letters,  retaining  the 
ressort :  et  que  en  ycelles  lettres  soit  expressement 
compris  transport  de  la  souverainete  et  du  ressort, 
&c.  Et  le  roi  d'Engleterre  et  ses  enfans  ferront 
semblablement  autiels  renonciations,  sur  ce  q'il 
doit  faire  de  sa  partie.— Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  396.  This 
treaty  of  London  was  never  ratified  by  the  French 
government ;  but  I  use  it  as  a  proof  that  Edward 
imputed  the  want  of  mutual  renunciations  to 
France,  and  was  himself  ready  to  perform  his  part 
of  the  treaty. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


45 


court,  as  the  perfect  master  of  those 
countries.  He  created  his  son  Prince 
of  Aquitaine,  with  the  fullest  powers 
over  that  new  principality,  holding  it  in 
fief  of  the  crown  of  England  by  the 
yearly  rent  of  an  ounce  of  gold.*  And 
the  court  of  that  great  prince  was  kept 
for  several  years  at  Bordeaux. 

I  have  gone  something  more  than  usual 
into  detail  as  to  these  circumstances,  be- 
cause a  very  specious  account  is  given  by 
some  French  historians  and  antiquaries, 
which  tends  to  throw  the  blame  of  the 
rupture  in  1368  upon  Edward  Ill.f  Un- 
founded as  was  his  pretension  to  the 
crown  of  France,  and  actuated  as  we 
must  consider  him  by  the  most  ruinous 
ambition,  his  character  was  unblemished 
by  ill  faith.  There  is  no  apparent  cause 
to  impute  the  ravages  made  in  France  by 
soldiers  formerly  in  the  English  service 
to  his  instigation,  nor  any  proof  of  a  con- 
nexion with  the  King  of  Navarre  subse- 
quently to  the  peace  of  Bretigni.  But  a 
good  lesson  may  be  drawn  by  conquerors 
from  the  change  of  fortune  that  befell  Ed- 
ward III.  A  long  warfare,  and  unex- 
ampled success,  had  procured  for  him 
some  of  the  richest  provinces  of  France. 
Within  a  short  time  he  was  entirely  strip- 
ped of  them,  less  through  any  particular 
misconduct,  than  in  consequence  of  the 

*  Rym.,  t.  vi.,  p.  385-389.  One  clause  is  re- 
markable ;  Edward  reserves  to  himself  the  right  of 
creating  the  province  of  Aquitaine  into  a  kingdom. 
So  high  were  the  notions  of  this  great  monarch,  in 
an  age  when  the  privilege  of  creating  new  king- 
doms was  deemed  to  belong  only  to  the  pope  and 
the  emperor.  Etiam  si  per  nos  hujusmodi  pro- 
vincise  ad  regalis  honoris  titulum  et  fastigium  im- 
posterum  sublimentur ;  quam  erectionem  facien- 
dam  per  nos  ex  tune  specialiter  reservamus. 

t  Besides  Villaret,  and  other  historians,  the 
reader  who  feels  any  curiosity  on  this  subject 
may  consult  three  memoirs  in  the  15th  volume  of 
the  Academy  of  Inscriptions  by  MM.  S^cousse, 
Salier,  and  Bonamy.  These  distinguished  anti- 
quaries unite,  but  the  third  with  much  less  confi- 
dence and  passion  than  the  other  two,  in  charging 
the  omission  upon  Edward.  The  observations  in 
the  text  will  serve,  I  hope,  to  repel  their  argu- 
ments, which,  I  may  be  permitted  to  observe,  no 
English  writer  has  hitherto  undertaken  to  answer. 
This  is  not  said  in  order  to  assume  any  praise  to 
myself;  in  fact,  I  have  been  guided,  in  a  great 
degree,  by  one  of  the  adverse  counsel,  M.  Bonamy, 
whose  statement  of  facts  is  very  fair,  and  makes 
me  suspect  a  little  that  he  saw  the  weakness  of 
his  own  cause. 

The  authority  of  Christine  de  Pisan,  a  contem- 
porary panegyrist  of  the  French  king,  is  not  per- 
haps very  material  in  such  a  question:  but  she 
seems  wholly  ignorant  of  this  supposed  omission 
on  Edward's  side,  and  puts  the  justice  of  Charles 
V.'s  war  on  a  very  different  basis ;  namely,  that 
treaties  not  conducive  to  the  public  interest  ought 
not  to  be  kept.— Collection  des  Me'moires,  t.  v., 
p.  137.  A  principle  more  often  acted  upon  than 
avowed ! 


intrinsic  difficulty  of  preserving  such  ac- 
quisitions. The  French  were  already 
knit  together  as  one  people ;  and  even 
those  whose  feudal  duties  sometimes 
led  them  into  the  field  against  their 
sovereign,  could  not  endure  the  feeling 
of  dismemberment  from  the  monarchy. 
When  the  peace  of  Bretigni  was  to  be 
carried  into  effect,  the  nobility  of  the 
south  remonstrated  against  the  loss  of 
the  king's  sovereignty,  and  showed,  it  is 
said,  in  their  charters  granted  by  Charle- 
magne, a  promise  never  to  transfer  the 
right  of  protecting  them  to  another.  The 
citizens  of  Rochelle  implored  the  king 
not  to  desert  them,  and  protested  their 
readiness  to  pay  half  their  estates  in 
taxes  rather  than  fall  under  the  power 
of  England.  John,  with  heaviness  of 
heart,  persuaded  these  faithful  people  to 
comply  with  that  destiny  which  he  had 
not  been  able  to  surmount.  At  length 
they  sullenly  submitted:  we  will  obey, 
they  said,  the  English  with  our  lips,  but 
our  hearts  shall  never  forget  their  allegi- 
ance.* Such  unwilling  subjects  might 
perhaps  have  been  won  by  a  prudent  gov- 
ernment ;  but  the  temper  of  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  which  was  rather  stern  and  ar- 
bitrary, did  not  conciliate  their  hearts  to 
his  cause. f  After  the  expedition  into 
Castile,  a  most  injudicious  and  fatal  en- 
terprise, he  attempted  to  impose  a  heavy 
tax  upon  Guienne.  This  was  extended 
to  the  lands  of  the  nobility,  who  claimed 
an  immunity  from  all  impositions.  Many 
of  the  chief  lords  in  Guienne  and  Gascony 
carried  their  complaints  to  the  throne  of 
Charles  V.,  who  had  succeeded 
his  father  in  1364,  appealing  to  Rupture  of 
him  as  the  prince's  sovereign  the  peace  of 
and  judge.  After  a  year's  delay,  Bretisni- 
the  king  ventured  to  summon  the  Black 
Prince  to  answer  these  charges  before  the 
peers  of  France  [A.  D.  1368],  and  the  war 
immediately  recommenced  between  the 
two  countries.! 

Though  it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  the 
conduct  of  Charles  upon  this  occasion  to 
those  stern  principles  of  rectitude  which 


*  Froissart,  part  i.,  chap.  214. 

t  See  an  anecdote  of  his  difference  with  the 
Seigneur  d'Albret,  one  of  the  principal  barons  in 
Sascony,  to  which  Froissart,  who  was  then  at 
Bordeaux,  ascribes  the  alienation  of  the  southern 
nobility,  chap.  244.  Edward  III.,  soon  after  the 
peace  of  Bretigni,  revoked  all  his  grants  in  Gui- 
enne.— Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  391. 

t  On  November  20,  1368,  some  time  before  the 
summons  of  the  Prince  of  Wales,  a  treaty  was  con- 
cluded between  Charles,  and  Henry,  king  of  Cas- 
tile, wherein  the  latter  expressly  stipulates,  that 
whatever  parts  of  Guienne  or  England  he  might 
conquer,  he  would  give  up  to  the  King  of  France. 
—Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  598. 


46 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


ought  always  to  be  obeyed,  yet  the  ex- 
ceeding injustice  of  Edward  in  the  former 
war,  and  the  miseries  which  he  inflicted 
upon  an  unoffending  people  in  the  prose- 
cution of  his  claim,  will  go  far  towards 
extenuating  this  breach  of  the  treaty  of 
Bretigni.  It  is  observed,  indeed,  with 
some  truth,  by  Rapin,  that  we  judge  of 
Charles's  prudence  by  the  event ;  and 
that,  if  he  had  been  unfortunate  in  the 
war,  he  would  have  brought  on  himself 
the  reproaches  of  all  mankind,  and  even 
of  those  writers  who  are  now  most  ready 
to  extol  him.  But  his  measures  had  been 
so  sagaciously  taken,  that  except  through 
that  perverseness  of  fortune,  against 
which,  especially  in  war,  there  is  no  se- 
curity, he  could  hardly  fail  of  success. 
The  elder  Edward  was  declining  through 
age,  and  the  younger  through  disease  ; 
the  ceded  provinces  were  eager  to  return 
to  their  native  king,  and  their  garrisons, 
as  we  may  infer  by  their  easy  reduction, 
feeble  and  ill  supplied.  France,  on  the 
other  hand,  had  recovered  breath  after 
her  losses :  the  sons  of  those  who  had 
fallen  or  fled  at  Poitiers  were  in  the  field ; 
a  king,  not  personally  warlike,  but  emi- 
nently wise  and  popular,  occupied  the 
throne  of  the  rash  and  intemperate  John. 
She  was  restored  by  the  policy  of  Charles 
V.  and  the  valour  of  Du  Guesclin.  This 
hero,  a  Breton  gentleman  without  for- 
tune or  exterior  graces,  was  the  great- 
est ornament  of  France  during  that  age. 
Though  inferior,  as  it  seems,  to  Lord 
Chandos  in  military  skill,  as  well  as  in 
the  polished  virtues  of  chivalry,  his  un- 
wearied activity,  his  talent  of  inspiring 
confidence,  his  good  fortune,  the  gen- 
erosity and  frankness  of  his  character, 
have  preserved  a  fresh  recollection  of  his 
name,  which  has  hardly  been  the  case 
with  our  countryman. 

In  a  few  campaigns,  the  English  were 
The  English  deprived  of  almost  all  their  con- 
lose  ail  their  quests,  and  even,  in  a  great  de- 
sonquests.  gree,  of  their  original  posses- 
sions in  Guienne.  They  were  still  formi- 
dable enemies,  not  only  from  their  cour- 
age and  alacrity  in  the  war,  but  on  ac- 
count of  the  keys  of  France  which  they 
held  in  their  hands ;  Bordeaux,  Bayonne, 
and  Calais,  by  inheritance  or  conquest ; 
Brest  and  Cherbourg,  in  mortgage  from 
their  allies,  the  Duke  of  Britany  and  King 
of  Navarre.  But  the  successor  of  Edward 
III.  was  Richard  II. ;  a  reign  of  feeble- 
ness and  sedition  gave  no  opportunity  for 
prosecuting  schemes  of  ambition.  The 
war,  protracted  with  few  distinguished 
events  for  several  years,  was  at  length 
suspended  by  repeated  armistices,  not  in 


deed  very  strictly  observed,  and  which 
the  animosity  of  the  English  would  not 
Dermit  to  settle  in  any  regular  treaty. 
Nothing  less  than  the  terms  obtained  at 
Bretigni,  emphatically  called  the  Great 
Peace,  would  satisfy  a  frank  and  cour- 
ageous people,  who  deemed  themselves 
cheated  by  the  manner  of  its  infraction. 
The  war  was  therefore  always  popular 
n  England,  and  the  credit  which  an  am- 
bitious prince,  Thomas,  duke  of  Glouces- 
er,  obtained  in  that  country,  was  chiefly 
owing  to  the  determined  opposition  which 
showed  to  all  French  connexions. 
But  the  politics  of  Richard  II.  were  of  a 
different  cast ;  and  Henry  IV.  was  equal- 
y  anxious  to  avoid  hostilities  with  France ; 
so  that,  before  the  unhappy  condition  of 
that  kingdom  tempted  his  son  to  revive 
he  claims  of  Edward  in  still  more  favour- 
able circumstances,  there  had  been  thirty 
years  of  respite,  and  even  some  intervals 
of  friendly  intercourse  between  the  two 
nations.  Both,  indeed,  were  weakened  by 
nternal  discord ;  but  France  more  fatally 
than  England.  But  for  the  calamities  of 
Charles  VI.  's  reign,  she  would  probably 
have  expelled  her  enemies  from  the  king- 
dom. The  strength  of  that  fertile  and 
populous  country  was  recruited  with  sur- 
prising rapidity.  Sir  Hugh  Calverley,  a 
famous  captain  in  the  wars  of  Edward 
III.,  while  serving  in  Flanders,  laughed  at 
the  herald,  who  assured  him  that  the  King 
of  France's  army,  then  entering  the  coun- 
try, amounted  to  26,000  lances ;  asserting 
that  he  had  often  seen  their  largest  mus- 
ters, but  never  so  much  as  a  fourth  part 
of  the  number.*  The  relapse  of  this 
great  kingdom  under  Charles  VI.  was 
more  painful  and  perilous  than  her  first 
crisis;  but  she  recovered  from  each 
through  her  intrinsic  and  inextinguisha- 
ble resources. 

Charles  V.,  surnamed  the  Wise,  after  a 
reign  which,  if  we  overlook  a  little  ob- 
liquity in  the  rupture  of  the  peace  of  Bre- 
tigni, may  be  deemed  one  of  the  most 
honourable  in  French  history,  dying  pre- 
maturely, left  the  crown  to  his  Accessi0n  of 
son,  a  boy  of  thirteen,  under  Chariesvi. 
the  care  of  three  ambitious  un-  138°-  . 
cles,  the  dukes  of  Anjou,  Berry,  and  Bur- 
gundy. Charles  had  retrieved  the  glory, 
restored  the  tranquillity,  revived  the  spirit 
of  his  country ;  the  severe  trials  which 
exercised  his  regency,  after  the  battle  of 
Poitiers,  had  disciplined  his  mind ;  he  be- 
came a  sagacious  statesman,  an  encour- 
ager  of  literature,  a  beneficent  lawgiver. 
He  erred  doubtless,  though  upon  plausible 


*  Froissart,  p.  ii.,  c.  142. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


47 


grounds,  in  accumulating  a  vast  treasure, 
which  the  Duke  of  Anjou  seized  before 
he  was  cold  in  the  grave.  But  all  the 
fruits  of  his  wisdom  were  lost  in  the  suc- 
ceeding reign.  In  a  government  essen- 
tially popular,  the  youth  or  imbecility  of 
the  sovereign  creates  no  material  de- 
rangement. In  a  monarchy,  where  all 
the  springs  of  the  system  depend  upon 
one  central  force,  these  accidents,  which 
are  sure  in  the  course  of  a  few  genera- 
tions to  recur,  can  scarcely  fail  to  dislo- 
cate the  whole  machine.  During  the  for- 
ty years  that  Charles  VI.  bore  the  name 
of  king,  rather  than  reigned  in  France, 
that  country  was  reduced  to  a  state  far 
more  deplorable  than  during  the  captivi- 
ty of  John. 

A  great  change  had  occurred  in  the 
political  condition  of  France  during  the 
fourteenth  century.  As  the  feudal  mili- 
tia became  unserviceable,  the  expenses  of 
war  were  increased  through  the  necessi- 
ty of  taking  troops  into  constant  pay ; 
and  while  more  luxurious  refinements  of 
living  heightened  the  temptations  to  pro- 
fuseness,  the  means  of  enjoying  them 
were  lessened  by  improvident  alienations 
of  the  domain.  Hence  taxes,  hitherto  al- 
most unknown,  were  levied  incessantly, 
and  with  all  those  circumstances  of  op- 
pression which  are  natural  to  the  fiscal 
proceedings  of  an  arbitrary  government. 
These,  as  has  been  said  before,  gave  rise 
to  the  unpopularity  of  the  two  first  Valois, 
and  were  nearly  leading  to  a  complete 
revolution  in  the  convulsions  that  suc- 
ceeded the  battle  of  Poitiers.  The  con- 
fidence reposed  in  Charles  V.'s  wisdom 
and  economy  kept  every  thing  at  rest 
during  his  reign,  though  the  taxes  were 
still  very  heavy.  But  the  seizure  of  his 
vast  accumulations  by  the  Duke  of  Anjou, 
and  the  ill  faith  with  which  the  new  gov- 
ernment imposed  subsidies,  after  promis- 
ing their  abolition,  provoked  the  people 
of  Paris,  and  sometimes  of  other  places, 
Seditions  to  repeated  seditions.  The  States 
at  Paris.  General  not  only  compelled  the 
government  to  revoke  these  impositions 
and  restore  the  nation,  at  least  according 
to  the  language  of  edicts,  to  all  their  lib- 
erties, but,  with  less  wisdom,  refused  to 
make  any  grant  of  money.  Indeed,  a  re- 
markable spirit  of  democratical  freedom 
was  then  rising  in  those  classes  on  whom 
the  crown  and  nobility  had  so  long  tram- 
pled. An  example  was  held  out  by  the 
Flemings,  who,  always  tenacious  of  their 
privileges,  because  conscious  of  their  abil- 
ity to  maintain  them,  were  engaged  in  a 
furious  conflict  with  Louis,  count  of  Flan- 
ders. The  court  of  France  took  part  in 


this  war  ;*  and  after  obtaining  a  decisive 
victory  over  the  citizens  of  Ghent,  Charles 
VI.  returned  to  chastise  those  of  Paris. f 
Unable  to  resist  the  royal  army,  the  city 
was  treated  as  the  spoil  of  conquest ;  its 
immunities  abridged ;  its  most  active  lead- 
ers put  to  death;  a  fine  of  uncommon 
severity  imposed ;  and  the  taxes  renew- 
ed by  arbitrary  prerogative.  But  the  peo- 
ple preserved  their  indignation  for  a  fa- 
vourable moment ;  and  were  unfortunate- 
ly led  by  it,  when  rendered  subservient 
to  the  ambition  of  others,  into  a  series  of 
crimes,  and  a  long  alienation  from  the 
interests  of  their  country. 

It  is  difficult  to  name  a  limit  beyond 
which  taxes  will  not  be  borne  without 
impatience,  when  they  appear  to  be  call- 
ed for  by  necessity,  and  faithfully  ap- 
plied ;  nor  is  it  impracticable  for  a  skil- 
ful minister  to  deceive  the  people  in  both 
these  respects.  But  the  sting  of  taxation 
is  wastefulness.  What  high-spirited  man 
could  see  without  indignation  the  earn- 
ings of  his  labour,  yielded  ungrudgingly 
to  the  public  defence,  become  the  spoil 
of  parasites  and  peculators  1  It  is  this 
that  mortifies  the  liberal  hand  of  public 
spirit ;  and  those  statesmen  who  deem 


*  The  Flemish  rebellion,  which  originated  in  an 
attempt,  suggested  by  bad  advisers  to  the  count,  to 
impose  a  tax  upon  the  people  of  Ghent  without 
their  consent,  is  related  in  a  very  interesting  man- 
ner by  Froissart,  p.  ii.,  c.  37,  &c.,  who  equals  He- 
rodotus in  simplicity,  liveliness,  and  power  over  the 
heart.  I  would  advise  the  historical  student  to  ac- 
quaint himself  with  these  transactions,  and  with 
the  corresponding  tumults  at  Paris.  They  are 
among  the  eternal  lessons  of  history  ;  for  the  un- 
just encroachments  of  courts,  the  intemperate  pas- 
sions of  the  multitude,  the  ambition  of  demagogues, 
the  cruelty  of  vicious  factions,  will  never  cease  to 
have  their  parallels  and  their  analogies  ;  while  the 
military  achievements  of  distant  times  afford,  in 
general,  no  instruction,  and  can  hardly  occupy  too 
little  of  our  time  in  historical  studies.  The  pref- 
aces to  the  fifth  and  sixth  volumes  of  the  Ordon- 
nances  des  Rois  de  France,  contain  more  accurate 
information  as  to  the  Parisian  disturbances  than 
can  be  found  in  Froissart. 

t  If  Charles  VI.  had  been  defeated  by  the  Flem- 
ings, the  insurrection  of  the  Parisians,  Froissart 
says,  would  have  spread  over  France ;  toute  gentil- 
lesse  et  noblesse  eut  ete  morte  et  perdue  en  France ; 
nor  would  the  Jacquerie  have  ever  been  si  grande 
et  si  horrible,  c.  120.  To  the  example  of  the  Gan- 
tois  he  ascribes  the  tumults  which  broke  out  about 
the  same  time  in  England  as  well  as  in  France,  c. 
84.  The  Flemish  insurrection  would  probably 
have  had  more  important  consequences,  if  it  had 
been  cordially  supported  by  the  English  govern- 
ment. But  the  danger  of  encouraging  that  demo- 
cratical spirit  which  so  strongly  leavened  the  com- 
mons of  England,  might  justly  be  deemed  by  Rich- 
ard II. 's  council  much  more  than  a  counterbalance 
to  the  advantage  of  distressing  France.  When  too 
late,  some  attempts  were  made,  and  the  Flemish 
towns  acknowledged  Richard  as  King  of  France  in 
1384.— Rymer  t.  vii.,  p.  448. 


48 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


the  security  of  government  to  depend 
not  on  laws  and  armies,  but  on  the  moral 
sympathies  and  prejudices  of  the  people, 
will  vigilantly  guard  against  even  the 
suspicion  of  prodigality.  In  the  present 
stage  of  society  it  is  impossible  to  con- 
ceive that  degree  of  misapplication  which 
existed  in  the  French  treasury  under 
Charles  VI.,  because  the  real  exigencies 
of  the  state  could  never  again  be  so  in- 
considerable. Scarcely  any  military  force 
was  kept  up ;  and  the  produce  of  the 
grievous  impositions  then  levied  was 
chiefly  lavished  upon  the  royal  house- 
hold, or  plundered  by  the  officers  of  gov- 
ernment.* This  naturally  resulted  from 
the  peculiar  and  afflicting  circumstances 
of  this  reign.  The  Duke  of  Anjou  pre- 
tended to  be  entitled  by  the  late  king's 
appointment,  if  not  by  the  constitution 
of  France,  to  exercise  the  government 
as  regent  during  the  minority  ;f  but  this 


*  The  expenses  of  the  royal  household,  which 
under  Charles  V.  were  94,000  livres,  amounted  in 
1412  to  450,000.— Villaret.,  t.  iii.,  p.  243.  Yet  the 
king  was  so  ill  supplied  that  his  plate  had  been 
pawned.  When  Montagu,  minister  of  the  finan- 
ces, was  arrested,  in  1409,  all  this  plate  was  found 
concealed  in  his  house. 

t  It  has  always  been  an  unsettled  point,  whether 
the  presumptive  heir  is  entitled  to  the  regency  of 
France  ;  and,  if  he  be  so  to  the  regency,  whether 
this  includes  the  custody  of  the  minor's  person. 
The  particular  case  of  the  Duke  of  Aniou  is  sub- 
ject to  a  considerable  apparent  difficulty.  Two 
instruments  of  Charles  V.,  bearing  the  same  date 
of  October,  1374,  as  published  by  Dupuy  (Trait6 
de  Majorite  des  Rois,  p.  161),  are  plainly  irrecon- 
cilable with  each  other ;  the  former  giving  the 
exclusive  regency  to  the  Duke  of  Anjou,  reserving 
the  custody  of  the  minor's  person  to  other  guar- 
dians ;  the  latter  conferring  not  only  this  custody, 
but  the  government  of  the  kingdom,  on  the  queen, 
and  on  the  dukes  of  Burgundy  and  Bourbon,  with- 
out mentioning  the  Duke  of  Anjou's  name.  Daniel 
calls  these  testaments  of  Charles  V.,  whereas  they 
are  in  the  form  of  letters  patent ;  and  supposes 
that  the  king  had  suppressed  both,  as  neither  party 
seems  to  have  availed  itself  of  their  authority  in 
the  discussions  that  took  place  after  the  king's 
death.— (Hist,  de  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  662,  edit.  1720.) 
Villaret,  as  is  too  much  his  custom,  slides  over  the 
'difficulty  without  notice.  But  M.  de  Brequigny 
(Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscript.,  t.  1.,  p.  533)  ob- 
serves that  the  second  of  these  instruments,  as 
published  by  M.  Secousse,  in  the  Ordonnances 
des  Rois,  t.  vi.,  p.  406,  differs  most  essentially  from 
that  in  Dupuy,  and  contains  no  mention  whatever 
.-.  of  the  government.  It  is  therefore  easily  recon- 
cileable  with  the  first,  that  confers  the  regency  on 
the  Duke  of  Anjou.  As  Dupuy  took  it  from  the 
same  source  as  Secousse,  namely,  the  Tressor 
des  Charles,  a  strong  suspicion  of  wilful  interpo- 
lation falls  upon  him,  or  upon  the  editor  of  this 
posthumous  work,  printed  in  1655.  This  date 
will  readily  suggest  a  motive  for  such  an  interpo- 
lation, to  those  who  recollect  the  circumstances 
of  France  at  that  time,  and  for  some  years  before  ; 
Anne  of  Austria  having  maintained  herself  in  pos- 
session of  a  testamentary  regency  against  the  pre- 
sumptive heir. 


period,  which  would  naturally  be  very 
short,  a  law  of  Charles  V.  having  fixed 
the  age  of  majority  at  thirteen,  was  still 
more  abridged  by  consent ;  and  after  the 
young  monarch's  coronation,  he  was 
considered  as  reigning  with  full  personal 
authority.  Anjou,  Berry,  and  Burgundy, 
together  with  the  king's  maternal  uncle, 
the  Duke  of  Bourbon,  divided  the  actual 
exercise  of  government. 

The  first  of  these  soon  undertook  an 
expedition  into  Italy,  to  possess  himself 
of  the  crown  of  Naples,  in  which  he  per- 
ished. Berry  was  a  profuse  and  voluptu- 
ous man,  of  no  great  talents ;  though  his 
rank,  and  the  middle  position  which  he 
held  between  straggling  parties,  made 
him  rather  conspicuous  throughout  the 
revolutions  of  that  age.  The  most  re- 
spectable of  the  king's  uncles,  the  Duke 
of  Bourbon,  being  further  removed  from 
the  royal  stem,  and  of  an  unassuming 
character,  took  a  less  active  part  than 
his  three  coadjutors.  Burgundy,  an  am- 
bitious and  able  prince,  maintained  the 
ascendency,  until  Charles,  weary  of  a 
restraint  which  had  been  protracted  by 
his  uncles  till  he  was  in  his  twenty-first 
year  [A.  D.  1387],  took  the  reins  into 
his  own  hands.  The  dukes  of  Burgundy 
and  Berry  retired  from  court,  and  the 
administration  was  committed  to  a  dif- 
ferent set  of  men,  at  the  head  of  whom 
appeared  the  Constable  de  Clisson,  a  sol- 
dier of  great  fame  in  the  English  wars. 
The  people  rejoiced  in  the  fall  of  the 
princes  by  whose  exactions  they  had 
been  plundered;  but  the  new  ministers 
soon  rendered  themselves  odious  by  sim- 
ilar conduct.  The  fortune  of  Clisson, 
after  a  few  years'  favour,  amounted  to 
1,700,000  livres,  equal  in  weight  of  sil- 
ver, to  say  nothing  of  the  depreciation 
of  money,  to  ten  times  that  sum  at  pres- 
ent.* 

[A.  D.  1393.]  Charles  VI.  had  reigned 
five  years  from  his  minority,  Derangement 
when  he  was  seized  with  a  ofChariesvi. 
derangement  of  intellect,  which  continu- 
ed, through  a  series  of  recoveries  and 
relapses,  to  his  death.  He  passed  thirty 
years  in  a  pitiable  state  of  suffering,  .neg- 
lected by  his  family,  particularly  by  the 
most  infamous  of  women,  Isabel  of  Ba- 
varia, his  queen,  to  a  degree  which  is 
hardly  credible.  The  ministers  were 
immediately  disgraced;  the  princes  re- 
assumed  their  stations.  For  several  years 
the  Duke  of  Burgundy  conducted  the 
government.  But  this  was  in  opposition 
to  a  formidable  rival,  Louis,  duke  of  Or- 


Froissart,  p.  iv.,  c.  46. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


49 


leans,  the  king's  brother.     It  was  impos- 

Partiesof       s^e  tnat  a  Prmce   so  near 

Burgundy  the  throne,  favoured  by  the 
and  Orleans.  queen  perhaps  with  criminal 
fondness,  and  by  the  people  on  account 
of  his  external  graces,  should  not  ac- 
quire a  share  of  power.  He  succeeded 
at  length  in  obtaining  the  whole  manage- 
ment of  affairs ;  wherein  the  outrageous 
dissoluteness  of  his  conduct,  and  still 
more  the  excessive  taxes  imposed,  ren- 
dered him  altogether  odious.  The  Paris- 
ians compared  his  administration  with 
that  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy ;  and  from 
that  time  ranged  themselves  on  the  side 
of  the  latter  and  his  family,  throughout 
the  long  distractions  to  which  the  am- 
bition of  these  princes  gave  birth. 

The  death  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
in  1404,  after  several  fluctuations  of  suc- 
cess between  him  and  the  Duke  of  Or- 
leans, by  no  means  left  his  party  without 
a  head.  Equally  brave  and  ambitious, 
but  far  more  audacious  and  unprincipled, 
his  son  John,  surnamed  Sans-peur,  sus- 
tained the  same  contest.  A  reconcilia- 
tion had  been,  however,  brought  about 
with  the  Duke  of  Orleans;  they  had 
sworn  reciprocal  friendship,  and  partici- 
pated, as  was  the  custom,  in  order  to 
render  these  obligations  more  solemn, 
in  the  same  communion.  In  the  midst 
Murder  of  °f  tms  outward  harmony  [A. 
the  Duke  of  D.  1407],  the  Duke  of  Orleans 
Orleans.  was  assassinated  in  the  streets 
of  Paris.  After  a  slight  attempt  at  con- 
cealment, Burgundy  avowed  and  boasted 
of  the  crime,  to  which  he  had  been  in- 
stigated, it  is  said,  by  somewhat  more 
than  political  jealousy.*  From  this  fatal 
moment  the  dissensions  of  the  royal  fam- 
ily began  to  assume  the  complexion  of 
civil  war.  The  queen,  the  sons  of  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  with  the  dukes  of  Ber- 
ry and  Bourbon,  united  against  the  assas- 
sin. But  he  possessed,  in  addition  to  his 
own  appanage  of  Burgundy,  the  county 
of  Flanders  as  his  maternal  inheritance ; 
and  the  people  of  Paris,  who  hated  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  readily  forgave,  or  rath- 
er exulted  in,  his  murder. 

It  is  easy  to  estimate  the  weakness  of 
the  government  from  the  terms  upon 
which  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  per- 
mitted to  obtain  pardon  at  Chartres,  a 
year  after  the  perpetration  of  the  crime. 
As  soon  as  he  entered  the  royal  pres- 
ence, every  one  rose,  except  the  king, 

*  Orleans  is  said  to  have  boasted  of  the  Dutchess 
of  Burgundy's  favours. — Vill.,  t.  xii.,  p.  474.  Amel- 
gard,  who  wrote  about  eighty  years  after  the  time, 
says,  vim  etiam  inferre  attentare  praesumpsit. — No- 
tices des  Manuscrits  du  Roi,  t.  i.,  p.  411. 


queen,  and  dauphin.  The  duke,  approach- 
ing the  throne,  fell  on  his  knees ;  when 
a  lord,  who  acted  as  a  sort  of  counsel 
for  him,  addressed  the  king :  "  Sire,  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  your  cousin  and  ser- 
vant, is  come  before  you,  being  informed 
that  he  has  incurred  your  displeasure  on 
account  of  what  he  caused  to  be  done  to 
the  Duke  of  Orleans  your  brother,  for 
your  good  and  that  of  your  kingdom,  as 
he  is  ready  to  prove  when  it  shall  please 
you  to  hear  it;  and  therefore  requests 
you,  with  all  humility,  to  dismiss  your 
resentment  towards  him,  and  to  receive 
him  into  your  favour."* 

This  insolent  apology  was  all  the 
atonement  that  could  be  extorted  for  the 
assassination  of  the  first  prince  of  the 
blood.  [A.  D.  1410.]  It  is  not  wonderful 
that  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  soon  obtained 
the  management  of  affairs,  and  drove  his 
adversaries  from  the  capital.  The  prin- 
ces, headed  by  the  father-in-  civiiwar 
law  of  the  young  Duke  of  Or-  between  the 
leans,  the  Count  of  Armagnac,  P^1168- 
from  whom  their  party  was  now  denomi- 
nated, raised  their  standard  against  him ; 
and  the  north  of  France  was  rent  to 
pieces  by  a  protracted  civil  war,  in  which 
neither  party  scrupled  any  extremity  of 
pillage  or  massacre.  Several  times  peace 
was  made;  but  each  faction,  conscious 
of  their  own  insincerity,  suspected  that 
of  their  adversaries.  The  king,  of  whose 
name  both  availed  themselves,  was  only 
in  some  doubtful  intervals  of  reason  ca- 
pable of  rendering  legitimate  the  acts  of 
either.  The  dauphin,  aware  of  the  tyr- 
anny which  the  two  parties  alternately 
exercised,  was  forced,  even  at  the  ex- 
pense of  perpetuating  a  civil  war,  to 
balance  one  against  the  other,  and  per- 
mit neither  to  be  wholly  subdued.  He 
gave  peace  to  the  Armagnacs  at  Aux- 
erre,  in  despite  of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy ; 
and  having  afterward  united  with  them 
against  this  prince  [A.  D.  1412],  and  car- 
ried a  successful  war  into  Flanders,  he 
disappointed  their  revenge  by  concluding 
with  him  a  treaty  at  Arras.  [A.  D.  1414.] 

This  dauphin,  and  his  next  brother,  died 
within  sixteen  months  of  each  other,  by 
which  the  rank  devolved  upon  Charles, 
youngest  son  of  the  king.  The  Count 
of  Armagnac,  now  Constable  of  France, 
retained  possession  of  the  government. 
But  his  severity  and  the  weight  of  tax- 
es revived  the  Burgundian  party  in 
Paris  [A.  D.  1417],  which  a  rigid  Apnl> 
proscription  had  endeavoured  to  destroy. 
He  brought  on  his  head  the  implacable 


*  Monstrelet,  part  i.,  f.  112. 


EUROPE  DURING  TOE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


hatred  of  the  queen,  whom  he  had  not 
only  shut  out  from  public  affairs,  but  dis- 
graced by  the  detection  of  her  gallant- 
ries. [A.  D.  1417.]  Notwithstanding  her 
ancient  enmity  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
she  made  overtures  to  him,  and,  being 
delivered  by  his  troops  from  confinement, 
declared  herself  openly  on  his  side.  A 
few  obscure  persons  stole  the  city  keys, 
and  admitted  the  Burgundians  into  Paris. 
The  tumult  which  arose  showed  in  a 
moment  the  disposition  of  the  inhabi- 
tants ;  but  this  was  more  horribly  dis- 
played a  few  days  afterward,  when  the 
populace,  rushing  to  the  prisons 
2>  [A.  D.  1418],  massacred  the  Con- 
stable d'Armagnac  and  his  partisans.  Be- 
tween three  and  four  thousand  persons 
were  murdered  on  this  day,  which  has 
no  parallel  but  what  our  own  age  has 
witnessed,  in  the  massacre  perpetrated 
by  the  same  ferocious  populace  of  Paris, 
under  circumstances  nearly  similar.  [A. 
D.  1419.]  Not  long  afterward  an  agree- 
ment took  place  between  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy,  who  had  now  the  king's  per- 
son, as  well  as  the  capital,  in  his  hands, 
and  the  dauphin,  whose  party  was  enfee- 
bled by  the  loss  of  almost  all  its  lead- 
ers. This  reconciliation,  which  mutual 
interest  should  have  rendered  permanent, 
had  lasted  a  very  short  time,  when  the 
Assassination  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  assas- 
of  the  Duke  of  sinated  at  an  interview  with 
Burgundy.  Charles,  in  his  presence,  and 
by  the  hands  of  his  friends,  though  not 
perhaps  with  his  previous  knowledge.* 

*  There  are  three  suppositions  conceivable  to 
explain  this  important  passage  in  history,  the  as- 
sassination of  John  Sans-peur.  1.  It  was  pretend- 
ed by  the  dauphin's  friends  at  the  time,  and  has 
been  maintained  more  lately  (St.  Foix,  Essais  sur 
Paris,  t.  iii.,  p.  209,  edit.  1767),  that  he  had  pre- 
meditated the  murder  of  Charles,  and  that  his  own 
was  an  act  of  self-defence.  This  is,  I  think,  quite 
improbable ;  the  dauphin  had  a  great  army  near 
the  spot,  while  the  duke  was  only  attended  by  five 
hundred  men.  Villaret  indeed,  and  St.  Foix,  in 
order  to  throw  suspicion  upon  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy's motives,  assert  that  Henry  V.  accused 
him  of  having  made  proposals  to  him  which  he 
could  not  accept  without  offending  God ;  and  con- 
jecture that  this  might  mean  the  assassination  of 
the  dauphin.  But  the  expressions  of  Henry  do 
not  relate  to  any  private  proposals  of  the  duke,  but 
to  demands  made  by  him  and  the  queen,  as  proxies 
for  Charles  VI.,  in  conference  for  peace,  which  he 
says  he  could  not  accept  without  offending  God 
and  contravening  his  own  letters  patent. — (Rymer, 
t.  ix.,  p.  790.)  It  is  not,  however,  very  clear  what 
this  means.  2.  The  next  hypothesis  is,  that  it 
was  the  deliberate  act  of  Charles.  But  his  youth, 
his  feebleness  of  spirit,  and  especially  the  conster- 
nation into  which,  by  all  testimonies,  he  was 
thrown  by  the  event,  are  rather  adverse  to  this  ex- 
planation. 3.  It  remains  only  to  conclude  that 
Tanegui  de  Chastel,  and  other  favourites  of  the 
dauphin,  long  attached  to  the  Orleans  faction,  who 


From  whomsoever  the  crime  proceeded, 
it  was  a  deed  of  infatuation,  and  plunged 
France  afresh  into  a  sea  of  perils,  from 
which  the  union  of  these  factions  had 
just  afforded  a  hope  of  extricating  her. 

It  has  been  mentioned  already  that 
the  English  war  had  almost  intrjgues0f 
ceased  during  the  reigns  of  French  princes 
Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV.  with  En«land- 
The  former  of  these  was  attached  by  in- 
clination, and  latterly  by  marriage,  to  the 
court  of  France  :  and  though  the  French 
government  showed  at  first  some  dispo- 
sition to  revenge  his  dethronement,  yet 
the  new  king's  success,  as  well  as  domes- 
tic quarrels,  deterred  it  from  any  serious 
renewal  of  the  war.  A  long  commercial 
connexion  had  subsisted  between  Eng- 
land and  Flanders,  which  the  dukes  of 
Burgundy,  when  they  became  sovereigns 
of  the  latter  country  upon  the  death  of 
Count  Louis,  in  1384,  were  studious  to 
preserve  by  separate  truces.*  They  act- 
ed upon  the  same  pacific  policy  when 
their  interest  predominated  in  the  councils 
of  France.  Henry  had  even  a  negotia- 
tion pending  for  the  marriage  of  his  eld- 
est son  with  a  princess  of  Burgundy,! 
when  an  unexpected  proposal  from  the 
opposite  side  set  more  tempting  views 
before  his  eyes.  The  Armagnacs,  press- 
ed hard  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  offer- 
ed, in  consideration  of  only  4000  troops, 
the  pay  of  which  they  would  themselves 
defray,  to  assist  him  in  the  recovery  of 
Guienne  and  Poitou.  Four  princes  of 
the  blood,  Berry,  Bourbon,  Orleans, 
and  Alen9on,  disgraced  their  names  y* 
by  signing  this  treaty.^  [A.  D.  1412.] 
Henry  broke  off  his  alliance  with  Bur- 
gundy, and  sent  a  force  into  France, 
which  found,  on  its  arrival,  that  the  prin- 
ces had  made  a  separate  treaty,  without 
the  least  concern  for  their  English  allies. 
After  his  death,  Henry  V.  engaged  for 
some  time  in  a  series  of  negotiations 
with  the  French  court,  where  the  Or- 
leans party  now  prevailed,  and  with  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy.  He  even  secretly 
treated  at  the  same  time  for  a  marriage 
with  Catharine  of  France  (which  seems 


justly  regarded  the  duke  as  an  infamous  assassin, 
and  might  question  his  sincerity  or  their  own 
safety  if  he  should  regain  the  ascendant,  took  ad- 
vantage of  this  opportunity  to  commit  an  act  of  re- 
taliation, less  criminal,  but  not  less  ruinous  in  its 
consequences,  than  that  which  had  provoked  it. 
Charles,  however,  by  his  subsequent  conduct,  re- 
cognised their  deed,  and  naturally  exposed  him- 
self to  the  resentment  of  the  young  Duke  of  Bur- 


gundy 


ymer,  t.  viii.,  p.  511.    Villaret,  t.  xii.,  p.  174. 
t  Idem,  t.  viii.,  p.  721. 
j  Rymer,  t.  viii.,  pp.  726,  737,  738. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


51 


to  have  been  his  favourite,  as  it  was  ulti- 
mately his  successful,  project),  and  with 
a  daughter  of  the  duke ;  a  duplicity  not 
creditable  to  his  memory.*  But  Henry's 
ambition,  which  aimed  at  the  highest 
quarry,  was  not  long  fettered  by  nego- 
tiation ;  and  indeed  his  proposals  of  mar- 
rying Catharine  were  coupled  with  such 
exorbitant  demands,  as  France,  notwith- 
standing all  her  weakness,  could  not  ad- 
mit ;  though  she  would  have  ceded  Gui- 
enne,  and  given  a  vast  dowry  with  the 

Invasion  of   Prim*Sf.tT    [A.    D.    1415]      He 

France  by     invaded  Normandy,  took  Har- 

Henry  V.        flg^  an(J  WQn   fae  great  battle 

of  Azincourt  on  his  march  to  Calais. J 

The  flower  of  French  chivalry  was 
mowed  down  in  this  fatal  day,  but  espe- 
cially the  chiefs  of  the  Orleans  party, 
and  the  princes  of  the  royal  blood,  met 
with  death  or  captivity.  Burgundy  had 
still  suffered  nothing ;  but  a  clandestine 
negotiation  had  secured  the  duke's  neu- 
trality, though  he  seems  not  to  have  en- 
tered into  a  regular  alliance  till  a  year 
after  the  battle  of  Azincourt :  when,  by  a 
secret  treaty  at  Calais,  he  acknowledged 
the  right  of  Henry  to  the  crown  of 
France,  and  his  own  obligation  to  do 
him  homage,  though  its  performance  was 
to  be  suspended  till  Henry  should  be- 
come master  of  a  considerable  part  of 
the  kingdom. $  In  a  second  invasion 
the  English  achieved  the  conquest  of 
Normandy;  and  this,  in  all  subsequent 
negotiations  for  peace  during  the  life 
of  Henry,  he  would  never  consent  to 
relinquish.  After  several  conferences, 
which  his  demands  rendered  abortive, 
the  French  court  at  length  consented  to 
add  Normandy  to  the  cessions  made  in 
the  peace  at  Bretigni  ;||  and  the  treaty, 

*  Rymer,  t.  ix.,  p.  136. 

f  The  terms  required  by  Henry's  ambassadors  in 
1415,  were  the  crown  of  France  ;  or,  at  least,  re- 
serving Henry's  rights  to  that,  Normandy,  Tou- 
raine,  Maine,  Guienne,  with  the  homage  of  Brit- 
any  and  Flanders.  The  French  offered  Guienne 
and  Saintonge,  and  a  dowry  of  800,000  gold  crowns 
for  Catharine.  The  English  demanded  2,000,000. 
—Rymer,  t.  ix.,  p.  218. 

t  The  English  army  at  Azincourt  was  probably 
of  not  more  than  15,000  men  ;  the  French  were,  at 
the  least,  50,000,  and  by  some  computations  much 
more  numerous.  They  lost  10,000  killed,  of  whom 
9000  were  knights  or  gentlemen.  Almost  as  many 
were  made  prisoners.  The  English,  according  to 
Monstrelet,  lost  1600  men;  but  their  own  his- 
torians reduce  this  to  a  very  small  number.  It  is 
curious  that  the  Duke  of  Berry,  who  advised  the 
French  to  avoid  an  action,  had  been  in  the  battle 
of  Poitiers  fifty -nine  years  before. — VilL,  t.  xiii., 
p.  355. 

f)  Compare  Rymer,  t.  ix.,  p.  34,  138,  304,  394. 
The  last  reference  is  to  the  treaty  of  Calais. 

!!  Rym.,  t.  ix.,  p.  628,  763.  Nothing  can  be  more 
D2 


though  labouring  under  some  difficulties, 
seems  to  have  been  nearly  completed, 
when  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  [A. 
D.  1419],  for  reasons  unexplain-  July  l 
ed,  suddenly  came   to   a   reconciliation 
with  the   dauphin.     This   event,  which 
must   have   been  intended  adversely  to 
Henry,  would  probably  have  broken  off 
all  parley  on  the  subject  of  peace,  if  it 
had  not  been  speedily  followed  by  one 
still  more  surprising,  the  assassi- 
nation of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
at  Montereau.  i 

An  act  of  treachery  so  apparently  un- 
provoked, inflamed  the  minds  of  that 
powerful  party  which  had  looked  up  to 
the  duke  as  their  leader  and  patron. 
The  city  of  Paris  especially  abjured  at 
once  its  respect  for  the  supposed  author 
of  the  murder,  though  the  legitimate  heir 
of  the  crown.  A  solemn  oath  was  taken 
by  all  ranks  to  revenge  the  crime;  the 
nobility,  the  clergy,  the  parliament,  vy- 
ing with  the  populace  in  their  invec- 
tives against  Charles,  whom  they  now 
styled  only  pretended  (soi-disant)  dau- 
phin. Philip,  son  of  the  assassinated 
duke,  who,  with  all  the  popularity  and 
much  of  the  ability  of  his  father,  did  not 
inherit  his  depravity,  was  instigated  by  a 
pardonable  excess  of  filial  resentment  to 
ally  himself  with  the  King  of  England. 
These  passions  of  the  people  and  the 
Duke  of  Burgundy,  concurring  with  the 
imbecility  of  Charles  VI.,  and  the  ran- 
cour of  Isabel  towards  her  son,  Treaty  of 
led  to  the  treaty  of  Troyes.  This  Troyes. 
compact,  signed  by  the  queen  May>  1420> 
and  duke,  as  proxies  of  the  king,  who 
had  fallen  into  a  state  of  unconscious  id- 
iocy, stipulated  that  Henry  V.,  upon  his 
marriage  with  Catharine,  should  become 
immediately  regent  of  France,  and,  after 
the  death  of  Charles,  succeed  to  the 
kingdom,  in  exclusion  not  only  of  the 
dauphin,  but  of  all  the  royal  family.*  It 
is  unnecessary  to  remark  that  these  fla- 
gitious provisions  were  absolutely  inval- 
id. But  they  had  at  the  time  the  strong 

insolent  than  the  tone  of  Henry's  instructions  to 
his  commissioners,  p.  628. 

*  As  if  through  shame  on  account  of  what  was  to 
follow,  the  first  articles  contain  petty  stipulations 
about  the  dower  of  Catharine.  The  sixth  gives 
the  kingdom  of  France,  after  Charles's  decease,  to 
Henry  and  his  heirs.  The  seventh  concedes  the 
immediate  regency.  Henry  kept  Normandy  by 
right  of  conquest,  not  in  virtue  of  any  stipulation 
in  the  treaty,  which  he  was  too  proud  to  admit. 
The  treaty  of  Troyes  was  confirmed  by  the  States 
General,  or  rather  by  a  partial  convention  which 
assumed  the  name,  in  December,  1420. — Rym.,  t.  x., 
p.  30.  The  parliament  of  England  did  the  same. 
—Id.,  p.  110.  It  is  printed  at  full  length  by  Villa- 
ret,  t.  xv.,  p.  84. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


sanction  offeree ;  and  Henry  might  plau- 
sibly flatter  himself  with  a  hope  of  estab- 
lishing his  own  usurpation  as  firmly  in 
France  as  his  father's  had  been  in  Eng- 
land. What  neither  the  comprehensive 
policy  of  Edward  III.,  the  energy  of  the 
Black  Prince,  the  valour  of  their  Knolly- 
ses  and  Chandoses,  nor  his  own  victories 
could  attain,  now  seemed,  by  a  strange 
vicissitude  of  fortune,  to  court  his  ambi- 
tion. During  two  years  that  Henry  lived 
after  the  treaty  of  Troyes,  he  governed 
the  north  of  France  with  unlimited  au- 
thority in  the  name  of  Charles  VI.  The 
latter  survived  his  son-in-law  but  a  few 
weeks ;  and  the  infant  Henry  VI.  was 
immediately  proclaimed  King  of  France 
and  England,  under  the  regency  of  his 
uncle  the  Duke  of  Bedford. 

Notwithstanding  the  disadvantage  of  a 
state  of  minority,  the  English  cause 
France  at  the  was  less  weakened  by  the 
accession  of  death  of  Henry  than  might 

Charles  VII.    ^    been    ^^       [A.    D. 

1422.]  The  Duke  of  Bedford  partook  of 
the  same  character,  and  resembled  his 
brother  in  faults  as  well  as  virtues ;  in  his 
haughtiness  and  arbitrary  temper,  as  in  his 
energy  and  address.  At  the  accession  of 
Charles  VII.,  the  usurper  was  acknowl- 
edged by  all  the  northern  provinces  of 
France,  except  a  few  fortresses,  by  most 
of  Guienne,  and  the  dominions  of  Bur- 
gundy. [A.  D.  1423.]  The  Duke  of  Brit- 
any  soon  afterward  acceded  to  the  treaty 
of  Troyes,  but  changed  his  party  again  sev- 
eral times  within  a  few  years.  The  cen- 
tral provinces,  with  Languedoc,  Poitou, 
and  Dauphine,  were  faithful  to  the  king. 
For  some  years  the  war  continued  without 
any  decisive  result ;  but  the  balance  was 
clearly  swayed  in  favour  of  England. 

For  this  it  is  not  difficult  to  as- 
theUsuccess  sign  several  causes.  The  ani- 
oftheEng-  mosity  of  the  Parisians  and  the 

Duke  of  Burgundy  against  the 
Armagnac  party  still  continued,  mingled 
in  the  former  with  dread  of  the  .king's  re- 
turn, whom  they  judged  themselves  to 
have  inexpiably  offended.  The  war  had 
brought  forward  some  accomplished  com- 
manders in  the  English  army;  surpas- 
sing, not  indeed  in  valour  and  enterprise, 
but  in  military  skill,  any  whom  France 
could  oppose  to  them.  Of  these  the 
most  distinguished,  besides  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  himself,  were  Warwick,  Salis- 
bury, and  Talbot.  Their  troops,  too, 
were  still  very  superior  to  the  French. 
But  this,  we  must  in  candour  allow,  pro- 
ceeded in  a  great  degree  from  the  mode 
in  which  they  were  raised.  The  war 
was  so  popular  in  England,  that  it  was 


easy  to  pick  the  best  and  stoutest  re- 
cruits,* and  their  high  pay  allured  men 
of  respectable  condition  to  the  service. 
We  find  in  Rymer  a  contract  of  the  Earl 
of  Salisbury  to  supply  a  body  of  troops, 
receiving  a  shilling  a  day  for  every  man 
at  arms,  and  sixpence  for  each  archer.f 
This  is  perhaps  equal  to  fifteen  times  the 
sum  at  our  present  value  of  money. 
They  were  bound  indeed  to  furnish  their 
own  equipments  and  horses.  But  France 
was  totally  exhausted  by  her  civil  and 
foreign  war,  and  incompetent  to  defray 
the  expenses  even  of  the  small  force 
which  defended  the  wreck  of  the  monar- 
chy. Charles  VII.  lived  in  the  utmost 
poverty  at  Bourges.J  The  nobility  had 
scarcely  recovered  from  the  fatal  slaugh- 
ter of  Azincourt,  and  the  infantry,  com- 
posed of  peasants  or  burgesses,  which 
had  made  their  army  so  numerous  upon 
that  day,  whether  from  inability  to  com- 
pel their  services,  or  experience  of  their 
inefficacy,  were  never  called  into  the 
field.  It  became  almost  entirely  a  war 
of  partisans.  Every  town  in  Picardy, 
Champagne,  Maine,  or  wherever  the  con- 
test might  be  carried  on,  was  a  fortress  ; 
and  in  the  attack  or  defence  of  these  gar- 
risons, the  valour  of  both  nations  was 
called  into  constant  exercise.  This  mode 
of  warfare  was  undoubtedly  the  best  in 
the  actual  state  of  France,  as  it  gradually 
improved  her  troops,  and  flushed  them 
with  petty  successes.  But  what  princi- 
pally led  to  its  adoption  was  the  license 
and  insubordination  of  the  royalists,  who, 
receiving  no  pay,  owned  no  control,  and 
thought  that,  provided  they  acted  against 
the  English  and  Burgundians,  they  were 
free  to  choose  their  own  points  of  attack. 
Nothing  can  more  evidently  show  the 
weakness  of  France,  than  the  high  terms 
by  which  Charles  VII.  was  content  to 
purchase  the  assistance  of  some  Scot- 
tish auxiliaries.  The  Earl  of  Buchan 
was  made  constable ;  the  Earl  of  Doug- 
las had  the  dutchy  of  Touraine,  with  a 
new  title,  lieutenant-general  of  the  king- 
dom. At  a  subsequent  time,  Charles  of- 
fered the  province  of  Saintonge  to  James 
I.  for  an  aid  of  6000  men.  These  Scots 
fought  bravely  for  France,  though  urisuc- 

*  Monstrelet,  part  i.,  f.  303. 

t  Rym.,  t.  x.,  p.  392.  This  contract  was  for  600 
men  at  arms,  including  six  bannerets,  and  thirty- 
four  bachelors;  and  for  1700  archers;  bien  et 
suffisamment  montez,  armez,  et  arraiez  comme  a 
leurs  estats  appartient.  The  pay  was,  for  the  earl, 
6s.  8d.  a  day ;  for  a  banneret,  4s. ;  for  a  bachelor, 
2s. ;  for  every  other  man  at  arms,  Is.  ;  and  for 
each  archer,  6d.  Artillery-men  were  paid  higher 
than  men  at  arms. 

J  Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  302. 


PART  II.J 


FRANCE. 


cessfully,  at  Crevant  and  Verneuil;  but 
it  must  be  owned  they  set  a  sufficien 
value  upon  their  service.  Under  al 
these  disadvantages,  it  would  be  unjus 
to  charge  the  French  nation  with  any  in- 
feriority of  courage,  even  in  the  most 
unfortunate  periods  of  this  war.  Though 
frequently  panic-struck  in  the  field  of  bat- 
tle, they  stood  sieges  of  their  walled  towns 
with  matchless  spirit  and  endurance.  Per- 
haps some  analogy  may  be  found  between 
the  character  of  the  French  commonalty 
during  the  English  invasion,  and  the 
Spaniards  of  the  late  peninsular  war. 
But  to  the  exertions  of  those  brave 
nobles  who  restored  the  monarchy  of 
Charles  VII.,  Spain  has  afforded  no  ade- 
quate parallel. 

It  was,  however,  in  the  temper  of 
Character  Charles  VII.  that  his  enemies 
or  cuaries  found  their  chief  advantage.  This 
prince  is  one  of  the  few  whose 
character  has  been  improved  by  prosper- 
ity. During  the  calamitous  morning  of 
his  reign,  he  shrunk  from  fronting  the 
storm,  and  strove  to  forget  himself  in 
pleasure.  Though  brave,  he  was  never 
seen  in  war ;  though  intelligent,  he  was 
governed  by  flatterers.  Those  who  had 
committed  the  assassination  at  Monte- 
reau  under  his  eyes  were  his  first  favour 
ites ;  as  if  he  had  determined  to  avoid 
the  only  measure  through  which  he  could 
hope  for  better  success,  a  reconciliation 
with  the  Duke  of  Burgundy.  The  Count 
de  Richemont,  brother  of  the  Duke  of 
Britany,  who  became  afterward  one  of 
the  chief  pillars  of  his  throne,  consented 
to  renounce  the  English  alliance,  and  ac- 
cept the  rank  of  constable,  on  condition 
that  these  favourites  should  quit  the 
court.  [A.  D.  1424.]  Two  others,  who 
successively  gained  a  similar  influence 
over  Charles,  Richemont  publicly  caused 
to  be  assassinated,  assuring  the  king  that 
it  was  for  his  own  and  the  public  good. 
Such  was  the  debasement  of  morals  and 
government  which  twenty  years  of  civil 
war  had  produced!  Another  favourite, 
La  Tremouille,  took  the  dangerous  office, 
and,  as  might  be  expected,  employed  his 
influence  against  Richemont,  who  for 
some  years  lived  on  his  own  domains, 
rather  as  an  armed  neutral  than  a  friend, 
though  he  never  lost  his  attachment  to 
the  royal  cause. 

It  cannot  therefore  surprise  us,  that  with 
all  these  advantages  the  regent  Duke  of 
Bedford  had  almost  completed  the  cap- 
ture of  the  fortresses  north  of  the  Loire, 
Siege  of  when  he  invested  Orleans  in  1428. 
Orleans,  if  tnis  city  had  fallen,  the  central 
provinces,  which  were  less  furnished  with 


defensible  places,  would  have  lain  open 
to  the  enemy ;  and  it  is  said  that  Charles 
VII.  in  despair  was  about  to  retire  into 
Dauphine.  At  this  time  his  affairs  were 
restored  by  one  of  the  most  marvellous 
revolutions  in  history.  A  country  girl 
overthrew  the  power  of  Eng- 
land. We  cannot  pretend  to  JoanofA™- 
explain  the  surprising  story  of  the  Maid 
of  Orleans  ;  for,  however  easy  it  may  be 
to  suppose  that  a  heated  and  enthusiastic 
imagination  produced  her  own  visions,  it 
is  a  much  greater  problem  to  account  for 
the  credit  they  obtained,  and  for  the  suc- 
cess that  attended  her.  Nor  will  this  be 
solved  by  the  hypothesis  of  a  concerted 
stratagem ;  which,  if  we  do  not  judge  al- 
together from  events,  must  appear  liable 
to  so  many  chances  of  failure,  that  it 
could  not  have  suggested  itself  to  any  ra- 
tional person.  However,  it  is  certain  that 
the  appearance  of  Joan  of  Arc  turned  the 
tide  of  war,  which  from  that  moment 
flowed  without  interruption  in  Charles's 
favour.  A  superstitious  awe  enfeebled 
the  sinews  of  the  English.  They  hung 
back  in  their  own  country,  or  deserted 
from  the  army,  through  fear  of  the  incan- 
tations, by  which  alone  they  conceived  so 
extraordinary  a  person  to  succeed.*  As 
men  always  make  sure  of  Providence 
for  an  ally,  whatever  untoward  fortune 
appeared  to  result  from  preternatural 
causes  was  at  once  ascribed  to  infernal 
enemies  ;  and  such  bigotry  may  be  plead- 
ed as  an  excuse,  though  a  very  miserable 
one,  for  the  detestable  murder  of  this 
heroine. f 

The  spirit  which  Joan  of  Arc  had  roused 
did  not  subside.  France  recovered  con- 
fidence in  her  own  strength,  which  had 
been  chilled  by  a  long  course  of  adverse 
fortune.  The  king,  too,  shook  off  his  in- 


*•  Rym.,  t.  x.,  p.  458-472.  This,  however,  is  con- 
jecture ;  for  the  cause  of  their  desertion  is  not  men- 
tioned in  these  proclamations,  though  Ryrner  has 
printed  it  in  their  title.  But  the  Duke  of  Bedford 
speaks  of  the  turn  of  success  as  astonishing,  and 
due  only  to  the  superstitious  fear  which  the  Eng- 
lish had  conceived  of  a  female  magician. — Rymer, 
t.  x.,  p.  408. 

t  M.  de  1'Averdy,  to  whom  we  owe  the  copious 
account  of  the  proceedings  against  Joan  of  Arc,  as 
well  as  those  which  Charles  VII.  instituted  in  or- 
der to  rescind  the  former,  contained  in  the  third 
volume  of  Notices  des  Manuscrits  du  Roi,  has  just- 
ly made  this  remark,  which  is  founded  on  the  ea- 
gerness shown  by  the  university  of  Paris  in  the 
prosecution,  and  on  its  being  conducted  before  an 
'nquisitor  ;  a  circumstance  exceedingly  remarkable 
n  the  ecclesiastical  history  of  France,  But  anoth- 
er material  observation  arises  out  of  this.  The 
maid  was  pursued  with  peculiar  bitterness  by  her 
countrymen  of  the  English,  or  rather  Burgundian, 
action ;  a  proof  that,  in  1430,  their  animosity 
against  Charles  VII.  was  still  ardent. 


54 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  1. 


The  king  dolence,*  and  permitted  Riche- 
retrieves  his  mont  to  exclude  his  unworthy 
affairs,  favourites  from  the  court.  This 
led  to  a  very  important  consequence. 
The  Duke  of  Burgundy,  whose  alliance 
with  England  had  been  only  the  fruit  of 
indignation  at  his  father's  murder,  fell  nat- 
urally, as  that  passion  wore  out,  into  sen- 
timents more  congenial  to  his  birth  and 
interests.  A  prince  of  the  house  of  Capet 
could  not  willingly  see  the  inheritance 
of  his  ancestors  transferred  to  a  stranger. 
And  he  had  met  with  provocation  both 
from  the  regent  and  the  Duke  of  Glou- 
cester, who,  in  contempt  of  all  policy  and 
justice,  had  endeavoured,  by  an  invalid 
marriage  with  Jacqueline,  countess  of 
Hainault  and  Holland,  to  obtain  provinces 
which  Burgundy  designed  for  himself. 
Yet  the  union  of  his  sister  with  Bedford, 
the  obligations  by  which  he  was  bound, 
and,  most  of  all,  the  favour  shown  by 
andisrecon-  Charles  VII.  to  the  assassins  of 
ciied  to  the  his  father,  kept  him  for  many 

*  It  is  a  current  piece  of  history,  that  Agnes  So- 
rel,  mistress  of  Charles  VII.,  had  the  merit  of  dis- 
suading him  from  giving  up  the  kingdom  as  lost, 
at  the  time  when  Orleans  was  besieged  in  1428. 
Mezeray,  Daniel,  Villaret,  and,  I  believe,  every  oth- 
er modern  historian,  have  mentioned  this  circum- 
stance ;  and  some  of  them,  among  whom  is  Hume, 
with  the  addition,  that  Agnes  threatened  to  leave 
the  court  of  Charles  for  that  of  Henry,  affirming 
that  she  was  born  to  be  the  mistress  of  a  great 
king.  The  latter  part  of  this  tale  is  evidently  a 
fabrication,  Henry  VI.  being  at  the  time  a  child  of 
seven  years  old.  But  I  have,  to  say  the  least,  great 
doubts  of  the  main  story.  It  is  not  mentioned  by 
contemporary  writers.  On  the  contrary,  what  they 
say  of  Agnes  leads  me  to  think  the  dates  incompat- 
ible. Agnes  died  (in  childbed,  as  some  say)  in 
1450  ;  twenty-two  years  after  the  siege  of  Orleans. 
Monstrelet  says  that  she  had  been  about  five  years  in 
the  service  of  the  queen ;  and  the  king  taking  pleas- 
ure in  her  liveliness  and  wit,  common  fame  had 
spread  abroad  that  she  lived  in  concubinage  with 
him.  She  certainly  had  a  child,  and  was  willing 
that  it  should  be  thought  the  king's ;  but  he  always 
denied  it,  et  le  pouvoit  bien  avoir  emprunte  ailleurs. 
— Pt.  iii.,  f.  25.  Olivier  de  la  Marche,  another 
contemporary,  who  lived  in  the  court  of  Burgundy, 
says,  about  the  year  1444,  le  Roy  avoit  nouvelle- 
ment  esleve  une  pauvre  demoiselle,  gentifemme, 
nommee  Agnes  Sorel,  et  mis  en  tel  triumphe  et  tel 
pouvoir,  que  son  estat  estoit  a  comparer  aux  grandes 
princesses  de  Royaume,  et  certes  c'estoit  une  des 
plus  belles  femmes  que  je  vey  oncques,  et  fit  en  sa 
qualite  beaucoup  au  Royaume  de  France.  Elle 
avancoit  devers  le  Roy  Junes  gens  d'armes,  et  gen- 
tils  compaignons,  et  dont  le  Roy  depuis  fut  bien 
servy.— La  Marche.  M^m.  Hist.,  t.  viii.,  p.  145. 
Du  Clercq,  whose  memoirs  were  first  published  in 
the  same  collection,  says,  that  Agnes  mourut  par 
poison  moult  jeune. — Ib.,  t.  viii.,  p.  410.  And  the 
continuator  of  Monstrelet,  probably  John  Chartier, 
speaks  of  the  youth  and  beauty  of  Agnes,  which 
exceeded  that  of  any  other  woman  in  France,  and 
of  the  favour  shown  her  by  the  king,  which  so  much 
excited  the  displeasure  of  the  dauphin,  on  his  moth- 
er's account,  that  he  was  suspected  of  having  caused 


years  on  the  English  side,  al-  Duke  of 
though  rendering  it  less  and  less  Buriundy- 
assistance.  But  at  length  he  concluded  a 
treaty  at  Arras,  the  terms  of  which  he  dic- 
tated rather  as  a  conqueror,  than  as  a  sub- 
ject negotiating  with  his  sovereign.  [A.  D. 
1435.]  Charles,  however,  refused  nothing 
for  such  an  end ;  and,  in  a  very  short  time, 
the  Burgundians  were  ranged  with  the 
French  against  their  old  allies  of  England. 
It  was  now  time  for  the  latter  to  aban- 
don those  magnificent  projects  impolicy  or 
of  conquering  France,  which  the  English, 
temporary  circumstances  alone  had  seem- 
ed to  render  feasible.  But  as  it  is  a  nat- 
ural effect  of  good  fortune  in  the  game  of 
war  to  render  a  people  insensible  to  its 
gradual  change,  the  English  could  not 
persuade  themselves  that  their  affairs 
were  irretrievably  declining.  Hence 
they  rejected  the  offer  of  Normandy  and 
Guienne,  subject  to  the  feudal  superiority 
of  France,  which  was  made  to  them  at 
the  congress  of  Arras  ;*  and  some  years 


her  to  be  poisoned. — Fol.  68.  The  same  writer  af- 
firms of  Charles  VII.  that  he  was,  before  the  peace 
of  Arras,  de  moult  belle  vie  et  devote  ;  but  after- 
ward enlaidit  sa  vie  de  tenir  malles  femmes  en 
son  hostel,  &c.,  fol.  86. 

It  is  for  the  reader  to  judge  how  far  these  passa- 
ges render  it  improbable  that  Agnes  Sorel  was 
the  mistress  of  Charles  VII.  at  the  siege  of  Orleans 
in  1428,  and,  consequently,  whether  she  is  entitled 
to  the  praise  which  she  has  received,  of  being  in- 
strumental in  the  deliverance  of  France.  The  tra- 
dition, however,  is  as  ancient  as  Francis  I.,  who 
made  in  her  honour  a  quatrain  which  is  well  known. 
This  probably  may  have  brought  the  story  more 
into  vogue,  and  led  Mezeray,  who  was  not  very 
critical,  to  insert  it  in  his  history,  from  which  it  has 
passed  to  his  followers.  Its  origin  was  apparently 
the  popular  cha  acter  of  Agnes.  She  was  the  Nell 
Gwyn  of  France  ;  and  justly  beloved,  not  only  for 
her  charity  and  courtesy,  but  for  bringing  forward 
men  of  merit,  and  turning  her  influence,  a  virtue 
very  rare  in  her  class,  towards  the  public  interest. 
From  thence  it  was  natural  to  bestow  upon  her,  in 
after-times,  a  merit  not  ill  suited  to  her  character, 
but  which  an  accurate  observation  of  dates  seems 
to  render  impossible..  But  whatever  honour  I  am 
compelled  to  detract  from  Agnes  Sorel,  I  am  wil- 
ling to  transfer  undiminished  to  a  more  unblemish- 
ed female,  the  injured  queen  of  Charles  VII.,  Mary 
of  Anjou,  who  has  hitherto  only  shared  with  the 
usurper  of  her  rights  the  credit  ofawakening  Charles 
from  his  lethargy.  Though  I  do  not  know  on  what 
foundation  even  this  rests,  it  is  not  unlikely  to  be 
true,  and,  in  deference  to  the  sex,  let  it  pass  undis- 
puted. 

*  Villaret  says,  Les  plenipotentiaries  de  Charles 
offrirent  la  cession  de  la  Normandie  et  de  la  Gui- 
enne en  toute  propri&d,  sous  la  clause  de  Vhommage  a 
la  couronne,  t.  xv.,  p.  174.  But  he  does  not  quote 
his  authority,  and  I  do  not  like  to  rely  on  an  histo- 
rian not  eminent  for  accuracy  in  fact,  or  precision  in 
language.  If  his  expression  is  correct,  the  French 
must  have  given  up  the  feudal  appeal,  or  ressort, 
which  had  been  the  great  point  in  dispute  between 
Edward  III.  and  Charles  V.,  preserving  only  a 
homage  per  paragium,  as  it  was  called,  which  im- 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


afterward,  when  Paris,  with  the  adjacent 
provinces,  had  been  lost,  the  English  am- 
bassadors, though  empowered  by  their 
private  instructions  to  relax,  stood  upon 
demands  quite  disproportionate  to  the  ac- 
tual position  of  affairs.*  As  foreign  ene- 
mies, they  were  odious  even  in  that  part 
of  France  which  had  acknowledged  to 
Henry  ;f  and  when  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
deserted  their  side,  Paris  and  every  other 
city  were  impatient  to  throw  off  the  yoke. 
A  feeble  monarchy  and  a  selfish  council 
They  lose  completed  their  ruin  :  the  neces- 
aii  their  sary  subsidies  were  raised  with 
;onquests.  difficultv  [A.  D  1449],  and,  when 
raised,  misapplied.  It  is  a  proof  of 
the  exhaustion  of  France,  that  Charles 
was  unable,  for  several  years,  to  reduce 
Normandy  or  Guienne,  which  were  so 
ill  provided  for  defence.J  At  last  he 
came  with  collected  strength  to  the  con- 
test, and,  breaking  an  armistice  upon 
slight  pretences,  within  two  years  over- 
whelmed the  English  garrisons  in  each 
of  these  provinces.  All  the  inheritance 
of  Henry  II.  and  Eleanor,  all  the  con- 
quests of  Edward  III.  and  Henry  V.,  ex- 
cept Calais  and  a  small  adjacent  district, 
were  irrecoverably  torn  from  the  crown 
of  England.  A  barren  title,  that  idle  tro- 
phy of  disappointed  ambition,  was  pre- 
served, with  strange  obstinacy,  to  our 
own  age. 

In  these  second  English  wars,  we  find 
condition  little  left  of  that  generous  feel- 
<f  rin^e  *n£  wnich  nad,  in  general,  dis- 
serondEn-  tinguished  the  contemporaries 
gushwars.  of  Edward  III.  The  very  vir- 
tues which  a  state  of  hostility  promotes 
are  not  proof  against  its  long  continuance, 
and  sink  at  last  into  brutal  fierceness. 
Revenge  and  fear  excited  the  two  fac- 
tions of  Orleans  and  Burgundy  to  all 
atrocious  actions.  The  troops  serving 
under  partisans  on  detached  expeditions, 
according  to  the  system  of  the  war,  lived 
at  free  quarters  on  the  people.  The  his- 
tories of  the  time  are  full  of  their  outrages, 
from  which,  as  is  the  common  case,  the 
unprotected  peasantry  most  suffered.^ 

plied  no  actual  supremacy.  Monstrelet  says  only, 
que  per  certaines  conditions  luy  seroient  accorddes 
les  seigneuries  de  Guienne  et  Normandie. 

*  See  the  instructions  given  to  the  English  ne- 
gotiators in  1439,  at  length,  in  Rymer,  t.  x.,  p.  724. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  448. 

j  Amelgard,  from  whose  unpublished  memoirs 
of  Charles  VIE.  and  Louis  XI.  some  valuable  ex- 
tracts are  made  in  the  Notices  des  Manuscrits,  t.  i., 
p.  403,  attributes  the  delay  in  recovering  Norman- 
dy solely  to  the  king's  slothfulness  and  sensuality. 
In  fact,  the  people  of  that  province  rose  upon  the 
English,  and  almost  emancipated  themselves,  with 
little  aid  from  Charles. 

$  Monstrelet,  passim.    A  long  metrical  corn- 


Even  those  laws  of  war,  which  the  cour- 
teous sympathies  of  chivalry  had  enjoin- 
ed, were  disregarded  by  a  merciless  fury. 
Garrisons  surrendering  after  a  brave  de- 
fence were  put  to  death.  Instances  of 
this  are  very  frequent.  Henry  V.  ex- 
cepts  Alain  Blanchard,  a  citizen  who  had 
ditinguished  himself  during  the  siege, 
from  the  capitulation  of  Rouen,  and  or- 
ders him  to  execution.  At  the  taking  of 
a  town  of  Champagne,  John  of  Luxem- 
burg, the  Burgundian  general,  stipulates 
that  every  fourth  and  sixth  man  should 
be  at  his  discretion ;  which  he  exercises 
by  causing  them  all  to  be  hanged.*  Four 
hundred  English  from  Pontoise,  stormed 
by  Charles  VII.,  in  1441,  are  paraded  in 
chains  and  naked  through  the  streets  of 
Paris,  and  thrown  afterward  into  the 
Seine.  This  infamous  action  cannot  but 
be  ascribed  to  the  king.f 

At  the  expulsion  of  the  English,  France 
emerged  from  the  chaos  with 
an  altered  character  and  new  ?vem?Si 
features  of  government.     The  the  reign  of 
royal   authority  and   supreme  c 
jurisdiction  of  the  parliament  were  uni- 
versally recognised..      Yet  there  was  a 
tendency   towards    insubordination   left 


plaint  of  the  people  of  France,  curious  as  a  speci- 
men of  versification,  as  well  as  a  testimony  to  the 
misfortunes  of  the  time,  may  be  found  in  this  his- 
torian.—Part  i.,  fol.  321.  Notwithstanding  the 
treaty  of  Arras,  the  French  and  Burgundians  made 
continual  incursions  upon  each  other's  frontiers, 
especially  about  Laon  and  in  the  Vermandois. 
So  that  the  people  had  no  help,  says  Monstrelet, 
si  non  de  crier  miserablement  a  Dieu  leur  createur 
vengeance  ;  et  que  pis  estoit,  quand  ils  obtenoient 
aucun  sauf-conduit  d'aucuns  capitaines  peu  en  es- 
toit entretenu,  mesmement  tout  d'un  parti. — Pt.  ii., 
f.  139.  These  pillagers  were  called  Ecorcheurs, 
because  they  stripped  the  people  of  their  shirts. 
And  this  name  superseded  that  of  Armagnacs,  by 
which  one  side  had  hitherto  been  known.  Even 
Xaintrailles  and  La  Hire,  two  of  the  bravest  cham- 
pions of  France,  were  disgraced  by  these  habits 
of  outrage.— Ibid.,  fol,  144,  150,  175.  Oliv.  de  la 
Marche,  in  Collect,  des  Memoires,  t.  viii.,  p.  25  ;  t. 
v.,  p.  323. 

Pour  la  plupart,  says  Villaret,  se  faire  guerrier, 
ou  voleur  de  grands  chemins,  signifioit  la  me'me 
chose. 

*  Monstrelet,  part  ii.,  f.  79,  This  John  of  Lux- 
emburg, count  de  Ligny,  was  a  distinguished  cap- 
tain on  the  Burgundian  side,  and  for  a  long  time 
would  not  acquiesce  in  the  treaty  of.  Arras.  He 
disgraced  himself  by  giving  up  to  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  his  prisoner  Joan  of  Arc  for  10,000  francs. 
The  famous  Count  of  St.  Pol  was  his  nephew,  and 
inherited  his  great  possessions  in  the  county  of 
Vermandois.  Monstrelet  relates  a  singular  proof 
of  the  good  education  which  his  uncle  gave  him. 
Some  prisoners  having  been  made  in  an  engage- 
ment, si  fut  le  jeune  Comte  de  St.  Pol:  mis  en  voye 
de  guerre ;  car  le  Comte  de  Ligny  son  oncle  luy 
en  feit  occire  aucuns,  le  quel  y  prenoit  grand  plav 
sir,  part  ii.,  fol.  95. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xv.,  p.  327, 


56 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


among  the  great  nobility,  arising  in  part 
from  the  remains  of  old  feudal  privileges, 
but  still  more  from  that  lax  administra- 
tion, which,  in  the  convulsive  struggles 
of  the  war,  had  been  suffered  to  prevail. 
In  the  south  were  some  considerable  vas- 
sals, the  houses  of  Foix,  Albret,  and  Ar- 
magnac,  who,  on  account  of  their  dis- 
tance from  the  seat  of  empire,  had  al- 
ways maintained  a  very  independent  con- 
duct. The  dukes  of  Britany  and  Bur- 
gundy were  of  a  more  formidable  charac- 
ter, and  might  rather  be  ranked  among 
foreign  powers  than  privileged  subjects. 
The  princes,  too,  of  the  royal  blood,  who, 
during  the  late  reign,  had  learned  to  par- 
take or  contend  for  the  management,  were 
ill  inclined  towards  Charles  VII.,  himself 
jealous,  from  old  recollections,  of  their 
ascendency.  They  saw  that  the  consti- 
tution was  verging  rapidly  towards  an 
absolute  monarchy,  from  the  direction  of 
which  they  would  studiously  be  excluded. 
This  apprehension  gave  rise  to  several 
attempts  at  rebellion  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  VII.,  and  to  the  war,  commonly 
entitled,  for  the  Public  Weal  (du  bien  pub- 
lic), under  Louis  XL  Among  the  preten- 
ces alleged  by  the  revolters  in  each  of 
these,  the  injuries  of  the  people  were 
not  forgotten  ;*  but  from  the  people  they 
received  small  support.  Weary  of  civil 
dissension,  and  anxious  for  a  strong  gov- 
ernment to  secure  them  from  depredation, 
the  French  had  no  inducement  to  intrust 
even  their  real  grievances  to  a  few  male- 
content  princes,  whose  regard  for  the 
common  good  they  had  much  reason  to 
distrust.  Every  circumstance  favoured 
Charles  VII.  and  his  son  in  the  attainment 
of  arbitrary  power.  The  country  was 
pillaged  by  military  ruffians.  Some  of 
these  had  been  led  by  the  dauphin  to  a 
war  in  Germany,  but  the  remainder  still 
infested  the  high  roads  and  villages. 
Charles  established  his  companies  of  or- 
donnance,  the  basis  of  the  French  regular 
army,  in  order  to  protect  the  country 
from  such  depredators.  They  consisted 
of  about  nine  thousand  soldiers,  all  cav- 
alry, of  whom  fifteen  hundred  were  hea- 
vy-armed ;  a  force  not  very  considerable, 


*  The  confederacy  formed  at  Nevers  in  1441, 
by  the  dukes  of  Orleans  and  Bourbon,  with  many 
other  princes,  made  a  variety  of  demands,  all  rela- 
ting to  the  grievances  which  different  classes  of 
the  state,  or  individuals  among  themselves,  suffer- 
ed under  the  administration  of  Charles.  These 
may  be  found  at  length  in  Monstrelet,  p.  ii.,  f.  193  ; 
and  are  a  curious  document  of  the  change  which 
was  then  working  in  the  French  constitution.  In 
his  answer,  the  king  claims  the  right,  in  urgent 
cases,  of  levying  taxes  without  waiting  for  the  con- 
sent of  the  States  General 


but  the  first,  except  mere  body-guards, 
which  had  been  raised  in  any  part  of 
Europe  as  a  national  standing  army.* 
These  troops  were  paid  out  of  the  pro- 
duce of  a  permanent  tax,  called  the  taille ; 
an  innovation  still  more  important  than 
the  former.  But  the  present  benefit 
cheating  the  people,  now  prone  to  sub- 
missive habits,  little  or  no  opposition  was 
made;  except  in  Guienne,  the  inhabi- 
tants of  which  had  speedy  reason  to  re- 
gret the  mild  government  of  England, 
and  vainly  endeavoured  to  return  to  its 
protection.! 

[A.  D.  1461.]  It  was  not  long  before  the 
new  despotism  exhibited  itself  in  LouisXI 
its  harshest  character.  LouisXI., 
son  of  Charles  VII.,  who,  during  his  fa- 
ther's reign,  had  been  connected  with  the 
discontented  princes,  came  to  the  throne 
greatly  endowed  with  those  virtues  and 
vices  which  conspire  to  the  success  of  a 
king.  Laborious  vigilance  in  His  charac- 
business,  contempt  of  pomp,  af-  ter- 
fability  to  inferiors,  were  his  excellen- 
ces ;  qualities  especially  praiseworthy  in 
an  age  characterized  by  idleness,  love  of 


*  Olivier  de  la  Marche  speaks  very  much  in  fa- 
vour of  the  companies  of  ordonnance,  as  having 
repressed  the  plunderers,  and  restored  internal 
police. — Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  viii.,  p.  148. 
Amelgard  pronounces  a  vehement  philipic  against 
them  ;  but  it  is  probable  that  his  observation  of  the 
abuses  they  had  fallen  into  was  confined  to  the 
reign  of  Louis  XL — Notices  des  Manuscrits,  ubi 
supra. 

t  The  insurrection  of  Guienne  in  1452,  which 
for  a  few  months  restored  that  province  to  the  Eng- 
lish crown,  is  accounted  for  in  the  curious  me- 
moirs of  Amelgard,  above  mentioned.  It  proceed- 
ed solely  from  the  arbitrary  taxes  imposed  by 
Charles  VII.  in  order  to  defray  the  expenses  of  his 
regular  army.  The  people  of  Bordeaux  complain- 
ed of  exactions  not  only  contrary  to  their  ancient 
privileges,  but  to  the  positive  conditions  of  their 
capitulation.  But  the  king  was  deaf  to  such  re- 
monstrances. The  province  of  Guienne,  he  says, 
then  perceived  that  it  was  meant  to  subject  it  to 
the  same  servitude  as  the  rest  of  France,  where 
the  leeches  of  the  state  boldly  maintain,  as  a  fun- 
damental maxim,  that  the  king  has  a  right  to  tax 
all  his  subjects,  how  and  when  he  pleases  ;  which 
is  to  advance  that  in  France  no  man  has  any  thing 
that  he  can  call  his  own,  and  that  the  king  can 
take  all  at  his  pleasure  ;  the  proper  condition  of 
slaves,  whose  peculium,  enjoyed  by  their  master's 
permission,  belongs  to  him,  like  their  persons,  and 
may  be  taken  away  whenever  he  chooses.  Thus 
situated,  the  people  of  Guienne,  especially  those 
of  Bordeaux,  alarmed  themselves,  and  excited  by 
some  of  the  nobility,  secretly  sought  about  for 
means  to  regain  their  ancient  freedom ;  and  hav- 
ing stiil  many  connexions  with  persons  of  rank  in 
England,  they  negotiated  with  them,  &c. — No- 
tices des  Manuscrits,  p.  433.  The  same  cause  is 
assigned  to  this  revolution  by  Du  Clercq,  also  a  con- 
temporary writer,  living  in  the  dominions  of  Bur- 
gundy.—Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  ix.,  p.  400. 
Villaret  has  not  known,  or  not  chosen  to  know, 
any  thing  of  the  matter. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


67 


pageantry,  and  insolence.  To  these  vir- 
tues he  added  a  perfect  knowledge  of  all 
persons  eminent  for  talents  or  influence 
in  the  countries  with  which  he  was  con- 
nected, and  a  well-judged  bounty,  that 
thought  no  expense  wasted  to  draw  them 
into  his  service  or  interest.  In  the  fif- 
teenth century  this  political  art  had  hard- 
ly been  known,  except  perhaps  in  Italy ; 
the  princes  of  Europe  had  contended  with 
each  other  by  arms,  sometimes  by  treach- 
ery, but  never  with  such  complicated 
subtlety  of  intrigue.  Of  that  insidious 
cunning,  which  has  since  been  brought 
to  perfection,  Louis  XI.  may  be  deemed 
not  absolutely  the  inventor,  but  the  most 
eminent  improver;  and  its  success  has 
led  perhaps  to  too  high  an  estimate  of  his 
abilities.  Like  most  bad  men,  he  some- 
times fell  into  his  own  snare,  and  was  be- 
trayed by  his  confidential  ministers,  be- 
cause his  confidence  was  generally  repo- 
sed in  the  wicked.  And  his  dissimulation 
was  so  notorious,  his  tyranny  so  oppres- 
sive, that  he  was  naturally  surrounded 
by  enemies,  and  had  occasion  for  all  his 
craft  to  elude  those  rebellions  and  con- 
federacies which  might  perhaps  not  have 
been  raised  against  a  more  upright  sov- 
ereign. At  one  time  the  monarchy  was 
on  the  point  of  sinking  before  a  combina- 
tion, which  would  have  ended  in  dismem- 
L  de  bering  France.  [A.  D.  1461.] 
nominated  This  was  the  league  denomina- 
of  the  Pub-  ted  of  the  Public  Weal,  in  which 
all  the  princes  and  great  vassals 
of  the  French  crown  were  concerned: 
the  dukes  of  Britany,  Burgundy,  Alen- 
Son,  Bourbon,  the  Count  of  Dunois,  so 
renowned  for  his  valour  in  the  English 
wars,  the  families  of  Foix  and  Armagnac ; 
and,  at  the  head  of  all,  Charles,  duke  of 
Berry,  the  king's  brother  and  presumptive 
heir.  So  unanimous  a  combination  was 
not  formed  without  a  strong  provocation 
from  the  king,  or  at  least  without  weighty 
grounds  for  distrusting  his  intentions ;  but 
the  more  remote  cause  of  this  confeder- 
acy, as  of  those  which  had  been  raised 
against  Charles  VII.,  was  the  critical  po- 
sition of  the  feudal  aristocracy  from  the 
increasing  power  of  the  crown.  This 
war  of  the  Public  Weal  was  in  fact  a 
struggle  to  preserve  their  independence ; 
and  from  the  weak  character  of  the  Duke 
of  Berry,  whom  they  would,  if  successful, 
have  placed  upon  the  throne,  it  is  possi- 
ble that  France  might  have  been  in  a 
manner  partitioned  among  them,  in  the 
event  of  their  success,  or  at  least  that  Bur- 
gundy and  Britany  would  have  thrown 
off  the  sovereignty  that  galled  them. 
The  strength  of  the  confederates  in 


this  war  much  exceeded  that  of  the  king ; 
but  it  was  not  judiciously  employed,  and, 
after  an  indecisive  battle  at  Montlhery, 
they  failed  in  the  great  object  of  reducing 
Paris,  which  would  have  obliged  Louis  to 
fly  from  his  dominions.  It  was  his  policy 
to  promise  every  thing,  in  trust  that  for- 
tune would  afford  some  opening  to  repair 
his  losses,  and  give  scope  to  his  superior 
prudence.  Accordingly,  by  the  treaty  of 
Conflans,  he  not  only  surrendered  afresh 
the  towns  upon  the  Somme,  which  he  had 
lately  redeemed  from  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, but  invested  his  brother  with  the 
dutchy  of  Normandy  as  his  appanage. 

The  term  appanage  denotes  the  provis- 
ion made  for  the  younger  chil-  A 
dren  of  a  king  of  France.  This  APPanases- 
always  consisted  of  lands  and  feudal  su- 
periorities held  of  the  throne  by  the  te- 
nure of  peerage.  It  is  evident  that  this 
usage,  as  it  produced  a  new  class  of 
powerful  feudatories,  was  hostile  to  the 
interests  and  policy  of  the  sovereign,  and 
retarded  the  subjugation  of  the  ancient 
aristocracy.  But  a  usage  coeval  with  the 
monarchy  was  not  to  be  abrogated,  and 
the  scarcity  of  money  rendered  it  impos- 
sible to  provide  for  the  younger  branches 
of  the  royal  family  by  any  other  means. 
It  was  restrained,  however,  as  far  as  cir- 
cumstances would  permit.  Philip  IV. 
declared  that  the  county  of  Poitiers,  be- 
stowed by  him  on  his  son,  should  revert 
to  the  crown  on  the  extinction  of  male 
heirs.  But  this,  though  an  important  pre- 
cedent, was  not,  as  has  often  been  assert- 
ed, a  general  law.  Charles  V.  limited 
the  appanages  of  his  own  sons  to  twelve 
thousand  livres  of  annual  value  in  land. 
By  means  of  their  appanages,  and  through 
the  operation  of  the  Salique-law,  which 
made  their  inheritance  of  the  crown  a 
less  remote  contingency,  the  princes  of 
the  blood  royal  in  France  were  at  all 
times  (for  the  remark  is  applicable  long 
after  Louis  XL)  a  distinct  and  formidable 
class  of  men,  whose  influence  was  always 
disadvantageous  to  the  reigning  monarch, 
and,  in  general,  to  the  people. 

No  appanage  had  ever  been  granted  in 
France  so  enormous  as  the  dutchy  of  Nor- 
mandy. One  third  of  the  whole  nation- 
al revenue,  it  is  declared,  was  derived 
from  that  rich  province.  Louis  could  not 
therefore  sit  down  under  such  terms  as, 
with  his  usual  insincerity,  he  had  accept- 
ed at  Conflans.  In  a  very  short  time  he 
attacked  Normandy,  and  easily  compell- 
ed his  brother  to  take  refuge  in  Britany ; 
nor  were  his  enemies  ever  able  to  pro- 
cure the  restitution  of  Charles's  appanage. 
During  the  rest  of  his  reign,  Louis  had 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


powerful  coalitions  to  withstand ;  but  his 
prudence  and  compliance  with  circum- 
stances, joined  to  some  mixture  of  good 
fortune,  brought  him  safely  through  his 
perils.  The  Duke  of  Britany,  a  prince  of 
moderate  talents,  was  unable  to  make 
any  formidable  impression,  though  gen- 
erally leagued  with  the  enemies  of  the 
king.  The  less  powerful  vassals  were 
successfully  crushed  by  Louis  with  deci- 
sive vigour :  the  dutchy  of  Alen9on  was 
confiscated ;  the  Count  of  Armagnac  was 
assassinated ;  the  Duke  of  Nemours,  and 
the  Constable  of  St.  Pol,  a  politician  as 
treacherous  as  Louis,  who  had  long  be- 
trayed both  him  and  the  Duke  of  Burgun- 
dy, suffered  upon  the  scaffold.  The  king's 
brother,  Charles,  after  disquieting  him 
for  many  years,  died  suddenly  in  Guienne 
[A.  D.  1472],  which  had  finally  been  grant- 
ed as  his  appanage,  with  strong  suspicions 
of  having  been  poisoned  by  the  king's 
contrivance.  Edward  IV.  of  England 
was  too  dissipated  and  too  indolent  to  be 
fond  of  war;  and,  though  he  once  en- 
tered France  [A.  D.  1475]  with  an  army 
more  considerable  than  could  have  been 
expected  after  such  civil  bloodshed  as 
England  had  witnessed,  he  was  induced, 
by  the  stipulation  of  a  large  pension,  to 
give  up  the  enterprise.*  So  terrible  was 
still  in  France  the  apprehension  of  an 
English  war,  that  Louis  prided  himself 
upon  no  part  of  his  policy  so  much  as  the 
warding  this  blow.  Edward  showed  a 
desire  to  visit  Paris ;  but  the  king  gave 
him  no  invitation,  lest,  he  said,  his  broth- 
er should  find  some  handsome  women 
there,  who  might  tempt  him  to  return  in 
a  different  manner.  Hastings,  Howard, 
and  others  of  Edward's  ministers,  were 
secured  by  bribes  in  the  interest  of  Louis, 
which  the  first  of  these  did  not  scruple  to 
receive  at  the  same  time  from  the  Duke 
of  Burgundy,  f 

This  was  the  most  powerful  enemy 
House  of  whom  the  craft  of  Louis  had  to 
Burgundy,  counteract.  In  the  last  days  of 

*  The  army  of  Edward  consisted  of  1500  men  at 
arms,  and  14,000  archers  ;  the  whole  very  well  ap- 
pointed.—Comines,  t.  xi.,  p.  238.  There  seems  to 
have  been  a  great  expectation  of  what  the  English 
would  do,  and  great  fears  entertained  by  Louis, 
who  grudged  no  expense  to  get  rid  of  them. 

t  Comines,  1.  vi.,  c.  2.  Hastings  had  the  mean 
cunning  to  refuse  to  give  his  receipt  for  the  pen- 
sion he  took  from  Louis  XI.  "  This  present,"  he 
said  to  the  king's  agent,  "  comes  from  your  mas- 
ter's good  pleasure,  and  not  at  my  request ;  and  if 
you  mean  I  should  receive  it,  you  may  put  it  here 
into  my  sleeve,  but  you  shall  have  no  discharge 
from  me  ;  for  I  will  not  have  it  said  that  the  Great 
Chamberlain  of  England  is  a  pensioner  of  the  King 
of  France,  nor  have  my  name  appear  in  the  books 
of  the  Chambre  des  Comptes."— Ibid. 


the  feudal  system,  when  the  house  of 
Capet  had  almost  achieved  the  subjuga- 
tion of  those  proud  vassals  among  whom 
it  had  been  originally  number-  Its  succes. 
ed,  a  new  antagonist  sprung  up  sive  acquisi- 
to  dispute  the  field  against  the.  tions- 
crown.  John,  king  of  France,  granted 
the  dutchy  of  Burgundy  by  way  of  appa- 
nage to  his  third  son,  Philip.  By  his 
marriage  with  Margaret,  heiress  of  Louis, 
count  of  Flanders,  Philip  acquired  that 
province,  Artois,  the  county  of  Burgundy 
(or  Franche-comte),  and  the  Nivernois. 
Philip  the  Good,  his  grandson,  who  car- 
ried the  prosperity  of  this  family  to  its 
height,  possessed  himself,  by  various  ti- 
tles, of  the  several  other  provinces  which 
composed  the  Netherlands.  These  were 
fiefs  of  the  empire,  but  latterly  not  much 
dependant  upon  it,  and  alienated  by  their 
owners  without  its  consent.  At  the  peace 
of  Arras,  the  districts  of  Macon  and  Aux- 
erre  were  absolutely  ceded  to  Philip,  and 
great  part  of  Picardy  conditionally  made 
over  to  him,  redeemable  on  the  pay- 
ment of  four  hundred  thousand  crowns.* 
These  extensive,  though  not  compact  do- 
minions, were  abundant  in  population  and 
wealth,  fertile  in  corn,  wine,  and  salt,  and 
full  of  commercial  activity.  Thirty  years 
of  peace  which  followed  the  treaty  of  Ar- 
ras, with  a  mild  and  free  government, 
raised  the  subjects  of  Burgundy  to  a  de- 
gree of  prosperity  quite  unparalleled  in 
these  times  of  disorder ;  and  this  was  dis- 
played in  general  sumptuousness  of  dress 
and  feasting.  The  court  of  Philip  and  his 
son  Charles  was  distinguished  for  its 
pomp  and  riches,  for  pageants  and  tour- 
naments ;  the  trappings  of  chivalry,  per- 
haps without  its  spirit :  for  the  military 

*  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  was  personally  excused 
from  all  homage  and  service  to  Charles  VII. ;  but, 
if  either  died,  it  was  to  be  paid  by  the  heir,  or  to 
the  heir.  Accordingly,  on  Charles's  death,  Philip 
did  homage  to  Louis.  This  exemption  can  hardly 
therefore  have  been  inserted  to  gratify  the  pride  of 
Philip,  as  historians  suppose.  Is  it  not  probable 
that,  during  his  resentment  against  Charles,  he 
might  have  made  some  vow  never  to  do  him  horn- 
age,  which  this  reservation  in  the  treaty  was  in- 
tended to  preserve  ? 

It  is  remarkable  that  Villaret  says,  the  Duke  of 
Burgundy  was  positively  excused  by  the  25th  ar- 
ticle of  the  peace  of  Arras  from  doing  homa'ge  to 
Charles,  or  his  successors  kings  of  France,  t.  xvi.,  p. 
404.  For  this  assertion  too  he  seems  to  quote  the 
Tresor  des  Chartes,  where  probably  the  original 
treaty  is  preserved.  Nevertheless,  it  appears  other- 
wise, as  published  by  Monstrelet  at  full  length, 
who  could  have  no  motive  to  falsify  it ;  and  Phil- 
ip's conduct  in  doing  homage  to  Louis  is  hardly 
compatible  with  Villaret's  assertion.  Daniel  cop- 
ies Monstrelet  without  any  observation.  In  the 
same  treaty,  Philip  is  entitled  Duke  by  the  grace  of 
God ;  which  was  reckoned  a  mark  of  independ- 
ence, and  not  usually  permitted  to  a  vassal, 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


59 


character  of  Burgundy  had  been  impaired 
by  long  tranquillity.* 

During  the  lives  of  Philip  and  Charles 
Character  VII. ,  each  understood  the  other's 
of  Charles,  rank,  and  their  amity  was  little 
Duke  of  interrupted.  But  their  succes- 
r'  sprs,  the  most  opposite  of  hu- 
man kind  in  character,  had  one  common 
quality,  ambition,  to  render  their  antipa- 
thy more  powerful.  Louis  was  eminently 
timid  and  suspicious  in  policy ;  Charles 
intrepid  beyond  all  men,  arid  blindly  pre- 
sumptuous :  Louis  stooped  to  any  humili- 
ation to  reach  his  aim ;  Charles  was  too 
haughty  to  seek  the  fairest  means  of 
strengthening  his  party.  An  alliance  of 
his  daughter  with  the  Duke  of  Guienne, 
brother  of  Louis,  was  what  the  malecon- 
tent  French  princes  most  desired,  and 
the  king  most  dreaded ;  but  Charles, 
either  averse  to  any  French  connexion, 
or  willing  to  keep  his  daughter's  suit- 
ers in  dependance,  would  never  directly 
accede  to  that,  or  any  other  proposition 
for  her  marriage.  On  Philip's  death,  in 
1467,  he  inherited  a  great  treasure,  which 
he  soon  wasted  in  the  prosecution  of  his 
schemes.  These  were  so  numerous  and 
vast,  that  he  had  not  time  to  live,  says 
Comines,  to  complete  them,  nor  would 
one  half  of  Europe  have  contented  him. 
It  was  his  intention  to  assume  the  title 
of  king ;  and  the  Emperor  Frederick  III. 
was  at  one  time  actually  on  his  road  to 
confer  this  dignity,  when  some  suspicion 
caused  him  to  retire  ;  and  the  project  was 
never  renewed. f  It  is  evident  that,  if 
Charles's  capacity  had  borne  any  propor- 
tion to  Ms  pride  and  courage,  or  if  a  prince 
less  politic  than  Louis  XI.  had  been  his 
contemporary  in  France,  the  province  of 
Burgundy  must  have  been  lost  to  the 
monarchy.  For  several  years  these 
great  rivals  were  engaged,  sometimes  in 
open  hostility,  sometimes  in  endeavours 
to  overreach  each  other;  but  Charles, 
though  not  much  more  scrupulous,  was 


*  P.  de  Comines,  1.  i.,  c.  2  and  3  ;  1.  v.,  c.  9.  Du 
Clercq,  in  Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  ix.,  p.  389. 
In  the  investiture  granted  by  John  to  the  first  Phil- 
ip of  Burgundy,  a  reservation  is  made,  that  the  roy- 
al taxes  shall  be  levied  throughout  that  appanage. 
But  during  the  long  hostility  between  the  kingdom 
and  dutchy,  this  could  not  have  been  enforced : 
and  by  the  treaty  of  Arras,  Charles  surrendered  all 
right  to  tax  the  duke's  dominions. — Monstrelet,  f. 
114. 

t  Gamier,  t.  xviii.,  p.  62.  It  is  observable  that 
Comines  says  not  a  word  of  this ;  for  which  Gar- 
nier  seems  to  quote  Belcarius,  a  writer  of  the  six- 
teenth age.  But  even  Philip,  when  Morvilliers, 
Louis's  chancellor,  used  menaces  towards  him,  in- 
terrupted the  orator  with  these  words:  Je  veux 
que  chacun  scache  que,  si  j'eusse  voulu,  je  fusse 
roi.— Villaret,  t.  xvii.,  p.  44. 


far  less  an  adept  in  these  mysteries  of 
politics  than  the  king. 

Notwithstanding  the  power  of  Bur- 
gundy, there  were  some  dis-  Insubordina. 
advantages  in  its  situation,  tionofthe 
It  presented  (I  speak  of  all  ^™ish 
Charles's  dominions  under  the 
common  name,  Burgundy)  a  very  ex- 
posed frontier  on  the  side  of  Germany 
and  Switzerland,  as  well  as  France ;  and 
Louis  exerted  a  considerable  influence 
over  the  adjacent  princes  of  the  empire, 
as  well  as  the  united  cantons.  The  peo- 
ple of  Liege,  a  very  populous  city,  had 
for  a  long  time  been  continually  rebelling 
against  their  bishops,  who  were  the  allies 
of  Burgundy;  Louis  was  of  course  not 
backward  to  foment  their  insurrections ; 
which  sometimes  gave  the  dukes  a  good 
deal  of  trouble.  The  Flemings,  and 
especially  the  people  of  Ghent,  had  been 
during  a  century  noted  for  their  repub- 
lican spirit  and  contumacious  defiance  of 
their  sovereign.  Liberty  never  wore  a 
more  unamiable  countenance  than  among 
these  burghers ;  who  abused  the  strength 
she  gave  them  by  cruelty  and  insolence. 
Ghent,  when  Froissart  wrote,  about  the 
year  1400,  was  one  of  the  strongest  cities 
in  Europe,  and  would  have  required,  he 
says,  an  army  of  two  hundred  thousand 
men  to  besiege  it  on  every  side,  so  as  to 
shut  up  all  access  by  the  Lys  and  Scheldt. 
It  contained  eighty  thousand  men  of  age 
to  bear  arms  ;*  a  calculation  which,  al- 
though, as  I  presume,  much  exaggerated, 
is  evidence  of  great  actual  populousness. 
Such  a  city  was  absolutely  impregnable, 
at  a  time  when  artillery  was  very  imper- 
fect both  in  its  construction  and  manage- 
ment. Hence,  though  the  citizens  of 
Ghent  were  generally  beaten  in  the  field 
with  great  slaughter,  they  obtained  toler- 
able terms  from  their  masters,  who  knew 
the  danger  of  forcing  them  to  a  desperate 
defence. 

No  taxes  were  raised  in  Flanders,  or 
indeed  throughout  the  dominions  of  Bur- 
gundy, without  consent  of  the  three 
estates.  In  the  time  of  Philip,  not  a 
great  deal  of  money  was  levied  upon  the 
people ;  but  Charles  obtained  every  year 
a  pretty  large  subsidy,  which  he  expend- 
ed in  the  hire  of  Italian  and  English  mer- 
cenaries, f  An  almost  uninterrupted  suc- 

*  Froissart,  part  ii.,  c.  67. 

t  Comines,  1.  iv.,c.  13.  It  was  very  reluctantly 
that  the  Flemings  granted  any  money.  Philip  once 
begged  for  a  tax  on  salt,  promising  never  to  ask  any 
thing  more ;  but  the  people  of  Ghent,  and,  in  imi- 
tation of  them,  the  whole  county,  refused  it. — Du 
Clercq,  p.  389.  Upon  his  pretence  of  taking  the 
cross,  they  granted  him  a  subsidy,  though  less 
than  he  had  requested,  on  condition  that  it  should 


60 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I 


cess  had  attended  his  enterprises  for  a 
length  of  time,  and  rendered  his  dispo- 
sition still  more  overweening.  [A.  D. 
1474.]  His  first  failure  was  before  Nuz, 
a  little  town  near  Cologne,  the  possession 
of  which  would  have  made  him  nearly 
master  of  the  whole  course  of  the  Rhine, 
for  he  had  already  obtained  the  landgravi- 
ate  of  Alsace.  Though  compelled  to  raise 
the  siege,  he  succeeded  in  occupying,  next 
year,  the  dutchy  of  Lorraine.  But  his 
overthrow  was  reserved  for  an  enemy 
whom  he  despised,  and  whom  none  could 
have  thought  equal  to  the  contest.  [A.  D. 
1476.]  The  Swiss  had  given  him  some 
slight  provocation,  for  which  they  were 
ready  to  atone ;  but  Charles  was  unused 
to  forbear ;  and  perhaps  Switzerland 
came  within  his  projects  of  conquest. 
Defeats  of  ^  Granson,  in  the  Pays  de 
Charles  at  Vaud,  he  was  entirely  routed, 
Granson  wjth  more  disgrace  than  slaugh- 
'  ter.*  But,  having  reassembled 
his  troops,  and  met  the  confederate  army 
of  Swiss  and  Germans  at  Morat,  near  Fri- 
burg,  he  was  again  defeated  with  vast 
loss.  On  this  day  the  power  of  Bur- 
gundy was  dissipated:  deserted  by  his 
allies,  betrayed  by  his  mercenaries,  he 
set  his  life  upon  another  cast  at  Nancy, 
desperately  giving  battle  to  the  Duke  of 
His  death  Lorraine  with  a  small  dispirited 
army,  and  perished  in  the  en- 
gagement. [A.  D.  1477.] 

Now  was  the  moment  when  Louis, 
Claim  of  who  had  held  back  while  his 
tbe^auAcea*  enemy  was  breaking  his  force 
sionofBur-  against  the  rocks  of  Switzer- 
gundy.  land,  came  to  gather  a  harvest 
which  his  labour  had  not  reaped.  Charles 


not  be  levied  if  the  crusade  did  not  take  place, 
which  put  an  end  to  the  attempt.  The  states 
knew  well  that  the  duke  would  employ  any  money 
they  gave  him  in  keeping  up  a  body  of  gens  d'armes 
like  his  neighbour,  the  King  of  France ;  and  though 
the  want  of  such  a  force  exposed  their  country  to 
pillage,  they  were  too  good  patriots  to  place  the 
means  of  enslaving  it  in  the  hands  of  their  sover- 
eign. Grand  doute  faisoient  les  sujets,  et  pour 
plusieurs  raisons,  de  se  mettre  en  cette  sujetion,  ou 
ils  voyoient  le  royaume  de  France,  a  cause  de  ses 
gens  d'armes.  A  la  verite,  leur  grand  doute  n'es- 
toit  pas  sans  cause :  car  quand  il  se  trouva  cinq 
cens  hommes  d'armes,  la  volonte  luy  vint  d'en 
avoir  plus,  et  de  plus  hardiment  entreprendre  con- 
tre  tous  ses  voisins. — Comines,  1.  iii.,  c.  4,  9. 

Du  Clercq,  a  contemporary  writer  of  very  good 
authority,  mentioning  the  story  of  a  certain  widow 
who  had  remarried  the  day  after  her  husband's 
death,  says  that  she  was  in  some  degree  excusa- 
ble, because  it  was  the  practice  of  the  duke  and 
his  officers  to  force  rich  widows  into  marrying 
their  soldiers  or  other  servants,  t.  ix.,  p.  418. 

*  A  famous  diamond,  belonging  to  Charles  of 
Burgundy,  was  taken  in  the  plunder  of  his  tent  by 
the  Swiss  at  Granson.  After  several  changes  of 
owners,  most  of  whom  were  ignorant  of  its  value, 


left  an  only  daughter,  undoubted  heiress 
of  Flanders  and  Artois,  as  well  as  of  his 
dominions  out  of  France ;  but  whose 
right  of  succession  to  the  dutchy  of  Bur- 
gundy was  more  questionable.  Origi- 
nally, the  great  fiefs  of  the  crown  de- 
scended to  females;  and  this  was  the 
case  with  respect  to  the  two  first  men- 
tioned. But  John  had  granted  Burgundy 
to  his  son  Philip  by  way  of  appanage ; 
and  it  was  contended  that  appanages  re- 
verted to  the  crown  in  default  of  male 
heirs.  In  the  form  of  Philip's  investi- 
ture, the  dutchy  was  granted  to  him  and 
his  lawful  heirs,  without  designation  of 
sex.  The  construction,  therefore,  must 
be  left  to  the  established  course  of  law. 
This,  however,  was  by  no  means  ac- 
knowledged by  Mary,  Charles's  daughter, 
who  maintained,  both  that  no  general  law 
restricted  appanages  to  male  heirs,  and 
that  Burgundy  had  always  been  consider- 
ed as  a  feminine  fief,  John  himself  having 
possessed  it,  not  by  reversion  as  king  (for 
descendants  of  the  first  dukes  were  then 
living),  but  by  inheritance  derived  through 
females.*  Such  was  this  question  of  suc- 
cession between  Louis  XI.  and  Mary  of 
Burgundy,  upon  the  merits  of  whose  pre- 
tensions I  will  not  pretend  altogether  to 
decide;  but  shall  only  observe,  that  if 
Charles  had  conceived  his  daughter  to 
be  excluded  from  this  part  of  his  inherit- 
ance, he  would  probably,  at  Conflans 
or  Peronne,  where  he  treated  upon  the 
vantage-ground,  have  attempted  at  least 
to  obtain  a  renunciation  of  Louis's  claim. 
There  was  one  obvious  mode  of  pre- 
venting all  further  contests,  and  of  conduct 
aggrandizing  the  French  monar-  or  Louis, 
chy  far  more  than  by  the  reunion  of  Bur- 
gundy. This  was  the  marriage  of  Mary 
with  the  dauphin,  which  was  ardently 


it  became  the  first  jewel  in  the  French  crown.— 
Gamier,  t.  xviii.,  p.  361. 

*  It  is  advanced  with  too  much  confidence  by 
several  French  historians,  either  that  the  ordinan- 
ces of  Philip  IV.  and  Charles  V.  constituted  a 
general  law  against  the  descent  of  appanages  to 
female  heirs,  or  that  this  was  a  fundamental  law 
of  the  monarchy. — Du  Clos,  Hist,  de  Louis  XL, 
t.  h.,  p.  252.  Garnier,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xviii., 
p.  258.  The  latter  position  is  refuted  by  frequent 
instances  of  female  succession ;  thus  Artois  had 
passed  by  a  daughter  of  Louis  le  Male  into  the 
house  of  Burgundy.  As  to  the  above-mentioned 
ordinances,  the  first  applies  only  to  the  county  of 
Poitiers ;  the  second  does  not  contain  a  syllable 
that  relates  to  succession. — (Ordonnances  des  Rois, 
t.  vi.,  p.  54.)  The  doctrine  of  excluding  female 
heirs  was  more  consonant  to  the  pretended  Salique- 
law,  and  the  recent  principles  as  to  inalienability  of 
domain,  than  to  the  analogy  of  feudal  rules  and 
precedents.  M.  Gaillard,  in  his  Observations  sur 
1'Histoire  de  Velly,  Villaret,  et  Garnier,  has  a  judi- 
cious  note  on  this  subject,  t.  iii.,  p.  304. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


61 


wished  in  France.  Whatever  obstacles 
might  occur  to  this  connexion,  it  was  nat 
ural  to  expect  on  the  opposite  side ;  from 
Mary's  repugnance  to  an  infant  husband 
or  from  the  jealousy  which  her  subjects 
were  likely  to  entertain,  of  being  incor- 
porated with  a  country  worse  governec 
than  their  own.  The  arts  of  Louis  would 
have  been  well  employed  in  smoothing 
these  impediments.*  But  he  chose  to 
seize  upon  as  many  towns  as,  in  those 
critical  circumstances,  lay  exposed  to 
him,  and  stripped  the  young  dutchess  of 
Artois  and  Tranche  Comte.  Expecta- 
tions of  the  marriage  he  sometimes  held 
out,  but,  as  it  seems,  without  sincerity. 
Indeed,  he  contrived  irreconcilably  to 
alienate  Mary  by  a  shameful  perfidy,  be- 
traying the  ministers  whom  she  had  in- 
trusted upon  a  secret  mission  to  the  peo 
pie  of  Ghent,  who  put  them  to  the  torture, 
and  afterward  to  death,  in  the  presence 
and  amid  the  tears  and  supplications  of 
their  mistress.  [A.  D.  1477.]  Thus  the 
French  alliance  becoming  odious  in 
France,  this  princess  married  Maximilian 
of  Austria,  son  of  the  Emperor  Frederick ; 
a  connexion  which  Louis  strove  to  pre- 
vent, though  it  was  impossible  then  to 
foresee  that  it  was  ordained  to  retard  the 
growth  of  France,  and  to  bias  the  fate 
of  Europe  during  three  hundred  years. 
This  war  lasted  till  after  the  death  of 
Mary,  who  left  one  son,  Philip,  and  one 
daughter,  Margaret.  By  a  treaty  of  peace 
concluded  at  Arras  in  1482,  it  was  agreed 
that  this  daughter  should  become  the 
dauphin's  wife,  with  Franche  Comte  and 
Artois,  which  Louis  held  already  for  her 
dowry,  to  be  restored  in  case  the  marriage 
should  not  take  effect.  The  homage  of 
Flanders,  and  appellant  jurisdiction  of 
the  parliament  over  it,  were  reserved  to 
the  crown. 

Meanwhile  Louis  was  lingering  in  dis- 
Sickness  ease  an^  torments  of  mind,  the 
and  death  of  retribution  of  fraud  and  tyranny. 
Louis  XL  TwQ  years  before  his  death  he 
was  struck  with  an  apoplexy,  from  which 

*  Robertson,  as  well  as  some  other  moderns, 
have  maintained,  on  the  authority  of  Comines,  that 
Louis  XI.  ought  in  policy  to  have  married  the 
young  princess  to  the  Count  of  Angouleme,  father 
of  Francis  I. ,  a  connexion  which  she  would  not  have 
disliked.  But  certainly  nothing  could  have  been 
more  adverse  to  the  interests  of  the  French  mon- 
archy than  such  a  marriage,  which  would  have 
put  a  new  house  of  Burgundy  at  the  head  of  those 
princes  whose  confederacies  had  so  often  endan- 
gered the  crown.  Comines  is  one  of  the  most  ju- 
dicious of  historians ;  but  his  sincerity  may  be  rath- 
er doubtful  in  the  opinion  above  mentioned  ;  for  he 
wrote  in  the  reign  of  Charles  VIII.,  when  the  Count 
of  Angouleme  was  engaged  in  the  same  faction  as 
himself. 


he  never  wholly  recovered.  As  he  felt 
his  disorder  increasing,  he  shut  himself  up 
in  a  palace  near  Tours,  to  hide  from  the 
world  the  knowledge  of  his  decline.*  His 
solitude  was  like  that  of  Tiberius  at  Ca- 
preae,  full  of  terror  and  suspicion,  and  deep 
consciousness  of  universal  hatred.  All 
ranks,  he  well  knew,  had  their  several 
injuries  to  remember :  the  clergy,  whose 
liberties  he  had  sacrificed  to  the  see  of 
Rome,  by  revoking  the  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion of  Charles  VII. ;  the  princes,  whose 
blood  he  had  poured  upon  the  scaffold; 
the  parliament,  whose  course  of  justice 
he  had  turned  aside ;  the  commons,  who 
groaned  under  his  extortion,  and  were 
plundered  by  his  soldiery. f  The  palace, 
fenced  with  portcullises  and  spikes  of 
iron,  was  guarded  by  archers  and  cross- 
bow men,  who  shot  at  any  that  approach- 
ed by  night.  Few  entered  this  den ;  but 
to  them  he  showed  himself  in  magnifi- 
cent apparel,  contrary  to  his  former  cus- 
tom, hoping  thus  to  disguise  the  change 
of  his  meager  body.  He  distrusted  his 
friends  and  kindred,  his  daughter  and  his 
son,  the  last  of  whom  he  had  not  suffered 
even  to  read  or  write,  lest  he  should  too 
soon  become  his  rival.  No  man  ever  so 
much  feared  death,  to  avert  which  he 
stooped  to  every  meanness,  and  sought 
every  remedy.  His  physician  had  sworn 
that,  if  he  were  dismissed,  the  king  would 
not  survive  a  week;  and  Louis,  enfee- 
bled by  sickness  and  terror,  bore  the 
rudest  usage  from  this  man,  and  endeav- 
oured to  secure  his  services  by  vast 
rewards.  Always  credulous  in  relics, 
though  seldom  restrained  by  superstition 
from  any  crime,|  he  eagerly  bought  up 


*  For  Louis's  illness  and  death,  see  Comines, 
,.  vi.,  c.  7-12,  an  Gamier,  t.  xiz.,  p.  112,  &c. 
Plessis,  his  last  residence,  about  an  English  mile 
from  Tours,  is  now  a  dilapidated  farmhouse,  and 
can  never  have  been  a  very  large  building.  The 
vestiges  of  royalty  about  it  are  few ;  but  the  prin- 
cipal apartments  have  been  destroyed,  either  in 
the  course  of  ages  or  at  the  revolution. 

t  See  a  remarkable  chapter  in  Philip  de  Co- 
mines,  1.  iv.,  c.  19,  wherein  he  tells  us  that  Charles 
VII.  had  never  raised  more  than  1,800,000  francs  a 
year  in  taxes;  but  Louis  XL,  at  the  time  of  his 
death,  raised  4,700,000,  exclusive  of  some  military 
mpositions ;  et  surement  c'estoit  compassion  de 
voir  et  scavoir  la  pauvret6  du  peuple.  In  this 
chapter  he  declares  his  opinion  that  no  king  can 
ustly  levy  money  on  his  subjects  without  their 
consent,  and  repels  all  common  arguments  to  the 
contrary. 

|  An  exception  to  this  was  when  he  swore  by 
he  cross  of  St.  Lo,  after  which  he  feared  to  vio- 
ate  his  oath.  The  Constable  of  St.  Pol,  whom 
jouis  invited  with  many  assurances  to  court,  be- 
hought  himself  of  requiring  this  oath  before  he 
;rusted  his  promises,  which  the  king  refused ;  and 
St.  Pol  prudently  stayed  away.  Gam.,  t.  xviii.,  p. 
72.  Some  report  that  he  had  a  similar  respect  for 


62 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  I. 


treasures  of  this  sort,  and  even  procured 
a  Calabrian  hermit,  of  noted  sanctity,  to 
journey  as  far  as  Tours  in  order  to  re- 
store his  health.  Philip  de  Comines, 
who  attended  him  during  this  infirmity, 
draws  a  parallel  between  the  torments 
he  then  endured  and  those  he  had  for- 
merly inflicted  on  others.  Indeed,  the 
whole  of  his  life  was  vexation  of  spirit. 
"  I  have  known  him  (says  Comines),  and 
been  his  servant  in  the  flower  of  his  age, 
and  in  the  time  of  his  greatest  prosperi- 
ty ;  but  never  did  I  see  him  without  un- 
easiness and  care.  Of  all  amusements 
he  loved  only  the  chase,  and  hawking  in 
its  season.  And  in  this  he  had  almost 
as  much  uneasiness  as  pleasure ;  for  he 
rode  hard,  and  got  up  early,  and  some- 
times went  a  great  way,  and  regarded  no 
weather :  so  that  he  used  to  return  very 
weary,  and  almost  ever  in  wrath  with 
some  one.  I  think  that  from  his  child- 
hood he  never  had  any  respite  of  labour 
and  trouble  to  his  death.  And  I  am  cer- 
tain that  if  all  the  happy  days  of  his 
life,  in  which  he  had  more  enjoyment 
than  uneasiness,  were  numbered,  they 
would  be  found  very  few ;  and  at  least 
that  they  would  be  twenty  of  sorrow  for 
every  one  of  pleasure."* 

Charles  VIII.  was  about  thirteen  years 
Charles  old  when  he  succeeded  his  father 
VIIL  Louis.  [A.  D.  1483.]  Though  the 
law  of  France  fixed  the  majority  of  her 
kings  at  that  age,  yet  it  seems  not  to  have 
been  strictly  regarded  on  this  occasion, 
and  at  least  Charles  was  a  minor  by  nature, 
if  not  by  law.  A  contest  arose,  therefore, 
for  the  regency,  which  Louis  had  intrusted 
to  his  daughter  Anne,  wife  of  the  Lord  de 
Beaujeu,  one  of  the  Bourbon  family.  The 
Duke  of  Orleans,  afterward  Louis  XII., 
claimed  it  as  presumptive  heir  of  the 
crown,  and  was  seconded  by  most  of  the 
princes.  Anne,  however,  maintained  her 
ground,  and  ruled  France  for  several  years 
in  her  brother's  name  with  singular  spirit 
and  address,  in  spite  of  the  rebellions 
which  the  Orleans  party  raised  up  against 
her.  These  were  supported  by  the  Duke 
of  Britany,  the  last  of  the  great  vassals  of 
the  crown,  whose  daughter,  as  he  had  no 
male  issue,  was  the  object  of  as  many 
suiters  as  Mary  of  Burgundy. 

The  dutchy  of  Britany  was  peculiarly 
Affairs  of  circumstanced.  The  inhabitants, 
Britany.  whether  sprung  from  the  ancient 
republicans  of  Armorica,  or,  as  some  have 
thought,  from  an  emigration  of  Britons 


a  leaden  image  of  the  Virgin,  which  he  wore  in  his 
nat ;  as  alluded  to  by  Pope  :  "  A  perjured  prince  a 
leaden  saint  revere." 
*  Comines,  1.  vi.,  c.  13. 


during  the  Saxon  invasion,  had  not  on- 


perhaps,  as  the  weaker  to  the  stronger, 
to  the  Merovingian  kings.*  In  the  ninth 
century,  the  dukes  of  Britany  did  hom- 
age to  Charles  the  Bald,  the  right  of  which 
was  transferred  afterward  to  the  dukes 
of  Normandy.  This  formality,  at  that 
time  no  token  of  real  subjection,  led  to 
consequences  beyond  the  views  of  either 
party.  For  when  the  feudal  chains,  that 
had  hung  so  loosely  upon  the  shoulders 
of  the  great  vassals,  began  to  be  straiten- 
ed by  the  dexterity  of  the  court,  Britany 
found  itself  drawn  among  the  rest  to  the 
same  centre.  The  old  privileges  of  in- 
dependence were  treated  as  usurpation  ; 
the  dukes  were  menaced  with  confiscation 
of  their  fief,  their  right  of  coining  money 
disputed,  their  jurisdiction  impaired  by  ap- 
peals to  the  parliament  of  Paris.  Howr 
ever,  they  stood  boldly  upon  their  right, 
and  always  refused  to  pay  liege  homage^ 
which  implied  an  obligation  of  service  to 
the  lord,  in  contradistinction  to  simple 
homage,  which  was  a  mere  symbol  of 
feudal  dependance.f 

About  the  time  that  Edward  III.  made 
pretensions  to  the  crown  of  France,  a. 
controversy  somewhat  resembling  it  arose 
in  the  dutchy  of  Britany,  between  the  fam- 
ilies of  Blois  and  Montfort.  This  led  to 
a  long  and  obstinate  war,  connected  all 
along  as  a  sort  of  underplot  with  the  great 
drama  of  France  and  England.  At  last, 
Montfort,  Edward's  ally,  by  the  defeat  and 
death  of  his  antagonist,  obtained  the 
dutchy,  of  which  Charles  V.  soon  after 
gave  him  the  investiture.  This  prince  and 
his  family  were  generally  inclined  to  Eng- 
lish connexions ;  but  the  Bretons  would 
seldom  permit  them  to  be  effectual.  Two 
cardinal  feelings  guided  the  conduct  of 
this  brave  and  faithful  people ;  the  one, 
an  attachment  to  the  French  nation  and 
monarchy  in  opposition  to  foreign  ene- 


*  Gregory  of  Tours  says,  that  the  Bretons  were 
subject  to  France  from  the  death  of  Clovis,  and 
that  their  chiefs  were  styled  counts,  not  kings,  L 
iv.,  c.  4.  However,  it  seems  clear  from  Nigellus, 
a  writer  of  the  life  of  Louis  the  Debonair,  that  they 
were  almost  independent  in  his  time.  There  was 
even  a  march  of  the  Britannic  frontier  which  sep- 
arated it  from  France  ;  and  they  had  a  king  of  their 
own.  It  is  hinted,  indeed,  that  they  had  been  for- 
merly subject ;  for,  after  a  victory  of  Louis  over 
them,  Nigellus  says,  Imperio  sociat  perdita  regna 
dm.  In  the  next  reign  of  Charles  the  Bald,  Hinc- 
mar  tells  us,  regnum  undique  a  Paganis,  et  falsis 
Christianis,  scilicet  Britonibus,  est  circumscriptum, 
— Epist.  18.  See,  too,  Capitularia  Car.  Calvi.,  A, 
D.  877,  tit.  23. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xii.,  p.  82    t.  xv.>p.  199. 


PART  II.] 


FRANCE. 


63 


mies  ;  the  other,  a  zeal  for  their  own  priv- 
ileges, and  the  family  of  Montfort,  in  oppo- 
sition to  the  encroachments  of  the  crown. 
In  Francis  II. ,  the  present  duke,  the  male 
line  of  that  family  was  about  to  be  ex- 
tinguished. His  daughter  Anne  was  nat- 
urally the  object  of  many  suiters,  among 
whom  were  particularly  distinguished  the 
Duke  of  Orleans,  who  seems  to  have  been 
preferred  by  herself;  the  Lord  of  Albret, 
a  member  of  the  Gascon  family  of  Foix, 
favoured  by  the  Breton  nobility,  as  most 
likely  to  preserve  the  peace  and  liberties 
of  their  country,  but  whose  age  rendered 
him  not  very  acceptable  to  a  youthful 
princess ;  and  Maximilian,  king  of  the 
Romans.  Britany  was  rent  by  factions, 
and  overrun  by  the  armies  of  the  regent 
of  France,  who  did  not  lose  this  opportu- 
nity of  interfering  with  its  domestic 
troubles,  and  of  persecuting  her  private 
enemy,  the  Duke  of  Orleans.  Anne  of 
Britany,  upon  her  father's  death,  finding 
no  other  means  of  escaping  the  addresses 
of  Albret,  was  married,  by  proxy,  to  Max- 
imilian. [A.  D.  1489.]  This,  however,  ag- 
gravated the  evils  of  the  country,  since 
France  was  resolved  at  all  events  to  break 
off  so  dangerous  a  connexion.  And  as 
Maximilian  himself  was  unable,  or  took 
not  sufficient  pains,  to  relieve  his  betroth- 
ed wife  from  her  embarrassments,  she 
was  ultimately  compelled  to  accept  the 
Mnrri  _nf  hand  of  Charles  VIII.  He 

IHaiTlaiJC  0*  -i         -,    ,  •,  111 

Charles  vin.    had  long  been  engaged  by  the 

t0f  Brita?itCheSS  treatv  °f  Arras  to  marry  the 
daughter  of  Maximilian,  and 
that  princess  was  educated  at  the  French 
court.  But  this  engagement  had  not  pre- 
vented several  years  of  hostilities,  and 
continual  intrigues  with  the  towns  of 
Flanders  against  Maximilian.  The  double 
injury  which  the  latter  sustained  in  the 
marriage  of  Charles  with  the  heiress  of 
Britany  seemed  likely  to  excite  a  pro- 
tracted contest ;  but  the  King  of  France, 
who  had  other  objects  in  view,  and  per- 
haps was  conscious  that  he  had  not  acted 
a  fair  part,  soon  came  to  an  accommoda- 
tion, by  which  he  restored  Artois  and 
Tranche  Comte. 

[A.  D.  1492.]  France  was  now  consol- 
idated into  a  great  kingdom ;  the  feudal 
system  was  at  an  end.  The  vigour  of 
Philip  Augustus,  the  paternal  wisdom  of 
St.  Louis,  the  policy  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
had  laid  the  foundations  of  a  powerful 
monarchy,  which  neither  the  arms  of  Eng- 
land, nor  seditions  of  Paris,  nor  rebellions 
of  the  princes,  were  able  to  shake.  Be- 
sides the  original  fiefs  of  the  French 
crown,  it  had  acquired  two  countries  be- 
yond the  Rhone  which  properly  depend- 


ed only  upon  the  empire,  Dauphine,  un- 
der Philip  of  Valois,  by  the  bequest  of 
Humbert,  the  last  of  its  princes ;  and  Pro- 
vence, under  Louis  XL,  by  that  of  Charles 
of  Anjou.*  [A.  D.  1481.]  Thus  having 
conquered  herself,  if  I  may  use  the  phrase, 
and  no  longer  apprehensive  of  any  for- 
eign enemy,  France  was  prepared,  under 
a  monarch  flushed  with  sanguine  ambi- 
tion, to  carry  her  arms  into  other  coun- 
tries, and  to  contest  the  prize  of  glory 
and  power  upon  the  ample  theatre  of 
Europe. f 

*  The  country  now  called  Dauphine"  formed  part 
of  the  kingdom  of  Aries  or  Provence,  bequeathed 
by  Rodolph  III.  to  the  Emperor  Conrad  II.  But 
the  dominion  of  the  empire  over  these  new  acqui- 
sitions being  little  more  than  nominal,  a  few  of  the 
chief  nobility  converted  their  respective  fiefs  into 
independent  principalities.  One  of  these  was  the 
lord  or  dauphin  of  Vienne,  whose  family  became 
ultimately  masters  of  the  whole  province.  Hum- 
bert, the  last  of  these,  made  John,  son  of  Philip  of 
Valois,  his  heir,  on  condition  that  Dauphin^  should 
be  constantly  preserved  as  a  separate  possession, 
not  incorporated  with  the  kingdom  of  France.  This 
bequest  was  confirmed  by  the  Emperor  Charles 
IV.,  whose  supremacy  over  the  province  was  thus 
recognised  by  the  kings  of  France,  though  it  soon 
came  to  be  altogether  disregarded. 

Provence,  like  Dauphine,  was  changed  from  a 
feudal  dependance  to  a  sovereignty,  in  the  weak- 
ness and  dissolution  of  the  kingdom  of  Aries,  about 
the  early  part  of  the  eleventh  century.  By  the 
marriage  of  Douce,  heiress  of  the  first  line  of  sover- 
eign counts,  with  Raymond  Berenger,  count  of 
Barcelona,  in  1112,  it  passed  into  that  distinguish- 
ed family.  In  1167  it  was  occupied  or  usurped  by 
Alfonso  II.,  king  of  Arragon,  a  relation,  but  not 
heir,  of  the  house  of  Berenger.  Alfonso  bequeath- 
ed Provence  to  his  second  son,  of  the  same  name, 
and  from  whom  it  descended  to  Raymond  Beren- 
ger IV.  This  count  dying  without  male  issue  in 
1245,  his  youngest  daughter  Beatrice  took  posses- 
sion by  virtue  of  her  father's  testament.  But  this 
succession  being  disputed  by  other  claimants,  and 
especially  by  Louis  IX.,  who  had  married  her  eld- 
est sister,  she  compromised  differences  by  mar- 
rying Charles  of  Anjou,  the  king's  brother.  The 
family  of  Anjou  reigned  in  Provence,  as  well  as  in 
Naples,  till  the  death  of  Joan  in  1382,  who,  having 
no  children,  adopted  Louis  of  Anjou,  brother  of 
Charles  V.,  as  her  successor.  This  second  Ange- 
vin line  ended  in  1481  by  the  death  of  Charles  III., 
though  Renier,  duke  of  Lorraine,  who  was  de- 
scended through  a  female,  had  a  claim  which  it 
does  not  seem  easy  to  repel  by  argument.  It  was 
very  easy,  however,  for  Louis  XL,  to  whom  Charles 
III.  had  bequeathed  his  rights,  to  repel  it  by  force, 
and  accordingly  he  took  possession  of  Provence, 
which  was  permanently  united  to  the  crown  by  let- 
ters patent  9f  Charles  VIII.  in  I486.* 

t  The  principal  authority,  exclusive  of  original 
writers,  on  which  I  have  relied  for  this  chapter,  is 
the  history  of  France  by  Velly,  Villaret,  and  Gar- 
nier  ;  a  work  which,  notwithstanding  several  de- 
fects, has  absolutely  superseded  those  of  Mezeray 
and  Daniel.  The  part  of  the  Abbe  Velly  comes 
down  to  the  middle  of  the  eighth  volume  (12mo. 
edition),  and  of  the  reign  of  Philip  de  Valois.  His 
continuator  Villaret  was  interrupted  by  death  in 
the  seventeenth  volume,  and  in  the  reign  of  Louis 

t  Art  (to  verifier  1st  Date*,  t.  ».,  p.  445.    Garoier,  t.  ziz.,  pp.  57, 474. 


64 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


CHAPTER  II. 

ON  THE  FEUDAL  SYSTEM,  ESPECIALLY  IN  FRANCE. 


PART  I. 

State  of  Ancient  Germany.— Effects  of  the  Con- 
quest of  Gaul  by  the  Franks. — Tenures  of  Land. 
— Distinction  of  Laws. — Constitution  of  the  an- 
cient Frank  Monarchy. — Gradual  Establishment 
of  Feudal  Tenures. — Principles  of  a  Feudal  Re- 
lation.— Ceremonies  of  Homage  and  Investiture. 
— Military  Service. — Feudal  Incidents  of  Relief, 
Aid,  Wardship,  &c.— Different  Species  of  Fiefs. 
— Feudal  Law-books. 

GERMANY,  in  the  age  of  Tacitus,  was  di- 
vided among  a  number  of  independent 
tribes,  differing  greatly  in  population  and 
importance.  Their  country,  overspread 
with  forests  and  morasses,  afforded  little 
Political  state  arable  land,  and  the  cultivation 
of  ancient  of  that  little  was  inconstant. 
Germany.  Their  occupations  were  prin- 
cipally the  chase  and  pasturage ;  without 
cities,  or  even  any  contiguous  dwellings. 
They  had  kings,  elected  out  of  particu- 
lar families ;  and  other  chiefs,  both  for 
war  and  administration  of  justice,  whom 
merit  alone  recommended  to  the  public 
choice.  But  the  power  of  each  was 
greatly  limited;  and  the  decision  of  all 

XI.  In  my  references  to  this  history,  which  for 
common  facts  I  have  not  thought  it  necessary  to 
make,  I  have  merely  named  the  author  of  the  par- 
ticular volume  which  I  quote.  This  has  made  the 
above  explanation  convenient,  as  the  reader  might 
imagine  that  I  referred  to  three  distinct  works. 
Of  these  three  historians,  Gamier,  the  last,  is  the 
most  judicious,  and,  I  believe,  the  most  accurate. 
His  prolixity,  though  a  material  defect,  and  one 
which  has  occasioned  the  work  itself  to  become  an 
immeasurable  undertaking,  which  could  never  be 
completed  on  the  same  scale,  is  chiefly  occasioned 
by  too  great  a  regard  to  details,  and  is  more  tolera- 
ble than  a  similar  fault  in  Villaret,  proceeding  from 
a  love  of  idle  declamation  and  sentiment.  Villaret, 
however,  is  not  without  merits.  He  embraces, 
perhaps,  more  fully  than  his  predecessor  Velly, 
those  collateral  branches  of  history  which  an  en- 
lightened reader  requires  almost  in  preference  to 
civil  transactions,  the  laws,  manners,  literature, 
and,  in  general,  the  whole  domestic  records  of  a  na- 
tion. These  subjects  are  not  always  well  treated ; 
but  the  book  itself,  to  which  there  is  a  remarkably 
full  index,  forms  upon  the  whole  a  great  repository 
of  useful  knowledge.  VilJaret  had  the  advantage 
of  official  access  to  the  French  archives,  by  which 
he  has  no  doubt  enriched  his  history  ;  but  his  ref- 
erences are  indistinct,  and  his  composition  breathes 
an  air  of  rapidity  and  want  of  exactness.  Velly's 
characteristics  are  not  very  dissimilar.  The  style 
of  both  is  exceedingly  bad,  as  has  been  severely 
noticed,  along  with  their  other  defects,  byGaillard, 
in  Observations  sur  1'Histoire  de  Velly,  Villaret,  et 
Gamier.— (4  vols.  12mo.,  Paris,  1806.) 


leading  questions,  though  subject  to  the 
previous  deliberation  of  the  chieftains, 
sprung  from  the  free  voice  of  a  popular 
assembly.*  The  principal  men,  however, 
of  a  German  tribe  fully  partook  of  that 
estimation  which  is  always  the  reward 
of  valour,  and  commonly  of  birth.  They 
were  surrounded  by  a  cluster  of  youths, 
the  most  gallant  and  ambitious  of  the  na- 
tion, their  pride  at  home,  their  protection 
in  the  field;  whose  ambition  was  flat- 
tered, or  gratitude  conciliated,  by  such 
presents  as  a  leader  of  barbarians  could 
confer.  These  were  the  institutions  of 
the  people  who  overthrew  the  empire  of 
Rome,  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  infant 
societies,  and  such  as  travellers  have 
found  among  nations  in  the  same  stage 
of  manners  throughout  the  world.  And, 
although  in  the  lapse  of  four  centuries 
between  the  ages  of  Tacitus  and  Clovis, 
some  change  may  have  been  wrought  by 
long  intercourse  with  the  Romans,  yet 
the  foundations  of  their  political  system 
were  unshaken. 

When  these  tribes  from  Germany  and 
the  neighbouring  countries  poured  down 
upon  the  empire,  and  began  to  p  . .  f 
form  permanent  settlements,  lands  in  con- 
they  made  a  partition  of  the  queredprov- 
lands  in  the  conquered  prov-  in 
inces  between  themselves  anc  the  origi- 
nal possessors.  The  Burgundians  and 
Visigoths  took  two  thirds  of  their  re- 
spective conquests,  leaving  the  remain- 
der to  the  Roman  proprietor.  Each  Bur- 
gundian  was  quartered,  under  the  gentle 
name  of  guest,  upon  one  of  the  former 
tenants,  whose  reluctant  hospitality  con- 
fined him  to  the  smaller  portion  of  his 
estate. f  The  Vandals  in  Africa,  a  more 
furious  race  of  plunderers,  seized  all  the 
best  lands.!  The  Lombards  of  Italy  took  a 
third  part  of  the  produce.  We  cannot  dis- 
cover any  mention  of  a  similar  arrange- 
ment in  the  laws  or  history  of  the  Franks. 


*  De  minoribus  rebus  principes  consultant,  de 
majoribus  omnes ;  ita  tamen,  ut  ea  quoque,  quo- 
rum penes  plebem  arbitriurn  est,  apud  principes 
pertractentur. — Tac.  de  Mor.  Germ.,c.  xi.  Acida- 
Uus  and  Grotius  contend  for  prcetractentur  ;  which 
would  be  neater,  but  the  same  sense  appears  to  be 
conveyed  by  the  common  reading. 

t  Leg.  Burgund.,  c.  54,  55. 

i  Procopius  De  Bello  Vandal.,  1.  i.,  c.  5. 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


65 


It  is,  however,  clear  that  they  occupied, 
by  public  allotment  or  individual  pillage, 
a  great  portion  of  the  lands  of  France. 

The  estates  possessed  by  the  Franks,  as 
Allodial  and  their  property,  were  termed  al- 
saiique  lands,  lodial;  a  word  which  is  some- 
times restricted  to  such  as  had  descended 
by  inheritance.*  These  were  subject  to 
no  burden  except  that  of  public  defence. 
They  passed  to  all  the  children  equally, 
or,  in  their  failure,  to  the  nearest  kin- 
dred.! But  of  these  allodial  possessions, 
there  was  a  particular  species,  denomi- 
nated Salique,  from  which  females  were 
expressly  excluded.  What  these  lands 
were,  and  what  was  the  cause  of  the  ex- 
clusion, has  been  much  disputed.  No 
solution  seems  more  probable,  than  that 
the  ancient  lawgivers  of  the  Salian 
Franks!  prohibited  females  from  inherit- 
ing the  lands  assigned  to  the  nation  upon 
its  conquest  of  Gaul,  both  in  compliance 
with  their  ancient  usages,  and  in  order 
to  secure  the  military  service  of  every 
proprietor.  But  lands  subsequently  ac- 
quired, by  purchase  or  other  means, 
though  equally  bound  to  the  public  de- 
fence, were  relieved  from  the  severity 
of  this  rule,  and  presumed  not  to  belong 
to  the  class  of  Salique. $  Hence,  in  the 
Ripuary  law,  the  code  of  a  tribe  of 
Franks  settled  upon  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine,  and  differing  rather  in  words  than 
in  substance  from  the  Salique-law,  which 


*  Allodial  lands  are  commonly  opposed  to  bene- 
ficiary or  feudal ;  the  former  being  strictly  pro- 
prietary, while  the  latter  depended  upon  a  superi- 
or. In  this  sense  the  word  is  of  continual  recur- 
rence in  ancient  histories,  laws,  and  instruments. 
It  sometimes,  however,  bears  the  sense  of  inherit- 
ance ;  and  this  seems  to  be  its  meaning  in  the 
famous  62d  chapter  of  the  Salique-law :  de  Alodis. 
Alodium  interdum  opponitur  comparato,  says  Du 
Cange,  in  formulis  veteribus.  Hence,  in  the  char- 
ters of  the  eleventh  century,  hereditary  fiefs  are 
frequently  termed  alodia. — Recueil  des  Historiens 
de  France,  t.  xi.,  preface.  Vaissette,  Hist,  de 
Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  109. 

t  Leg.  Salicae,  c.  62. 

i  The  Salique-laws  appear  to  have  been  framed 
by  a  Christian  prince,  and  after  the  conquest  of 
Gaul.  They  are  therefore  not  older  than  Clovis. 
Nor  can  they  be  much  later,  since  they  were  altered 
by  one  of  his  sons. 

$  By  the  German  customs,  women,  though 
treated  with  much  respect  and  delicacy,  were  not 
endowed  at  their  marriage.  Dotem  non  uxor  ma- 
rito,  sed  maritus  uxori  confert. — Tacitus,  c.  18.  A 
similar  principle  might  debar  them  of  inheritance 
in  fixed  possessions.  Certain  it  is,  that  the  exclu- 
sion of  females  was  not  unfrequent  among  the 
Teutonic  nations.  We  find  it  in  the  laws  of  the 
Thuringians  and  of  the  Saxons  ;  both  ancient 
codes,  though  not  free  from  interpolation.— Leib- 
nitz, Scriptores  Renim  Brunswicensium,  t.  i.,  pp. 
81  and  83.  But  this  usage  was  repugnant  to  the 
principles  of  Roman  law,  which  the  Franks  found 
prevailing  in  their  new  country,  and  to  the  natural 
feeling  which  leads  a  man  to  prefer  his  own  de- 


it  serves  to  illustrate,  it  is  said,  that  a 
woman  cannot  inherit  her  grandfather's 
estate  (haereditas  aviatica),  distinguish- 
ing such  family  property  from  what  the 
father  might  have  acquired.*  And  Mar- 
culfus  uses  expressions  to  the  same  ef- 
fect. There  existed,  however,  a  right 
of  setting  aside  the  law,  and  admitting 
females  to  succession  by  testament.  It 
is  rather  probable,  from  some  passages 
in  the  Burgundian  code,  that  even  the 
lands  of  partition  (sortes  Burgundionum) 
were  not  restricted  to  male  heirs,  f  And 
the  Visigoths  admitted  women  on  equal 
terms  to  the  whole  inheritance. 

A  controversy  has  been  maintained  in 
France,  as  to  the  condition  of  the  Roman 
Romans,  or,  rather,  the  provincial  natives  of 
inhabitants  of  Gaul,  after  the  in-  GauL 
vasion  of  Clovis.  But  neither  those  who 
have  considered  the  Franks  as  barbarian 
conquerors,  enslaving  the  former  pos- 
sessors, nor  the  Abbe  du  Bos,  in  whose 
theory  they  appear  as  allies  and  friend- 
ly inmates,  are  warranted  by  historical 
facts.  On  the  one  hand,  we  find  the  Ro- 
mans not  only  possessed  of  property, 
and  governed  by  their  own  laws,  but  ad- 
mitted to  the  royal  favour,  and  the  high- 
est offices  ;J  while  the  bishops  and  cler- 
gy, who  were  generally  of  that  nation,^ 


scendants  to  collateral  heirs.  One  of  the  prece- 
dents in  Marculfus  (1.  ii.,  form  12)  calls  the  exclu- 
sion of  females  diuturna  et  impia  consuetudo.  In 
another,  a  father  addresses  his  daughter :  Omnibus 
non  habetur  incognitum,  quod,  sicut  lex  Salica  con- 
tinet,  de  rebus  meis,  quod  mihi  ex  alode  parentum 
meorum  obvenit,  apud  germanos  tuos  fihos  meos 
minime  inhaereditate  succedere  poteras. — Formulae 
Marculfo  adjectae,  49.  These  precedents  are  sup- 
posed to  have  been  compiled  about  the  latter  end 
of  the  seventh  century. 

*  C.  56. 

1 1  had  in  former  editions  asserted  the  contrary 
of  this,  on  the  authority  of  Leg.  Burgund.,  c.  78, 
which  seemed  to  limit  the  succession  of  estates, 
called  sortes,  to  male  heirs.  But  the  expressions 
are  too  obscure  to  warrant  this  inference ;  and  M. 
Guizot  (Essais  Sur  1'Hist.  de  France,  vol.  i.,  p. 
95)  refers  to  the  14th  chapter  of  the  same  code 
for  the  opposite  proposition.  But  this,  too,  is  not 
absolutely  clear,  as  a  general  rule. 

J  Daniel  conjectures  that  Clotaire  I.  was  the 
first  who  admitted  Romans  into  the  army,  which 
had  previously  been  composed  of  Franks.  From 
this  time  we  find  many  in  high  military  command. 
—(Hist,  de  la  Milice  Francoise.  t.  i.,  p.  11.)  It 
seems  by  a  passage  in  Gregory  of  Tours,  by  Du 
Bos  (t.  iii.,  p.  547),  that  some  Romans  affected  the 
barbarian  character  by  letting  their  hair  grow.  If 
this  were  generally  permitted,  it  would  be  a  strong- 
er evidence  of  approximation  between  the  two 
races  than  any  that  Du  Bos  has  adduced.  Mon- 
tesquieu certainly  takes  it  for  granted  that  a  Ro- 
man might  change  his  law,  and.  thus  become  to  all 
material  intents  a  Frank.— (Esprit  des  Loix,  1. 
xxviii.,  c.  4.)  But  the  passage  on  which  he  relies 
is  read  differently  in  the  manuscripts. 

$  Some  bishops,  if  we  may  judge  from  their  bar- 
barous names,  and  other  circumstances,  were  not 


66 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


grew  up  continually  in  popular  estima- 
tion, in  riches,  and  in  temporal  sway. 
Yet  it  is  undeniable  that  a  marked  line 
was  drawn  at  the  outset  between  the 
conquerors  and  the  conquered.  Though 
one  class  of  Romans  retained  estates  of 
their  own,  yet  there  was  another,  called 
tributary,  who  seem  to  have  cultivated 
those  of  the  Franks,  and  were  scarcely 
raised  above  the  condition  of  predial  ser- 
vitude. But  no  distinction  can  be  more 
unequivocal  than  that  which  was  estab- 
lished between  the  two  nations  in  the 
weregild,  or  composition  for  homicide. 
Capital  punishment  for  murder  was  con- 
trary to  the  spirit  of  the  Franks,  who, 
like  most  barbarous  nations,  would  have 
thought  the  loss  of  one  citizen  ill  repair- 
ed by  that  of  another.  The  weregild 
was  paid  to  the  relations  of  the  slain,  ac- 
cording to  a  legal  rate.  This  was  fixed  by 
the  Salique-law  at  six  hundred  solidi  for 
an  Antrustion  of  the  king  ;  at  three  hun- 
dred for  a  Roman  conviva  regis  (meaning 
a  man  of  sufficient  rank  to  be  admitted 
to  the  royal  table) ;  at  two  hundred  for  a 
common  Frank;  at  one  hundred  for  a 
Roman  possessor  of  lands  ;  and  at  forty- 
five  for  a  tributary,  or  cultivator  of  anoth- 
er's property.  In  Burgundy,  where  re- 
ligion and  length  of  settlement  had  intro- 
duced different  ideas,  murder  was  pun- 
ished with  death.  But  other  personal 
injuries  were  compensated,  as  among  the 
Franks,  by  a  fine,  graduated  according  to 
the  rank  and  nation  of  the  aggrieved 
party.* 

The  barbarous  conquerors  of  Gaul  and 
Distinc-  Italy  were  guided  by  notions 
tionofiaws.  very  different  from  those  of 
Rome,  who  had  imposed  her  own  laws 
upon  all  the  subjects  of  her  empire.  Ad- 
hering in  general  to  their  ancient  cus- 
toms without  desire  of  improvement, 
they  left  the  former  habitations  in  unmo- 
lested enjoyment  of  their  civil  institu- 
tions. The  Frank  was  judged  by  the  Sa- 

Romans.  See,  for  instance,  Gregory  of  Tours,  1. 
vi.,  c.  9.  But  no  distinction  was  made  among 
them  on  this  account.  The  composition  for  the 
murder  of  a  bishop  was  nine  hundred  solidi ;  for 
that  of  a  priest,  six  hundred  of  the  same  coin. — 
Leges  Salicse,  c.  58. 

*  Leges  Salicse,  c.  43.  Leges  Burgundionum, 
tit.  2.  Murder  and  robbery  were  made  capital  by 
Childebert,  king  of  Paris ;  but  Francus  was  to  be 
sent  for  trial  in  the  royal  court,  debilior  persona  in 
loco  pendatur. — Baluz.,  t.  i.,  p.  17.  I  am  inclined 
to  think  that  the  word  Francus  does  not  absolutely 
refer  to  the  nation  of  the  party  ;  but  rather  to  his 
rank,  as  opposed  to  debilior  persona  ;  and,  conse- 
quently, that  it  had  already  acquired  the  sense  of 
freeman,  or  frceborn  (ingenuus),  which  is  perhaps 
its  strict  meaning.  Du  Cange,  voc.  Francus, 
quotes  the  passage  in  this  sense. 


lique  or  the  Ripuary  code ;  the  Gaul  follow- 
ed that,  of  Theodosius.*  This  grand  dis- 
tinction of  Roman  and  barbarian,  accord- 
ing to  the  law  which  each  followed,  was 
common  to  the  Frank,  Burgundian,  and 
Lombard  kingdoms.  But  the  Ostrogoths, 
whose  settlement  in  the  empire  and  ad- 
vance in  civility  of  manners  were  earlier, 
inclined  to  desert  their  old  usages,  and 
adopt  the  Roman  jurisprudence.!  The 
laws  of  the  Visigoths  too  were  compiled 
by  bishops  upon  a  Roman  foundation, 
and  designed  as  a  uniform  code,  by  which 
both  nations  should  be  governed.^  The 
name  of  Gaul  or  Roman  was  not  entirely 
lost  in  that  of  Frenchman,  nor  had  the 
separation  of  their  laws  ceased,  even  in 
the  provinces  north  of  the  Loire,  till  after 
the  time  of  Charlemagne. $  Ultimately, 
however,  the  feudal  customs  of  succes- 
sion, which  depended  upon  principles 
quite  remote  from  those  of  the  civil  law, 
and  the  rights  of  territorial  justice  which 
the  barons  came  to  possess,  contributed 
to  extirpate  the  Roman  jurisprudence  in 
that  part  of  France.  But  in  the  south, 
from  whatever  cause,  it  survived  the 
revolutions  of  the  middle  ages ;  and  thus 
arose  a  leading  division  of  that  kingdom 
into  pays  coutumiers  and  pays  du  droit 
ecrit;  the  former  regulated  by  a  vast  va- 
riety of  ancient  usages,  the  latter  by  the 
civil  law.  || 


*  Inter  Romanes  negotia  causarum  Romanis  le- 
gibus  praecipimus  terminari. — Edict.  Clotair.  I., 
circ.  560.  Baluz.  Capitul.,  t.  i.,  p.  7. 

f  Giannone,  1.  in.,  c.  2. 

i  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  i.,  p.  242.  Heineccius, 
Hist.  Juris  German.,  c.  i.,  s.  15. 

()  Suger,  in  his  life  of  Louis  VI.,  uses  the  ex- 
pression lex  Salica  (Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xii., 
p.  24) ;  and  I  have  some  recollection  of  having  met 
with  the  like  words  in  other  writings  of  as  modern 
a  date.  But  I  am  not  convinced  that  the  original 
Salique  code  was  meant  by  this  phrase,  which  may 
have  been  applied  to  the  local  feudal  customs. 
The  capitularies  of  Charlemagne  are  frequently 
termed  lex  Salica.  Many  of  these  are  copied  from 
the  Theodosian  code. 

||  This  division  is  very  ancient,  being  found  in 
the  edict  of  Pistes,  under  Charles  the  Bald,  in 
864 ;  where  we  read,  in  illis  regionibus,  quae  legem 
Romanam  sequuntur.— (Recueil  des  Historiens,  t. 
vii.,  p.  664.)  Montesquieu  thinks  that  the  Roman 
law  fell  into  disuse  in  the  north  of  France  on  ac- 
count of  the  superior  advantages,  particularly  in 
point  of  composition  for  offences,  annexed  to  the 
Salique-law ;  while  that  of  the  Visigoths  being  more 
equal,  the  Romans  under  their  government  had 
no  inducement  to  quit  their  own  code. — ( Esprit  des 
Loix,  1.  xxviii.,  c.  4.)  But  it  does  not  appear  that 
the  Visigoths  had  any  peculiar  code  of  laws  till 
after  their  expulsion  from  the  kingdom  of  Tou- 
louse. They  then  retained  only  a  small  strip  of 
territory  in  France,  about  Narbonne  and  Montpe- 
lier. 

However,  the  distinction  of  men  according  to 
their  laws  was  preserved  for  many  centuries,  both 
in  France  and  Italy.  A  judicial  proceeding  of  the 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


67 


The  kingdom  of  Clovis  was  divided 
into  a  number  of  districts,  each  under  the 
government  of  a  count,  a  name  familiar 
to  Roman  subjects,  by  which  they  ren- 
dered the  graf  of  the  Germans.  The 
Provincial  authority  of  this  officer  extend- 

o?  the"1"6"1  ed  over  a11  the  mnabitants>  as 
French  well  Franks  as  natives.  It  was 
Empire.  his  duty  to  administer  justice, 
to  preserve  tranquillity,  to  collect  the 
royal  revenues,  and  to  lead,  when  requi- 
red, the  free  proprietors  into  the  field.* 
The  title  of  a  duke  implied  a  higher  dig- 
nity, and  commonly  gave  authority  over 
several  counties. f  These  offices  were 

year  918,  published  by  the  historians  of  Languedoc 
(t.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  56),  proves  that  the  Roman, 
Gothic,  and  Salique  codes  were  then  kept  perfectly 
separate,  and  that  there  were  distinct  judges  for 
the  three  nations.  The  Gothic  law  is  referred  to 
as  an  existing  authority  in  a  charter  of  1070. — 
Idem,  t.  iii.,  p.  274.  De  Marca,  M area  Hispanica,  p. 
1159.  Every  man,  both  in  France  (Hist,  de  Lan- 
guedoc, t.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  69)  and  in  Italy,  seems 
to  have  had  the  right  of  choosing  by  what  law  he 
would  be  governed.  Volumus,  says  Lothaire  I.  in 
824,  ut  cunctus  populus  Romanus  interrogetur, 
quali  lege  vult  vivere,  ut  tali,  quali  professi  fuerint 
vivere  velle,  vivant.  Quod  si  offensionem  contra 
eandem  legem  fecerint,  eidem  legi  quum  profiten- 
tur,  subjacebunt.  Women  upon  marriage  usually 
changed  their  law,  and  adopted  that  of  their  hus- 
band, returning  to  their  own  in  widowhood ;  but 
to  this  there  are  exceptions.  Charters  are  found, 
as  late  as  the  twelfth  century,  with  the  expression, 
qui  professus  sum  lege  Longobardica  [aut]  lege 
Salica  [aut]  lege  Alemannorum  vivere.  But  soon 
afterward  the  distinctions  were  entirely  lost,  partly 
through  the  prevalence  of  the  Roman  law,  and 
partly  through  the  multitude  of  local  statutes  in 
the  Italian  cities. — Muratori,  Antiquitates  Italia?, 
Dissertat.  22.  Du  Cange,  v.  Lex.  Heineccius, 
Historia  Juris  Germanici,  c.  ii.,  s.  51. 

*  Marculfi  Formulae,  1.  i.,  32. 

t  Houard,  the  learned  translator  of  Littleton 
(Anciens  Loix  des  Francois,  t.  i.,  p.  6),  supposes 
these  titles  to  have  been  applied  indifferently.  But 
the  contrary  is  easily  proved,  and  especially  by  a 
line  of  Fortunatus,  quoted  by  Du  Cange  and  others : 

"  Qui  modo  dat  Comitis,  del  tibi  jura  Ducis." 
The  cause  of  M.  Houard's  error  may  perhaps  be 
worth  noticing.  In  the  above  cited  form  of  Mar- 
culfus,  a  precedent  (in  law  language)  is  given  for 
the  appointment  of  a  duke,  count,  or  patrician. 
The  material  part  being  the  same,  it  was  only  ne- 
cessary to  fill  up  the  blanks,  as  we  should  call  it,  by 
inserting  the  proper  designation  of  office.  It  is  ex- 
pressed therefore,  actionem  comitatus,  ducatus,  aut 
patriciatus  in  pago  illo,  quam  ant ecessor  t uus  ille  usque 
nunc  visus  est  egisse,  tibi  agendum  regendumque 
commisimus.  Montesquieu  has  fallen  into  a  sim- 
ilar mistake  (1.  xxx.,  c.  16),  forgetting  for  a  mo- 
ment, like  Houard,  that  these  instruments  in  Mar- 
cuifus  were  not  records  of  real  transactions,  but 
general  forms  for  future  occasion. 

The  office  of  patrician  is  rather  more  obscure. 
It  seems  to  have  nearly  corresponded  with  what 
was  afterward  called  mayor  of  the  palace,  and  to 
have  implied  the  command  of  all  the  royal  forces. 
Such  at  least  were  Celsus,  and  his  successor  Mum- 
molus,  under  Gontran.  This  is  probable  too  from 
analogy.  The  patrician  was  the  highest  officer  in 
E2 


originally  conferred  during  pleasure  ;  but 
the  claim  of  a  son  to  succeed  his  father 
would  often  be  found  too  plausible  or  too 
formidable  to  be  rejected,  and  it  is  highly 
probable  that,  even  under  the  Merovin- 
gian kings,  these  provincial  governors 
had  laid  the  foundations  of  that  independ- 
ence which  was  destined  to  change  the 
countenance  of  Europe.*  The  Lombard 
dukes,  those  especially  of  Spoleto  and 
Benevento,  acquired  very  early  an  hered- 
itary right  of  governing  their  provinces, 
and  that  kingdom  became  a  sort  of  fed- 
eral aristocracy.f 

The  throne  of  France  was  always  fil- 
led by  the  royal  house  of  Meroveus. 
However  complete  we  may  ima-  ... 
gine  the  elective  rights  of  the  JXr 
Franks,  it  is  clear  that  a  funda-  French  mo- 
mental  law  restrained  them  to  narchv- 
this  family.  Such  indeed  had  been  the 
monarchy  of  their  ancestors  the  Ger- 
mans ;  such  long  continued  to  be  those 
of  Spain,  of  England,  and  perhaps  of  all 
European  nations.  The  reigning  family 
was  immutable  ;  but  at  every  vacancy 
the  heir  awaited  the  confirmation  of  a 
popular  election,  whether  that  were  a 
substantial  privilege,  or  a  mere  ceremo- 
ny. Exceptions,  however,  to  the  lineal 
succession,  are  rare  in  the  history  of  any 
country,  unless  where  an  infant  heir  was 
thought  unfit  to  rule  a  nation  of  freemen. 
But  in  fact  it  is  vain  to  expect  a  system 


the  Roman  empire,  from  the  time  of  Constantino, 
and  we  know  how  much  the  Franks  themselves, 
and  still  more  their  Gaulish  subjects,  affected  to 
imitate  the  style  of  the  imperial  court. 

*  That  the  offices  of  count  and  duke  were  origi- 
nally but  temporary,  may  be  inferred  from  several 
passages  in  Gregory  of  Tours ;  as  1.  v.,  c.  37  ;  1.  viii., 
c.  18.  But  it  seems  by  the  laws  of  the  Alemanni, 
c.  35,  that  the  hereditary  succession  of  their  dukes 
was  tolerably  established  at  the  beginning  of  the 
seventh  century,  when  their  code  was  promulgated. 
The  Bavarians  chose  their  own  dukes  out  of  one 
family,  as  is  declared  in  their  laws ;  tit.  ii.,  c.  1  and 
c.  20. — (Lindebrog,  Codex  Legum  antiquarum.) 
This  the  Emperor  Henry  II.  confirms  in  Ditmar; 
Npnne  scitis  (he  says),  Bajuarios  ab  initio  ducem 
eligendi  liberam  habere  potestatem? — (Schmidt, 
Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p.  404.)  Indeed,  the 
consent  of  these  German  provincial  nations,  if  I 
may  use  the  expression,  seems  to  have  been  always 
required,  as  in  an  independent  monarchy.  Ditmar, 
a  chronicler  of  the  tenth  century,  says,  that  Eckard 
was  made  Duke  of  Thuringia  totius  populi  consen- 
su.— Pfeffel,  Abrege  Chronologique,  t.  i.,  p.  184. 
With  respect  to  France  properly  so  called,  or  the 
kingdoms  of  Neu  stria  and  Burgundy,  it  may  be 
less  easy  to  prove  the  existence  of  hereditary  offices 
under  the  Merovingians.  But  the  feebleness  of 
their  government  makes  it  probable  that  so  natural 
a  symptom  of  disorganization  had  not  failed  to  en- 
sue. The  Helvetian  counts  appear  to  have  been 
nearly  independent,  as  early  as  this  period. — (Plan- 
ta's  Hist,  of  the  Helvetic  Confederacy,  chap,  i.) 

t  Giannonej  ].  iv. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  II. 


of  constitutional  laws  rigidly  observed 
in  ages  of  anarchy  and  ignorance.  Those 
antiquaries  who  have  maintained  the 
most  opposite  theories  upon  such  points 
are  seldom  in  want  of  particular  instan- 
ces to  support  their  respective  conclu- 
sions.* 

Clovis  was  a  leader  of  barbarians,  who 
Limited  au-  respected  his  valour,  and  the 
thority  of  rank  which  they  had  given  him, 
but  were  incapable  of  servile 
feelings,  and  jealous  of  their  common  as 
well  as  individual  rights.  In  order  to 
appreciate  the  power  which  he  possessed, 
we  have  only  to  look  at  the  well-known 
vase  of  story  of  the  vase  of  Soissons. 
Soissons.  When  the  plunder  taken  in  Clo- 
vis's  invasion  of  Gaul  was  set  out  in  this 
place  for  distribution,  he  begged  for  him- 
self a  precious  vessel,  belonging  to  the 
church  of  Rheims.  The  army  having 
expressed  their  willingness  to  consent, 
"  You  shall  have  nothing  here,"  exclaim- 
ed a  soldier,  striking  it  with  his  battle- 
axe,  "but  what  falls  to  your  share  by 
lot."  Clovis  took  the  vessel,  without 
marking  any  resentment;  but  found  an 
opportunity,  next  year,  of  revenging  him- 
self by  the  death  of  the  soldier.  It  is  im- 
possible to  resist  the  inference  which  is 
supplied  by  this  story.  The  whole  be- 
haviour of  Clovis  is  that  of  a  barbarian 
chief,  not  daring  to  withdraw  any  thing 
from  the  rapacity,  or  to  chastise  the 
rudeness,  of  his  followers. 

But  if  such  was  the  liberty  of  the 
Power  of  Franks  when  they  first  became 
the  kings  conquerors  of  Gaul,  we  have 
*'  good  reason  to  believe  that  they 
did  not  long  preserve  it.  A  people  not 
very  numerous  spread  over  the  spacious 
provinces  of  Gaul,  wherever  lands  were 
assigned  to,  or  seized  by  them.f  It  be- 
came a  burden  to  attend  those  general 
assemblies  of  the  nation,  which  were  an- 
nually convened  in  the  month  of  March, 
to  deliberate  upon  public  business,  as 

*  Hottoman  (Franco-Gallia,  c.  vi.)  and  Boulain- 
villiers  (Etat  de  la  France)  seem  to  consider  the 
crown  as  absolutely  elective.  The  Abbe  Vertot 
(Memoires  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  t.  iv.)  main- 
tains a  limited  right  of  election  within  the  reigning 
family.  M.  de  Foncemagne  (t.  vi.  and  t.  viii.  of 
the  same  collection)  asserts  a  strict  hereditary  de- 
scent. Neither  perhaps  sufficiently  distinguishes 
acts  of  violence  from  those  of  right,  nor  observes 
the  changes  in  the  French  constitution  between 
Clovis  and  Childeric  III. 

t  Du  Bos,  Hist.  Critique,  t.  ii.,  p.  301,  maintains 
that  Clovis  had  not  more  than  3000  or  4000  Franks 
in  his  army,  for  which  he  produces  some,  though 
not  very  ancient,  authorities.  The  smallness  of 
the  number  of  Salians  may  account  for  our  finding 
no  mention  of  the  partitions  made  in  their  favour. 
See,  however,  Du  Bos,  t.  iii.,  p.  466. 


well  as  to  exhibit  a  muster  of  military 
strength.  After  some  time,  it  appears 
that  these  meetings  drew  together  only 
the  bishops,  and  those  invested  with  civil 
offices.*  The  ancient  inhabitants  of 
Gaul,  having  little  notion  of  political  lib- 
erty, were  unlikely  to  resist  the  most  ty- 
rannical conduct.  Many  of  them  became 
officers  of  state  and  advisers  of  the  sov- 
ereign, whose  ingenuity  might  teach 
maxims  of  despotism  unknown  in  the 
forests  of  Germany.  We  shall  scarcely 
wrong  the  bishops  by  suspecting  them  of 
more  pliable  courtliness  than  was  natural 
to  the  long-haired  warriors  of  Clovis. f 
Yet  it  is  probable  that  some  of  the 
Franks  were  themselves  instrumental  in 
this  change  of  their  government.  The 
court  of  the  Merovingian  kings  was 
crowded  with  followers,  who  have  been 
plausibly  derived  from  those  of  the 
German  chiefs  described  by  Tacitus ; 
men,  forming  a  distinct  and  elevated 
class  in  the  state,  and  known  by  the  ti- 
tles of  Fideles,  Leudes,  and  Antrustiones. 
They  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  the  king 
upon  their  admission  into  that  rank,  and 
were  commonly  remunerated  with  gifts 
of  land.  Under  different  appellations  we 
find,  as  some  antiquaries  think,  this  class 
of.  courtiers  in  the  early  records  of  Lom- 
bardy  and  England.  The  general  name 
of  vassals  (from  Gwas,  a  Celtic  word  for 
a  servant)  is  applied  to  them  in  every 
country 4  By  the  assistance  of  these 
faithful  supporters,  it  has  been  thought 
that  the  regal  authority  of  Clovis's  suc- 
cessors was  ensured. £  However  this 


*  Du  Bos,  t.  iii.,  p.  327.  Mably,  Observ.  sur 
FHistoire  de  France,  1.  i.,  c.  3. 

t  Gregory  of  Tours,  throughout  his  history, 
talks  of  the  royal  power  in  the  tone  of  Louis  XI  V.'s 
court.  If  we  were  obliged  to  believe  all  we  read, 
even  the  vase  of  Soissons  would  bear  witness  to 
the  obedience  of  the  Franks. 

J  The  Gasindi  of  Italy,  and  the  Anglo-Saxon  royal 
Thane,  appear  to  correspond,  more  or  less,  to  the 
Antrustions  of  France.  The  word  Thane,  howev- 
er, was  used  in  n.  very  extensive  sense,  and  com- 
prehended all  tree  proprietors  of  land.  That  of 
Leudes  seems  10  imply  only  subjection,  and  is  fre- 
quently applied  to  the  whole  body  of  a  nation,  as 
well  as,  in  a  stricter  sense,  to  the  king's  personal 
vassals.  This  name  they  did  not  acquire  original- 
ly by  possessing  benefices,  but  rather,  by  being 
vassals  or  servants,  became  the  object  of  benefi- 
ciary donations.  In  one  of  Marculfus's  precedents, 

I.  i.,  f.  18,  we  have  the  form  by  which  an  Antrus- 
tion  was  created.     See  Du  Cange,  under  these  sev- 
eral words,  and  Muratori's  thirteenth  dissertation 
on  Italian  antiquities.    The  Gardingi,  sometimes 
mentioned  in  the  laws  of  the  Visigoths,  do  not  ap- 
pear to  be  of  the  same  description. 

§  Boantus  *  *  *  *  vallatus  in  domo  sua,  ab  ho- 
minibus  regis  interfectus  est.— Greg.  Tur.,  1.  viii.,  c. 

II.  A  few  spirited  retainers  were  sufficient  to  ex- 
ecute the  mandates  of  arbitrary  power  among  a 
barbarous,  disunited  people. 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


69 


may  be,  the  annals  of  his  more  immedi- 
ate descendants  exhibit  a  course  of  op- 
pression, not  merely  displayed,  as  will 
often  happen  among  uncivilized  people, 
though  free,  in  acts  of  private  injustice, 
but  in  such  general  tyranny  as  is  incom- 
patible with  the  existence  of  any  real 
checks  upon  the  sovereign.* 

But  before  the  middle  of  the  seventh 
century,  the  kings  of  this  line  had  fallen 
into  that  contemptible  state  which  has 
Degeneracy  been  described  in  the  last  chap- 

faUT  r°yal  ter'  Tne  may°rs  of  tne  palace, 
Mayors  of  who,  from  mere  officers  of  the 
the  palace,  court,  had  now  become  masters 
of  the  kingdom,  were  elected  by  the 
Franks,  not  indeed  the  whole  body  of 
that  nation,  but  the  provincial  governors, 
and  considerable  proprietors  of  land.f 
Some  inequality  there  probably  existed 
from  the  beginning  in  the  partition  of 
estates,  and  this  had  been  greatly  in- 
creased by  the  common  changes  of  prop- 
erty, by  the  rapine  of  those  savage  times, 

*  The  proofs  of  this  may  be  found  in  almost 
every  page  of  Gregory  :  among  other  places,  see  1. 
iv.,  c.  1 ;  J.  vi.,  c.  29 ;  1.  ix.,  c.  30.  In  all  edicts  pro- 
ceeding from  the  first  kings,  they  are  careful  to  ex- 
press the  consent  of  their  subjects.  Clovis's  lan- 
guage runs — Populus  noster  petit.  His  son  Chil- 
debert  expresses  himself:  una  cum  nostris  optima- 
tibus  pertractavimus — convenit  una  cum  leudis 
nostris.  But  in  the  famous  treaty  of  Andeley,  A. 
D.  587,  no  national  assent  seems  to  have  been  ask- 
ed or  given  to  its  provisions,  which  were  very  im- 
portant. And  an  edict  of  one  of  the  Clotaires  (it  is 
uncertain  whether  the  first  or  second  of  that  name, 
though  Montesquieu  has  given  good  reasons  for 
the  latter)  assumes  a  more  magisterial  tone,  with- 
out any  mention  of  the  Leudes. 

t  The  revolution  which  ruined  Brunehaut  was 
brought  about  by  the  defection  of  her  chief  nobles, 
especially  Warnachar,  mayor  of  Austrasia.  Upon 
Clotaire  II. 's  victory  over  her,  he  was  compelled  to 
reward  these  adherents  at  the  expense  of  the  mon- 
archy. Warnachar  was  made  mayor  of  Burgundy, 
with  an  oath  from  the  king  never  to  dispossess  him. 
— (Fredegarius,  c.  42.)  In  626,  the  nobility  of  Bur- 
gundy declined  to  Blect  a  mayor,  which  seems  to 
have  been  considered  as  their  right.  From  this 
time  nothing  was  done  without  the  consent  of  the 
aristocracy.  Unless  we  ascribe  all  to  the  different 
ways  of  thinking  in  Gregory  and  Fredegarius,  the 
one  a  Roman  bishop,  the  other  a  Frank  or  Bur- 
gundian,  the  government  was  altogether  changed. 

It  might  even  be  surmised,  that  the  crown  was 
considered  as  more  elective  than  before.  The  au- 
thor of  Gesta  Regum  Francorum,  an  old  chronicler 
who  lived  in  those  times,  changes  his  form  of  ex- 
pressing a  king's  accession  from  that  of  Clotaire 
II.  Of  the  earlier  kings  he  says  only,  regnum 
recepit.  But  of  Clotaire,  Franci  quoque  praedic- 
tum  Clotairium  regem  parvulum  supra  se  in  reg- 
num statuerunt.  Again,  of  the  accession  of  Dago- 
bert  I. :  Austrasii  Franci  superiores  congregati  in 
unum.  Dagobertum  supra  se  in  regnum  statuunt. 
In  another  place,  Decedente  prsefato  rege  Clodo- 
veo,  Franci  Clotairium  seniorem  puerum  extribus 
sibi  regem  statuerunt.  Several  other  instances 
might  be  quoted. 


and  by  royal  munificence.  Thus  arose 
that  landed  aristocracy,  which  became 
the  most  striking  feature  in  the  political 
system  of  Europe  during  many  centuries, 
and  is  in  fact  its  great  distinction,  both 
from  the  despotism  of  Asia,  and  the 
equality  of  republican  governments. 

There  has  been  some  dispute  about 
the  origin  of  nobility  in  France, 
which  might  perhaps  be  settled, 
or  at  least  better  understood,  by  fixing 
our  conception  of  the  term.  In  our  mod- 
ern acceptation,  it  is  usually  taken  to  im- 
ply certain  distinctive  privileges  in  the 
political  order,  inherent  in  the  blood  of 
the  possessor,  and  consequently  not 
transferable  like  those  which  property 
confers.  Limited  to  this  sense,  nobility, 
I  conceive,  was  unknown  to  the  con- 
querors of  Gaul  till  long  after  the  down- 
fall of  the  Roman  empire.  They  felt,  no 
doubt,  the  common  prejudice  of  mankind 
in  favour  of  those  whose  ancestry  is  con- 
spicuous, when  compared  with  persons 
of  obscure  birth.  This  is  the  primary 
meaning  of  nobility,  and  perfectly  distin- 
guishable from  the  possession  of  exclu- 
sive civil  rights.  Those  who  are  ac- 
quainted with  the  constitution  of  the 
Roman  republic,  will  recollect  an  in- 
stance of  the  difference  between  these 
two  species  of  hereditary  distinction,  in 
the  patricii  and  the  nobiles.  Though  I  dp 
not  think  that  the  tribes  of  German  ori- 
gin paid  so  much  regard  to  genealogy  as 
some  Scandinavian  and  Celtic  nations 
(else  the  beginnings  of  the  greatest 
houses  would  not  have  been  so  envelop- 
ed in  doubt  as  we  find  them),  there  are 
abundant  traces  of  the  respect  in  which 
families  of  known  antiquity  were  held 
among  them.* 

But  the  essential  distinction  of  ranks  in 
France,  perhaps  also  in  Spain  and  Lom- 
bardy,  was  founded  upon  the  possession 
of  land,  or  upon  civil  employment.  The 
aristocracy  of  wealth  preceded  that  of 


*  The  antiquity  of  French  nobility  is  maintained 
temperately  by  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  i., 
p.  361,  and  with  acrimony  by  Montesquieu,  Esprit 
des  Loix,  1.  xxx.,  c.  25.  Neither  of  them  proves 
any  more  than  1  have  admitted.  The  expression 
of  Ludovicus  Pius  to  his  freedman,  Rex  fecit  te 
liberum,  non  nobilem :  quod  impossibile  est  post 
libertatem,  is  very  intelligible,  without  imagining  a 
privileged  class.  Of  the  practical  regard  paid  to 
birth,  indeed,  there  are  many  proofs.  It  seems  to 
have  been  a  recommendation  in  the  choice  of 
bishops. — (Marculfi  Formulae,  1.  i.,  c.  4,  cum  notis 
Bignonii,  in  Baluzii  Capitularibus.)  It  was  proba- 
bly much  considered  in  conferring  dignities.  Fre- 
degarius says  of  Protadius,  mayor  of  the  palace  to 
Brunehaut,  Quoscunque  genere  nobiles  reperiebat, 
totos  humiliare  conabatur,  ut  nullus  reperiretur,  qui 
gradum,  quern  arripuerat,  potuisset  assumere. 


70 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


birth,  which  indeed  is  still  chiefly  depend- 
ant upon  the  other  for  its  importance.  A 
Frank  of  large  estate  was  styled  a  noble  ; 
if  he  wasted  or  was  despoiled  of  his 
wealth,  his  descendants  fell  into  the 
mass  of  the  people,  and  the  new  pos- 
sessor became  noble  in  his  stead.  In 
these  early  ages,  property  did  not  very 
frequently  change  hands,  and  desert  the 
families  who  had  long  possessed  it. 
They  were  noble  by  descent,  therefore, 
because  they  were  rich  by  the  same 
means.  Wealth  gave  them  power,  and 
power  gave  them  pre-eminence.  But  no 
distinction  was  made  by  the  Salique  or 
Lombard  codes  in  the  composition  for 
homicide,  the  great  test  of  political  sta- 
tion, except  in  favour  of  the  king's  vas- 
sals. It  seems,  however,  by  some  of  the 
barbaric  codes,  those  namely  of  the  Bur- 
gundians,  Visigoths,  Saxons,  and  the  Eng- 
lish colony  of  the  latter  nation,*  that  the 
free  men  were  ranged  by  them  into  two 
or  three  classes,  and  a  difference  made 
in  the  price  at  which  their  lives  were 
valued:  so  that  there  certainly  existed 
the  elements  of  aristocratic  privileges,  if 
we  cannot  in  strictness  admit  their  com- 
pletion at  so  early  a  period.  The  Antrus- 
tions  of  the  kings  of  the  Franks  were  also 
noble,  and  a  composition  was  paid  for  their 
murder  treble  of  that  for  an  ordinary  citi- 
zen: but  this  was  a  personal,  not  an 
hereditary  distinction.  A  link  was  want- 
ing to  connect  their  eminent  privileges 
with  their  posterity ;  and  this  link  was  to 
be  supplied  by  hereditary  benefices. 

Besides  the  lands  distributed  among 
Fiscal  the  nation,  others  were  reserved  to 
lands,  the  crown,  partly  for  the  support  of 
its  dignity,  and  partly  for  the  exercise  of 
its  munificence.  These  were  called  fis- 
cal lands ;  they  were  dispersed  over  dif- 
ferent parts  of  the  kingdom,  and  formed 
the  most  regular  source  of  revenue. f 
But  the  greater  portion  of  them  were 
granted  out  to  favoured  subjects,  under 
the  name  of  benefices,  the  nature  of 
which  is  one  of  the  most  important 
points  in  the  policy  of  these  ages. 


*  Leg.  Burgund.,  tit.  26.  Leg.  Visigoth.,  1.  ii., 
t.  2,  c.  4  (in  Lindebrog).  Du  Cange,  voc.  Adalingus, 
Nobilis.  Wilkins,  Leg.  Ang.  Sax.,  passim.  I  think 
it  cannot  be  denied  that  nobility,  founded  either 
upon  birth  or  property,  and  distinguished  from  mere 
personal  freedom,  entered  into  the  Anglo-Saxon 
system.  Thus  the  eorl  and  ceorl  are  opposed  to 
each  other,  like  the  noble  and  roturier  in  France. 

t  The  demesne  lands  of  the  crown  are  continu- 
ally mentioned  in  the  early  writers ;  the  kings,  in 
journeying  to  different  parts  of  their  dominions, 
took  up  their  abode  in  them.  Charlemagne  is  very 
full  in  his  directions  as  to  their  management  — Ca- 
pitularia,  A,  D.  797,  et  alibi. 


Benefices  were,  it  is  probable, 
most  frequently  bestowed  upon 
the  professed  courtiers,  the  Antrustiones 
or  Leudes,  and  upon  the  provincial  gov- 
ernors.     It  by  no  means  appears  that 
any  conditions  of  military  service  were 
expressly  annexed  to  these  grants :  but 
it  may  justly  be  presumed  that  such  fa- 
vours were  not  conferred  without  an  ex- 
pectation of  some  return ;  and  we  read, 
both  in  law  and  history,  that  beneficiary 
tenants  were   more    closely  connected 
with  the  crown  than  mere  allodial  pro- 
prietors.    Whoever  possessed  a  benefice 
was  bound  to  serve  his  sovereign  in  the»- 
field.   But  of  allodial  proprietors  only  the  \ 
owner  of  three  mansi  was  called  upon! 
for  personal  service.     Where  there  were  * 
three  possessors  of  single   mansi,  one 
went  to  the  army,  and  the  others  con- 
tributed to  his  equipment.*    Such  at  least 
were  the   regulations   of  Charlemagne, 
whom  I  cannot  believe,  with  Mably,  to 
have  relaxed  the  obligations  of  military 
attendance.   After  the  peace  of  Coblentz, 
in  860,  Charles  the  Bald  restored  all  allo- 
dial property  belonging  to   his  subjects 
who  had  taken  part  against  him,  but  not 
his  own  beneficiary  grants,  which  they 
were  considered  as  having  forfeited. 

Most  of  those  who  have  written  upon 
the  feudal  system,  lay  it  down  that  Their 
benefices  were  originally  precari-  extent, 
ous,  and  revoked  at  pleasure  by  the 
sovereign ;  that  they  were  afterward 
granted  for  life ;  and,  at  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod, became  hereditary.  No  satisfactory 
proof,  however,  appears  to  have  been 
brought  of  the  first  stage  in  this  prog- 
ress, f  At  least,  I  am  not  convinced, 


*  Capitul.  Car.  Mag.,  ann.  807  and  812.  I  can- 
not define  the  precise  area  of  a  mansus.  It  con- 
sisted, according  to  Du  Cange,  of  twelve  jugera ; 
but  what  he  meant  by  a  juger  I  know  not.  The 
ancient  Roman  juger  was  about  five  eighths  of  an 
acre ;  the  Parisian  arpent  was  a  fourth  more  than 
one.  This  would  make  a  difference  as  two  to  one. 

f  The  position  which  I  have  taken  upon  me  to 
controvert,  is  laid  down  in  almost  every  writer  on 
the  feudal  system.  Besides  Sir  James  Craig,  Spel- 
man,  and  other  older  authors,  Houard,  in  his  An- 
ciennes  Loix  des  Francois,  t.  i.,  p.  5,  and  the  edi- 
tors of  the  Benedictine  Collection,  t.  xi.,  p.  163, 


take  the  same  point  for  granted.  Mably,  Oh 
tions  sur  1'Histoire  de  France,  1.  i.,  c.  3,  call's  it, 
une  verite  que  M.  de  Montesquieu  a  tres  bien  prou- 
vee.  And  Robertson  affirms  with  "unusual  posi- 
tiveness,  "  These  benefices  were  granted  origi- 
nally only  during  pleasure.  No  circumstance  rela- 
ting to  the  customs  of  the  middle  ages  is  better  as- 
certained than  this-,  and  innumerable  proofs  of  it 
might  be  added  to  those  produced  in  L'Esprit  des 
Loix,  and  by  Du  Cange." — HisL  Charles  V.,  vol.  i., 
not.  8. 

These  testimonies,  which  Robertson  has  not 
chosen  to  bring  forward,  we  cannot  conjecture; 
nor  is  it  easy  to  comprehend  by  what  felicity  he 


PART  L] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


71 


that  beneficiary  grants  were  ever  consid- 
ered as  resumable  at  pleasure,  unless 
where  some  delinquency  could  be  impu- 
ted to  the  vassal.  It  is  possible,  though 
I  am  not  aware  of  any  documents  which 
prove  it,  that  benefices  may,  in  some  in- 
stances, have  been  granted  for  a  term  of 
years,  since  even  fiefs,  in  much  later 
times,  were  occasionally  of  no  greater 
extent.  Their  ordinary  duration,  how- 
ever, was  at  least  the  life  of  the  posses- 
sor, after  which  they  reverted  to  the 

has  discovered,  in  the  penury  of  historical  records 
during  the  sixth  and  seventh  centuries,  innumera- 
ble proofs  of  a  usage  which,  by  the  confession  of 
all,  did  not  exist  at  any  later  period.  But  as  the 
authorities  quoted  by  Montesquieu  have  appeared 
conclusive  both  to  Mably  and  Robertson,  it  may 
be  proper  to  examine  them  separately.  The  fol- 
lowing is  the  passage  in  the  L'Esprit  des  Loix  on 
which  they  rely. 

On  ne  peut  pas  douter  que  d'abord  les  fiefs  ne 
fussent  amovibles.  On  voit,  dans  Gregoire  de 
Tours,  que  1'on  ote  a  Sunegisile  et  a  Galloman 
tout  ce  qu'ils  tenoient  du  rise,  et  qu'on  ne  leur 
laisse  que  ce  qu'ils  avoient  en  propriete.  Gontran, 
elevant  au  trone  son  neveu  Childebert,  eut  une 
conference  secrette  avec  lui,  et  lui  indiqua  ceux  a 
qui  il  devoit  donner  des  fiefs,  et  ceuxnqui  ildevoit 
les  oter.  Dans  une  formule  de  Marculfe,  le  roi 
donne  en  echange,  non  seulement  des  benefices 
que  son  fisc  tenoit,  mais  encore  ceux  qu'un  autre 
avoit  tenus.  La  loi  des  Lombards  oppose  les  ben- 
efices a  la  propriete.  Les  historiens,  les  formules, 
les  codes  des  differens  peuples  barbares,  tous  les 
monumens  qui  nous  restent,  sont  unanimes.  En- 
fin,  ceux  qui  ont  ecrit  le  Livre  des  Fiefs,  nous  ap- 
prennent  que  d'abord  les  seigneurs  purent  les  oter 
a  leur  volonte,  qu'ensuite  ils  les  assurerent  pour  un 
an,  et  apres  les  donne  rent  pour  toujours,  l.xxx.,  c.16. 

The  first  of  Montesquieu's  authorities  is  from 
Gregory  of  Tours,  1.  ix.,  c.  38.  Sunegisilus  and 
Gallomagnus,  two  courtiers  of  Childebert,  having 
been  accused  of  a  treasonable  conspiracy,  fled  to 
sanctuary,  and  refused  to  stand  their  trial.  Their 
beneficiary  lands  were  upon  this  very  justly  taken 
away  by  a  judicial  sentence.  What  argument  can 
be  drawn  from  a  case  of  forfeiture  for  treason  or 
outlawry,  that  benefices  were  granted  only  during 
pleasure?  2.  Gontran  is  said  by  Gregory  to  have 
advised  his  nephew  Childebert,  quos  honoraret 
muneribus,  quos  ab  honore  depelleret,  1.  vii.,  33. 
But  honour  is  more  commonly  used  in  the  earliest 
writers  for  an  office  of  dignity  than  for  a  landed  es- 
tate ;  and  even  were  the  word  to  bear  in  this  place 
the  latter  meaning,  we  could  not  fairly  depend  on 
an  authority,  drawn  from  times  of  peculiar  tyranny 
and  civil  convulsion.  I  am  not  contending  that 
men  were  secure  in  their  beneficiary,  since  they 
certainly  were  not  so  in  their  allodial  estates  :  the 
sole  question  is  as  to  the  right  they  were  supposed 
to  possess  in  respect  of  them.  3.  in  the  precedent 
of  Marculfus,  quoted  by  Montesquieu,  the  king  is 
supposed  to  grant  lands  which  some  other  person 
had  lately  held.  But  this  is  meant  as  a  designation 
of  the  premises,  and  would  be  perfectly  applicable, 
though  the  late  possessor  were  dead.  4.  It  is  cer- 
tainly true  that  the  Lombard  laws  (that  is,  laws 
enacted  by  the  successors  of  Charlemagne  in  Lom- 
bardy),  and  the  general  tenour  of  ancient  records, 
with  a  few  exceptions,  oppose  benefices  to  propri- 
ety :  but  it  does  not  follow  that  the  former  were 
revocable  at  pleasure.  This  opposition  of  allodial 


fisc.*  Nor  can  I  agree  with  those  who 
deny  the  existence  of  hereditary  benefi- 
ces under  the  first  race  of  French  kings. 
The  codes  of  the  Burgundians  and  of  the 
Visigoths,  which  advert  to  them,  are,  by 
analogy,  witnesses  to  the  contrary.!  The 
precedents  given  in  the  forms  of  Marcul- 
fus (about  660)  for  the  grant  of  a  bene- 
fice, contain  very  full  terms,  extending  it 
to  the  heirs  of  the  beneficiary.!  And 
Mably  has  plausibly  inferred  the  perpetu- 
ity of  benefices,  at  least  in  some  instan- 

to  feudal  estates  subsists  at  present,  though  the  ten- 
ure of  the  latter  is  any  thing  rather  than  precarious. 
5.  As  to  the  Libri  Feudorum,  which  are  a  compila- 
tion by  some  Milanese  lawyers  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, they  cannot  be  deemed  of  much  authority  for 
the  earlier  history  of  the  feudal  system  in  France. 
There  is  certainly  reason  to  think,  that  even  in  the 
eleventh  century,  the  tenure  of  fiefs  in  some  parts 
of  Lombardy  was  rather  precarious  ;  but  whether 
this  were  by  any  other  law  than  that  of  the  strong- 
er, it  would  be  hard  to  determine. 

Du  Cange,  to  whom  Robertson  also  refers,  gives 
this  definition  of  a  benefice ;  prsedium  fiscale,  quod 
a  rege  vel  principe,  vel  ab  alio  quolibet  ad  vitam 
viro  nobili  utendum  conceditur.  In  a  subsequent 
place,  indeed,  he  says  :  nee  tantum  erant  ad  vi- 
tam, sed  pro  libitu  auferebantur.  For  this  he  only 
cites  a  letter  of  the  bishops  to  Louis  the  Debonair ; 
Ecclesiae  nobis  a  Deo  commissae  non  talia  sunt 
beneficia,  et  hujusmodi  regis  proprietas,  ut  pro  lib- 
itu suo  inconsulte  illas  possit  dare,  aut  auferre. 
But  how  slight  a  foundation  does  this  afford  for 
the  inference  that  lay  benefices  were  actually  lia- 
ble to  be  resumed  at  pleasure  !  Suppose  even  this 
to  be  a  necessary  application  in  the  argument  of 
those  bishops,  is  it  certain  that  they  stated  the  law 
of  their  country  with  accuracy  ?  Do  we  not  find 
greater  errors  than  this  every  day  in  men's  speech 
and  writings,  relative  to  points  with  which  they 
are  not  immediately  concerned  ?  In  fact,  there  is 
no  manner  of  doubt  that  benefices  were  granted 
not  only  for  life,  but  as  inheritances,  in  the  reign  of 
Loui.s.  In  the  next  sentence  Du  Cange  adds  a 
qualification  which  puts  an  end  to  the  controversy, 
so  far  as  his  authority  is  concerned  ;  Non  temere 
tamen,  nee  sine  legali  judicio  auferebantur.  That 
those  two  sentences  contradict  each  other  is  man- 
ifest ;  the  latter,  in  my  opinion,  is  the  more  correct 
position. 

*  The  following  passage  from  Gregory  of  Tours 
seems  to  prove,  that  although  sons  were  occasion- 
ally permitted  to  succeed  their  fathers,  an  indul- 
gence which  easily  grew  up  into  a  right,  the  crown 
had,  in  his  time,  an  unquestionable  reversion  after 
the  death  of  its  original  beneficiary.  Hoc  tempore 
et  "Wandelinus,  nutritor  Childeberti  regis,  obiit ; 
sed  in  locum  ejus  nullus  est  subrogatus,  eo  quod 
regina  mater  curam  velit  propriam  habere  de  filio. 
Qucecunque  de  fisco  meruit,  fisci  juribus  sunt  relata. 
Obiit  his  diebus  Bodegesilus  dux  plenus  dierum  ; 
sed  nihil  de  facultate  eius  filiis  minutum  est,  1.  viii., 
c.  22.  Gregory's  work,  however,  does  not  go  far- 
ther than  595. 

t  Leges  Bargundionum,  tit  i.  Leges  Wisigoth., 
1.  v.,  tit.  2. 

J  Marculf.,  form.  xii.  and  xiv.,1.  i.  This  prece- 
dent was  in  use  down  to  the  eleventh  century ;  its 
expressions  recur  in  almost  every  charter.  The 
earliest  instance  I  have  seen  of  an  actual  grant  to 
a  private  person,  is  of  Charlemagne  to  one  John,  ia 
795.— Baluzii  Capitularia,  t.  ii.,  p.  1400. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


ces,  from  the  language  of  the  treaty  at 
Andely  in  587,  and  of  an  edict  of  Clotaire 
II.  some  years  later.*  We  can  hardly 
doubt  at  least  that  children  would  put  in 
a  very  strong  claim  to  what  their  father 
had  enjoyed ;  and  the  weakness  of  the 
crown  in  the  seventh  century  must  have 
rendered  it  difficult  to  reclaim  its  property. 
A  natural  consequence  of  hereditary 
Sub-infeu-  benefices  was  that  those  who 
dation.  possessed  them  carved  out  por- 
tions to  be  held  of  themselves  by  a  simi- 
lar tenure.  Abundant  proofs  of  this  cus- 
tom, best  known  by  the  name  of  sub-in- 
feudatipn,  occur  even  in  the  capitularies 
of  Pepin  and  Charlemagne.  At  a  later 
period  it  became  universal ;  and  what 
had  begun  perhaps  through  ambition  or 
pride,  was  at  last  dictated  by  necessity. 
In  that  dissolution  of  all  law  which  en- 
sued after  the  death  of  Charlemagne,  the 
powerful  leaders,  constantly  engaged  in 
domestic  warfare,  placed  their  chief  de- 
pendance  upon  men  whom  they  attached 
by  gratitude,  and  bound  by  strong  condi- 
tions. The  oath  of  fidelity  which  they 
had  taken,  the  homage  which  they  had 
paid  to  the  sovereign,  they  exacted  from 
their  own  vassals.  To  render  military 
service  became  the  essential  obligation 
which  the  tenant  of  a  benefice  under- 
took; and  out  of  those  ancient  grants, 
now  become  for  the  most  part  hereditary, 
there  grew  up  in  the  tenth  century,  both 
in  name  and  reality,  the  system  of  feudal 
tenures. f 

*  Quicquid  antefati  reges  ecclesiis  aut  fidelibus 
suis  contulerunt,  aut  adhuc  conferre  cum  justitia 
Deo  propitiante  voluerint,  stabiliter  conservetur; 
et  quicquid  unicuique  fidelium  in  utriusquei  regno 
per  legem  et  justitiam  redhibetur,  nullum  ei  prae- 
judicium  ponatur,  sed  liceat  res  debitas  possidere 
atque  recipere.  Et  si  aliquid  unicuique  per  inter- 
regna sine  culpa  sublatum  est,  audientia  habita 
restauretur.  Et  de  eo  quod  per  munificentias  prae- 
cedentium  regum  unusquisque  usque  ad  transitum 
gloriosae  memoriae  domini  Chlothacharii  regis  pos- 
sedit,  cum  securitate  possideat ;  et  quod  exinde 
fidelibus  personis  ablatum  est,  de  praesenti  recipiat. 
Foedus  Andeliacum,  in  Gregor.  Turon.,  1.  ix.,  c.  20. 

Quaecunque  ecclesiae  vel  clericis  vel  quibuslibet 
personis  a  gloriosae  memoriae  praefatis  principibus 
munificentise  largitate  collatae  sunt,  omni  rirmitate 
perdurent.— Edict.  Chlotachar.  I.  vel  potius  II.  in 
Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  iv.,  p.  116. 

f  Somner  says,  that  he  has  not  found  the  word 
feudum  anterior  to  the  year  1000  ;  and  Muratori,  a 
still  greater  authority,  doubts  whether  it  was  used 
so  early.  I  have,  however,  observed  the  words 
feum  and  fevum,  which  are  manifestly  corruptions 
of  feudum,  in  several  charters  about  960. — Vais- 
sette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  107, 
128,  et  alibi.  Some  of  these  fiefs  appear  not  to 
have  been  hereditary.  But,  independently  of  pos- 
itive instances,  can  it  be  doubted  that  some  word 
of  barbarous  original  must  have  answered,  in  the 
vernacular  languages,  to  the  Latin  beneficium  ?  See 
Du  Cange  v.  Feudum. 


This  revolution  was  accompanied  by 
another  still  more  important.  usurpation 
The  provincial  governors,  the  of  provincial 
dukes  and  counts,  to  whom  g°vernor«- 
we  may  add  the  marquises  or  mar- 
graves, intrusted  with  the  custody  of  the 
frontiers,  had  taken  the  lead  in  all  pub- 
lic measures  after  the  decline  of  the 
Merovingian  kings.  Charlemagne,  duly 
jealous  of  their  ascendency,  checked  it 
by  suffering  the  dutchies  to  expire  with- 
out renewal,  by  granting  very  few  coun- 
ties hereditarily,  by  removing  the  admin- 
istration of  justice  from  the  hands  of  the 
counts  into  those  of  his  own  itinerant 
judges,  and,  if  we  are  not  deceived  in 
his  policy,  by  elevating  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal order  as  a  counterpoise  to  that  of  the 
nobility.  Even  in  his  time,  the  faults  of 
the  counts  are  the  constant  theme  of  the 
capitularies  ;  their  dissipation  and  neglect 
of  duty,  their  oppression  of  the  poorer 
proprietors,  and  their  artful  attempts  to 
appropriate  the  crown  lands  situated 
within  their  territory.*  If  Charlemagne 
was  unable  to  redress  those  evils,  how 
much  must  they  have  increased  under 
his  posterity  !  That  great  prince  seldom 
gave  more  than  one  county  to  the  same 
person ;  and,  as  they  were  generally  of 
moderate  size,  co-extensive  with  episco- 
pal diocesses,  there  was  less  danger,  if 
this  policy  had  been  followed,  of  their 
becoming  independent.!  But  Louis  the 
Debonair,  and,  in  a  still  greater  degree, 
Charles  the  Bald,  allowed  several  coun- 
ties to  be  enjoyed  by  the  same  person. 
The  possessors  constantly  aimed  at  ac- 
quiring private  estates  within  the  limits 
of  their  charge,  and  thus  both  rendered 
themselves  formidable,  and  assumed  a 
kind  of  patrimonial  right  to  their  digni- 
ties. By  a  capitulary  of  Charles  the 
Bald,  A.  D.  877,  the  succession  of  a  son 
to  the  father's  county  appears  to  be  rec- 
ognised as  a  known  usage. t  In  the  next 
century  there^  followed  an  entire  prostra- 
tion of  the  royal  authority,  and  the  counts 
usurped  their  governments  as  little  sover- 
eignties, with  the  domains  and  all  rega- 
lian  rights,  subject  only  to  the  feudal  su- 
periority of  the  king.§  They  now  added 


*  Capitularia  Car.  Mag.  et  Lud.  Pii.,  passim. 
Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,p.  158.  Gail- 
lard,  Vie  de  Charlem.,  t.  iii.,  p.  118. 

t  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  i.,  p.  587, 
700,  and  not.  87. 

t  Baluzii  Capitularia,  t.  ii.,  p.  263  and  269. 
This  is  a  questionable  point,  and  most  French  an- 
tiquaries consider  this  famous  capitulary  as  the 
foundation  of  an  hereditary  right  in  counties.  I 
am  inclined  to  think  that  there  was  at  least  a 
practice  of  succession,  which  is  implied  and  guar- 
antied by  this  provision. 

$  It  appears,  by  the  record  of  a  process  in  918, 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


the  name  of  the  county  to  their  own, 
and  their  wives  took  the  appellation  of 
countess.*  In  Italy,  the  independence 
of  the  dukes  was  still  more  complete ; 
and  although  Otho  the  Great  and  his  de- 
scendants kept  a  stricter  rein  over  those 
of  Germany,  yet  we  find  the  great  fiefs 
of  their  empire,  throughout  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, granted  almost  invariably  to  the 
male  and  even  female  heirs  of  the  last 
possessor. 

Meanwhile,  the  allodial  proprietors, 
Change  of  w^°  na(^  hitherto  formed  the 
aiiodiai  into  strength  of  the  state,  fell  into  a 
feudal  te-  much  worse  condition.  They 
were  exposed  to  the  rapacity  of 
the  counts,  who,  whether  as  magistrates 
and  governors,  or  as  overbearing  lords, 
had  it  always  in  their  power  to  harass 
them.  Every  district  was  exposed  to 
continual  hostilities ;  sometimes  from  a 
foreign  enemy,  more  often  from  the  own- 
ers of  castles  and  fastnesses,  which  in  the 
tenth  century,  under  pretence  of  resisting 
the  Normans  and  Hungarians,  served  the 
purposes  of  private  war.  Against  such  a 
system  of  rapine,  the  military  compact 
of  lord  and  vassal  was  the  only  effectual 
shield;  its  essence  was  the  reciprocity 
of  service  and  protection.  But  an  insula- 
ted allodialist  had  no  support :  his  for- 
tunes were  strangely  changed,  since  he 
claimed,  at  least  in  right,  a  share  in  the 
legislation  of  his  country,  and  could  com- 
pare with  pride  his  patrimonial  fields  with 
the  temporary  benefices  of  the  crown. 
Without  law  to  redress  his  injuries,  with- 
out the  royal  power  to  support  his  right, 
he  had  no  course  left  but  to  compromise 
with  oppression,  and  subject  himself,  in 
return  for  protection,  to  a  feudal  lord. 
During  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries 
it  appears  that  allodial  lands  in  France  had 
chiefly  become  feudal :  that  is,  they  had 
been  surrendered  by  their  proprietors, 
and  received  back  again  upon  the  feudal 
conditions ;  or,  more  frequently,  perhaps, 
the  owner  had  been  compelled  to  ac- 
knowledge himself  the  man  or  vassal  of  a 
suzerain,  and  thus  to  confess  an  original 
grant  which  had  never  existed. f  Changes 


that  the  counts  of  Toulouse  had  already  so  far 
usurped  the  rights  of  their  sovereign,  as  to  claim 
an  estate  on  the  ground  of  its  being  a  royal  bene- 
fice.— Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  Appen.,  p.  56. 

*  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  i.,  p.  588,  and 
infii,  t.  ii.,  p.  38,  109.  and  Appendix,  p.  56. 

t  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  109.  It  must  be 
confessed,  that  there  do  not  occur  so  many  specific 
instances  of  this  conversion  of  allodial  tenure  into 
feudal,  as  might  be  expected,  in  order  to  warrant 
the  supposition  in  the  text.  Several  records,  how- 
ever, are  quoted  by  Robertson,  Hist.  Charles  V., 
note  8  ;  and  others  may  be  found  in  diplomatic  col- 
lections. A  precedent  for  surrendering  allodial  prop- 


of  the  same  nature,  though  not  perhaps 
so  extensive,  or  so  distinctly  to  be  traced, 
took  place  in  Italy  and  Germany.  Yet 
it  would  be  inaccurate  to  assert  that  the 
prevalence  of  the  feudal  system  has  been 
unlimited ;  in  a  great  part  of  France,  allo- 
dial tenures  always  subsisted ;  and  many 
estates  in  the  empire  were  of  the  same 
description.* 

There  are,  however,  vestiges  of  a  very 
universal  custom  distinguishable 
from  the  feudal  tenure  of  land,  ofpersonai 
though  so  analogous  to  it,  that  it  commend- 
seems  to  have  nearly  escaped  auon> 
the  notice  of  antiquaries.  From  this  si- 
lence of  other  writers,  and  the  great  ob- 
scurity of  the  subject,  I  am  almost  afraid 
to  notice,  what  several  passages  in  an- 
cient laws  and  instruments  concur  to 
prove,  that, ./besides  the  relation  establish- 
ed betweenlord  and  vassal  by  beneficiary 
grants,  there  was  another  species  more 
personal,  and  more  closely  resembling, 
that  of  patron  and  client  in  the  Roman 
republic.  This  was  usually  called  com- 
mendation; and  appears  to  have  been 
founded  on  two  very  general  principles, 
both  of  which  the  distracted  state  of  so- 
ciety inculcated.  The  weak  needed  the-  - 
protection  of  the  powerful ;  and  the  gov- 
ernment needed  some  security  for  public 
order.  Even  before  the  invasion  of  the 
Franks,  Salvian,  a  writer  of  the  fifth  cen- 
tury, mentions  the  custom  of  obtaining 


erty  to  the  king,  and  receiving  it  back  as  his  bene- 
fice, appears  even  in  Marculfus,  1.  i.,  form.  13.  The 
county  of  Cominges,  between  the  Pyrenees,  Tou- 
louse, and  Bigorre,  was  allodial  till  1244,  when  it 
was  put  under  the  feudal  protection  of  the  Count 
of  Toulouse.  It  devolved  by  escheat  to  the  crown 
in  1443.— Villaret,  t.  xv.,  p.  346. 

In  many  early  charters,  the  king  confirms  the 
possession  even  of  allodial  property,  for  greater  se- 
curity in  lawless  times  ;  and,  on  the  other  hand,  in 
those  of  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries,  the  word 
allodium  is  continually  used  for  a  feud,  or  heredita- 
ry benefice,  which  renders  this  subject  still  more 
obscure. 

*  The  maxim,  Nulle  terre  sans  seigneur,  was  so 
far  from  being  universally  received  in  France,  that 
in  almost  all  southern  provinces,  or  pays  du  droit 
ecrit,  lands  were  presumed  to  be  allodial,  unless 
the  contrary  was  shown,  or,  as  it  was  called,  franc- 
aleux  sans  titre.  The  parliaments,  however,  seem 
latterly  to  have  inclined  against  this  presumption, 
and  have  thrown  the  burden  of  proof  on  the  party 
claiming  allodiality.  For  this  see  Denisart,  Dic- 
tionnaire  des  Decisions,  art.  Franc-aleu.  And  the 
famous  maxim  of  the  Chancellor  Duprat,  nulle 
terre  sans  seigneur,  was  true,  as  I  learn  from  the 
dictionary  of  Houard,  with  respect  to  jurisdiction, 
though  false  as  to  tenure ;  allodial  lands  insulated 
(enclaves)  within  the  fief  of  a  lord,  being  subject 
to  his  territorial  justice. — Diet,  de  Houard,  art. 
Aleu. 

In  Germany,  according  to  Du  Cange,  voc.  Baro, 
there  is  a  distinction  between  Barones  and  Sem- 
per-Barones ;  the  latter  holding  their  lands  allo- 
dially. 


74 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


the  protection  of  the  great  by  money,  and 
blames  their  rapacity,  though  he  allows 
the  natural  reasonableness  of  the  prac- 
tice.* The  disadvantageous  condition  of 
the  less  powerful  freemen,  which  ended 
in  the  servitude  of  one  part,  and  in  the 
feudal  vassalage  of  another,  led  such  as 
fortunately  still  preserved  their  allodial 
property  to  ensure  its  defence  by  a  stipu- 
lated payment  of  money.  Such  pay- 
ments, called  Salvamenta,  may  be  traced 
in  extant  charters,  chiefly  indeed  of  mon- 
asteries.! In  the  case  of  private  persons, 
it  may  be  presumed  that  this  voluntary 
contract  was  frequently  changed  by  the 
stronger  party  into  a  perfect  feudal  de- 
pendance.  From  this,  however,  as  I 
imagine,  it  proj>erly  differed  in  being  ca- 
pable of  dissolution  at  the  inferior's  pleas- 
ure, without  incurring  a  forfeiture,  as  well 
,as  in  having  no  relation  to  land.  /  Hom- 
age, however,  seems  to  have  been  inci- 
i  dent  to  commendation,  as  well  as  to  vas- 
salage. Military  service  was  sometimes 
-Hhe  condition  of  this  engagement.  It  was 
the  law  of  France,  so  late  at  least  as  the 
commencement  of  the  third  race  of  kings, 
that  no  man  could  take  a  part  in  private 
wars  except  in  defence  of  his  own  lord. 
This  we  learn  from  an  historian  about  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century,  who  relates  that 
one  Erminfrid,  having  been  released  from 
his  homage  to  Count  Burchard,  on  ceding 
the  fief  he  had  held  of  him  to  a  monas- 
tery, renewed  the  ceremony  on  a  war 
breaking  out  between  Burchard  and  an- 
other nobleman,  wherein  he  was  desirous 
to  give  assistance;  since,  the  author  ob- 
serves, it  is  not,  nor  has  been  the  prac- 
tice in  France,  for  any  man  to  be  con- 
cerned in  war,  except  in  the  presence  or 
by  the  command  of  his  lord.J  Indeed, 
there  is  reason  to  infer,  from  the  capitu- 
T^laries  of  Charles  the  Bald,  that  every  man 
|  was  bound  to  attach  himself  to  some  lord, 
I  though  it  was  the  privilege  of  a  freeman 
"  to  choose  his  own  superior. $  And  this 


*  Du  Cange,  v.  Salvamentum. 

t  Id.,  Ibid. 

j  Recueil  des  Historians,  t.  x.,  p.  355. 

$  Unusquisque  liber  homo,  post  mortem  domini 
sui,  licentiam  habeat  se  commendandi  inter  hoec 
tria  regna  ad  quemcunque  voluerit.  Similiter  et 
ille  qui  nondum  alicui  commendatus  est. — Baluzii 
Capitularia,  tome  i.,  p.  443.  A.  D.  806.  Volumus 
etiam  ut  unusquisque  liber  homo  in  nostro  regno 
seniorem  qualem  voluerit  in  nobis  et  in  nostris 
fidelibus  recipiat. — Capit.  Car.  Calvi.  A.  D.  877. 
Et  volumus  ut  cujuscunque  nostrum  homo,  in  cu- 
juscunque regno  sit,  cum  seniore  suo  in  hostem, 
vel,  aliis  suis  utilitatibus  pergat. — Ibid.  See  too 
Baluze,  t.  i.,  p.  536,  537. 

By  the  Establishments  of  St.  Louis,  c.  87,  every 
stranger  coming  to  settle  within  a  barony  was  to 
acknowledge  the  baron  as  lord  within  a  year  and  a 


is  strongly  supported  by  the  analogy  of 
our  Anglo-Saxon  laws,  where  it  is  fre- 
quently repeated,  that  no  man  should  con- 
tinue without  a  lord.  There  are,  too,  as 
it  seems  to  me,  a  great  number  of  pas- 
sages in  Domesday-book  which  confirm 
this  distinction  between  personal  com- 
mendation and  the  beneficiary  tenure  of 
land.  Perhaps  I  may  be  thought  to  dwell 
too  prolixly  on  this  obscure  custom ;  but 
as  it  tends  to  illustrate  those  mutual  re- 
lations of  lord  and  vassal  which  supplied 
the  place  of  regular  government  in  the 
polity  of  Europe,  and  has  seldom  or  never 
been  explicitly  noticed,  its  introduction 
seemed  not  improper. 

It  has  been  sometimes  said  that  feuds 
were  first  rendered  hereditary  in  Ger- 
many by  Conrad  II.,  surnamed  Edict  of  Con- 
the  Salic.  This  opinion  is  per-  rad  the  Salic. 
haps  erroneous.  But  there  is  a  famous; 
edict  of  that  emperor  at  Milan,  in  the  yeai 
1037,  which,  though  immediately  relating 
only  to  Lombardy,  marks  the  full  matu- 
rity of  the  system,  and  the  last  stage  of 
its  progress.*  I  have  remarked  already 
the  custom  of  sub-infeudation,  or  grants 
of  lands  by  vassals  to  be  held  of  them- 
selves, which  had  grown  up  with  the 
growth  of  these  tenures.  There  had  oc-  f 
curred,  however,  some  disagreement,  for  / 
want  of  settled  usage,  between  these  in-; 
ferior  vassals  and  their  immediate  lords, 
which  this  edict  was  expressly  designed 
to  remove.  Four  regulations  of  great 
importance  are  established  therein ;  that 
no  man  should  be  deprived  of  his  fief, 
whether  held  of  the  emperor  or  a  mesne 
lord,  but  by  the  laws  of  the  empire,  and 
the  judgment  of  his  peers  ;f  that  from 


day,  or  pay  a  fine.  In  some  places,  he  even  be- 
came  the  serf  or  villein  of  the  lord. — Ordonnances 
des  Rois,  p.  187.  Upon  this  jealousy  of  unknown 
settlers,  which  pervades  the  policy  of  the  middle 
ages,  was  founded  the  droit  d'aubaine,  or  right  to 
their  moveables  after  their  decease. — See  preface 
to  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  15. 

The  article  Commendatio,  in  Du  Cange's  Glos- 
sary, furnishes  some  hints  upon  this  subject,  which 
however  that  author  does  not  seem  to  have  fully 
apprehended.  Carpentier,  in  his  Supplement  to 
the  Glossary,  under  the  word  Vassaticum,  gives 
the  clearest  notice  of  it  that  I  have  anywhere 
found.  Since  writing  the  above  note,  I  have  found 
the  subject  touched  by  M.  de.  Montlosier,  Hist,  de 
la  Monarchic  Franchise,  t.  i.,  p.  854. 

*  Spelman  tells  us,  in  his  Treatise  of  Feuds, 
chap,  ii.,  that  Conradus  Salicus,  a  French  emperor, 
but  of  German  descent  [what  can  this  mean?],  went 
to  Rome  about  915  to  fetch  his  crown  from  Pope 
John  X.,  when,  according  to  him,  the  succession 
of  a  son  to  his  father's  fief  was  first  conceded.  An 
almost  unparalleled  blunder  in  so  learned  a  writer ! 
Conrad  the  Salic  was  elected  at  Worms  in  1024, 
crowned  at  Rome  by  John  XIX.  in  1027,  and  made 
this  edict  at  Milan  in  1037. 

f  Nisi  secundum  constitutionem  antecessorum 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


" 


such  judgment  an  immediate  vassal  might 
appeal  to  his  sovereign ;  that  fiefs  should 
be  inherited  by  sons  and  their  children ; 
or,  in  their  failure,  by  brothers,  provided 
they  were  feuda  paterna,  such  as  had  de- 
scended from  the  father  ;*  and  that  the 
lord  should  not  alienate  the  fief  of  his 
vassal  without  his  consent.f 

Such  was  the  progress  of  these  feudal 
tenures,  which  determined  the  political 
character  of  every  European  monarchy 
where  they  prevailed,  as  well  as  formed 
the  foundations  of  its  jurisprudence.  It 
is  certainly  inaccurate  to  refer  this  sys- 
tem, as  is  frequently  done,  to  the  destruc- 
tion of  the  Roman  empire  by  the  northern 
nations,  though  in  the  beneficiary  grants 
of  those  conquerors  we  trace  its  begin- 
ning. Five  centuries,  however,  elapsed 
before  the  allodial  tenures,  which  had 
been  incomparably  the  more  general, 
gave  way,  and  before  the  reciprocal  con- 
tract of  the  feud  attained  its  maturity.  It 
is  now  time  to  describe  the  legal  quali- 
ties and  effects  of  this  relation,  so  far 
only  as  may  be  requisite  to  understand 
its  influence  upon  the  political  system. 

The  essential  principle  of  a  fief  was  a 
Principles  mutual  contract  of  support  and 
of  a  feudal  fidelity.  Whatever  obligations 
relation.  jt  ^[^  UpOn  the  vassal  of  ser- 
vice to  his  lord,  corresponding  duties 
of  protection  were  imposed  by  it  on 
the  lord  towards  his  vassal. I  If  these 
were  transgressed  on  either  side,  the 


nostrorum,  et  judicium  parium  suorum ;  the  very 
expressions  of  Magna  Charta. 

*  "  Gerardus  noteth,"  says  Sir  H.  Spelman,  "  that 
this  law  settled  not  the  feud  upon  the  eldest  son, 
or  any  other  son  of  the  feudatory  particularly ;  but 
left  it  in  the  lord's  election  to  please  himself  with 
which  he  would."  But  the  phrase  of  the  edict 
runs,  filios  ejus  beneficium  tenere  :  which,  when 
nothing  more  is  said,  can  only  mean  a  partition 
among  the  sons. 

t  The  last  provision  may  seem  strange,  at  so  ad- 
vanced a  period  of  the  system ;  yet,  according  to 
Giannone,  feuds  were  still  revocable  by  the  lord  in 
some  parts  of  Lombardy.— Istoria  di  Napoli,  1.  xiii., 
c.  3.  It  seems,  however,  no  more  than  had  been 
already  enacted  by  the  first  clause  of  this  edict. 
Another  interpretation  is  possible;  namely,  that 
the  lord  should  not  alienate  his  own  seignory  with- 
out his  vassal's  consent,  which  was  agreeable  to 
the  feudal  tenures.  This  indeed  would  be  putting 
rather  a  forced  construction  on  the  words,  ne  do- 
mino feudum  militis  alienare  liceat. 

J  Crag.,«Jus  Feudale,!. ii., tit.  11.  Beaumanoir, 
Coutumes  de  Beauvoisis,  c.  Ixi.,  p.  311.  Ass.  de 
Jerus.,  c.  217.  Lib.  Feud.,  1.  ii.,  tit.  26,  47. 

Upon  the  mutual  obligation  of  the  lord  towards 
his  vassal  seems  to  be  founded  the  law  of  warranty, 
which  compelled  him  to  make  indemnification 
where  the  tenant  was  evicted  of  his  land.  This 
obligation,  however  unreasonable  it  may  appear  to 
us,  extended,  according  to  the  feudal  lawyers,  to 
cases  of  mere  donation. — Crag.,  1.  ii.,tit.  4.  But- 
ler's Notes  on  Co.  Litt,,  p.  365. 


one  forfeited  his  land,  the  other  his 
seigniory,  or  rights  over  it.  Nor  were 
motives  of  interest  left  alone  to  operate 
in  securing  the  feudal  connexion.  The 
associations  founded  upon  ancient  custom 
and  friendly  attachment,  the  impulses  of 
gratitude  and  honour,  the  dread  of  infamy, 
the  sanctions  of  religion,  were  all  em- 
ployed to  strengthen  these  ties,  and  to 
render  them  equally  powerful  with  the 
relations  of  nature,  and  far  more  so  than 
those  of  political  society.  It  is  a  ques- 
tion agitated  among  the  feudal  lawyers, 
whether  a  vassal  is  bound  to  follow  the 
standard  of  his  lord  against  his  own 
kindred.*  It  was  one  more  important, 
whether  he  must  do  so  against  the  king. 
In  the  works  of  those  who  wrote  when 
the  feudal  system  was  declining,  or  who 
were  anxious  to  maintain  the  royal 
authority,  this  is  commonly  decided  in 
the  negative.  Littleton  gives  a  form  of 
homage,  with  a  reservation  of  the  allegi- 
ance due  to  the  sovereign  ;f  and  the  same 
prevailed  in  Normandy  and  some  other 
countries.;}:  A  law  of  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa  enjoins,  that  in  every  oath  of  fealty  : 
to  an  inferior  lord,  the  vassal's  duty  to  the  ; 
emperor  should  be  expressly  reserved.  ; 
But  it  was  not  so  during  the  height  of  the 
feudal  system  in  France.  The  vassals 
of  Henry  II.  and  Richard  I.  never  hesi- 
tated to  adhere  to  them  against  the  sover- 
eign, nor  do  they  appear  to  have  incur- 
red any  blame  on  that  account.  Even 
so  late  as  the  age  of  St.  Louis,  it  is  laid 
down  in  his  establishments,  that  if  justice 
is  refused  by  the  king  to  one  of  his  vas- 
sals, he  might  summon  his  own  tenants, 
under  penalty  of  forfeiting  their  fiefs,  to 
assist  him  in  obtaining  redress  by  arms.§ 

*  Crag.,  1.  ii.,  tit.  4.  t  Sect.  Ixxxv. 

$  Houard,  Anc.  Loix  des  Frangois,  p.  114.  See 
too  an  instance  of  this  reservation  in  Recueil  des 
Historiens,  t.  xi.,  447. 

§  Si  le  Sire  dit  a  son  homme  lige ;  Venez  vous 
en  avec  moi,  je  veux  guerroyer  mon  Seigneur,  qui 
me  denie  le  jugement  de  sa  cour,  le  vassal  doit  re- 
pondre;  j'irai  scavoir,  s'il  est  ainsi  que  vous  me 
dites.  Alors  il  doit  aller  trouver  le  supSrieur,  et 
luy  dire :  Sire,  le  gentilhpmme  de  qui  je  tiens  mon 
fief,  se  plaint  que  vous  lui  refusez  justice  ;  je  viens 
pour  en  scavoir  la  verite ;  car  je  suis  semonc6  de 
marcher  en  guerre  centre  vous.  Si  la  reponse  est 
que  volon tiers  il  fera  droit  en  sa  cour,  1'homme 
n'est  point  oblige  de  deferer  a  la  requisition  du 
Sire;  mais  il  doit,  ou  le  suhre,  ou  se  resoudre  a 
perdre  son  fief,  si  le  chef  Seigneur  persiste  dans 
son  refus. — Etablissemens  de  St.  Louis,  c.  49.  I 
have  copied  this  from  Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  213,  who  has 
modernized  the  orthography,  which  is  almost  unin- 
telligible in  the  Ordonnances  des  Rois.  One  MS. 
gives  the  reading  Roi  instead  of  Seigneur.  And  the 
law  certainly  applies  to  the  king  exclusively ;  for,  in 
case  of  denial  of  justice  by  a  mesnelord,  there  was 
an  appeal  to  the  king's  court,  but  from  his  injury 
there  could  be  no  appeal  but  to  the  sword. 


76 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


The  Count  of  Britany,  Pierre  de  Dreux, 
had  practically  asserted  this  feudal  right 
during  the  minority  of  St.  Louis.  In  a 
public  instrument  he  announced  to  the 
world  that,  having  met  with  repeated  in- 
juries from  the  regent,  and  denial  of  jus- 
tice, he  had  let  the  king  know  that  he  no 
longer  considered  himself  as  his  vassal, 
but  renounced  his  homage  and  defied 
him.* 

The  ceremonies  used  in  conferring  a 
fief  were  principally  three  :  homage,  fe- 
Ceremonies  of,  alty,  and  investiture.  1.  The 
i.  Homage.  first  was  designed  as  a  signif- 
icant expression  of  the  submission  and 
devotedness  of  the  vassal  towards  his 
lord.  In  performing  homage,  his  head 
was  uncovered,  his  belt  ungirt,  his  sword 
and  spurs  removed  ;  he  placed  his  hands, 
kneeling,  between  those  of  the  lord,  and 
promised  to  become  his  man  from  thence- 
forward ;  to  serve  him  with  life  and  limb 
and  worldly  honour,  faithfully  and  loyal- 
ly, in  consideration  of  the  lands  which  he 
held  under  him.  None  but  the  lord  in 
person  could  accept  homage,  which  was 
commonly  concluded  by  a  kiss.f  2.  An 
oath  of  fealty  was  indispensable 
y"  in  every  fief;  but  the  ceremony 
was  less  peculiar  than  that  of  homage, 
and  it  might  be  received  by  proxy.  It 
was  taken  by  ecclesiastics,  but  not  by 
minors ;  and  in  language  differed  little 
3.  inves-  from  the  form  of  homage.  J  3.  In- 
titure.  vestiture,  or  the  actual  convey- 
ance of  feudal  lands,  was  of  two  kinds ; 
proper  and  improper.  The  first  was  an 
actual  putting  in  possession  upon  the 
ground,  either  by  the  lord  or  his  deputy ; 
which  is  called,  in  our  law,  livery  of 
seisin.  The  second  was  symbolical,  and 
cTTIlsfcsted  in  the  delivery  of  a  turf,  a 

*  Du  Cange,  Observations  sur  Joinville,  in  Col- 
lection des  Memoires,  t.  i.,  p.  196.  It  was  always 
necessary  for  a  vassal  to  renounce  his  homage  be- 
fore he  made  war  on  his  lord,  if  he  would  avoid 
the  shame  and  penalty  of  feudal  treason.  After  a 
reconciliation,  the  homage  was  renewed.  And  in 
this  no  distinction  was  made  between  the  king  and 
another  superior.  Thus  Henry  II.  did  homage  to 
the  King  of  France  in  1188,  having  renounced  his 
former  obligation  to  him  at  the  commencement  of 
the  preceding  war. — Matt.  Paris,  p.  126. 

f  Du  Cange,  Hominium,  and  Carpentier's  Sup- 
plement, id.  voc.  Littleton,  s.  85.  Assises  de  Jeru- 
salem, c.  204.  Crag.,  1.  i.,  tit.  11.  Recueil  des  His- 
toriens,  t.  ii.,  preface,  p.  174.  Homagium  per  pa- 
ragium  was  unaccompanied  by  any  feudal  obliga- 
tion, and  distinguished  from  homagium  ligeum, 
which  carried  with  it  an  obligation  of  fidelity.  The 
dukes  of  Normandy  rendered  only  homage  per 
paragium  to  the  kings  of  France,  and  received  the 
like  from  the  dukes  of  Britany.  In  liege  homage, 
it  was  usual  to  make  reservations  of  allegiance 
to  the  king,  or  any  other  lord  whom  the  homager 
had  previously  acknowledged. 

t  LittL,  s.  91.    Du  Cange,  voc.  Fidelitas. 


stone,  a  wand,  a  branch,  or  whatever  else 
might  have  been  made  usual  by  the  ca- 
price of  local  custom.  Du  Cange  enu- 
merates not  less  than  ninety-eight  varie- 
ties of  investitures.* 

Upon  investiture,  the  duties  of  the  vas- 
sal commenced.  These  it  is  im-  obligations 
possible  to  define  or  enumerate  ;  of  a  vassal, 
because  the  services  of  military  tenure, 
which  is  chiefly  to  be  considered,  were  ^ 
in  their  nature  uncertain,  and  distinguish- 
ed as  such  from  those  incident  to  feuds 
of  an  inferior  description.  It  was  a 
breach  of  faith  to  divulge  the  lord's  coun- 
sel, to  conceal  from  him  the  machinations 
of  others,  to  injure  his  person  or  fortune, 
or, to  violate  the  sanctity  of  his  roof  and 
th<3  honour  of  his  family,  f  In  battle  he 
was  bound  to  lend  his  horse  to  his  lord 
when  dismounted  ;  to  adhere  to  his  side 
while  fighting ;  and  to  go  into  captivity, 
as  a  hostage  for  him,  when  taken.  His 


*  Du  Cange,  voc.  Investitura. 

t  Assises  de  Jerusalem,  c.  265.  Home  ne  doit 
a  la  feme  de  son  seigneur,  ne  a  sa  fille  requerre  vi- 
lainie  de  son  cors,  ne  a  sa  sreur  tant  com  elk  est  de- 
moiselle en  son  hostel.  I  mention  this  part  of  feudal 
duty  on  account  of  the  light  it  throws  on  the  stat- 
ute of  treasons,  25  E.  III.  One  of  the  treasons 
therein  specified  is,  si  omne  violast  la  compaigne 
le  roy,  ou  leigntfile  leroy  nientmarid  ou  la  compaig- 
ne leigne  fitz  et  heire  le  roy.  Those  who,  like  Sir 
E.  Coke  and  the  modern  lawyers  in  general,  ex- 
plain this  provision  by  the  political  danger  of  con- 
fusing the  royal  blood,  do  not  apprehend  its  spirit. 
It  would  be  absurd,  upon  such  grounds,  to  render 
the  violation  of  the  king's  eldest  daughter  treason- 
able, so  long  only  as  she  remains  unmarried,  when, 
as  is  obvious,  the  danger  of  a  spurious  issue  inher- 
iting could  not  arise.  I  consider  this  provision 
therefore  as  entirely  founded  upon  the  feudal  prin- 
ciples, which  make  it  a  breach  of  faith  (that  is,  in 
the  primary  sense  of  the  word,  a  treason)  to  sully 
the  honour  of  the  lord  in  that  of  the  near  relations 
who  were  immediately  protected  by  residence  in 
his  house.  If  it  is  asked  why  this  should  be  re- 
stricted by  the  statute  to  the  person  of  the  eldest 
daughter,  I  can  only  answer  that  this,  which  is  not 
more  reasonable  according  to  the  common  political 
interpretation,  is  analogous  to  many  feudal  cus- 
toms in  our  own  and  other  countries,  which  attrib- 
ute a  sort  of  superiority  in  dignity  to  the  eldest 
daughter. 

It  may  be  objected,  that  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.  there  was  little  left  of  the  feudal  principle  in 
any  part  of  Europe,  and  least  of  all  in  England. 
But  the  statute  of  treasons  is  a  declaration  of  the 
ancient  law,  and  comprehends,  undoubtedly,  what 
the  judges  who  drew  it  could  find  in  records  now 
perished,  or  in  legal  traditions  of  remote  antiquity. 
Similar  causes  of  forfeiture  are  enumerated  in  the 
Libri  Feudorum,  1.  i.,  tit.  5,  and  1.  ii.,  tit.  24.  In  the 
establishments  of  St.  Louis,  c.  51,  52,  it  is  said, 
that  a  lord  seducing  his  vassal's  daughter  intrust- 
ed to  his  custody,  lost  his  seigniory ;  a  vassal 
guilty  of  the  same  crime  towards  the  family  of  his 
suzerain,  forfeited  his  land.  A  proof  of  the  tendency 
which  the  feudal  law  had  to  purify  public  morals, 
and  to  create  that  sense  of  indignation  and  resent- 
ment with  which  we  now  regard  such  breaches  of 
honour. 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


77 


attendance  was  due  to  the  lord's  courts 
sometimes  to  witness,  and  sometimes  to 
bear  a  part  in,  the  administration  of  jus 
tice.* 

The  measure,  however,  of  military  ser 
Limitations  vice,  was  generally  settled  by 
of  military  some  usage.  Fortydays  was 
the  usual  term,  aurm^pwhich 
the  tenant  of  a  knight's  fee  was  bound  to 
be  in  the  field  at  his  own  expense. f  This 
was  extended  by  St.  Louis  to  sixty  days, 
except  when  the  charter  of  infeudation 
expressed  a  shorter  period.  But  the 
length  of  service  diminished  with  the 
quantity  of  land.  For  half  a  knight's  fee 
but  twenty  days  were  due  ;  for  an  eighth 
part  but  five ;  and  when  this  was  com- 
muted for  an  escuage,  or  pecuniary  as- 
sessment, , the  same  proportion  was  ob- 
served-! /Men  turned  of  sixty,  public 
magistrates,  and,  of  course,  women,  were 
free  from  personal  service,  but  obliged 
to  send  their  substitutes.  A  failure  in 
this  primary  duty  incurred  perhaps  strict- 
ly a  forfeiture  of  the  fief.  But  it  was 
usual  for  the  lord  to  inflict  an  amerce- 


*  Assises  de  Jerusalem,  c.  222.  A  vassal,  at 
least  in  many  places,  was  bound  to  reside  upon 
his  fief,  or  not  to  quit  it  without  the  lord's  consent. 
— Du  Cange,  voc.  Reseantia,  Remanentia.  Recu- 
eil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  preface,  p.  172. 

t  In  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem,  feudal  service 
extended  to  a  year. — Assises  de  Jerusalem,  c.  230. 
It  is  obvious  that  this  was  founded  on  the  peculiar 
circumstances  of  that  state.  Service  of  castle- 
guard,  which  was  common  in  the  north  of  England, 
was  performed  without  limitation  of  time. — Lyttle- 
ton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  184. 

|  Du  Cange,  voc.  Feudum  militis ;  Membrum 
Loricae.  Stuart's  View  of  Society,  p.  382.  This 
division  by  knights'  fees  is  perfectly  familiar  in  the 
feudal  law  of  England.  But  I  must  confess  my 
inability  to  adduce  decisive  evidence  of  it  in  that 
of  France,  with  the  usual  exception  of  Normandy. 
According  to  the  natural  principle  of  fiefs,  it  might 
seem  that  the  same  personal  service  would  be  re- 
quired from  the  tenant,  whatever  were  the  extent 
of  his  land.  William  the  Conqueror,  we  know,  dis- 
tributed this  kingdom  into  about  60,000  parcels  of 
nearly  equal  value,  from  each  of  which  the  service 
of  a  soldier  was  due.  He  may  possibly  have  been 
the  inventor  of  this  politic  arrangement.  Some  rule 
must,  however,  have  been  observed  in  all  countries 
in  fixing  the  amercement  for  absence,  which  could 
only  be  equitable  if  it  bore  a  just  proportion  to  the 
value  of  the  fief.  And  the  principle  of  the  knight's 
fee  was  so  convenient  and  reasonable,  that  it  is 
likely  to  have  been  adopted  in  imitation  of  England 
by  other  feudal  countries.  In  the  roll  of  Philip 
III.'s  expedition,  as  will  appear  by  a  note  immedi- 
ately below,  there  are,  I  think,  several  presumptive 
evidences  of  it ;  and  though  this  is  rather  a  late 
authority  to  establish  a  feudal  principle,  yet  I  have 
ventured  to  assume  it  in  the  text. 

The  knight's  fee  was  fixed  in  England  at  the  an- 
nual value  of  20Z.  Every  estate  supposed  to  be 
of  this  value,  and  entered  as  such  in  the  rolls  of  the 
exchequer,  was  bound  to  contribute  the  service  of 
a  soldier,  or  to  pay  an  escuage  to  the  amount  as- 
sessed upon  knights'  fees. 


ment,  known  in  England  by  the  name  of 
escuage.*  Thus,  in  Philip  III.'s  expedi- 
tion against  the  Count  de  Foix,  in  1274, 
barons  were  assessed  for  their  default  of 
attendance,  at  a  hundred  sous  a  day  for 
the  expenses  which  they  had  saved,  and 
fifty  sous  as  a  fine  to  the  king  ;  banner- 
ets, at  twenty  sous  for  expenses,  and  ten 
as  a  fine ;  knights  and  squires  in  the  same 
proportion.  But  barons  and  bannerets 
were  bound  to  pay  an  additional  assess- 
ment for  every  knight  and  squire  of  their 
vassals  whom  they  ought  to  have  brought 
with  them  into  the  field,  f  The  regula- 
tions as  to  place  of  service  were  less  uni- 
form than  those  which  regard  time.  In 
some  places,  the  vassal  was  not  bound 
to  go  beyond  the  lord's  territory ,J  or  only 
so  far  as  he  might  return  the  same  day. 
Other  customs  compelled  him  to  follow 
his  chief  upon  all  his  expeditions.  §  These 
inconvenient  and  varying  usages  betray 
the  origin  of  the  feudal  obligations,  not 
founded  upon  any  national  policy,  but 
springing  from  the  chaos  of  anarchy  and 
intestine  war,  which  they  were  well  cal- 
culated to  perpetuate.  For  the  public  de- 
fence, their  machinery  was  totally  unser- 
viceable, until  such  changes  were  wrought 
as  destroyed  the  character  of  the  fabric. 

Independently  of  the  obligations  of  fe- 
alty and  service,  which  the  nature  of  the 
ontract  created,  other  advantages  were 
derived  from  it  by  the  lord,  which  have 
been  called  feudal  incidents ;  these  Feudal 
were,  1.  Reliefs.  2.  Fines  upon  incidents, 
alienation.  3.  Escheats.  4.  Aids  ;  to 
which  may  be  added,  though  not  general- 
y  established,  5.  Wardship,  and  6.  Mar- 
riage. 

1.  Some  writers  have  accounted  for  re- 
liefs in  the  following  manner.   Ben-  R  ,.  f 
fices,  whether  depending  upon  the    ' 
crown  or  its  vassals,  were  not  originally 
granted  by  way  of  absolute  inheritance, 
)ut  renewed  from  time  to  time  upon  the 


*  Littleton,  1.  ii.,  c.  3.  Wright's  Tenures,  p.  121. 
+  Du  Chesne,  Script.  Rerum  Gallicarum,  t.  v., 
>.  553.  Daniel,  Histoire  de  la  Milice  Franqoise,  p. 
72.  The  following  extracts  from  the  muster-roll  of 
his  expedition  will  illustrate  the  varieties  of  feudal 
)bligation.  Johannes  d'Ormoy  debet  servitium  per 
quatuor  dies.  Johannes  Malet  debet  servitium  per 
iginti  dies,  pro  quo  servitio  misit  Richardum  Ti- 
het.  Guido  de  Laval  debet  servitium  duorum 
militum  et  dimidii.  Dominus  Sabrandus  dictus 
Chabot  dicit  quod  non  debet  servitium  domino  regi, 
nisi  in  comitatu  Pictaviensi,  et  ad  sumptus  regis, 
amen  venit  ad  preces  regis  cumtribus  militihus  et 
luodecim  scutiferis.  Guido  de  Lusigniaco  Dom. 
de  Pierac  dicit,  quod  non  debet  aliquid  regi  praeter 
homagium. 

This  was  the  custom  of  Beauvoisis.— Beaxi- 
manoir,  c.  2. 

Du  Cange,  et  Carpentier,  voc.  Hostis. 


78 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


death  of  the  possessor,  till  long  custom 
grew  up  into  right.  Hence  a  sum  of 
money,  something  between  a  price  and  a 
gratuity,  would  naturally  be  offered  by 
the  heir  on  receiving  a  fresh  investiture 
of  the  fief ;  and  length  of  time  might  as 
legitimately  turn  this  present  into  a  due 
of  the  lord,  as  it  rendered  the  inheritance 
of  the  tenant  indefeisible.  This  is  a  very 
specious  account  of  the  matter.  But 
those  who  consider  the  antiquity  to  which 
hereditary  benefices  may  be  traced,  and 
the  unreserved  expressions  of  those  in- 
struments by  which  they  were  created, 
as  well  as  the  undoubted  fact  that  a  large 
proportion  of  fiefs  had  been  absolute 
allodial  inheritances,  never  really  granted 
by  the  superior,  will  perhaps  be  led  rath- 
er to  look  for  the  origin  of  reliefs  in  that 
rapacity  with  which  the  powerful  are 
ever  ready  to  oppress  the  feeble.  When 
a  feudal  tenant  died,  the  lord,  taking  ad- 
vantage of  his  own  strength  and  the  con- 
fusion of  the  family,  would  seize  the  es- 
tate into  his  hands,  either  by  the  right  of 
force  or  under  some  litigious  pretext. 
Against  this  violence  the  heir  could  in  gen- 
eral have  no  resource  but  a  compromise  ; 
and  we  know  how  readily  acts  of  success- 
ful injustice  change  their  name,  and  move 
demurely,  like  the  wolf  in  the  fable,  under 
the  clothing  of  law.  Reliefs  and  other 
feudal  incidents  are  said  to  have  been  es- 
tablished in  France*  about  the  latter  part 
of  the  tenth  century,  and  they  certainly 
appear  in  the  famous  edict  of  Conrad  the 
Salic,  in  1037,  which  recognises  the  usage 
of  presenting  horses  and  arms  to  the  lord 
upon  a  change  of  tenancy.f  But  this  also 
subsisted  under  the  name  of  heriot,  in 
England,  as  early  as  the  reign  of  Canute. 
A  relief  was  a  sum  of  money  (unless 
where  charter  or  custom  introduced  .a  dif- 
ferent tribute)  due  from  every  one  of  full 
age  taking  a  fief  by  descent.  This  was  in 
some  countries  arbitrary,  or  ad  misericor- 
diam,  and  the  exactions  practised  under 
this  pretence,  both  upon  superior  and  in 
ferior  vassals,  ranked  among  the  greatest 
abuses  of  the  feudal  policy.  Henry  I.  of 
England  promises  in  his  charter  that  they 
shall  in  future  be  just  and  reasonable ; 
but  the  rate  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
finally  settled,  till  it  was  laid  down  in 
Magna  Charta,  at  about  the  fourth  of  the 
annual  value  of  the  fief.  We  find  also 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  France,  t.  i.,  pre- 
face, p.  10. 

*,  Servato  usu valvassprum  majorum  in  tradendis 
armis  equisque  suis  senioribus.  This,  among  oth- 
er reasons,  leads  me  to  doubt  the  received  opinion, 
that  Italian  fiefs  were  not  hereditary  before  the 
promulgation  of  this  edict. 


fixed  reliefs  among  the  old  customs  of 
Normandy  and  Beauvoisis.  By  a  law  of 
St.  Louis,  in  1245,*  the  lord  was  entitled 
to  enter  upon  the  lands,  if  the  heir  could 
not  pay  the  relief,  and  possess  them  for 
a  year.  This  right  existed  uncondition- 
ally in  England  under  the  name  of  primer 
seisin,  but  was  confined  to  the  king.f 

2.  Closely  connected  with  reliefs  were 
the  fines  paid  to  the  lord  upon  Fines  upon 
the  alienation  of  his  vassal's  alienation, 
feud ;  and  indeed  we  frequently  find  them 
called  by  the  same  name.  The  spirit  of 
feudal  tenure  established  so  intimate  a 
connexion  between  the  two  parties,  that 
it  could  be  dissolved  by  neither  without 
requiring  the  other's  consent.  If  the  lord 
transferred  his  seigniory,  the  tenant  was 
to  testify  his  concurrence ;  and  this  cer- 
emony was  long  kept  up  in  England  un- 
der the  name  of  attornment.  The  assent 
of  the  lord  to  his  vassal's  alienation  was 
still  more  essential,  and  more  difficult  to 
be  attained.  He  had  received  his  fief,  it 
was  supposed,  for  reasons  peculiar  to 
himself  or  to  his  family ;  at  least,  his 
heart  and  arm  were  bound  to  his  supe- 
rior ;  and  his  service  was  not  to  be  ex- 
changed for  that  of  a  stranger,  who  might 
be  unable  or  unwilling  to  render  it.  A 
law  of  Lothaire  II.  in  Italy  forbids  the 
alienation  of  fiefs  without  the  lord's  con- 
sent.^ This  prohibition  is  repeated  in 
one  of 'Frederick  I.,  and  a  similar  enact- 
ment was  made  by  Roger,  king  of  Sicily. § 
By  the  law  of  France,  the  lord  was  enti- 
tled, upon  every  alienation  made  by  his 
tenant,  either  to  redeem  the  fief  by  pay- 
ing the  purchase-money,  or  to  claim  a 
certain  part  of  the  value,  by  way  of  fine, 
upon  the  change  of  tenancy.  ||  In  Eng- 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rpis,  p.  55. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Placitum,  Relevium,  Sporla. 
By  many  customs  a  relief  was  due  on  every  change 
of  the  lord,  as  well  as  of  the  vassal ;  but  this  was 
not  the  case  in  England.  Beaumont  speaks  of  re- 
liefs as  due  only  on  collateral  succession. — Cou- 
tumes  de  Beauvoisis,  c.  27.  In  Anjou  and  Maine 
they  were  not  even  due  upon  succession  between 
brothers. — Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  58.  And 
M.  de  Pastoret,  in  his  valuable  preface  to  the  six- 
teenth volume  of  that  collection,  says  it  was  a  rule, 
that  the  king  had  nothing  upon  lineal  succession 
of  a  fief,  whether  in  the  ascending  or  descending 
line,  but  la  bouche  et  les  mains  ;  i.  e.  homage  and 
fealty,  p.  20. 

J  Lib.  Feudorum,  1.  ii.,  tit.  9  and  52.  This  was 
principally  levelled  at  the  practice  of  alienating 
feudal  property  in  favour  of  the  church,  which  was 
called  pro  anim&  judicare. — Radevicus  in  Gestis 
Frederic.  I.,  1.  iv.,  e.  7.  Lib.  Feud.,  1.  i.,  tit.  7,  16  ; 
1.  ii.,  tit.  10. 

§  Giannone,  1.  ii.,  c.  5. 

11  Du  Cange,  v.  Reaccapitum,  Placitum,  Racha- 
tum.  Pastoret,  preface  au  seizieme  tome  des 
Ordonnances,  p.  20.  Houard,  Diet,  du  Droit  Nor- 
maud,  art.  Fief.  Argou,  Inst.  du  Droit  Francois,  1. 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


79 


land,  even  the  practice  of  sub-infeudation, 
which  was  more  conformable  to  the  law 
of  fiefs  and  the  military  genius  of  the  sys- 
tem, but  injurious  to  the  suzerains,  who 
lost  thereby  their  escheats  and  other  ad- 
vantages of  seigniory,  was  checked  by 
Magna  Charta,*  and  forbidden  by  the 
statute  18  Edward  I.,  called  Quia  Emp- 
tores,  which  at  the  same  time  gave  the 
liberty  of  alienating  lands,  to  be  holden 
of  the  grantor's  immediate  lord.  The 
tenants  of  the  crown  were  not  included 
in  this  act;  but  that  of  1  Edward  III.,  c.  12, 
enabled  them  to  alienate,  upon  the  pay- 
ment of  a  composition  into  chancery, 
which  was  fixed  at  one  third  of  the  annual 
value  of  the  lands. f 

These  restraints,  placed  for  the  lord's 
advantage  upon  the  transfer  of  feudal 
property,  are  not  to  be  confounded  with 
those  designed  for  the  protection  of  heirs 
and  preservation  of  families.  Such  were 
the  jus  prolimeseos,  in  the  books  of  the 
fiefs,|  and  retrait  lignager  of  the  French 
law,  which  gave  to  the  relations  of  the 
vender  a  pre-emption  upon  the  sale  of 
any  fief,  and  a  right  of  subsequent  re- 
demption. Such  was  the  positive  pro- 
hibition of  alienating  a  fief  held  by  de- 
scent from  the  father  (feudum  pater- 
num),  without  the  consent  of  the  kindred 
on  that  line.§  Such,  too,  were  the  still 


ii.,  c.  ii.  In  Beaumanoir's  age  and  district  at  least, 
sub-infeudation  without  the  lord's  license  incurred 
a  forfeiture  of  the  land;  and  his  reason  extends  of 
course  more  strongly  to  alienation. — Coutumes  de 
Beauvoisis,  c.  2.  Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  187.  But,  by  the 
general  law  of  feuds,  the  former  was  strictly  regu- 
lar, while  the  tenant  forfeited  his  land  by  the  latter. 
Craig  mentions  this  distinction  as  one  for  which  he 
is  perplexed  to  account. — Jus  Feudale,  1.  iii.,  tit.  3, 
p.  632.  It  is,  however,  perfectly  intelligible  upon 
the  original  principles  of  feudal  tenure. 

*  Dalrymple  seems  to  suppose  that  the  32d  chap- 
ter of  Magna  Charta  relates  to  alienation,  and  not 
to  sub-infeudation. — Essay  on  Feudal  Property, 
ed.  1758,  p.  83.  See  Sir  E.  Coke,  2  Inst.,  p.  65  and 
501 ;  and  Wright  on  Tenures,  contra.  Mr.  Har- 
grave  observes,  that  "  the  history  of  our  law  with 
respect  to  the  powers  of  alienation,  before  the  stat- 
ute of  Quia  emptores  terrarum,  is  very  much  in- 
volved in  obscurity." — Notes  on  Co.  Litt,  43,  a. 
In  Glanville's  time,  apparently,  a  man  could  only 
alienate  (to  hold  of  himself)  rationabilem  partem 
de  terra  sua,  1.  vii.,  c.  1.  But  this  may  have  been 
in  favour  of  the  kindred,  as  much  as  of  the  lord. — 
Dalrymple's  Essay,  ubi  supra. 

It  is  probable  that  Coke  is  mistaken  in  supposing 
that,  "  at  the  common  law,  the  tenant  might  have 
made  a  feoffment  of  the  whole  tenancy  to  be  hold- 
en  of  the  lord." 

f  2  Inst.,  p.  66.  Blackstone's  Commentaries, 
vol.  ii.,  c.  5. 

t  Lib.  Feud.,  1.  v.,  1. 13.  There  were  analogies  to 
this  jus  7rp<m//>7<r£a>s  in  the  Roman  law,  and,  still 
more  closely,  in  the  constitutions  of  the  later  By- 
zantine emperors. 

§  Alienatio  feudi  paterni  non  valet  etiam  domini 


more  rigorous  fetters  imposed  by  the  En- 
glish statute  of  entails,  which  precluded 
all  lawful  alienation,  till,  after  two  centu- 
ries, it  was  overthrown  by  the  fictitious 
process  of  a  common  recovery.  Though 
these  partake  in  some  measure  of  the  feu- 
dal spirit,  and  would  form  an  important 
head  in  the  legal  history  of  that  system, 
it  will  be  sufficient  to  allude  to  them  in 
a  sketch,  which  is  confined  to  the  devel- 
opment of  its  political  influence. 

A  custom  very  similar  in  effect  to  sub- 
infeudation,  was  the  tenure  by  frerage, 
which  prevailed  in  many  parts  of  France. 
Primogeniture,  in  that  extreme  which 
our  common  law  has  established,  was 
unknown,  I  believe,  in  every  country 
upon  the  continent.  The  customs  of 
France  found  means  to  preserve  the  dig- 
nity of  families,  and  the  indivisibility  of 
a  feudal  homage,  without  exposing  the 
younger  sons  of  a  gentleman  to  absolute 
beggary  or  dependance.  Baronies  indeed 
were  not  divided ;  but  the  eldest  son  was 
bound  to  make  a  provision  in  money,  by 
way  of  appanage,  for  the  other  children, 
in  proportion  to  his  circumstances  and 
their  birth.*  As  to  inferior  fiefs,  in  many 
places,  an  equal  partition  was  made ;  in 
others,  the  eldest  took  the  chief  portion, 
generally  two  thirds,  and  received  the 
homage  of  his  brothers  for  the  remaining 
part,  which  they  divided.  To  the  lord  of 
whom  the  fief  was  held,  himself  did  hom- 
age for  the  whole. f  In  the  early  times 
of  the  feudal  policy,  when  military  ser- 
vice was  the  great  object  of  the  relation 
between  lord  and  vassal,  this,  like  all  oth- 
er sub-infeudation,  was  rather  advanta- 
geous to  the  former.  For,  when  the 
homage  of  a  fief  was  divided,  the  service 
was  diminished  in  proportion.  Suppose, 
for  example,  the  obligation  of  military 
attendance  for  an  entire  manor  to  have 
been  forty  days  ;  if  that  came  to  be  equal- 
ly split  among  two,  each  would  owe  but 
a  service  of  twenty.  But  if,  instead  of 
being  homagers  to  the  same  suzerain, 
one  tenant  held  immediately  of  the  other, 


voluntate,  nisi  agnatis  consentientibus. — Lib.  Feud, 
apud  Wright  on  Tenures,  p.  108  and  156. 

*  Du  Cange,  v.  Apanamentum,  Baro.  Baronie 
ne  depart  mie  entre  fre"res  se  leur  pere  ne  leur  a 
fait  partie ;  mes  Ii  ainsnez  doit  faire  avenant  bien- 
fet  au  puisne,  et  si  doit  les  filles  marier. — Etablis- 
sem.  de  St.  Louis,  c.  24. 

f  This  was  also  the  law  of  Flanders  and  Hai- 
nault. — Martenne,  Thesaurus  Anecdotor.,  t.  i.,  p. 
1092.  The  customs  as  to  succession  were  exceed- 
ingly various,  as  indeed  they  continued  to  be  until 
the  late  generalization  of  French  law.— Recueil 
des  Histor.,  t.  ii.,  preface,  p.  108 ;  Hist,  de  Langue- 
doc,  t.  ii.,  p.  Ill  and  511.  In  the  former  work  it 
is  said  that  primogeniture  was  introduced  by  the 
Normans  from  Scandinavia. 


80 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP  II. 


as  every  feudatory  might  summon  the 
aid  of  his  own  vassals,  the  superior  lord 
would  in  fact  obtain  the  service  of  both. 
Whatever  opposition,  therefore,  was 
made  to  the  rights  of  sub-infeudation  or 
frerage,  would  indicate  a  decay  in  the 
military  character,  the  living  principle  of 
feudal  tenure.  Accordingly,  in  the  reign 
of  Philip  Augustus,  when  the  fabric  was 
beginning  to  shake,  we  find  a  confederate 
agreement  of  some  principal  nobles,  sanc- 
tioned by  the  king,  to  abrogate  the  mesne 
tenure  of  younger  brothers,  and  estab- 
lish an  immediate,  dependance  of  each 
upon  the  superior  lord.*  This,  however, 
was  not  universally  adopted,  and  the  ori- 
ginal frerage  subsisted  to  the  last  in  some 
of  the  customs  of  France. f 

3.  As  fiefs  descended  but  to  the  poster- 
Escheats      ity  of  the  first  taker,  or  at  the  ut- 
and  forfeits.  m0st  to  his  kindred,  they  neces- 
sarily became  sometimes  vacant  for  want 
of  heirs ;  especially  where,  as  in  England, 
there  was  no  power  of  devising  them  by 
will.     In  this  case,  it  was  obvious  that 
they  ought  to  revert  to  the  lord,  from 
whose  property  they  had  been  derived. 
These  reversions  became  more  frequent 
through  the  forfeitures  occasioned  by  the 
vassal's  delinquency,  either  towards  his 
superior  lord  or  the  state.     Various  cases 
are  laid  down  in  the  Assises  de  Jerusa- 
lem, where  the  vassal  forfeits  his  land, 
for  a  year,  for  his  life,  or  for  ever.|    But 
under  rapacious  kings,  such  as  the  Nor- 
man line  in  England,  absolute  forfeitures 
came  to  prevail,  and  a  new  doctrine  was 
introduced,  the  corruption  of  blood,  by 
which  the  heir  was  effectually  excluded 
from  deducing  his   title,  at   any  distant 
time,  through  an  attainted  ancestor. 

4.  Reliefs,  fines  upon  alienation,  and 
escheats,  seem  to  be  natural  reser- 

8>  vations  in  the  lord's  bounty  to  his 
vassal.  He  had  rights  of  another  class, 
which  principally  arose  out  of  fealty  and 
intimate  attachment.  Such  were  the 
aids  which  he  was  entitled  to  call  for  in 
certain  prescribed  circumstances.  These 
depended  a  great  deal  upon  local  custom, 
and  were  often  extorted  unreasonably. 
Du  Cange  mentions  several  as  having 
existed  in  France ;  such  as  an  aid  for  the 
lord's  expedition  to  the  Holy  Land,  for 
marrying  his  sister  or  eldest  son,  and  for 
paying  a  relief  to  his  suzerain  on  taking 
possession  of  his  land.§  Of  these,  the 
last  appears  to  have  been  the  most  usual 
in  England.  But  this,  and  other  aids  oc- 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  29. 
f  Du  Cange,  Dissert.  III.  sur  Joinville.    Beau- 
manoir,  c.  47. 
t  C.  200,  201.        $  Du  Cange,  voc.  Auxilium. 


casionally  exacted  by  the  lords,  were  felt 
as  a  severe  grievance ;  and  by  Magna 
Charta  three  only  are  retained ;  to  make 
the  lord's  eldest  son  a  knight,  to  marry 
his  eldest  daughter,  and  to  redeem  his 
person  from  prison.  They  were  restrict- 
ed to  nearly  the  same  description  by  a 
law  of  William  I.  of  Sicily,  and  by  the 
customs  of  France.*  These  feudal  aids 
are  deserving  of  our  attention,  as  the  be- 
ginnings of  taxation,  of  which  for  a  long 
time  they  in  a  great  measure  answered  the 
purpose,  till  the  craving  necessities  and 
covetous  policy  of  kings  substituted  for 
them  more  durable  and  onerous  burdens. 

I  might  here,  perhaps,  close  the  enu- 
meration of  feudal  incidents,  but  that  the 
two  remaining,  wardship  and  marriage, 
though  only  partial  customs,  were  those 
of  our  own  country,  and  tend  to  illustrate 
the  rapacious  character  of  a  feudal  aris- 
tocracy. 

5.  In  England,  and  in  Normandy,  which 
either  led  the  way  to  or  adopted  all  these 
English  institutions,  the  lord  had  WardShip. 
the  wardship  of  his  tenant  during 
minority.!  By  virtue  of  this  right,  he 
had  both  the  care  of  his  person,  and  re- 
ceived to  his  own  use  the  profits  of  the 
estate.  There  is  something  in  this  cus- 
tom very  conformable  to  the  feudal  spir- 
it ;  since  none  was  so  fit  as  the  lord  to 
train  up  his  vassal  to  arms;  and  none 
could  put  in  so  good  a  claim  to  enjoy  the 
fief,  while  the  military  service  for  which  it 
had  been  granted  was  suspended.  This 
privilege  of  guardianship  seems  to  have 
been  enjoyed  by  the  lord  in  some  parts 
of  Germany  ;|  but  in  the  law  of  France, 
the  custody  of  the  land  was  intrusted  to 
the  next  heir,  and  that  of  the  person,  as 
in  soccage  tenures  among  us,  to  the  near- 
est kindred  of  that  blood  which  could  not 
inherit. §  By  a  gross  abuse  of  this  cus- 

*  Giannone,  1.  xii.,  c.  5.  Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  200. 
Ordonnances  des  Rois.  t.  i.,  p.  138 ;  t.  xvi.,  preface. 

t  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  pref.,  p.  162; 
Argon,  Inst.  au  Droit  Frangois,  1.  i.,  c.  6 ;  Houard, 
Anciennes  Loix  des  Francois,  t.  i.,  p.  147. 

J  Schilter,  Institutiones  Juris  Feudalis,  p.  85. 

§  Du  Cange,  v.  Custodia.  Assises  de  Jerusalem, 
c.  178 ;  Etablissemens  de  St.  Louis,  c.  17 ;  Beau- 
manoir,  c.  15;  Argou,  1.  i.,  c.  6.  The  second  of 
these  uses  nearly  the  same  expression  as  Sir  John 
Fortescue  in  accounting  for  the  exclusion  of  the 
next  heir  from  guardianship  of  the  person  ;  that 
mauvaise  convoitise  li  fairoit  faire  la  garde  du  loup. 

I  know  not  any  mistake  more  usual  in  English 
writers  who  have  treated  of  the  feudal  law,  than 
that  of  supposing  that  guardianship  in  chivalry  was 
a  universal  custom.  A  charter  of  1198,  in  Rymer, 
t.  i.,  p.  105,  seems  indeed  to  imply  that  the  inci- 
dents of  garde  noble  and  of  marriage  existed  in  the 
Isle  of  Oleron.  But  Eleanor,  by  a  later  instrument, 
grants  that  the  inhabitants  of  that  island  should 
have  the  wardship  and  marriage  of  their  heirs  with- 


PART  I.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


81 


torn  in  England,  the  right  of  guardianship 
in  chivalry,  or  temporary  possession  o 
the  lands,  was  assigned  over  to  strangers 
This  was  one  of  the  most  vexatious  part 
of  our  feudal  tenures,  and  was  never  per 
haps  more  sorely  felt,  than  in  their  las 
stage  under  the  Tudor  and  Stuart  families 
6.  Another  right  given  to  the  lord  03 

Marriage    tn6    N°rman    anc}    English    law 

was  that  of  marriage,  or  of  ten 
dering  a  husband  to  his  female  wards 
while  under  age,  whom  they  could  no- 
reject  without  forfeiting  the  value  of  th< 
marriage ;  that  is,  as  much  as  any  om 
would  give  to  the  guardian  for  such  an 
alliance.  This  was  afterward  extendec 
to  male  wards ;  and  became  a  very  lucra 
tive  source  of  extortion  to  the  crown,  as 
well  as  to  mesne  lords.  This  custom 
seems  to  have  had  the  same  extent  as 
that  of  wardships.  It  is  found  in  the  an- 
cient books  of  Germany,  but  not  of 
France.*  The  kings,  however,  and  even 
inferior  lords  of  that  country,  required 
their  consent  to  be  solicited  for  the  mar- 
riage of  their  vassals'  daughters.  Sev- 
eral proofs  of  this  occur  in  the  history, 
as  well  as  in  the  laws  of  France;  and 
the  same  prerogative  existed  in  Germa- 
ny, Sicily,  and  England.f  A  still  more 
remarkable  law  prevailed  in  the  kingdom 
of  Jerusalem.  The  lord  might  summon 


out  any  interposition,  and  expressly  abrogates  all 
the  evil  customs  that  her  husband  had  introduced. 
— P.  112.  From  hence  I  should  infer,  that  Henry 
II.  had  endeavoured  to  impose  these  feudal  bur- 
dens (which  perhaps  were  then  new  even  in  Eng- 
land) upon  his  continental  dominions.  Radulphus 
de  Diceto  tells  us  of  a  claim  made  by  him  to  the 
wardship  of  Chateauroux  in  Berry,  which  could 
not  legally  have  been  subject  to  that  custom. — 
Twysden  X.  Scriptores,  p.  599.  And  he  set  up 
pretensions  to  the  custody  of  the  dutchy  of  Brit- 
any,  after  the  death  of  his  son  Geoffrey.  This 
might  perhaps  be  justified  by  the  law  of  Norman- 
dy, on  which  Britany  depended.  But  Philip  Au- 
gustus made  a  similar  claim.  In  fact,  these  polit- 
ical assertions  of  right,  prompted  by  ambition,  and 
supported  by  force,  are  bad  precedents  to  establish 
rules  of  jurisprudence.  Both  Philip  and  Henry 
were  abundantly  disposed  to  realize  so  convenient 
a  prerogative  as  that  of  guardianship  in  chivalry 
over  the  fiefs  of  their  vassals. — Lyttleton's  Henry 
II.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  441. 

*  Schilter,  ubi  supra.  Du  Cange,  voc.  Dispara- 
gare,  seems  to  admit  this  feudal  right  in  France  : 
but  the  passages  he  quotes  do  not  support  it.  See 
also  the  word  Maritagium. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  155  ;  Assises 
de  Jerus.,  c.  180,  and  Thaumassiere's  note.  Du 
Cange,  ubi  supra.  Glanvil.,  1.  vii.,  c.  12.  Giannone, 
1.  xi.,  c.  5.  Wright  on  Tenures,  p.  94.  St.  Louis 
in  return  declared  that  he  would  not  marry  his 
own  daughter  without  the  consent  of  his  barons. 
— Joinville,  t.  ii.,  p.  140.  Henry  I.  of  England  had 
promised  the  same.  The  guardian  of  a  female  mi- 
nor was  obliged  to  give  security  to  her  lord  not  to 
marry  her  without  his  consent. — Etablissemens  de 
St.  Louis,  c.  63. 


j  any  female  vassal  to  accept  one  of  three 
whom  he  should  propose  as  her  hus- 
band. No  other  condition  seems  to  have 
been  imposed  on  him  in  selecting  these 
suiters,  than  that  they  should  be  of  equal 
rank  with  herself.  /Neither  the  maiden's 
coyness,  nor  the  widow's  affliction,- nei- 
ther aversion  to  the  proffered  candidates, 
nor  love  to  one  more  favoured,  seem  to 
have  passed  as  legitimate  excuses.  One, 
only  one  plea,  could  come  from  the  lady's 
mouth,  who  was  resolute  to  hold  her 
land  in  single  blessedness.  It  was,  that 
she  was  past  sixty  years  of  age ;  and,  af- 
ter this  unwelcome  confession,  it  is  just- 
ly argued  by  the  author  of  the  law-book 
which  I  quote,  that  the  lord  could  not  de- 
cently press  her  into  matrimony.*"/  How- 
ever outrageous  such  a  usage  may  ap- 
pear to  our  ideas,  it  is  to  be  recollected 
that  the  peculiar  circumstances  of  that 
little  state  rendered  it  indispensable  to 
possess  in  every  fief  a  proper  vassal  to 
fulfil  the  duties  of  war. 

These  feudal  servitudes  distinguish  the 
maturity  of  the  system.  No  trace  of  them 
appears  in  the  capitularies  of  Charle- 
magne and  his  family,  nor  in  the  instru- 
ments by  which  benefices  were  granted. 
[  believe  that  they  did  not  make  part  of 
the  regular  feudal  law  before  the  eleventh, 
or  perhaps  the  twelfth  century,  though 
doubtless  partial  usages  of  this  kind  had 
grown  up  antecedently  to  either  of  those 
jeriods.  If  I  am  not  mistaken,  no  allusion 
occurs  to  the  lucrative  rights  of  seignio- 
ry in  the  Assises  de  Jerusalem,  which 
are  a  monument  of  French  usages  in 
he  eleventh  century.  Indeed,  that  very 
general  commutation  of  allodial  prop- 
erty into  tenure,  which  took  place  be- 
tween the  middle  of  the  ninth  and  elev- 
enth centuries,  would  hardly  have  been  ef- 
"ected,  if  fiefs  had  then  been  liable  to  such 
mrdens  and  so  much  extortion.  In  half- 
>arbarous  ages,  the  strong  are  constant- 
y  encroaching  upon  the  weak ;  a  truth 
which,  if  it  needed  illustration,  might  find 
t  in  the  progress  of  the  feudal  system. 

We  have  thus  far  confined  our  inquiry 
o  fiefs  holden  on  terms  of  mili-  proper  and 
ary  service;    since  those  are  improper 
he  most  ancient  and  regular,  as  feud8t 
well  as  the  most  consonant  to  the  spirit 
if  the  system.     They  alone  were  called 
Toper  feuds,  and  all  were  presumed  to 
e  of  this  description,  until  the  contrary 
was  proved  by  the  charter  of  investiture. 

proper  feud   was  bestowed  without 


*  Ass.  de  Jerus.,  c.  224.  I  must  observe,  that 
jauriere  says  this  usage  prevailed  en  plusieurs 
eux,  though  he  quotes  no  authority.— Ordonnan- 
es  des  Rois,  p.  155. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP,  II. 


price,  without  fixed  stipulation,  upon  a 
)  vassal  capable  of  serving  personally  in 
/  the  field.  But  gradually,  with  the  help 
of  a  little  legal  ingenuity,  improper  fiefs 
of  the  most  various  kinds  were  intro- 
duced, retaining  little  of  the  characteris- 
tics, and  less  of  the  spirit,  which  distin- 
guished the  original  tenures.  Women,  if 
indeed  that  were  an  innovation,  were 
admitted  to  inherit  them;*  they  were 
granted  for  a  price,  and  without  refer- 
ence to  military  service.  The  language 
of  the  feudal  law  was  applied  by  a  kind 
of  metaphor  to  almost  every  transfer  of 
property.  Hence,  pensions  of  money,  and 
allowances  of  pro  visions,  however  remote 
from  right  notions  of  a  fief,  were  some- 
times granted  under  that  name  ;  and  even 
where  land  was  the  subject  of  the  dona- 
tion, its  conditions  were  often  lucrative, 
often  honorary,  and  sometimes  ludi- 
crous, f 

There  is  one  extensive  species  of  feu- 
Fiefs  of  dal  tenure  which  may  be  distinctly 
office,  noticed.  The  pride  of  wealth  in 
the  middle  ages  was  principally  exhibit- 
ed in  a  multitude  of  dependants.  The 
court  of  Charlemagne  was  crowded  with 
officers  of  every  rank,  some  of  the  most 
eminent  of  whom  exercised  functions 
about  the  royal  person  which  would 
have  been  thought  fit  only  for  slaves  in 
the  palace  of  Augustus  or  Antonine. 
The  free-born  Franks  saw  nothing  me- 
nial in  the  titles  of  cup-bearer,  steward, 
marshal,  and  master  of  the  horse,  which 
are  still  borne  by  the  noblest  families  in 
every  country  of  Europe,  and  by  sover- 
eign princes  in  the  empire.  From  the 
court  of  the  king,  this  favourite  piece  of 
magnificence  descended  to  those  of  the 
prelates  and  barons,  who  surrounded 
themselves  with  household  officers,  call- 
ed ministerials ;  a  name  equally  applied  to 
those  of  a  servile  and  of  a  liberal  descrip- 
tion.! The  latter  of  these  were  reward- 
ed with  grants  of  lands,  which  they  held 
under  a  feudal  tenure  by  the  condition  of 
performing  some  domestic  service  to  the 


*  Women  did  not  inherit  fiefs  in  the  German 
empire.  Whether  they  were  ever  excluded  from 
succession  in  France,  I  know  not ;  the  genius  of  a 
military  tenure,  and  the  old  Teutonic  customs, 
preserved  in  the  Salique-law,  seem  adverse  to 
their  possession  of  feudal  lands  ;  yet  the  practice, 
at  least  from  the  eleventh  century  downwards, 
does  not  support  the  theory. 

t  Crag.,  Jus  Feudale,  1.  i.,  tit.  10.  Du  Cange, 
voc.  Feudnm  de  Camera,  &c.  In  the  treaty  be- 
tween Henry  I.  of  England  and  Robert,  count  of 
Flanders,  A.  D.  1101,  the  king  stipulates  to  pay 
annually  400  marks  of  silver,  in  feodo,  for  the  mili- 
tary service  of  his  ally. — Rymer,  Fcedera,  t.  i.,  p.  2. 

t  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  iii.,  p.  92. 
Du  Cangs,  v.  Familia,  Ministeriales. . 


lord.  What  was  called  in  our  law  grand 
sergeantry,  affords  an  instance  of  this  spe- 
cies of  fief.*  It  is,  however,  an  instance 
of  the  noblest  kind ;  but  Muratori  has  giv- 
en abundance  of  proofs,  that  the  common- 
est mechanical  arts  were  carried  on  in 
the  houses  of  the  great,  by  persons  receiv- 
ing lands  upon  those  conditions.! 

These  imperfect  feuds,  however,  be- 
long more  properly  to  the  history  of  law, 
and  are  chiefly  noticed  in  the  present 
sketch  because  they  attest  the  partiality 
manifested  during  the  middle  ages  to  the 
name  and  form  of  a  feudal  tenure.  In 
the  regular  military  fief  we  see  the  real 
principle  of  the  system,  which  might 
originally  have  been  defined,  an  alliance 
of  free  landholders,  arranged  in  degrees 
of  subordination  according  to  their  re- 
spective capacities  of  affording  mutual 
support. 

The  peculiar  and  varied  attributes  of 
feudal  tenures  naturally  gave  Feudal  law- 
rise  to  a  new  jurisprudence,  reg-  books- 
ulating  territorial  rights  in  those  parts  of 
Europe  which  had  adopted  the  system. 
For  a  length  of  time  this  rested  in  tra- 
ditionary customs,  observed  in  the  do- 
mains of  each  prince  or  lord,  without 
much  regard  to  those  of  his  neighbours. 
Laws  were  made  occasionally  by  the 
emperor  in  Germany  and  Italy,  which 
tended  to  fix  the  usages  of  those  coun- 
tries. A.bout  the  year  1170,  Girard  and 
Obertus,  two  Milanese  lawyers,  publish- 
ed two  books  of  the  law  of  fiefs,  which 
obtained  a  great  authority,  and  have  been 
regarded  as  the  groundwork  of  that  juris- 
prudence.I  A  number  of  subsequent 
commentators  swelled  this  code  with 
their  glosses  and  opinions,  to  enlighten 
or  obscure  the  judgment  of  the  imperial 
tribunals.  These  were  chiefly  civilians 
or  canonists,  who  brought  to  the  inter- 
pretation of  old  barbaric  customs  the 
principles  of  a  very  different  school. 
Hence  a  manifest  change  was  wrought 
in  the  law  of  feudal  tenure,  which  they 
assimilated  to  the  usufruct  or  the  emphy- 
teusis  of  the  Roman  code;  modes  of 
property  somewhat  analogous  in  appear- 


*  "  This  tenure,"  says  Littleton,  "  is  where  a 
man  holds  his  lands  or  tenements  of  our  sovereign 
lord  the  king  by  such  services  as  he  ought  to  do  in 
his  proper  person  to  the  king,  as  to  carry  the  banner 
of  the  king,  or  his  lance,  or  to  lead  his  array,  or  to 
be  his  marshal,  or  to  carry  his  sword  before  him  at 
his  coronation,  or  to  be  his  sewer  at  his  corona^ 
tion,  or  his  carver,  or  his  butler,  or  to  be  one  of  his 
chamberlains  at  the  receipt  of  his  exchequer,  or  to 
do  other  like  services." — Sect.  153. 

t  Antiq.  Ital.,  Dissert.  11,  ad  finem. 

+  Giannone,  1st.  di  Napoli,  1.  xiii.,  c.  3.  The 
Libri  Feudorurn  are  printed  in  most  editions  of  the 
Corpus  Juris  Civilis. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


83 


ance,  but  totally  distinct  in  principle 
from  the  legitimate  fief.  These  Lom- 
bard lawyers  propagated  a  doctrine,  which 
has  been  too  readily  received,  that  the 
feudal  system  originated  in  their  coun- 
try; and  some  writers  upon  jurispru- 
dence, such  as  Duck  and  Sir  James 
Craig,  incline  to  give  a  preponderating 
authority  to  their  code.  But  whatever 
weight  it  may  have  possessed  within  the 
limits  of  the  empire,  a  different  guide 
must  be  followed  in  the  ancient  customs 
of  France  and  England.*  These  were 
fresh  from  the  fountain  of  that  curious 
polity,  with  which  the  stream  of  Roman 
law  had  never  mingled  its  waters.  In 
England  we  know  that  the  Norman  sys- 
tem, established  between  the  conquest 
and  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  was  restrain- 
ed by  regular  legislation,  by  paramount 
courts  of  justice,  and  by  learned  writings, 
from  breaking  into  discordant  local  usa- 
ges, except  in  a  comparatively  small 
number  of  places,  and  has  become  the 
principal  source  of  our  common  law. 
But  the  independence  of  the  French 
nobles  produced  a  much  greater  variety 
of  customs.  The  whole  number  collect- 
ed and  reduced  to  certainty  in  the  six- 
teenth century  amounted  to  two  hundred 
and  eighty-five,  or,  omitting  those  incon- 
siderable for  extent  or  peculiarity,  to 
sixty.  The  earliest  written  customary 
in  France  is  that  of  Beam,  which  is  said 
to  have  been  confirmed  by  Visftount  Gas- 
ton  IV.,  in  1088. f  Many  others  were 
written  in  the  two  subsequent  ages,  of 
which  the  customs  of  Beauvoisis,  com- 
piled by  Beaumanoir  under  Philip  III., 
are  the  most  celebrated,  and  contain  a 
mass  of  information  on  the  feudal  consti- 
tution and  manners.  Under  Charles  VII., 
an  ordinance  was  made  for  the  formation 
of  a  general  code  of  customary  law,  by 

*  Giannone  explicitly  contrasts  the  French  and 
Lombard  laws  respecting  fiefs.  The  latter  were 
the  foundation  of  the  Libri  Feudorum,  and  formed 
the  common  law  of  Italy.  The  former  were  intro- 
duced by  Roger  Guiscard  into  his  dominions,  in 
three  books  of  constitutions,  printed  in  Lindebrog's 
collection.  There  were  several  material  differen- 
ces, which  Giannone  enumerates,  especially  the 
Norman  custom  of  primogeniture. — 1st.  di  Nap., 
1.  xi.,  c.  5. 

f  There  are  two  editions  of  this  curious  old 
code ;  one  at  Pau,  in  1552,  republished  with  a  fresh 
title-page  and  permission  of  Henry  IV.,  in  1602 ; 
the  other  at  Lescars,  in  1633.  These  laws,  as  we 
read  them,  are  subsequent  to  a  revision  made  in 
the  middle  of  the  sixteenth  century,  in  which  they 
were  more  or  less  corrected.  The  basis,  however, 
is  unquestionably  very  ancient.  We  even  find  the 
composition  for  homicide  preserved  in  them,  so 
that  murder  was  not  a  capital  offence  in  Beam, 
though  robbery  was  such. — Rubrica  de  Homicidis, 
Art.  xxxi.  See  too  Rubrica  de  Poems,  Art.  i.  and  ii. 
F2 


ascertaining  for  ever  in  a  written  collec- 
tion those  of  each  district ;  but  the  work 
was  not  completed  till  the  reign  of  Charles 
IX.  This  was  what  may  be  called  the 
common  law  of  the  pays  coutumiers,  or 
northern  division  of  France,  and  the  rule 
of  all  their  tribunals,  unless  where  con- 
trolled by  royal  edicts. 


PART  II. 

Analysis  of  the  Feudal  System. — Its  local  extent. 
— View  of  the  different  Orders  of  Society  during 
the  Feudal  Ages. — Nobility — their  Ranks  and 
Privileges.— Clergy. — Freemen.  —  Serfs  or  Vil- 
leins.— Comparative  State  of  France  and  Ger- 
many.— Privileges  enjoyed  by  the  French  Vas- 
sals.— Right  oY  coining  Money — and  of  private 
War.  —  Immunity  from  Taxation.  —  Historical 
View  of  the  Royal  Revenue  in  France. — Meth- 
ods adopted  to  augment  it  by  depreciation  of  the 
Coin,  &c. — Legislative  Power — its  state  under 
the  Merovingian  Kings  —  and  Charlemagne. — 
His  Councils. — Suspension  of  any  general  Legis- 
lative Authority  during  the  prevalence  of  Feudal 
Principles. — The  King's  Council. — Means  adopt- 
ed to  supply  the  Want  of  a  National  Assembly. 
—  Gradual  Progress  of  the  King's  Legislative 
Power. — Philip  IV.  assembles  the  States  Gen- 
eral.—  Their  Powers  limited  to  Taxation. — 
States  under  the  Sons  of  Philip  IV. — States  of 
1355  and  1356.  — They  nearly  effect  an  entire 
Revolution. — The  Crown  recovers  its  Vigour. — 
States  of  1380,  under  Charles  VII.— Subsequent 
Assemblies  under  Charles  VI.  and  Charles  VII. 
— The  Crown  becomes  more  and  more  absolute. 
—Louis  XL— States  of  Tours  in  1484.— -Histori- 
cal View  of  Jurisdiction  in  France. — Its  earli- 
est stage  under  the  first  Race  of  Kings,  and 
Charlemagne. — Territorial  Jurisdiction. —  Feu- 
dal Courts  of  Justice. — Trial  by  Combat. — Code 
of  St.  Louis. — The  Territorial  Jurisdictions  give 
way.  —  Progress  of  the  Judicial  Power  of  the 
Crown.  —  Parliament  of.  —  Paris.  —  Peers  of 
France. — Increased  Authority  of  the  Parliament. 
— Registration  of  Edicts. — Causes  of  the  Decline 
of  Feudal  System. — Acquisitions  of  Domain  by 
the  Crown. — Charters  of  Incorporation  granted 
to  Towns.  —  Their  previous  Condition.  —  First 
Charters  in  the  twelfth  Century.  —  Privileges 
contained  in  them. — Military  Service  of  Feudal 
Tenants  commuted  for  Money. — Hired  Troops. 
— Change  in  the  Military  System  "of  Europe. — 
General  View  of  the  Advantages  and  Disadvan- 
tages attending  the  Feudal  System- 

IT  has  been  very  common  to  seek  for 
the  origin  of  feuds,  or,  at  least,  Anal0gies  to 
for  analogies  to  them,  in  the  the  feudal  te- 
history  of  various  countries.  nure- 
But,  though  it  is  of  great  importance  to 
trace  the  similarity  of  customs  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  world,  because  it  guides 
us  to  the  discovery  of  general  theorems 
as  to  human  society,  yet  we  should  be 
on  our  guard  against  seeming  analogies, 
which  vanish  away  when  they  are  closely 
observed.  It  is  easy  to  find  partial  re- 
semblances to  the  feudal  system.  The 
relation  of  patron  and  client  in  the  Ro- 
man republic  is  not  unlike  that  of  lord 


84 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP   II.. 


and  vassal,  in  respect  of  mutual  fidelity ; 
but  it  was  not  founded  upon  the  tenure 
of  land,  nor  military  service.  The  veter- 
an soldiers,  and,  in  later  times,  some  bar- 
barian allies  of  the  emperors,  received 
lands  upon  condition  of  public  defence  ; 
but  they  were  bound  not  to  an  individual 
lord,  but  to  the  state.  Such  a  resem- 
blance to  fiefs  may  be  found  in  the  Zemin- 
daries  of  Hindostan,  and  the  Timariots  of 
Turkey.  The  clans  of  the  Highlanders 
and  Irish  followed  their  chieftain  into  the 
field ;  but  their  tie  was  that  of  imagined 
kindred  and  respect  for  birth,  not  the 
spontaneous  compact  of  vassalage.  Much 
less  can  we  extend  the  name  of  feud, 
though  it  is  sometimes  strangely  misap- 
plied, to  the  polity  of  Poland  and  Russia. 
All  the  Polish  nobles  were  equal  in  rights, 
and  independent  of  each  other ;  all  who 
were  less  than  noble  were  in  servitude. 
No  government  can  be  more  opposite  to 
the  long  gradations  and  mutual  duties  of 
the  feudal  system.* 

The  regular  machinery  and  systematic 
Extent  of  establishment  of  feuds,  in  fact, 
the  feudal  may  be  considered  as  almost  con- 
system.  fine£  to  fae  dominions  of  Charle- 
magne, and  to  those  countries  which  af- 
terward derived  it  from  thence.  In  Eng- 
land, it  can  hardly  be  thought  to  have  ex- 
isted in  a  complete  state  before  the  con- 
quest. Scotland,  it  is  supposed,  borrow- 
ed it  soon  after  from  her  neighbour.  The 
Lombards  of  Benevento  had  introduced 
feudal  customs  into  the  Neapolitan  prov- 
inces, which  the  Norman  conquerors  af- 
terward perfected.  Feudal  tenures  were 
so  general  in  the  kingdom  of  Aragon,  that 
I  reckon  it  among  the  monarchies  which 
were  founded  upon  that  basis. f  Charle- 

*  In  civil  history  many  instances  might  be  found 
of  feudal  ceremonies  in  countries  not  regulated  by 
the -feudal  law.  Thus  Selden  has  published  an  in- 
feudation  of  a  vayvod  of  Moldavia  by  the  King  of 
Poland,  A.  D.  1485,  in  the  regular  forms,  vol.  iii., 
p.  514.  But  these  political  fiefs  have  hardly  any 
connexion  with  the  general  system,  and  merely  de- 
note the  subordination  of  one  prince  or  people  to 
another. 

t  It  is  probable  that  feudal  tenure  was  as  ancient 
in  the  north  of  Spain,  as  in  the  contiguous  prov- 
inces of  France.  But  it  seems  to  have  chiefly  pre- 
vailed in  Aragon  about  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth 
centuries,  when  the  Moors  south  of  the  Ebro  were 
subdued  by  the  enterprise  of  private  nobles,  who, 
after  conquering  estates  for  themselves,  did  homage 
for  them  to  the  king.  James  I.,  upon  the  reduction 
of  Valencia,  granted  lands  by  way  of  fief,  on  con- 
dition of  defending  that  kingdom  against  the  Moors, 
and  residing  personally  upon  the  estate.  Many  did 
not  perform  this  engagement,  and  were  deprived 
of  the  lands  in  consequence.  It  appears  by  the  tes- 
tament of  this  monarch,  that  feudal  tenures  sub- 
sisted in  every  part  of  his  dominions. — Martenne, 
Thesaurus  Anecdotorum,  t.  i.,  p.  1141,  1155.  An 
edict  of  Peter  II.  in  1210  prohibits  the  alienation  of 


magne's  empire,  it  must  be  remembered, 
extended  as  far  as  the  Ebro.  But  in 
Castile*  and  Portugal  they  were  very 
rare,  and  certainly  could  produce  no  po- 
litical effect.  Benefices  for  life  were 
sometimes  granted  in  the  kingdoms  of 
Denmark  and  Bohemia.f  Neither  of 
these,  however,  nor  Sweden,  nor  Hunga- 
ry, comes  under  the  description  of  coun- 
tries influenced  by  the  feudal  system. J 
That  system,  however,  after  all  these 
limitations,  was  so  extensively  diffused, 
that  it  might  produce  confusion,  as  well 
as  prolixity,  to  pursue  the  collateral 
branches  of  its  history  in  all  the  coun- 
tries where  it  prevailed.  But  this  em- 
barrassment may  be  avoided  without 
any  loss,  I  trust,  of  important  informa- 
tion. The  English  constitution  will  find 


emphyteuses  without  the  lord's  consent.  It  is  hard 
to  say  whether  regular  fiefs  are  meant  by  this 
word. — De  Marca,  Marca  Hispanica,  p.  1396.  This 
author  says  that  there  were  no  arriere-fiefs  in  Cat- 
Ionia. 

The  Aragonese  fiefs  appear  however  to  have  dif- 
fered from  those  of  other  countries  in  some  re- 
spects. Zurita  mentions  fiefs  according  to  the  cus- 
tom of  Italy,  which  he  explains  to  be  such  as  were 
liable  to  the  usual  feudal  aids  for  marrying  the 
lord's  daughter,  and  other  occasions.  We  may  in- 
fer, therefore,  that  these  prestations  were  not  cus- 
tomary in  Aragon. — Anales  de  Aragon,  t.  ii.,  p.  62. 

*  What  is  said  of  vassalage  in  Alfonzo  X.'s  code, 
Las  siete  partidas,  is  short  and  obscure  :  nor  am  I 
certain  that  it  meant  any  thing  more  than  voluntary 
commendation,  the  custom  mentioned  in  the  former 
part  of  this  chapter,  from  which  the  vassal  might 
depart  at  pleasure. — See,  however,  Du  Cange,  v. 
Honour,  where  authorities  are  given  for  the  exist- 
ence of  Castilian  fiefs ;  and  I  have  met  with  occa- 
sional mention  of  them  in  history.  I  believe  that 
tenures  of  this  kind  were  introduced  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries ;  but  not  to  any  great 
extent. — Marina,  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  iii.,  p.  14. 

Tenures  of  a  feudal  nature,  as  I  collect  from 
Freirii  Institut.  Juris  Lusitani,  tome  ii.,  t.  1  and  3, 
existed  in  Portugal,  though  the  jealousy  of  the 
crown  prevented  the  system  from  being  establish- 
ed. There  were  even  territorial  jurisdictions  in 
that  kingdom,  though  not,  at  least  originally,  in 
Castile. 

t  Daniae  regni  politicus  status. — Elzevir,  1629. 
— Stransky,  Respublica  Bohemica. — Ib.  In  one 
of  the  oldest  Danish  historians,  Sweno,  I  have  no- 
ticed this  expression :  Waldemarus,  patris  tune 
potitus  feodo. — Langebek,  Scrip.  Rerum  Danic., 
t.  i.,  p.  62.  By  this  he  means  the  dutchy  of  Sles- 
wic,  not  a  fief,  but  an  honour  or  government  pos- 
sessed by  Waldemar.  Saxo  Grammaticus  calls 
it  more  classically,  paternae  praefecturae  dignitas. 
Sleswic  was,  in  later  times,  sometimes  held  as  a 
fief ;  but  this  does  not  in  the  least  imply  that  lands 
in  Denmark  proper  were  feudal,  of  which  I  find  no 
evidence. 

Though  there  were  no  feudal  tenures  in  Swe- 
den, yet  the  nobility  and  others  were  exempt  from 
taxes  on  condition  of  serving  the  king  with  a  horse 
and  arms  at  their  own  expense  ;  and  a  distinction 
was  taken  between  liber  and  tributarius.  But  any 
one  of  the  latter  might  become  of  the  former  class, 
or  vice  versa. — Sueciae  Descriptio.  Elzevir,  1631, 
p.  92. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


85 


its  place  in  another  portion  of  this  work ; 
and  the  political  condition  of  Italy,  after 
the  eleventh  century,  was  not  much  af- 
fected, except  in  the  kingdom  of  Naples, 
an  inconsiderable  object  by  the  laws  of 
feudal  tenure.  I  shall  confine  myself, 
therefore,  chiefly  to  France  and  Germa- 
ny ;  and  far  more  to  the  former  than  the 
latter  country.  But  it  may  be  expedient 
first  to  contemplate  the  state  of  society 
in  its  various  classes  during  the  preva- 
lence of  feudal  principles,  before  we  trace 
their  influence  upon  the  national  govern- 
ment. 

It  has  been  laid  down  already  as  most 
Classes  of  probable  that  no  proper  'aristoc- 
society.  racy,  except  that  of  wealth,  was 

lilit>r-  known  under  the  early  kings  of 
France ;  and  it  was  hinted  that  hereditary 
benefices,  or,  in  other  words,  fiefs,  might 
supply  the  link  that  was  wanting  between 
personal  privileges  and  those  of  descent. 
The  possessors  of  beneficiary  estates 
were  usually  the  richest  and  most  con- 
spicuous individuals  in  the  estate.  They 
were  immediately  connected  with  the 
crown,  and  partakers  in  the  exercise  of 
justice  and  royal  counsels.  Their  sons 
now  came  to  inherit  this  eminence  ;  and, 
as  fiefs  were  either  inalienable,  or  at  least 
not  very  frequently  alienated,  rich  fam- 
ilies were  kept  long  in  sight ;  and,  wheth- 
er engaged  in  public  affairs,  or  living  with 
magnificence  and  hospitality  at  home, 
naturally  drew  to  themselves  popular  es- 
timation. The  dukes  and  counts,  who 
had  changed  their  quality  of  governors 
into  that  of  lords  over  the  provinces  in- 
trusted to  them,  were  at  the  head  of  this 
noble  class.  And  in  imitation  of  them, 
their  own  vassals,  as  well  as  those  of  the 
crown,  and  even  rich  allodialists,  assu- 
med titles  from  their  towns  or  castles,  and 
thus  arose  a  number  of  petty  counts,  bar- 
ons, and  viscounts.  This  distinct  class 
of  nobility  became  coextensive  with  the 
feudal  tenures.  For  the  military  tenant, 
however  poor,  was  subject  to  no  tribute, 
no  prestation,  but  service  in  the  field ;  he 
was  the  companion  of  his  lord  in  the 
sports  and  feasting  of  his  castle,  the  peer 
of  his  court ;  he  fought  on  horseback,  he 
was  clad  in  the  coat  of  mail,  while  the 
commonalty,  if  summoned  at  all  to  war, 
came  on  foot,  and  with  no  armour  of  de- 
fence. As  every  thing  in  the  habits  of 
society  conspired  with  that  prejudice, 
which,  in  spite  of  moral  philosophers, 
will  constantly  raise  the  profession  of 
arms  above  all  others,  it  was  a  natural 
consequence  that  a  new  species  of  aris- 
tocracy, founded  upon  the  mixed  consid- 
erations of  birth,  tenure,  and  occupation, 


sprang  out  of  the  feudal  system.  Every 
possessor  of  a  fief  was  a  gentleman, 
though  he  owned  but  a  few  acres  of  land, 
and  furnished  his  slender  contribution 
towards  the  equipment  of  a  knight.  In 
the  Libri  Feudorum  indeed,  those  who 
were  three  degrees  removed  from  the 
emperor  in  order  of  tenancy  are  consid- 
ered as  ignoble  ;*  but  this  is  restrained 
to  modern  investitures ;  and  in  France, 
where  sub-infeudation  was  carried  the 
farthest,  no  such  distinction  has  met  my 
observation.! 

There  still,  however,  wanted  something 
to  ascertain  gentility  of  blood,  where 
it  was  not  marked  by  the  actual  tenure 
of  land.  This  was  supplied  by  two  in- 
novations devised  in  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries :  the  adoption  of  sur- 
names, and  of  armorial  bearings.  The 
first  are  commonly  referred  to  the  former 
age,  when  the  nobility  began  to  add  the 
names  of  their  estates  to  their  own,  or, 
having  any  way  acquired  a  distinctive  ap- 
pellation, transmitted  it  to  their  poster- 
ity.J  As  to  armorial  bearings,  there  is 
no  doubt  that  emblems  somewhat  similar 
have  been  immemorially  used  both  in  war 
and  peace.  The  shields  of  ancient  war- 
riors, and  devices  upon  coins  or  seals, 
bear  no  distant  resemblance  to  modern 
blazonry.  But  the  general  introduction 
of  such  bearings,  as  hereditary  distinc- 
tions, has  been  sometimes  attributed  to 
tournaments,  wherein  the  champions 
were  distinguished  by  fanciful  devices  ; 
sometimes  to  the  crusades,  where  a  mul- 
titude of  all  nations  and  languages  stood 
in  need  of  some  visible  token  to  denote 
the  banners  of  their  respective  chiefs.  In 
fact,  the  peculiar  symbols  of  heraldry 
point  to  both  these  sources,  and  have 
been  borrowed  in  part  from  each.§  He- 
reditary arms  were  perhaps  scarcely  used 
by  private  families  before  the  beginning 
of  the  thirteenth  century.  ||  From  that 


*  L.  ii.,  1. 10. 

f  The  nobility  of  an  allodial  possession  in  France 
depended  upon  its  right  to  territorial  jurisdiction. 
Hence  there  were  franc-aleux  nobles,  and  franc- 
aleux  roturiers ;  the  latter  of  which  were  subject  to 
the  jurisdiction  of  the  neighbouring  lord.— Loiseau, 
Traite  des  Seigneuries,  p.  76.  Denisart,  Diction- 
naire  des  Decisions,  art.  Franc-aleu. 

t  Mabillon,  Traite  de  -Blplomatictue,  1.  ii.,  c.  7. 
The  authors  of  the  Nouveau  Traite"  de  Diplomat- 
ique, t.  ii.,  p.  563,  trace  the  use  of  surnames  in  a 
few  instances  even  to  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century ;  but  they  did  not  become  general,  accord- 
ing to  them,  till  the  thirteenth. 

§  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xx.,  p.  579. 

H  I  should  be  unwilling  to  make  a  negative  as- 
sertion peremptorily  in  a  matter  of  mere  antiqua- 
rian research ;  but  I  am  not  aware  of  any  decisive 
evidence  that  hereditary  arms  were  borne  in  the 
twelfth  century,  except  by  a  very  few  royal  or  al- 


86 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CttAP.  II. 


time,  however,  they  became  very  general, 
and  have  contributed  to  elucidate  that 
branch  of  history,  whatever  value  we 
may  assign  to  it,  which  regards  the  de- 
scent of  illustrious  families. 

When  the  privileges  of  birth  had  thus 
its  privileges.  been  rendered  capable  of  le- 
gitimate proof,  they  were  en- 
hanced in  a  great  degree,  and  a  line 
drawn  between  the  high-born  and  ignoble 
classes,  almost  as  broad  as  that  which 
separated  liberty  from  servitude.  All  of- 
fices of  trust  and  power  were  conferred 
oil  the  former-,  those  excepted  which  ap- 
pertain to  the  legal  profession.  A  ple- 
beian could  not  possess  a  fief.*  Such  at 
least  was  the  original  strictness :  but  as 
the  aristocratic  principle  grew  weaker, 
an  indulgence  was  extended  to  heirs,  and 
afterward  to  purchasers.!  They  were 

most  royal  families. — Mabillon,  Traite  de  Diplo- 
matique, 1.  ii.,  c.  18.  Those  of  Geoffrey  the  Fair, 
count  of  Anjou,  who  died  in  1150,  are  extant  on 
his  shield :  azure,  four  lions  rampant  or. — Hist. 
Litt6raire  de  la  France,  t.  ix.,  p.  165.  If  arms  had 
been  considered  as  hereditary  at  that  time,  this 
should  be  the  bearing  of  England,  which,  as  we  all 
know,  differs  considerably.  Louis  VII.  sprinkled 
his  seal  and  coin  with  fleurs-de-lys,  a  very  ancient 
device,  or  rather  ornament ;  and  the  same  as  what 
are  sometimes  called  bees.  The  golden  ornaments 
found  in  the  tomb  of  Childeric  I.  at  Tournay,  which 
may  be  seen  in  the  library  of  Paris,  may  pass  either 
for  fleurs-de-lys  or  bees.  Charles  V.  reduced  the 
number  to  three,  and  thus  fixed  the  arms  of  France. 
The  counts  of  Toulouse  used  the  cross  in  the 
twelfth  age  ;  but  no  other  arms,  Vaissette  tells  us, 
can  be  traced  in  Languedoc  so  far  back,  t.  hi.,  p. 
514. 

Armorial  bearings  were  in  use  among  the  Sara- 
cens during  the  later  crusades;  as  appears  by  a 
passage  in  Joinville,  t.  i.,  p.  88  (Collect,  des  Me- 
moires),  and  Du  Gangers  note  upon  it.  Perhaps, 
however,  they  may  have  been  adopted  in  imitation 
of  the  Franks,  like  the  ceremonies  of  knighthood. 
Villaret  ingeniously  conjectures,  that  the  separa- 
tion of  different  branches  of  the  same  family  by 
their  settlements  in  Palestine  led  to  the  use  of  he- 
reditary arms,  in  order  to  preserve  the  connexion, 
t  xi.,  p.  113. 

M.  Sismondi,  I  observe,  seems  to  entertain  no 
doubt  that  the  noble  families  of  Pisa,  including  that 
whose  name  he  bears,  had  their  armorial  distinc- 
tions in  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century. — Hist, 
des  Republ.  Ital.,  t.  1,  p.  373.  It  is  at  least  proba- 
ble that  the  heraldic  devices  were  as  ancient  in 
Italy  as  in  any  part  of  Europe.  And  the  authors 
of  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique,  t.  iv.,  p.  3S8, 
incline  to  refer  hereditary  arms  even  in  France  to 
the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  though  with- 
out producing  any  evidence  for  this. 

*  We  have  no  English  word  that  conveys  the 
full  sense  of  roturier.  How  glorious  is  this  deficien- 
cy in  our  political  language,  and  how  different  are 
the  ideas  suggested  by  commoner!  Roturier,  ac- 
cording to  Du  Cange,  is  derived  from  rupturarius, 
a  peasant,  ab  agrum  rumpendo. 

t  The  Establishments  of  St.  Louis  forbid  this 
innovation,  but  Beaumanoir  contends  that  the  pro- 
hibition does  not  extend  to  descent  or  marriage,  c. 
48.  The  roturier  who  acquired  a  fief,  if  he  chal- 


even  permitted  to  become  noble  by  the 
acquisition,  or  at  least  by  its  possession 
for  three  generations.*  But  notwith- 
standing this  ennobling  quality  of  the 
land,  which  seems  rather  of  an  equivocal 
description,  it  became  an  established  right 
of  the  crown  to  take,  every  twenty  years, 
and  on  every  change  of  the  vassal,  a  fine 
known  by  the  name  of  franc-fief,  from 
plebeians  in  possession  of  land  held  by  a 
noble  tenure. f  A  gentleman  in  France 
or  Germany  could  not  exercise  any  trade 
without  derogating,  that  is,  losing  the  ad- 
vantages of  his  rank.  A  few  exceptions 
were  made,  at  least  in  the  former  coun- 
try, in  favour  of  some  liberal  arts,  and 
of  foreign  commerce. |  But  in  nothing 
does  the  feudal  haughtiness  of  birth  more 
show  itself,  than  in  the  disgrace  which 
attended  unequal  marriages.  No  chil- 
dren could  inherit  a  territory  held  imme- 
diately of  the  empire,  unless  both  their 
parents  belonged  to  the  higher  class  of 
nobility.  In  France,  the  offspring  of  a 
gentleman  by  a  plebeian  mother  were 
reputed  noble  for  the  purposes  of  inherit- 
ance, and  of  exemption  from  tribute. § 
But  they  could  not  be  received  into  any 
order  of  chivalry,  though  capable  of  sim- 
ple knighthood ;  nor  were  they  consider- 
ed as  any  better  than  a  bastard  class, 
deeply  tainted  with  the  alloy  of  their 


lenged  any  one,  fought  with  ignoble  arms ;  but  in 
all  other  respects  was  treated  as  a  gentleman,  ibid. 
Yet  a  knight  was  not  obliged  to  do  homage  to  the 
roturier,  who  became  his  superior  by  the  acquisi- 
tion of  a  fief  on  which  he  depended. — Carpentier, 
Supplement,  ad  Du  Cange,  voc.  Homagium. 

*  Etablissemens  de  St.  Louis,  c.  143,  and  note, 
in  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.  See  also  preface 
to  the  same  volume,  p.  xii.  According  to  Mably, 
the  possession  of  a  fief  did  not  cease  to  confer  no- 
bility (analogous  to  our  barony  by  tenure)  till  the 
Ordonnance  de  Blois,  in  1579. — Observations  sur 
1'Hist.  de  France,  1.  hi.,  c.  1,  note  6.  But  Lauriere, 
author  of  the  preface  above  cited,  refers  to  Bouteil- 
ler,  a  writer  of  the  fourteenth  century,  to  prove 
that  no  one  could  become  noble  without  the  king's 
authority.  The  contradiction  will  not  much  per- 
plex us,  when  we  reflect  on  the  disposition  of  law- 
yers to  ascribe  all  prerogatives  to  the  crown,  at  the 
expense  of  territorial  proprietors,  and  of  ancient 
customary  law. 

t  The  right,  originally  perhaps  usurpation,  call- 
ed franc-fief,  began  under  Philip  the  Fair. — Ordon- 
nances des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  324.  Denisart,  Art.  Franc- 
fief. 

J  Houard,Dict.duDroitNormand.  Encyclope- 
dic, Art.  Noblesse.  Argou,  1.  ii.,  c.  2. 

$  Nobility,  to  a  certain  degree,  was  communica- 
ted through  the  mother  alone,  not  only  by  the  cus- 
tom of  Champagne,  but  in  all  parts  of  France  ;  that 
is,  the  issue  were  "  gentilhomrnes  du  fait  de  leur 
corps,"  and  could  possess  fiefs  ;  but,  says  Beauman- 
oir, "  la  gentillesse  par  laquelle  ondevient  chevalier, 
doit  venir  de  par  le  pere,"  c.  45.  There  was  a  pro- 
verbial maxim  in  the  French  law,  rather  emphatic 
than  decent,  to  express  the  derivation  of  gentility 
from  the  father,  and  of  freedom  from  the  mother. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


maternal  extraction.  Many  instances  oc- 
cur where  letters  of  nobility  have  been 
granted  to  reinstate  them  in  their  rank.* 
For  several  purposes  it  was  necessary  to 
prove  four,  eight,  sixteen,  or  a  greater 
number  of  quarters,  that  is,  of  coats  borne 
by  paternal  and  maternal  ancestors,  and 
the  same  practice  still  subsists  in  Ger- 
many. 

It  appears,  therefore,  that  the  original 
nobility  of  the  continent  were  what  we 
may  call  self-created,  and  did  not  derive 
their  rank  from  any  such  concessions  of 
'their  respective  sovereigns  as  have  been 
necessary  in  subsequent  ages.  In  Eng- 
land, the  baronies  by  tenure  might  belong 
to  the  same  class,  if  the  lands  upon  which 
they  depended  had  not  been  granted  by 
the  crown.  But  the  kings  of  France,  be- 
fore the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
began  to  assume  a  privilege  of  creating 
nobles  by  their  own  authority,  and  with- 
out regard  to  the  tenure  of  land.  Philip 
the  Hardy,  in  1271,  was  the  first  French 
king  who  granted  letters  of  nobility  ; 
under  the  reigns  of  Philip  the  Fair  and 
his  children  they  gradually  became  fre- 
quent, f  This  effected  a  change  in  the 
character  of  the  nobility ;  and  had  as  ob- 
vious a  moral,  as  other  events  of  the  same 
age  had  a  political  influence,  in  diminish- 
ing the  power  and  independence  of  the 
territorial  aristocracy.  The  privileges 
originally  connected  with  ancient  lineage 
and  extensive  domains  became  common 
to  the  low-born  creatures  of  a  court,  and 
lost  consequently  part  of  their  title  to 
respect.  The  lawyers,  as  I  have  observed 
above,  pretended  that  nobility  could  not 
exist  without  a  royal  concession.  They 
acquired  themselves,  in  return  for  their 
exaltation  of  prerogative,  an  official  no- 
bility by  the  exercise  of  magistracy.  The 
institutions  of  chivalry  again  gave  rise  to 
a  vast  increase  of  gentlemen ;  knighthood, 
on  whomsoever  conferred  by  the  sover- 
eign, being  a  sufficient  passport  to  noble 
privileges.  It  was  usual,  perhaps,  to 
grant  previous  letters  of  nobility  to  a  ple- 
beian for  whom  the  honour  of  knighthood 
was  designed. 

In  this  noble  or  gentle  class  there  were 
Different  or-  several  gradations.  All  those  in 
ders  of  nobii- France  who  held  lands  imme- 
diately depending  upon  the 
crown,  whatever  titles  they  might  bear, 
were  comprised  in  the  order  of  barons. 
These  were,  originally,  the  peers  of  the 


*  Beaumanoir,  c.  45.  Du  Cange,  Dissert.  10, 
sur  Joinville.  Carpentier,  voc.  Nobilitatio. 

t  Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  432.  Du  Cange  and  Carpen- 
tier, voce  Nobilitaire,  &c.  Boulainvilliers,  Hist, 
de  Pancien  Gouvemement  de  France,  t.  i.,  p.  31.7 


king's  court ;  they  possessed  the  higher 
territorial  jurisdiction,  and  had  the  right 
of  carrying  their  own  banner  into  the 
field.*  To  these  corresponded  the  Val- 
vassores  majores  and  Capitanei  of  the 
empire.  In  a  subordinate  class  were 
the  vassals  of  this  high  nobility,  who, 
upon  the  continent,  were  usually  termed 
Vavassors ;  an  appellation  not  unknown, 
though  rare,  in  England.f  The  Chate- 
lains  belonged  to  the  order  of  Vavassors, 
as  they  held  only  arriere  fiefs  :  but  hav- 
ing fortified  houses,  from  which  they  de- 
rived their  name  (a  distinction  very  im- 
portant in  those  times),  and  possessing 
ampler  rights  of  territorial  justice,  they 
rose  above  the  level  of  their  fellows  in 
the  scale  of  tenure.J  But  after  the  per- 
sonal nobility  of  chivalry  became  the  ob- 
ject of  pride,  the  Vavassors,  who  obtain- 
ed knighthood,  were  commonly  styled 
bachelors;  those  who  had  not  received 
that  honour  fell  into  the  class  of  squires,^ 
or  damoiseaux. 

*  Beaumanoir,  c.  34.  Du  Cange,  v.  Baro.  Etab- 
lissemens  de  St.  Louis,  1.  i.,  c.  24;  1.  ii.,  c.  36. 
The  vassals  of  inferior  lords  were  however  called, 
improperly,  barons,  both  in  France  and  England. 
— Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  p.  300.  Madox, 
Baronia  Anglica,  p.  133.  In  perfect  strictness, 
those  only  whose  immediate  tenure  of  the  crown 
was  older  than  the  accession  of  Hugh  Capet,  were 
barons  of  France ;  namely,  Bourbon,  Coucy,  and 
Beaujeu,  or  Beaujplois.  It  appears,  however,  by 
a  register  in  the  reign  of  Philip  Augustus,  that  fif- 
ty-nine were  reckoned  in  that  class ;  the  feudato- 
ries of  the  Capetian  fiefs,  Paris  and  Orleans,  being 
confounded  with  the  original  vassals  of  the  crown. 
— Du  Cange,  voc.  Baro. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Vavassor.  Velly,  t.  vi,,  p.  151. 
Madox,  Baronia  Anglica,  p.  135.  There  is,  per- 
haps, hardly  any  word  more  loosely  used  than  Va- 
vassor. Bracton  says,  Sunt  etiam  Vavassores, 
magnse  dignitatis  viri.  In  France  and  Germany 
they  are  sometimes  named  with  much  less  honour. 
Je  suis  un  chevalier  ne  de  cest  part,  de  .vavasseurs 
et  de  basse  gent,  says  a  romance.  This  is  to  be  ex- 
plained by  the  poverty  to  which  the  subdivision  of 
fiefs  reduced  idle  gentlemen. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Castellanus.  Costumes  de  Poi- 
tou,  tit.  iii.  Loiseau,  Traite  des  Seigneuries,  p.  160. 
Whoever  had  a  right  to  a  castle  had  la  haute  jus- 
tice ;  this  being  so  incident  to  the  castle,  that  it 
was  transferred  along  with  it.  There  might,  how- 
ever, be  a  Seigneur  haut-justicier  beiowthe  Chate- 
lain  ;  and  a  ridiculous  distinction  was  made  as  to 
the  number  of  posts  by  which  their  gallows  might 
be  supported.  A  baron's  instrument  of  execution 
stood  on  four  posts  ;  a  chatelain's  on  three  ;  while 
the  inferior  lord,  who  happened  to  possess  la  haute 
justice,  was  forced  to  hang  his  subjects  on  a  two- 
legged  machine. — Coutumes  de  Poitou.  Du  Cange, 
v.  Furca. 

Lauriere  quotes  from  an  old  manuscript  the- fol- 
lowing short  scale  of  ranks.  Due  est  la  premiere 
dignite,  puis  comtes,  puis  viscomtes,  et  puis  baron, 
et  puis  chatelain,  et  puis  vavasseur,  et  puis  citaen, 
et  puis  villain. — Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  277. 

§  The  sons  of  knights,  and  gentlemen  not  yet 
knighted,  took  the  appellation  of  squires  in  the 
twelfth  century.— Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Lang.,  t.  ii., 


88 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II, 


It  will  be  needless  to  dwell  upon  the 
condition  of  the  inferior  clergy,  whether 
secular  or  professed,  as  it  bears 
y'  little  upon  the  general  scheme  of 
polity.  The  prelates  and  abbots,  how- 
ever, it  must  be  understood,  were  com- 
pletely feudal  nobles.  They  swore  feal- 
ty for  their  lands  to  the  king  or  other  su- 
perior, received  the  homage  of  their  vas- 
sals, enjoyed  the  same  immunities,  exer- 
cised the  same  jurisdiction,  maintained 
the  same  authority,  as  the  lay  lords 
among  whom  they  dwelt.  Military  ser- 
vice does  not  appear  to  have  been  re- 
served in  the  beneficiary  grants  made  to 
cathedrals  and  monasteries.  But,  when 
other  vassals  of  the  crown  were  called 
upon  to  repay  the  bounty  of  their  sover- 
eign by  personal  attendance  in  war,  the 
ecclesiastical  tenants  were  supposed  to 
fall  within  the  scope  of  this  feudal  duty, 
which  men,  little  less  uneducated  and  vi- 
olent than  their  compatriots,  were  not 
reluctant  to  fulfil.  Charlemagne  ex- 
empted or  rather  prohibited  them  from 
personal  service  by  several  capitularies.* 
The  practice,  however,  as  every  one  who 
has  some  knowledge  of  history  will  be 
aware,  prevailed  in  succeeding  ages. 
Both  in  national  and  private  warfare,  we 
find  very  frequent  mention  of  martial 
prelates. f  But,  contrary  as  this  actual 
service  might  be  to  the  civil,  as  well  as 
ecclesiastical  laws,  the  clergy  who  held 
military  fiefs  were  of  course  bound  to 
fulfil  the  chief  obligation  of  that  tenure, 
and  send  their  vassals  into  the  field.  We 
have  many  instances  of  their  accompa- 
nying the  army,  though  not  mixing  in 
the  conflict ;  and  even  the  parish  priests 

p.  513.  That  of  Damoiseau  came  into  use  in  the 
thirteenth.— Id.,  t.  hi.,  p.  529.  The  latter  was,  I 
think,  more  usual  in  France.  Du  Cange  gives  lit- 
tle information  as  to  the  word  squire.  (Scutifer.) 
"  Apud  Anglos,"  he  says, "  penultima  est  nobilitatis 
descriptio,  inter  Equitem  et  Generosum.  Quod  et 
alibi  in  usu  fuit."  Squire  was  not  used  as  a  title 
of  distinction  in  England  till  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.,  and  then  but  sparingly.  Though  by  Henry 
YI.'s  time  it  was  grown  more  common,  yet  none 
assumed  it  but  the  sons  and  heirs  of  knights,  and 
some  military  men ;  except  officers  in  courts  of 
justice,  who,  by  patent  or  prescription,  had  obtain- 
ed that  addition. — Spelman's  Posthumous  Works, 
p.  234. 

*  Mably,  1.  i.,  c.  5.  Baluze,  t.  i.,  p.  410,932,  987. 
Any  bishop,  priest,  deacon,  or  subdeacon  bearing 
arms  was  to  be  degraded,  and  not  even  admitted  to 
lay  communion. — Id.,  p.  932. 

t  One  of  the  latest  instances  probably  of  a  light- 
ing bishop  is  Jean  Montaigu,  archbishop  of  Sens, 
who  was  killed  at  Azincourt.  Monstrelet  says, 
that  he  was  "  non  pas  en  estat  pontifical,  car  au 
lieu  de  mitre  il  portoit  une  bacinet,  pour  dalma- 
tique  portoit  un  haubergeon,  pour  chasuble  la 
piece  d'acier ;  et  au  lieu  de  crosse.  portoit  une 
hache,"  fol.  132. 


headed  the  militia  of  their  villages.*  The 
prelates  however  sometimes  contrived  to 
avoid  this  military  service,  and  the  pay- 
ments introduced  in  commutation  for  it, 
by  holding  lands  in  frank-almoigne,  a  te- 
nure which  exempted  them  from  every 
species  of  obligation,  except  that  of  say- 
ing masses  for  the  benefit  of  the  grant- 
or's family.f  But,  notwithstanding  the 
warlike  disposition  of  some  ecclesiastics, 
their  more  usual  inability  to  protect  the 
estates  of  their  churches  against  rapa- 
cious neighbours  suggested  a  new  spe- 
cies of  feudal  relation  and  tenure.  The 
rich  abbeys  elected  an  advocate,  whose 
business  it  was  to  defend  their  interests 
both  in  secular  courts,  and,  if  necessary, 
in  the  field.  Pepin  and  Charlemagne 
are  styled  Advocates  of  the  Roman 
church.  This  indeed  was  on  a  magnifi- 
cent scale  :  but  in  ordinary  practice,  the 
advocate  of  a  monastery  was  some  neigh- 
bouring lord,  who,  in  return  for  his  pro- 
tection, possessed  many  lucrative  privi- 
leges, and,  very  frequently,  considerable 
estates  by  way  of  fief  from  his  ecclesias- 
tical clients.  Some  of  these  advocates 
are  reproached  with  violating  their  obli- 
gation, and  becoming  the  plunderers  of 
those  whom  they  had  been  retained  to 
defend.J 

The  classes  below  the  gentry  may  be 
divided  into  freemen  and  villeins.  Of 
the  first  were  the  inhabitants  of  cjiar- 
tered  towns,  the  citizens  and  burghers, 
of  whom  morje^ will  be  said  presently. 
As  to  those  wKb  dwelt  in  the  country, 
we  can  have  no  difficulty  in  recognising, 
so  far  as  England  is  concerned,  the  socca- 
gers,  .whose  tenure  was  free,  though  not 
so  noble  as  knight's  service,  and  a  nu- 
merous body  of  tenants  for  term  of  life, 
who  formed  that  ancient  basis  of  our 
strength,  the  English  yeomanry.  But 
the  mere  freemen  are  not  at  first  sight 
so  distinguishable  in  other  countries.  In 
French  records  and  law-books  of  feudal 
times,  all  besides  the  gentry  are  usually 
confounded  under  the  names  of  villeins 
or  hommes  de  pooste  (gens  potestatis).§ 


*  Daniel,  Hist,  de  la  Milice  Francoise.  t.  i., 
p.  88. 

t  Du  Cange,  Eleemosyna  Libera.  Madox,  Ba- 
ronia  Angl.,  p.  115.  Coke  on  Littleton,  and  other 
English  law-books. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Advocatus ;  a  full  and  useful 
article.  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  preface, 
p.  184. 

§  Homo  potestatis,  non  nobilis— Ita  nuncupan- 
tur,  quod  in  potestate  domini  sunt— Opponuntur 
viris  nobilibus ;  apud  Butilerium  Consuetudinarii 
vocantur,  Coustumiers,  prestationibus  scilicet  ob- 
noxii  et  operis. — Du  Cange,  v.  Potestas.  As  all 
these  freemen  were  obliged,  by  the  ancient  laws 
of  France,  to  live  under  the  protection  of  some  par- 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


89 


This  proves  the  slight  estimation  in 
which  all  persons  of  ignoble  birth  were 
considered.  For  undoubtedly  there  ex- 
isted a  great  many  proprietors  of  land 
and  others,  as  free,  though  not  as  privi- 
leged, as  the  nobility.  In  the  south  of 
France,  and  especially  Provence,  the 
number  of  freemen  is  remarked  to  have 
been  greater  than  in  the  parts  on  the 
right  bank  of  the  Loire,  where  the  feudal 
tenures  were  almost  universal.*  I  shall 
quote  part  of  a  passage  in  Beaumanoir, 
which  points  out  this  distinction  of  ranks 
pretty  fully.  "  It  should  be  known,"  he 
says,f  "that  there  are  three  conditions 
of  men  in  this  world ;  the  first  is  that  of 
gentlemen;  and  the  second  is  that  of 
such  as  are  naturally  free,  being  born  of 
a  free  mother.  All  who  have  a  right  to 
be  called  gentlemen  are  free,  but  all  who 
are  free  are  not  gentlemen.  Gentility 
comes  by  the  father,  and  not  by  the 
mother ;  but  freedom  is  derived  from  the 
mother  only  ;  and  whoever  is  born  of  a 
free  mother  is  himself  free,  and  has  free 
power  to  do  any  thing  that  is  lawful." 

In  every  age  and  country,  until  times 
serfs  of  comparatively  recent,  personal  ser- 
vuieins.  vitude  appears  to  have  been  the 
Ipt  of  a  large,  perhaps  the  greater  portion, 
of  mankind.  We  lose  a  good  deal  of  our 
sympathy  with  the  spirit  of  freedom  in 
Greece  and  Rome,  when  the  importunate 
recollection  occurs  to  us  of  the  tasks 
which  might  be  enjoined,  and  the  punish- 
ments which  might  be  inflicted,  without 
control  either  of  law  or  opinion,  by  the 
keenest  patriot  of  the  Comitia,  or  the 
Council  of  Five  Thousand.  A  similar, 
though  less  powerful,  feeling  will  often 
force  itself  on  the  mind,  when  we  read 
the  history  of  the  middle  ages.  The 
Germans,  in  their  primitive  settlements, 
were  accustomed  to  the  notion  of  sla- 
very, incurred  not  only  by  captivity,  but 
by  crimes,  by  debt,  and  especially  by 
Toss  in  gaming.  When  they  invaded  the 
Roman  empire,  they  found  the  same  con- 
dition established  in  all  its  provinces. 
Hence,  from  the  beginning  of  the  era 
now  under  review,  servitude,  under  some- 
what different  modes,  was  extremely 
common.  There  is  some  difficulty  in 
ascertaining  its  varieties  and  stages.  In 
the  Salique  laws,  and  in  the  Capitularies, 
we  read  not  only  of  Servi,  but  of  Tribu- 

ticular  lord,  and  found  great  difficulty  in  choosing 
a  new  place  of  residence,  as  they  were  subject  to 
many  tributes  and  oppressive  claims  on  the  part  of 
their  territorial  superiors,  we  cannot  be  surprised 
that  they  are  confounded,  at  this  distance,  with 
men  in  actual  servitude. 

*  Heeren,  Essai  sur  les  Croisades,  p.  122. 

f  Coutumes  de  Beauvoisis,  c.  45,  p.  256. 


tarii,  Lidi,  and  Coloni,  who  were  cultiva- 
tors of  the  earth,  and  subject  to  residence 
upon  their  master's  estate,  though  not 
destitute  of  property  or  civil  rights.* 
Those  who  appertained  to  the  demesne 
lands  of  the  crown  were  called  Fiscalini. 
The  composition  for  the  murder  of  one 
of  these  was  much  less  than  that  for  a 
freeman.!  The  number  of  these  servile 
cultivators  was  undoubtedly  great,  yet 
in  those  early  times,  I  should  conceive, 
much  less  than  it  afterward  became. 
Property  was  for  the  most  part  in  small 
divisions,  and  a  Frank  who  could  hardly 
support  his  family  upon  a  petty  allodial 
patrimony,  was  not  likely  to  encumber 
himself  with  many  servants.  But  the  ac- 
cumulation of  overgrown  private  wealth 
had  a  natural  tendency  to  make  slavery 
more  frequent.  Where  the  small  propri- 
etors lost  their  lands  by  mere  rapine,  we 
may  believe  that  their  liberty  was  hard- 
ly less  endangered.!  Even  where  this 
was  not  the  case,  yet,  as  the  labour 
either  of  artisans  or  of  free  husbandmen 
was  but  sparingly  in  demand,  they  were 
often  compelled  to  exchange  their  liber- 
ty for  bread. §  In  seasons  also  of  fam- 
ine, and  they  were  not  unfrequent,  many 
freemen  sold  themselves  to  slavery.  A 
capitulary  of  Charles  the  Bald,  in  864, 
permits  their  redemption  at  an  equitable 
priQe.||  Others  became  slaves,  as  more 


*  These  passages  are  too  numerous  for  refer- 
ence. In  a  very  early  charter  in  Martenne's  The- 
saurus Anecdotorum,  t.  i.,  p.  20,  lands  are  granted, 
cum  hominibus  ibidem  permanentibus,  quoscolona- 
rio  ordine  vivere  constituimus.  Men  of  this  class 
were  called  in  Italy  Aldiones.  A  Lombard  capitu- 
lary of  Charlemagne  says  :  Aldiones  ea  lege  vi- 
vunt  in  Italia  sub  servitute  dpminorum  suorum, 
qua  Fiscalini,  vel  Lidi  vivunt  in  Francia.— Mura- 
tori,  Dissert.  14. 

t  Originally  it  was  but  45  solidi. — Leges  Sali- 
cae,  c.  43 ;  but  Charlemagne  raised  it  to  100.— Ba- 
luzii  Capitularia,  p.  402.  There  are  several  pro- 
visions in  the  laws  of  this  great  and  wise  monarch 
in  favour  of  liberty.  If  a  lord  claimed  any  one  ei- 
ther as  his  villein  or  slave  (colonus  sive  servus), 
who  had  escaped  beyond  his  territory,  he  was  not 
to  be  given  up  till  strict  inquiry  had  been  made  in 
the  place  to  which  he  was  asserted  to  belong,  as  to 
his  condition  and  that  of  his  family,  p.  400.  And 
if  the  villein  showed  a  charter  of  enfranchisement, 
the  proof  of  its  forgery  was  to  lie  upon  the  lord. 
No  man's  liberty  could  be  questioned  in  the  Hun- 
dred-court. 

t  Montesquieu  ascribes  the  increase  of  personal 
servitude  in  France  to  the  continual  revolts  and 
commotions  under  the  two  first  dynasties,  1.  xxx., 
c.  11. 

§  Du  Cange,  v.  Obnoxatio. 

||  Baluzii  Capitularia.  The  Greek  traders  pur- 
chased famished  wretches  on  the  coasts  of  Italy, 
whom  they  sold  to  the  Saracens. — Muratori,  An- 
nali  d'ltalia.  A.  D.  785.  Much  more  would  per- 
sons in  this  extremity  sell  themselves  to  neighbour- 
ing lords. 


DO 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    II. 


\fortunate  men  became  vassals,  to  a  pow- 
erful lord,  for  the  sake  of  his  protection. 
Many  were  reduced  into  this  state  through 
inability  to  pay  those  pecuniary  composi- 
tions for  offences,  which  were  numerous, 
and  sometimes  heavy,  in  the  barbarian 
codes  of  law ;  and  many  more  by  neg- 
lect of  attendance  on  military  expedi- 
tions of  the  king,  the  penalty  of  which 
was  a  fine  called  Heribann,  with  the  al- 
ternative of  perpetual  servitude.*  A 
source  of  loss  of  liberty  which  may 
strike  us  as  more  extraordinary  was  su- 
perstition ;  men  were  infatuated  enough 
to  surrender  themselves,  as  well  as  their 
properties,  to  churches  and  monasteries, 
in  return  for  such  benefits  as  they  might 
reap  by  the  prayers  of  their  new  mas- 
ters, f 

The  characteristic  distinction  of  a  vil- 
lein was  his  obligation  to  remain  upon 
his  lord's  estate.  He  was  not  only  pre- 
cluded from  selling  the  lands  upon  which 
he  dwelt,  but  his  person  was  bound,  and 
the  lord  might  reclaim  him  at  any  time, 
by  suit  in  a  court  of  justice,  if  he  ventur- 
ed to  stray.  But.  equally  liable  to  this 
confinement,  there  were  two  classes  of 
villeins,  whose  condition  was  exceeding- 
ly different.  In  England,  at  least  from 
the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  one  only,  and 
that  the  inferior  species,  existed ;  incapa- 
ble of  property,  and  destitute  of  redress, 
except  against  the  most  outrageous  in- 
juries. |  The  lord  could  seize  whatever 
they  acquired  or  inherited,  or  convey 
them,  apart  from  the  land,  to  a  stranger. 
Their  tenure  bound  them  to  what  were 
called  villein  services,  ignoble  in  their 
nature,  and  indeterminate  in  their  de- 
gree ;  the  felling  of  timber,  the  carrying 
of  manure,  the  repairing  of  roads  for  their 
lord,  who  seems  to  have  possessed  an 
equally  unbounded  right  over  their  la- 
bour and  its  fruits.  But  by  the  customs 
of  France  and  Germany,  persons  in  this 
abject  state  seem  to  have  been  called 
serfs,  and  distinguished  from  villeins, 
who  were  only  bound  to  fixed  payments 
and  duties  in  respect  of  their  lord,  though, 
as  it  seems,  without  any  legal  redress, 
if  injured  by  him.§  "  The  third  estate  of 

*  Du  Cange,  Heribannum.  A  full  heribannum 
was  60  solid! ;  but  it  was  sometimes  assessed  in 
proportion  to  the  wealth  of  the  party. 

t  Beaumanoir,  c.  45. 

1  Littleton,  1.  ii.,  c.  11.  Non  potest  aliquis 
(says  Glanvil),  in  villenagio  positus,  libertatem 
suam  propriis  denariis  suis  quaerere— quia  omnia 
catalla  cujuslibet  nativi  intelliguntur  esse  in  potes- 
tate  domini  sui,  1.  v.,  c.  5. 

§  This  is  clearly  expressed  in  a  French  law- 
book  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Conseil  of 
Pierre  des  Fontaines,  quoted  by  Du  Cange,  voc. 


men,"  says  Beaumanoir,  in  the  passage 
above  quoted,  "  is  that  of  such  as  are  not 
free ;  and  these  are  not  all  of  one  condi- 
tion, for  some  are  so  subject  to  their 
lord  that  he  may  take  all  they  have, 
alive  or  dead,  and  imprison  him  whenev- 
er he  pleases,  being  accountable  to  none 
but  God ;  while  others  are  treated  more 
gently,  from  whom  the  lord  can  take 
nothing  but  customary  payments,  though 
at  their  death  all  they  have  escheats  to 
him."* 

Under  every  denomination  of  servitude, 
the  children  followed  their  mother's  con- 
dition ;  except  in  England,  where  the 
father's  state  determined  that  of  the  chil- 
dren ;  on  which  account,  bastards  of  fe- 
male villeins  were  born  free  ;  the  law 
presuming  the  liberty  of  their  father. f 
The  proportion  of  freemen,  therefore, 
would  have  been  miserably  diminished, 
if  there  had  been  no  reflux  of  the  tide 
which  ran  so  strongly  towards  slavery. 
But  the  usage  of  manumission  made  a 
sort  of  circulation  between  these  two 


Villanus.  Et  sache  bien  que  selon  Dieu  tu  n'as 
mie  pleniere  poeste  sur  ton  vilain.  Dont  se  tu 
prens  du  sien  fors  les  droites  redevances,  que  te 
doit,  tu  les  prens  centre  Dieu,  et  sur  le  peril  de 
fame  et  come  robierres.  Et  ce  qu'on  dit  toutes 
les  choses  que  vilains  a,  sont  au  Seigneur,  c'est 
voirs  a  garden  Car  s'il  estoient  son  seigneur  pro- 
pre,  il  n'avoit  nule  difference  entre  serf  et  vilain, 
mais  par  notre  usage  n'a  entre  toi  et  ton  vilain  juge 
fors  Dieu,  tant  com  il  est  tes  couchans  et  tes  le- 
vans,  s'il  n'a  autre  loi  vers  toi  fors  la  commune. 
This  seems  to  render  the  distinction  little  more 
than  theoretical. 

*  Beaumanoir,  c.  45.  Du  Cange,  Villanus,  Ser- 
vus,  and  several  other  articles.  Schmidt,  Hist, 
des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p.  171,  435.  By  a  law  of  the 
Lombards,  a  free  woman  who  married  a  slave 
might  be  killed  by  her  relations,  or  sold ;  if  they 
neglected  to  do  so,  the  fisc  might  claim  her  as  its 
own. — Muratori.  Dissert.  14.  In  France  also,  she 
was  liable  to  be  treated  as  a  slave. — Marculfi  For- 
mulae, 1.  ii.,  29.  Even  in  the  twelfth  century,  it 
was  the  law  of  Flanders,  that  whoever  married  a 
villein  became  one  himself,  after  he  had  lived  with 
her  a  twelvemonth. — Recueil  des  Historiens,  t. 
xiii.,  p.  350.  And,  by  a  capitulary  of  Pepin,  if  a 
man  married  a  villein  believing  her  to  be  free,  he 
might  repudiate  her  and  marry  another.— Baluze, 
p.  181. 

Villeins  themselves  could  not  marry  without 
the  lord's  license,  under  penalty  of  forfeiting 
their  goods,  or  at  least  of  a  mulct. — Du  Cange,  v. 
Forismaritagium.  This  seems  to  be  the  true  origin 
of  the  famous  mercheta  mulierum,  which  has  been 
ascribed  to  a  very  different  custom. — Du  Cange,  v. 
Mercheta  Mulierum.  Dalrymple's  Annals  of  Scot- 
land, vol.  i.,  p.  312.  Archseologia,  vol.  xii.,  p.  31. 

t  Littleton,  s.  188.  -  Bracton  indeed  holds,  that 
the  spurious  issue  of  a  neif,  though  by  a  free  fa- 
ther, should  be  a  villein,  quia  sequitur  conditionem 
matris,  quasi  vulgo  conceptus,  1.  i.,  c.  6.  But  the 
laws  of  Henry  I.  declare  that  a  son  should  follow 
his  father's  condition ;  so  that  this  peculiarity  is 
very  ancient  in  our  law. — Leges  Hen.  I.,  c.  75 
and  77. 


PART  II.} 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


01 


General  states  of  mankind.  This,  as  is 
abolition  of  well  known,  was  an  exceeding- 
viiianage.  jy  common  practice  with  the 
Romans ;  and  is  mentioned,  with  certain 
ceremonies  prescribed,  in  the  Prankish 
and  other  early  laws.  The  clergy,  and 
especially  several  popes,  enforced  it  as  a 
duty  upon  laymen ;  and  inveighed  against 
the  scandal  of  keeping  Christians  in  bond- 
age.* But  they  were  not,  it  is  said,  equal- 
ly ready  in  performing  their  own  parts  ; 
the  villeins  upon  church  lands  were 
among  the  last  who  were  emancipated.! 
As  society  advanced  in  Europe,  the  man- 
umission of  slaves  grew  more  frequent.! 
By  the  indulgence  of  custom  in  some 
places,  or  perhaps  by  original  convention, 
villeins  might  possess  property,  and  thus 
purchase  their  own  redemption.  Even 
where  they  had  no  legal  title  to  property, 
it  was  accounted  inhuman  to  divest  them 
of  their  little  possession  (the  peculium  of 
Roman  law) ;  nor  was  their  poverty,  per- 
haps, less  tolerable,  upon  the  whole,  than 
that  of  the  modern  peasantry  in  most 
countries  of  Europe.  It  was  only  in  re- 
spect of  his  lord,  it  must  be  remembered, 
that  the  villein,  at  least  in  England,  was 
without  rights  ;§  he  might  inherit,  pur- 
chase, sue  in  the  courts  of  law ;  though, 

*  Enfranchisements  by  testament  are  very  com- 
mon. Thus,  in  the  will  of  Seniofred,  count  of  Bar- 
celona, in  966,  we  find  the  following  piece  of  cor- 
rupt Latin :  de  ipsos  servos  meos  et  ancillas,  illi 
qui  traditi  fuerunt  faciatis  illos  liberos  propter  re- 
medium  animae  meae ;  et  alii  qui  fuerunt  de  paren- 
torum  meorum  remaneant  ad  fratres  meos. — Marca 

t  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  All.,  t.  i.,  p.  361.  See,  how- 
ever, a  charter  of  manumission  from  the  chapter 
of  Orleans,  in  1224,  to  all  their  slaves,  under  certain 
conditions  of  service. — Martenne,  Thesaurus  Anec- 
dot,  t.  i.,  p.  914.  Conditional  manumissions  were 
exceedingly  common.— Du  Cange,  v.  Manumis- 
sio  ;  a  long  article. 

t  No  one  could  enfranchise  his  villein  without 
the  superior  lord's  consent ;  for  this  was  to  dimin- 
ish the  value  of  his  land  apeticer  le  fief. — Beauma- 
noir,  c.  15.  Etablissemens  de  St.  Loius,  c.  34. 
It  was  necessary,  therefore,  for  the  villein  to  obtain 
the  suzerain's  confirmation;  otherwise  he  only 
changed  masters  and  escheated,  as  it  were,  to  the 
superior  ;  for  the  lord  who  had  granted  the  charter 
of  franchise  was  estopped  from  claiming  him  again. 

§  Littleton,  s.  189.  Perhaps  this  is  not  applica- 
ble to  other  countries.  Villeins  were  incapable  of 
being  received  as  witnesses  against  freemen. — Re- 
cueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xiv.,  preface,  p.  65.  There 
are  some  charters  of  kings  of  France  admitting 
the  serfs  of  particular  monasteries  to  give  evidence, 
or  to  engage  in  the  judicial  combat,  against  free- 
men.—Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  3.  But  I  do 
not  know  that  their  testimony,  except  against  their 
lord,  was  ever  refused  in  England ;  their  state  of 
servitude  not  being  absolute,  like  that  of  negroes 
in  the  West  Indies,  but  particular  and  relative,  as 
that  of  an  apprentice  or  hired  servant.  This  sub- 
ject, however,  is  not  devoid  of  obscurity,  and  I  may 
probably  return  to  it  in  another  place. 


as  defendant  in  a  real  action,  or  suit 
wherein  land  was  claimed,  he  might 
shelter  himself  under  the  plea  of  villan- 
age.  The  peasants  of  this  condition 
were  sometimes  made  use  of  in  war,  and 
rewarded  with  enfranchisement ;  espe- 
cially in  Italy,  where  the  cities  and  petty 
states  had  often  occasion  to  defend  them- 
selves with  their  own  population ;  and  in 
peace  the  industry  of  free  labourers  must 
have  been  found  more  productive  and 
better  directed.  Hence  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries  saw  the  number  of 
slaves  in  Italy  begin  to  decrease  ;  early  in 
the  fifteenth,  a  writer  quoted  by  Murato- 
ri  speaks  of  them  as  no  longer  existing.* 
The  greater  part  of  the  peasants  in  some 
countries  of  Germany  had  acquired  their 
liberty  before  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  ;  in  other  parts,  as  well  as  in  all 
the  northern  and  eastern  regions  of  Eu- 
rope, they  remained  in  a  sort  of  villan- 
age  till  the  present  age.  Some  very  few 
instances  of  predial  servitude  have  been 
discovered  in  England,  so  late  as  the 
time  of  Elizabeth,!  and  perhaps  they 
might  be  traced  still  lower.  Louis  Hutin, 
in  France,  after  innumerable  particular 
instances  of  manumission  had  taken 
place,  by  a  general  edict  in  1315,  reci- 
ting that  his  kingdom  is  denominated  the 
kingdom  of  the  Franks,  that  he  would 
have  the  fact  to  correspond  with  the 
name,  emancipates  all  persons  in  the 
royal  domains  upon  paying  a  just  com- 
position, as  an  example  for  other  lords 
possessing  villeins  to  follow.^  Philip 
the  Long  renewed  the  same  edict  three 
years  afterward ;  a  proof  that  it  had  not 
been  carried  into  execution. $  Indeed, 
there  are  letters  of  the  former  prince, 
wherein,  considering  that  many  of  his 
subjects  are  not  apprized  of  the  extent 
of  the  benefit  conferred  upon  them,  he 
directs  his  officers  to  tax  them  as  high 
as  their  fortunes  can  well  bear.  II 


*  Dissert.  14. 

t  Barrington's  Observations  on  the  ancient  Stat- 
utes, p.  274. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  583. 

$  Id.,  p.  653. 

II  Velly,  t.  viii.,  p.  38.  Philip  the  Fair  had  eman- 
cipated the  villeins  in  the  royal  domains  throughout 
Languedoc,  retaining  only  an  annual  rent  for  their 
lands,  which  thus  became  censives,  or  emphyteuses. 
It  does  not  appear  by  the  charter  that  he  sold  this 
enfranchisement,  though  there  can  be  little  doubt 
about  it.  He  permitted  his  vassals  to  follow  the 
example. — Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  iv. 
Appendix,  p.  3  and  12. 

It  is  not  generally  known,  I  think,  that  predial 
servitude  was  not  abolished  in  all  parts  of  France 
till  the  revolution.  In  some  places,  says  Pasquier, 
the  peasants  are  taillables  a  volont6,  that  is,  their 
contribution  is  not  permanent,  but  assessed  by  the 
lord  with  the  advice  of  prud'  hommes,  resseants 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


It  is  deserving  of  notice  that  a  distinc- 
tion existed  from  very  early  times  in  the 
nature  of  lands,  collateral,  as  it  were, 
to  that  of  persons.  Thus  we  find  mansi 
ingenui  and  mansi  serviles  in  the  oldest 
charters,  corresponding  to  the  bocland 
and  folkland  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  the 
liberum  tenementum  and  villenagium,  or 
freehold  and  copyhold,  of  our  later  law. 
In  France,  all  lands  held  in  roture  appear 
to  be  considered  as  villein  tenements,  and 
are  so  termed  in  Latin,  though  many  of 
them  rather  answer  to  our  soccage  free- 
holds. But,  although  originally  this  ser- 
vile quality  of  lands  was  founded  on  the 
state  of  their  occupiers,  yet  there  was 
this  particularity,  that  lands  never  chan- 
ged their  character  along  with  that  of  the 
possessor ;  so  that  a  nobleman  might,  and 
often  did,  hold  estates  in  roture,  as  well 
as  a  roturier  acquire  a  fief.  Thus  in 
England  the  terre  tenants  in  villanage, 
who  occur  in  our  old  books,  were  not 
villeins,  but  freemen  holding  lands  which 
had  been  from  time  immemorial  of  a  vil- 
lein quality. 

At  the  final  separation  of  the  French 
Compara-  fr°m  the  German  side  of  Char« 
tive  state  of  lemagne's  empire  by  the  treaty 
France  and  Of  Verdun,  in  843,  there  was 
perhaps  hardly  any  difference 
in  the  constitution  of  the  two  kingdoms. 
If  any  might  be  conjectured  to  have  ex- 
isted, it  would  be  a  greater  independence, 
and  fuller  rights  of  election  in  the  nobil- 
ity and  people  of  Germany.  But  in  the 
/lapse  of  another  century,  France  had  lost 
all  her  political  unity,  and  her  kings  all 
their  authority ;  while  the  Germanic  em- 
pire was  entirely  unbroken,  under  an 
effectual,  though  not  absolute,  control 
of  its  sovereign.  No  comparison  can  be 
made  between  the  power  of  Charles  the 
Simple  and  Conrad  the  First,  though  the 
former  had  the  shadow  of  an  hereditary 

sur  les  lieux,  according  to  the  peasant's  ability. 
Others  pay  a  fixed  sum.  Some  are  called  serfs  de 
poursuite,  who  cannot  leave  their  habitations,  but 
may  be  followed  by  the  lord  into  any  part  of  France 
for  the  taille  upon  their  goods.  This  was  the  case 
in  part  of  Champagne,  and  the  Nivernois.  Nor 
could  these  serfs,  or  gens  de  mainmorte,  as  they 
were  sometimes  called,  be  manumitted  without 
letters  patent  of  the  king,  purchased  by  a  fine. — 
Recherches  de  la  France,  1.  iv.,  c.  5.  Du  Bos  in- 
forms us  that,  in  1651,  the  Tiers  Etat  prayed  the 
king  to  cause  all  serfs  (hommes  de  poote)  to  be  en- 
franchised on  paying  a  composition ;  but  this  was 
not  complied  with,  and  they  existed  in  many  parts 
when  he  wrote. — Histoire  Critique,  t.  iii.,  p.  298. 
Argou,  in  his  Institutions  du  Droit  Franqois,  con- 
firms this,  and  refers  to  the  customaries  of  Niver- 
nois and  Vitry,  1.  i.,  c.  1.  And  M.  de  Brequigny, 
in  his  preface  to  the  twelfth  volume  of  the  collec- 
tion of  Ordonnances,  p.  22,  says,  that  throughout 
almost  the  whole  jurisdiction  of  the  parliament  of 


right,  and  the  latter  was  chosen  from 
among  his  equals.  A  long  succession  of 
feeble  princes  or  usurpers,  and  destruc- 
tive incursions  of  the  Normans,  reduced 
France  almost  to  a  dissolution  of  society ; 
while  Germany,  under  Conrad,  Henry, 
and  the  Othos,  found  their  arms  not  less 
prompt  and  successful  against  revolted 
vassals  than  external  enemies.  The 
high  dignities  were  less  completely  he- 
reditary than  they  had  become  in  France  ; 
they  were  granted,  indeed,  pretty  regu- 
larly, but  they  were  solicited  as  well  as 
granted ;  while  the  chief  vassals  of  the 
French  crown  assumed  them  as  patrimo- 
nial sovereignties,  to  which  a  royal  in- 
vestiture gave  more  of  ornament  than 
sanction. 

In  the  eleventh  century,  these  imperial 
prerogatives  began  to  lose  part  of  their 
lustre.  The  long  struggles  of  the  princes 
and  clergy  against  Henry  IV.  and  his  son, 
the  revival  of  more  effective  rights  of 
election  on  the  extinction  of  the  house 
of  Franconia,  the  exhausting  contests  of 
the  Swabian  emperors  in  Italy,  the  in- 
trinsic weakness  produced  by  a  law  of 
the  empire,  according  to  which  the  reign- 
ing sovereign  could  not  retain  an  impe- 
rial fief  more  than  a  year  in  his  hands, 
gradually  prepared  that  independence  of 
the  German  aristocracy,  which  reached 
its  height  about  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century.  During  this  period  the 
French  crown  had  been  insensibly  gain- 
ing strength;  and  as  one  monarch  de- 
generated into  the  mere  head  of  a  con- 
federacy, the  other  acquired  unlimited 
power  over  a  solid  kingdom. 

It  would  be  tedious,  and  not  very  in- 
structive, to  follow  the  details  of  Ger- 
man public  law  during  the  middle  ages : 
nor  are  the  more  important  parts  of  it 
easily  separable  from  civil  history.  In 
this  relation  they  will  find  a  place  in  a 
subsequent  chapter  of  the  present  work. 


Besangon,  the  peasants  were  attached  to  the  soil, 
not  being  capable  of  leaving  it  without  the  lord's 
consent ;  and  that  in  some  places  he  even  inherited 
their  goods  in  exclusion  of  the  kindred.  I  recol- 
lect to  have  read  in  some  part  of  Voltaire's  corre- 
spondence, an  anecdote  of  his  interference,  with  that 
zeal  against  oppression  which  is  the  shining  side 
of  his  moral  character,  in  behalf  of  some  of  these 
wretched  slaves  of  Franche-comte. 

About  the  middle  of  the  fifteenth  century,  some 
Catalonian  serfs  who  had  escaped  into  France 
being  claimed  by  their  lords,  the  parliament  of 
Toulouse  declared  that  every  man  who  entered 
the  kingdom  en  criant  France,  should  become  free. 
The  liberty  of  our  kingdom  is  such,  says  Mezeray, 
that  its  air  communicates  freedom  to  those  who 
breathe  it,  and  our  kings  are  too  august  to  reign 
over  any  but  freemen. — Villaret,  t.  xv.,  p.  348.  How 
much  pretence  Mezeray  had  for  such  a  flourish, 
may  be  decided  by  the  former  part  of  this  note. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


93 


France  demands  a  more  minute  attention ; 
and  in  tracing  the  character  of  the  feudal 
system  in  that  country,  we  shall  find 
ourselves  developing  the  progress  of  a 
very  different  polity. 

To  understand  in  what  degree  the  peers 
Privileges  of  and  barons  of  France,  during 
the  French  the  prevalence  of  feudal  prin- 
rassais.  ciples,  were  independent  of  the 
crown,  we  must  look  at  their  leading 
privileges.  These  may  be  reckoned  ; — 
1.  The  right  of  coining  money;  2.  That 
of  waging  private  war ;  3.  The  exemption 
from  all  public  tributes,  except  the  feudal 
aids ;  4.  The  freedom  from  legislative 
control;  and,  5.  The  exclusive  exercise 
of  original  judicature  in  their  dominions. 
Privileges  so  enormous,  and  so  contrary 
to  all  principles  of  sovereignty,  might  lead 
us,  in  strictness,  to  account  France  rather 
a  collection  of  states,  partially  allied  to 
each  other,  than  a  single  monarchy. 

I.  Silver  and  gold  were  not  very  scarce 
Coining  in  the  first  ages  of  the  French  mon- 
money.  archy ;  but  they  passed  more  by 
weight  than  by  tale.  A  lax  and  ignorant 
government,  which  had  not  learned  the  lu- 
crative mysteries  of  a  royal  mint,  was  not 
particularly  solicitous  to  give  its  subjects 
the  security  of  a  known  stamp  in  their 
exchanges.*  In  some  cities  of  France, 
money  appears  to  have  been  coined  by 
private  authority  before  the  time  of  Char- 
lemagne ;  at  least  one  of  his  capitularies 
forbids  the  circulation  of  any  that  had 
not  been  stamped  in  the  royal  mint.  His 
successors  indulged  some  of  their  vassals 
with  the  privilege  of  coining  money  for 
the  use  of  their  own  territories,  but  not 
without  the  royal  stamp.  About  the  be- 
ginning of  the  tenth  century,  however, 
the  lords,  among  their  other  assumptions 
of  independence,  issued  money  with  no 
marks  but  their  own.f  At  the  accession 
of  Hugh  Capet,  as  many  as  a  hundred 
and  fifty  are  said  to  have  exercised  this 
power.  Even  under  St.  Louis,  it  was  pos- 
sessed by  about  eighty ;  who,  excluding, 
as  far  as  possible,  the  royal  coin  from 

*  The  practice  of  keeping  fine  gold  and  silver 
uncoined  prevailed  among  private  persons,  as  well 
as  in  the  treasury,  down  to  the  time  of  Philip  the 
Fair.  Nothing  is  more  common  than  to  find,  in  the 
instruments  of  earlier  times,  payments  or  fines 
stipulated  by  weight  of  gold  or  silver.  Le  Blanc 
therefore  thinks  that  little  money  was  coined  in 
France,  and  that  only  for  small  payments. — Trait6 
des  Monnoyes.  It  is  curious,  that  though  there 
are  many  gold  coins  extant  of  the  first  race  of 
kings,  yet  few  or  none  are  preserved  of  the  second 
or  third,  before  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair. — Du 
Cange,  v.  Moneta. 

t  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  110. 
Rec.  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  pref.,  p.  180.  Du  Cange, 
v.  Moneta. 


circulation,  enriched  themselves  at  their 
subjects'  expense  by  high  duties  (seign- 
iorages), which  they  imposed  upon  every 
new  coinage,  as  well  as  by  debasing  its 
standard.*  In  1185,  Philip  Augustus  re- 
quests the  Abbot  of  Corvey,  who  had  de- 
sisted from  using  his  own  mint,  to  let  the 
royal  money  of  Paris  circulate  through 
his  territories ;  promising  that,  when  it 
should  please  the  abbot  to  coin  money 
afresh  for  himself,  the  king  would  not 
oppose  its  circulation.! 

Several  regulations  were  made  by  Lou- 
is IX.  to  limit,  as  far  as  lay  in  his  power, 
the  exercise  of  this  baronial  privilege; 
and,  in  particular,  by  enacting  that  the 
royal  money  should  circulate  in  the  do- 
mains of  those  barons  who  had  mints, 
concurrently  with  their  own ;  and  ex- 
clusively within  the  territories  of  those 
who  did  not  enjoy  that  right.  Philip  the 
Fair  established  royal  officers  of  inspec- 
tion in  every  private  mint.  It  was  as- 
serted in  his  reign,  as  a  general  truth, 
that  no  subject  might  coin  silver  money.J 
In  fact,  the  adulteration  practised  in  those 
baronial  mints  had  reduced  their  pretend- 
ed silver  to  a  sort  of  black  metal,  as  it 
was  called  (moneta  nigra),  into  which 
little  entered  but  copper.  Silver,  howev- 
er, and  even  gold,  were  coined  by  the 
dukes  of  Britany  so  long  as  that  fief  con- 
tinued to  exist.  No  subjects  ever  enjoy- 
ed the  right  of  coining  silver  in  England 
without  the  royal  stamp  and  superintend- 
ence :§  a  remarkable  proof  of  the  restraint 
in  which  the  feudal  aristocracy  was  al- 
ways held  in  this  country. 

II.  The  passion  of  revenge,  always 
among  the  most  ungovernable  Right  of 
in  human  nature,  acts  with  such  P»v»te  war. 
violence  upon  barbarians,  that  it  is  utterly 
beyond  the  control  of  their  imperfect  ar- 
rangements of  polity.  It  seems  to  them 


*  Le  Blanc,  Traite  des  Monnoyes,  p.  91. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Moneta.  Velly,  Hist,  de  France, 
t.  ii.,  p.  93.  Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  200. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Moneta.  The  right  of  debasing 
the  coin  was  also  claimed  by  this  prince  as  a  choice 
flower  of  his  crown.  Item,  abaisser  et  amenuser  la 
monnoye,  est  privilege  especial  au  roy  de  son  droit 
royal,  si  que  a  luy  appartient,  et  non  a  autre,  et  en- 
core en  un  seul  cas,  c'est  a  scavoir  en  necessite",  et 
lors  ne  vient  pas  le  ganeg  ne  convertit  en  son  pro- 
fit especial,  mais  en  profit,  et  en  la  defence  du  com- 
mun.  This  was  in  a  process  commenced  by  the 
king's  procureur-general  against  the  Comte  de  Nev- 
ers  for  defacing  his  coin. — Le  Blanc,  TraitS  des 
Monnoyes,  p.  92.  In  many  places  the  lord  took  a 
sum  from  his  tenants  every  three  years,  under  the 
name  of  monetagium  or  focagium,  in  lieu  of  deba- 
sing his  money.  This  was  finally  abolished  in  1380. 
— Du  Cange,  v.  Monetagium. 

§  I  do  not  extend  this  to  the  fact ;  for  in  the  an- 
archy  of  Stephen's  reign,  both  bishops  and  barons 
coined  money  for  themselves.— Hoveden,  p.  490. 


94 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


no  part  of  the  social  compact,  to  sacrifice 
the  privilege  which  nature  has  placed  in 
the  arm  of  valour.  Gradually,  however, 
these  fiercer  feelings  are  blunted,  and  an- 
other passion,  hardly  less  powerful  than 
resentment,  is  brought  to  play  in  a  contra- 
ry direction.  The  earlier  object  accord- 
ingly of  jurisprudence  is  to  establish  a 
fixed  atonement  for  injuries,  as  much  for 
the  preservation  of  tranquillity  as  the  pre- 
vention of  crime.  Such  were  the  were- 
gilds  of  the  barbaric  codes,  which,  for  a  dif- 
ferent purpose,  I  have  already  mention- 
ed.* But  whether  it  were  that  the  kindred 
did  not  always  accept,  or  the  criminal 
offer,  the  legal  composition,  or  that  other 
causes  of  quarrel  occurred,  private  feuds 
(faida)  were  perpetually  breaking  out,  and 
many  of  Charlemagne's  capitularies  are 
directed  against  them.  After  his  time, 
all  hope  of  restraining  so  inveterate  a 
practice  was  at  an  end  ;  and  every  man 
who  owned  a  castle  to  shelter  him  in  case 
of  defeat,  and  a  sufficient  number  of  de- 
pendants to  take  the  field,  was  at  liberty 
to  retaliate  upon  his  neighbours  whenev- 
er he  thought  himself  injured.  It  must 
be  kept  in  mind,  that  there  was  frequent- 
ly either  no  jurisdiction  to  which  he 
could  appeal,  or  no  power  to  enforce  its 
awards ;  so  that  we  may  consider  the 
higher  nobility  of  France  as  in  a  state  of 
nature  with  respect  to  each  other,  and  en- 
titled to  avail  themselves  of  all  legitimate 
grounds  of  hostility.  The  right  of  waging 
private  war  was  moderated  by  Louis  IX., 
checked  by  Philip  IV.,  suppressed  by 
Charles  VI.,  but  a  few  vestiges  of  its 
practice  may  be  found  still  later,  f 

III.  In  the  modern  condition  of  gov- 
Immunity  ernments,  taxation  is  a  chief  en- 
fromtax-  gine  of  the  well-compacted  ma- 
chinery which  regulates  the  sys- 


ation. 


*  The  antiquity  of  compositions  for  murder  is  il- 
lustrated by  Iliad  2.  498,  where,  in  the  descrip- 
tion of  the  shield  of  Achilles,  two  disputants  are 
represented  wrangling  before  the  judge  for  the  wer- 
eglld,  Or  price  Of  blood ;  IIVSKU  TTOIVTIS  avSpos  arro0- 
faftttt. 

t  The  subject  of  private  warfare  is  treated  so  ex- 
actly and  perspicuously  by  Robertson,  that  I  should 
only  waste  the  reader's  time  by  dwelling  so  long 
upon  it  as  its  extent  and  importance  would  other- 
wise demand. — See  Hist,  of  Charles  V.,  vol.  i.,  note 
21.  Few  leading  passages  in  the  monuments  of  the 
middle  ages,  relative  to  this  subject,  have  escaped 
the  penetrating  eye  of  that  historian ;  and  they  are 
arranged  so  well  as  to  form  a  comprehensive  trea- 
tise in  small  compass.  I  know  not  that  I  could 
add  any  much  worthy  of  notice,  unless  it  be  the 
following.  In  the  treaty  between  Philip  Augustus 
and  Richard  Coeur  de  Lion  (1194),  the  latter  re- 
fused to  admit  the  insertion  of  an  article,  that  none 
of  the  barons  of  either  party  should  molest  the  oth- 
er ;  lest  he  should  infringe  the  customs  of  Poitou 
and  his  other  dominions,  in  quibus  consuetum  erat 
ab  antique,  ut  magnates  causas  proprias  invicem 


tern.  The  payments,  the  prohi-  Revenues 
bitions,  the  licenses,  the  watch-  of  Kings 
fulness  of  collection,  the  evasions  of  France- 
of  fraud,  the  penalties  and  forfeitures,  that 
attend  a  fiscal  code  of  laws,  present  con- 
tinually to  the  mind  of  the  most  remote 
and  humble  individual,  the  notion  of  a 
supreme,  vigilant,  and  coercive  authority. 
But  the  early  European  kingdoms  knew 
neither  the  necessities  nor  the  ingenuity 
of  modern  finance.  From  their  demesne 
lands,  the  kings  of  France  and  Lombardy 
supplied  the  common  expenses  of  a  bar- 
barous co^rt.  Even  Charlemagne  regu- 
lated the  economy  of  his  farms  with  the 
minuteness  of  a  steward,  and  a  large  pro- 
portion of  his  capitularies  are  directed  to 
this  object.  Their  actual  revenue  was 
chiefly  derived  from  free  gifts  made,  ac- 
cording to  an  ancient  German  custom,  at 
the  annual  assemblies*  of  the  nation, 
from  amercements  paid  by  allodial  propri- 
etors for  default  of  military  service,  and 
from  the  freda,  or  fines  accruing  to  the 
judge  out  of  compositions  for  murder.f 
These  amounted  to  one  third  of  the  whole 
weregild ;  one  third  of  this  was  paid  over 
by  the  count  to  the  royal  exchequer. 
After  the  feudal  government  prevailed  in 
France,  and  neither  the  heribannum  nor 
the  weregild  continued  in  use,  there 
seems  to  have  been  hardly  any  source 
of  regular  revenue  besides  the  domanial 
estates  of  the  crown :  unless  we  may 
reckon  as  such,  that  during  a  journey, 
the  king  had  a  prescriptive  right  to  be 
supplied  with  necessaries  by  the  towns 
and  abbeys  through  which  he  passed ; 
commuted  sometimes  into  petty  regular 
payments,  called  droits  de  giste  et  de 
chevauche.  J  Hugh  Capet  was  nearly  in- 
digent as  King  of  France ;  though,  as 
Count  of  Paris  and  Orleans,  he  might 
take  the  feudal  aids  and  reliefs  of  his  vas- 
sals. Several  other  small  emoluments 
of  himself  and  his  successors,  whatever 
they  may  since  have  been  considered, 
were  in  that  age  rather  seigniorial  than 
royal.  The  rights  of  toll,  of  customs,  of 
alienage  (aubaine),  generally  even  the  re- 
gale, or  enjoyment  of  the  temporalities 


gladiis  allegarent. — -Hoveden,  p.  741  (in  Saville, 
Script.  Anglic.). 

*  Du  Cange,  Dissertation  quatrieme  sur  Join- 
ville. 

t  Mably,  1.  i.,  c.  2,  note  3.  Du  Cange,  voc.  He- 
ribannum, Fredum. 

t  Velly,  t.  ii.,  p.  329.  Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  174- 
195.  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xiv.,  preface,  p. 
37.  The  last  is  a  perspicuous  account  of  the  royal 
revenue  in  the  twelfth  century.  But  far  the  most 
luminous  view  of  that  subject,  for  the  three  next 
ages,  is  displayed  by  M.  de  Pastoret,  in  his  prefa- 
ces to  the  fifteenth  and  sixteenth  volumes  of  the 
Ordonnances  des  Rois. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


95 


of  vacant  episcopal  sees  and  other  ec- 
clesiastical benefices,*  were  possessed 
within  their  own  domains  by  the  great 
feudatories  of  the  crown.  They,  I  ap- 
prehend, contributed  nothing  to  their  sov- 
ereign; not  even  those  aids  which  the 
feudal  customs  enjoined.f 

The  history  of  the  royal  revenue  in 
Exactions  France  is  however  too  important 
from  the  to  be  slightly  passed  over.  As 
Jews.  ^e  necessities  of  government  in- 
creased, partly  through  the  love  of  mag- 
nificence and  pageantry,  introduced  by 
the  crusades  and  the  temper  of  chivalry, 
partly  in  consequence  of  employing  hired 
troops  instead  of  the  feudal  militia,  it  be- 
came impossible  to  defray  its  expenses 
by  the  ordinary  means.  Several  devices, 
therefore,  were  tried,  in  order  to  replen- 
ish the  exchequer.  One  of  these  was  by 
extorting  money  from  the  Jews.  It  is 
almost  incredible  to  what  a  length  this 
was  carried.  Usury,  forbidden  by  law 
and  superstition  to  Christians,  was  con- 
fined to  this  industrious  and  covetous  peo- 
ple. |  It  is  now  no  secret,  that  all  reg- 
ulations interfering  with  the  interest  of 
money  render  its  terms  more  rigorous 
and  burdensome.  The  children  of  Israel 
grew  rich  in  despite  of  insult  and  oppres- 
sion, and  retaliated  upon  their  Christian 
debtors.  If  an  historian  of  Philip  Au- 
gustus may  be  believed,  they  possessed 
almost  one  half  of  Paris.  Unquestion- 
ably they  must  have  had  support  both  at 
the  court  and  in  the  halls  of  justice.  The 
policy  of  the  kings  of  France  was  to  em- 
ploy them  as  a  sponge  to  suck  their  sub- 
jects' money,  which  they  might  after- 
ward express  with  less  odium  than  direct 
taxation  would  incur.  Philip  Augustus 
released  all  Christians  in  his  dominions 
from  their  debts  to  the  Jews,  reserving  a 
fifth  part  to  himself. §  He  afterward  ex- 
pelled the  whole  nation  from  France. 
But  they  appear  to  have  returned  again ; 
whether  by  stealth,  or,  as  is  more  proba- 
ble, by  purchasing  permission.  St.  Louis 
twice  banished  and  twice  recalled  the 

*  The  Duke  of  Burgundy  and  Count  of  Cham- 
pagne did  not  possess  the  regale.  But  it  was  en- 
joyed by  all  the  other  peers ;  by  the  dukes  of  Nor- 
mandy, Guienne,  and  Britany  ;  the  counts  of  Tou- 
louse, Poitou,  and  Flanders. — Mably,  1.  hi.,  c.  4. 
Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  ii.,  p.  229,  and  t.  xiv.,  p. 
53.  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  621. 

1 1  have  never  met  with  any  instance  of  a  relief, 
aid,  or  other  feudal  contribution  paid  by  the  vassals 
of  the  French  crown ;  but  in  this  negative  propo- 
sition it  is  possible  that  I  may  be  deceived. 

t  The  Jews  were  celebrated  for  usury  as  early 
as  the  sixth  century.— Greg.  Turon.,  1.  iv.,  c.  12, 
and  1.  vii.,  c.  23. 

$  Rigord,  in  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Franc.  Script.,  t. 
iii.,  p.  8. 


Jews.  A  series  of  alternate  persecution 
and  tolerance  was  borne  by  this  extraordi- 
nary people  with  an  invincible  perseve- 
rance, and  a  talent  of  accumulating  rich- 
es which  kept  pace  with  their  plunderers  ; 
till  new  schemes  of  finance  supplying  the 
turn,  they  were  finally  expelled  under 
Charles  VI.,  and  never  afterward  obtain- 
ed any  legal  establishment  in  France.* 

A  much  more  extensive  plan  of  rapine 
was  carried  on  by  lowering  the  Debasement 
standard  of  coin.  Originally  the  of  the  coin, 
pound,  a  money  of  account,  was  equiv- 
alent to  twenty  ounces  of  silver;  and 
divided  into  twenty  pieces  of  coin  (sous), 
each  equal  consequently  to  nearly  three 
shillings  arid  fourpence  of  our  new  Eng- 
lish money. f  At  the  revolution,  the 
money  of  France  had  been  depreciated  in 
the  proportion  of  seventy-three  to  one, 
and  the  sol  was  about  equal  to  an  English 
half-penny.  This  was  the  effect  of  a 
long  continuance  of  fraudulent  and  arbi- 
trary government.  The  abuse  began  un- 
der Philip  I.,  in  1103,  who  alloyed  his  sil- 
ver coin  with  a  third  of  copper.  So  good 
an  example  was  not  lost  upon  subse- 
quent princes ;  till  under  St.  Louis,  the 
mark-weight  of  silver,  or  eight  ounces, 
was  equivalent  to  fifty  sous  of  the  deba- 
sed coin.  Nevertheless  these  changes 
seem  hitherto  to  have  produced  no  dis- 
content ;  whether  it  were  that  a  people, 
neither  commercial  nor  enlightened,  did 
not  readily  perceive  their  tendency ;  or, 
as  has  been  ingeniously  conjectured,  that 
these  successive  diminutions  of  the  stand- 
ard were  nearly  counterbalanced  by  an 
augmentation  in  the  value  of  silver,  oc- 
casioned by  the  drain  of  money  during 
the  crusades,  with  which  they  were  about 
contemporaneous.;];  But  the  rapacity  of 
Philip  the  Fair  kept  no  measures  with  the 
public ;  and  the  mark  in  his  reign  had  be- 
come equal  to  eight  livres,  or  a  hundred 
and  sixty  sous  of  money.  Dissatisfac- 
tion, and  even  tumults,  arose  in  conse- 
quence, and  he  was  compelled  to  restore 
the  coin  to  its  standard  under  St.  Louis. § 


*  Villaret,  t.  ix.,  p.  433.  Metz  contained,  and 
I  suppose  still  contains,  a  great  many  Jews ;  but 
Metz  was  not  part  of  the  ancient  kingdom. 

f  Besides  this  silver  coin,  there  was  a  golden  sol, 
worth  forty  pence.  Le  Blanc  thinks  the  solidi  of 
the  Salique-law  and  capitularies  mean  the  latter 
piece  of  money.  The  denarius,  or  penny,  was 
worth  two  sous  six  deniers  of  modern  French  coin. 
Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  198.  The  price  of  commod- 
ities, he  asserts,  did  not  rise  till  the  time  of  St. 
Louis.  If  this  be  said  on  good  authority,  it  is  a  re- 
markable fact ;  but  in  England  we  know  very  little 
of  prices  before  that  period,  and  I  doubt  if  their  his- 
tory has  been  better  traced  in  France. 

$  It  is  curious,  and  not  perhaps  unimportant,  to 
leam  the  course  pursued  in  adjusting  payments 


96 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


His  successors  practised  the  same  arts 
of  enriching  their  treasury ;  under  Philip 
of  Valois,  the  mark  was  again  worth  eight 
livres.  But  the  film  had  no  w  dropped  from 
the  eyes  of  the  people ;  and  these  adul- 
terations of  money,  rendered  more  vexa- 
tious by  continued  recoinages  of  the  cur- 
rent pieces,  upon  which  a  fee  was  extort- 
ed by  the  moneyers,  showed  in  their  true 
light  as  mingled  fraud  and  robbery.* 

These  resources  of  government,  how- 
Direct  tax-  ever,  by  no  means  superseded 
ation.  the  necessity  of  more  direct 
taxation.  The  kings  of  France  exacted 
money  from  the  roturiers,  and  particular- 
ly the  inhabitants  of  towns  within  their 
domains.  In  this  they  only  acted  as  pro- 
prietors, or  suzerains;  and  the  barons 
took  the  same  course  in  their  own  lands. 
Philip  Augustus  first  ventured  upon  a 
stretch  of  prerogative,  which,  in  the  words 
of  his  biographer,  disturbed  all  France. 
He  deprived  by  force,  says  Rigord,  both 
his  own  vassals,  who  had  been  accustom- 
ed to  boast  of  their  immunities,  and  their 
feudal  tenants,  of  a  third  part  of  their 
goods. f  Such  arbitrary  taxation  of  the 
nobility,  who  deemed  that  their  military 
service  discharged  them  from  all  pecu- 
niary burdens,  France  was  far  too  aris- 
tocratical  a  country  to  bear.  It  seems 
not  to  have  been  repeated ;  and  his  suc- 
cessors generally  pursued  more  legiti- 
mate courses.  Upon  obtaining  any  con- 
tribution, it  was  usual  to  grant  letters 
patent,  declaring  that  it  had  been  freely 
given,  and  should  not  be  turned  into  pre- 
cedent in  time  to  come.  Several  of  these 
letters  patent  of  Philip  the  Fair  are  ex- 

Tn  the  restoration  of  good  coin,  which  happen- 
pretty  frequently  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
when  the  States-General,  or  popular  clamour,  for- 
ced the  court  to  retract  its  fraudulent  policy.  Le 
Blanc  has  published  several  ordinances  nearly  to 
the  same  effect.  One  of  Charles  VI.  explains  the 
method  adopted  rather  more  fully  than  the  rest. 
All  debts  incurred  since  the  depreciated  coin  began 
to  circulate  were  to  be  paid  in  that  coin,  or  accord- 
ing to  its  value.  Those  incurred  previously  to  its 
commencement  were  to  be  paid  according  to  the 
value  of  the  money  circulating  at  the  time  of  the 
contract.  Item,  que  tous  les  vrais  emprunts  faits 
en  deniers  sans  fraude,  se  payeront  en  telle  mon- 
noye  comme  Ton  aura  emprunte,  si  elle  a  plein  cours 
au  temps  du  payement,  et  sinon,  ils  payeront  en 
monnoye  coursable  lors  selon  la  valeur  et  le  prix  du 
marc  d'or  ou  d'argent,  p.  32. 

*  Continuator  Gul.  de  Nangis  in  Spicilegio,  t. 
iii.  For  the  successive  changes  in  the  value-  of 
French  coins,  the  reader  may  consult  Le  Blanc's 
treatise,  or  the  Ordonnances  des  Rois  ;  or  he  may 
find  a  summary  view  of  them  in  Du  Cange,  v.  Mo- 
neta.  The  bad  consequences  of  these  innovations 
are  well  treated  by  M.  de  Pastoret,  in  his  elaborate 
preface  to  the  sixteenth  volume  of  the  Ordonnances 
des  Rois,  p.  40. 
t  Du  Chesne,  t.  v.,  p.  43. 


tant,  and  published  in  the  general  collec- 
tion of  ordinances.*  But  in  the  reign  of 
this  monarch,  a  great  innovation  took 
place  in  the  French  constitution,  which, 
though  it  principally  affected  the  method 
of  levying  money,  may  seem  to  fall  more 
naturally  under  the  next  head  of  consid- 
eration. 

IV.   There  is  no  part  of  the  French 
feudal  policy  so  remarkable  as  Wailtof 
the  entire   absence  of  all  su-  supreme  le- 
preme  legislation.     We  find  it  gisiative 
difficult  to  conceive  the  exist-  ai 
ence  of  a  political  society,  nominally  one 
kingdom,  and  under  one  head,  in  which, 
for  more  than  three  hundred  years,  there 
was  wanting  the  most  essential  attribute 
of   government.     It    will  be    requisite, 
however,  to  take  this  up  a  little  higher, 
and  inquire  what  was  the  original  legis- 
lature of  the  French  monarchy. 

Arbitrary  rule,  at  least  in  theory,  was 
uncongenial  to  the  character  of  Ori 
the  northern  nations.  Neither  legifiaTive 
the  power  of  making  laws,  nor  assemblies 
that  of  applying  them  to  the  cir-  0| 
cumstances  of  particular  cases,  was  left 
at  the  discretion  of  the  sovereign.  The 
Lombard  kings  held  assemblies  every 
year  at  Pavia,  where  the  chief  officers 
of  the  crown  and  proprietors  of  lands 
deliberated  upon  all  legislative  meas- 
ures, in  the  presence,  and,  nominally  at 
least,  with  the  consent,  of  the  multitude. f 
Frequent  mention  is  made. of  similar  pub- 
lic meetings  in  France  by  the  historians 
of  the  Merovingian  kings,  and  still  more 
unequivocally  by  their  statutes.  J  These 
assemblies  have  been  called  parliaments 


*  Fasons  scavoir  et  recognoissons  que  la  derni- 
ere  subvention  que  ils  nous  ont  faite  (les  barons, 
vassaux  et  nobles  d'Auvergne)  de  pure  grace  sans 
ce  que  ils  y  fussent  tenus  que  de  grace ;  et  voulons 
et  leur  octroyons  que  les  autres  subventions  que 
ils  nous  ont  faites  ne  leur  facent  nul  prejudice,  es 
choses  esquelles  ils  n'etoient  tenus,  ne  par  ce  nul 
nouveau  droit  ne  nous  soit  acquis  ne  amenuisie". — 
Ordonnance  de  1304,  apud  Mably,  1.  iv.,  c.  3,  note  5. 
See  other  authorities  in  the  same  place. 

t  Luitprand,  king  of  the  Lombards,  says  that 
his  laws  sibi  placuisse  una  cum  omnibus  judicibus 
de  Austriae  et  Neustriae  partibus,  et  de  Tusciae  fin- 
ibus,  cum  reliquis  fidelibus  meis  Langobardis,  et 
omni  populo  assistente. — Muratori,  Dissert.  22. 

|  Mably,  1.  i.,  c.  1,  note  1.  Lindebrog.,  Codex 
Legum  Antiquarum,  p.  363,  369.  The  following 
passage,  quoted  by  Mably  (c.  ii.,n.  6)  from  the  pre- 
amble of  the  revised  Salique  law  under  Clotaire  II. 
is  explicit.  Temporibus  Clotairii  regis  una  cum 
principibus  suis,  id  est  33  episcopis  et  34  ducibus 
et  79  comitibus,  vel  csetero  populo  constituta  est. 
A  remarkable  instance  of  the  use  of  vel  instead  of 
et,  which  was  not  uncommon,  and  is  noted  by  Du 
Cange  under  the  word  Vel.  Another  proof  of  it 
occurs  in  the  very  next  quotation  of  Mably  from 
the  edict  of  615,  cum  pontificibus,  vel  cum  magma 
viris  optimatibuB. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


97 


of  the  Champ  de  Mars,  having  originally 
been  held  in  the  month  of  March.  We 
know  very  little  of  their  constituent  mem 
bers ;  but  it  is  probable  that  every  allo 
dial  proprietor  had  a  legal  right  to  assis 
in  their  deliberations  ;  and  at  least  equal- 
ly so,  that  the  efficient  power  was  nearly 
confined  to  the  leading  aristocracy.  Such 
indeed,  is  the  impression  conveyed  by  a 
remarkable  passage  of  Hincmar,  arch- 
bishop of  Rheims,  during  the  time  of 
Charles  the  Bald,  who  has  preserved,  on 
the  authority  of  a  writer  contemporary 
with  Charlemagne,  a  sketch  of  the  Prank- 
ish government  under  that  great  prince. 
Two  assemblies  (placita)  were  annually 
Assemblies  h?ld'  In  the  first,  all  regulations 
held  by  of  importance  to  the  public  wea] 
charie-  for  the  ensuing  year  were  en- 
acted ;  and  to  this,  he  says,  the 
whole  body  of  clergy  and  laity  repaired ; 
the  greater,  to  deliberate  upon  what  was 
fitting  to  be  done ;  and  the  less,  to  con- 
firm by  their  voluntary  assent,  not  through 
deference  to  power,  or  sometimes  even 
to  discuss,  the  resolutions  of  their  superi- 
ors.* In  the  second  annual  assembly, 
the  chief  men  and  officers  of  state  were 
alone  admitted  to  consult  upon  the  most 
urgent  affairs  of  government.  They  de- 
bated, in  each  of  these,  upon  certain  ca- 
pitularies, or  short  proposals,  laid  before 
them  by  the  king.  The  clergy  and  nobles 
met  in  separate  chambers,  though  some- 
times united  for  the  purposes  of  delibera- 
tion. In  these  assemblies,  principally, 
I  presume,  in  the  more  numerous  of  the 
two  annually  summoned,  that  extensive 
body  of  laws,  the  capitularies  of  Charle- 
magne, were  enacted.  And  though  it 
would  contradict  the  testimony  just  ad- 
duced from  Hincmar,  to  suppose  that  the 
lesser  freeholders  took  a  vey  effective 
share  in  public  counsels,  yet  their  pres- 
ence, and  the  usage  of  requiring  their 
assent,  indicate  the  liberal  principles 
upon  which  the  system  of  Charlemagne 
was  founded.  It  is  continually  expressed 
in  his  capitularies,  and  those  of  his  family, 
that  they  were  enacted  by  general  con- 

*  Consuetude  tune  temporis  tails  erat,  ut  non 
saepius,  sed  bis  in  anno  placita  duo  tenerentur. 
Unum,  quando  ordinabatur  status  totius  regni  ad 
anni  vertentis  spatium ;  quod  ordinatum  nullus 
eventus  rerum,  nisi  summa  necessitas,  quae  simili- 
ter  toti  regno  incumbebat,  mytabat.  In  quo  placito 
generalitas  universorurn  majorum,  tarn  clericorum 
quam  laicorum,  conveniebat ;  seniores,  propter  con- 
silium  ordinandum ;  minores,  propter  idem  consil- 
ium  suspiciendum,  et  interdum  pariter  tractandum, 
et  non  ex  potestate,  sed  ex  proprio  mentis  in- 
tellectu  vel  sententia,  confirmandum. — Hincmar, 
Epist.  5,  de  ordine  palatii.  I  have  not  translated 
the  word  majorum  in  the  above  quotation,  not  ap- 
prehending its  sense. 


sent.*  In  one  of  Louis  the  Debonair,  we 
even  trace  the  first  germe  of  represent- 
ative legislation.  Every  count  is  direct- 
ed to  bring  with  him  to  the  general  as- 
sembly twelve  Scabini,  if  there  should  be 
so  many  in  his  county ;  or,  if  not,  should 
fill  up  the  number  out  of  the  most  re- 
spectable persons  resident.  These  Sca- 
bini were  judicial  assessors  of  the  count, 
chosen  by  the  allodial  proprietors.! 

The  circumstances,  however,  of  the 
French  empire  for  several  subsequent 
ages  were  exceedingly  adverse  to  such 
enlarged  schemes  of  polity.  The  nobles 
contemned  the  imbecile  descendants  of 
Charlemagne  ;  and  the  people,  or  lesser 
freeholders,  if  they  escaped  absolute  vil- 
lanage,  lost  their  immediate  relation  to 
the  supreme  government  in  the  subor- 
dination to  their  lord  established  by  the 
feudal  law.  Yet  we  may  trace  the  shadow 
of  ancient  popular  rights  in  one  constitu- 
tional function  of  high  importance,  the 
choice  of  a  sovereign.  Historians  who 
relate  the  election  of  an  emperor  or  king 
of  France,  seldom  omit  to  specify  the 
consent  of  the  multitude,  as  well  as  of  the 
temporal  and  spiritual  aristocracy ;  and 
even  in  solemn  instruments  that  record 
such  transactions,  we  find  a  sort  of  im- 
portance attached  to  the  popular  suf- 
frage. J  It  is  surely  less  probable  that  a 


*  Capitula  quae  praeterito  anno  legi  Salicae  cum 
omnium  consensu  addenda  esse  censuimus.  (A. 
D.  801.)  Ut  populus  interrogetur  de  capitulis  quss 
in  lege  noviter  addita  sunt,  et  postquam  omnes  con- 
senserint,  subscriptiones  et  manutirmationes  suas 
in  ipsis  capitulis  faciant.  (A.  D.  813.)  Capitularia 
patris  nostri  quae  Franci  pro  lege  tenenda  judica- 
verunt.  (A.  D.  837.)  I  have  borrowed  these  quo- 
tations from  Mably,  who  remarks  that  the  word 
populus  is  never  used  in  the  earlier  laws.  See  too 
Du  Cange,  vv.  Lex,  Mallum,  Pactum. 

t  Vult  dominus  Imperator  ut  in  tale  placitum 
quale  ille  nunc  jusserit,  venial  unusquisque  comes, 
et  adducat  secum  duodecim  scabinos  si  tanti  fu- 
erint ;  sin  autem,  de  melioribus  hominibus  illius 
comitatus  suppleat  numerum  duodenarium. — Ma- 
bly, 1.  ii.,  c.  ii. 

t  It  has  been  intimated  in  another  place,  p.  67, 
that  the  French  monarchy  seems  not  to  have  been 
strictly  hereditary  under  the  later  kings  of  the  Me- 
rovingian race  :  at  least  expressions  indicating  a 
formal  election  are  frequently  employed  by  histo- 
rians. Pepin  of  course  came  in  by  the  choice  of 
the  nation.  At  his  death  he  requested  the  consent 
of  the  counts  and  prelates  to  the  succession  of  his 

s  (Baluzii  Capitularia,  p.  187) ;  though  they  had 

ind  themselves  by  oath  at  his  consecration  never 
to  elect  a  king  out  of  another  family.  Ut  nun- 
quam  de  alterius  lumbis  regern  eligere  praesumant. 
— (Formula  Consecrationis  Pippini  in  Recueil  des 
tfistoriens,  t.  v.)  In  the  instrument  of  partition 
>y  Charlemagne  among  his  descendants,  he  pro- 
vides for  their  immediate  succession  in  absolute 
terms,  without  any  mention  of  consent.  But  in  the 
event  of  the  decease  of  one  of  his  sons  leaving  a  child 
whom  the  people  shall  choose,  the  other  princes  were 
to  permit  him  to  reign.— Baluze,  p.  440.  This  is 


98 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  H. 


recognition  of  this  elective  right  should 
have  been  introduced  as  a  mere  ceremo- 
ny, than  that  the  form  should  have  sur- 
vived after  length  of  time  and  revolutions 
of  government  had  almost  obliterated  the 
recollection  of  its  meaning. 

It  must,  however,  be  impossible  to  as- 
certain even  the  theoretical  privileges  of 
the  subjects  of  Charlemagne,  much  more 
to  decide  how  far  they  were  substantial  or 
illusory.  We  can  only  assert  in  general, 
that  there  continued  to  be  some  mixture 
of  democracy  in  the  French  constitution 
during  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  and  his 
first  successors.  The  primeval  German 
institutions  were  not  eradicated.  In  the 
Capitularies,  the  consent  of  the  people  is 
frequently  expressed.  Fifty  years  after 
Charlemagne,  his  grandson,  Charles  the 
Bald,  succinctly  expresses  the  theory  of 
legislative  power.  A  law,  he  says,  is 
made  by  the  people's  consent  and  the 
king's  enactment.*  It  would  hardly  be 

repeated  more  perspicuously  in  the  partition  made 
by  Louis  I.,  in  817.  Si  quis  eorum  decedens  le- 
gitimos  filios  reliquerit,  non  inter  eos  potestas  ipsa 
dividatur,  sed  potius  populus  pariter  conveniens, 
unum  ex  iis,  quern  dominus  voluerit,  eligat,  et 
hunc  senior  frater  in  loco  fratris  et  filii  recipiat. — 
Baluze,  p.  577.  Proofs  of  popular  consent  given 
to  the  succession  of  kings  during  the  two  next  cen- 
turies are  frequent,  but  of  less  importance  on  ac- 
count of  the  irregular  condition  of  government. 
Even  after  Hugh  Capet's  accession,  hereditary 
right  was  far  from  being  established.  The  first  six 
kings  of  this  dynasty  procured  the  co-optation  of 
their  sons,  by  having  them  crowned  during  their 
own  lives.  And  this  was  done  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  chief  vassals.— (Recueil  des  Hist.,  t.  xi., 
p.  133. )  In  the  reign  of  Robert  it  was  a  great  ques- 
tion whether  the  elder  son  should  be  thus  designa- 
ted as  heir  in  preference  to  his  younger  brother, 
whom  the  queen,  Constance,  was  anxious  to  place 
upon  the  throne.  Odolric,  bishop  of  Orleans,  writes 
to  Fulbert,  bishop  of  Chartres,  in  terms  which  lead 
one  to  think  that  neither  hereditary  succession 
nor  primogeniture  was  settled  on  any  fixed  prin- 
ciple.— (Id.,  t.  x.,  p.  504.)  And  a  writer  in  the  same 
collection,  about  the  year  1000,  expresses  himself 
in  the  following  manner  :  Melius  est  election! 
principis  non  subscribere,  quam  post  subscription- 
em  electum  contemnere ;  in  altero  enim  libertatis 
amor  laudatur,  in  altero  servilis  contumacia  probro 
datur.  Tres  namque  generates  electiones  novimus ; 
quarum  una  est  regis  vel  imperatoris,  altera  ponti- 
ficis,  altera  abbatis.  Et  primam  quidem  facit  con- 
cordia  totius  regni ;  secundam  verp  unanimitas 
civium  et  cleri ;  tertiam  sanius  consilium  crenobi- 
ticae  congregationis. — (Id.,  p. 626.)  At  the  corona- 
tion of  Philip  I.,  in  1059,  the  nobility  and  people 
(milites  et  popuh  tam  majores  quam  minores)  tes- 
tified their  consent  by  crying,  Laudamus,  volumus, 
fiat,  t.  xi.,  p.  33.  I  suppose,  if  search  were  made, 
that  similar  testimonies  might  he  found  still  later ; 
and  perhaps  hereditary  succession  cannot  be  con- 
sidered as  a  fundamental  law  till  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus,  the  era  of  many  changes  in  the  French 
constitution. 

*  Lex  consensu  populi  fit,  constitutione  regis,— 
Recueil  des  Hist,  t.  vii.,  p.  656. 


warranted  by  analogy  or  precedent,  to 
interpret  the  word  people  so  very  nar- 
rowly as  to  exclude  any  allodial  proprie- 
tors, among  whom,  however  unequal  in 
opulence,  no  legal  inequality  of  rank  is 
supposed  to  have  yet  arisen. 

But  by  whatever  authority  laws  were 
enacted,  whoever  were  the  constituent 
members  of  national  assemblies,  they 
ceased  to  be  held  in  about  seventy  years 
from  the  death  of  Charlemagne.  The 
latest  capitularies  are  of  Carloman,  in 
882.*  From  this  time  there  ensues  a  long 
blank  in  the  history  of  French  legislation. 
The  kingdom  was  as  a  great  fief,  or  rath- 
er as  a  bundle  of  fiefs,  and  the  king  little 
more  than  one  of  a  number  of  feudal  no- 
bles, differing  rather  in  dignity  than  in 
power  from  some  of  the  rest.  The  royal 
council  was  composed  only  of  barons,  or 
tenants  in  chief,  prelates,  and  household 
officers.  These  now  probably  delibera- 
ted in  private,  as  we  hear  no  more  of  the 
consenting  multitude.  Political  functions 
were  not  in  that  age  so  clearly  separated 
as  we  are  taught  to  fancy  they  should  be ; 
this  council  advised  the  king  Royai  council 
in  matters  of  government,  con-  of  the  third 
firmed  and  consented  to  his  race< 
grants,  and  judged  in  all  civil  and  crimi- 
nal cases,  where  any  peers  of  their  court 
were  concerned.!  The  great  vassals  of 
the  crown  acted  for  themselves  in  their 
own  territories,  with  the  assistance  of 
councils  similar  to  that  of  the  king. 
Such  indeed  was  the  symmetry  of  feudal 
customs,  that  the  manerial  court  of  every 
vavassor  represented  in  miniature  that  of 
his  sovereign.! 

But,  notwithstanding  the  want  of  any 
permanent  legislation  during  so  long  a 


*  It  is  generally  said,  that  the  capitularies  cease 
with  Charles  the  Simple,  who  died  in  921.  But 
Baluze  has  published  only  two  under  the  name  of 
that  prince  ;  the  first,  a  declaration  of  his  queen's 
jointure;  the  second,  an  arbitration  of  disputes  in 
the  church  of  Tongres ;  neither  surely  deserving 
the  appellation  of  a  law. 

t  Regali  potential  in  nullo  abuti  volentes,  says 
Hugh  Capet,  omnia  negotia  reipublicae  in  consulta- 
tions et  sententia  fidelium  nostrorum  disponimus. 
—Recueil  des  Hist.,  t.  x.,  p.  392.  The  subscrip- 
tions of  these  royal  counsellors  were  necessary  for 
the  confirmation,  or,  at  least,  the  authentication  of 
charters,  as  was  also  the  case  in  England,  Spain, 
and  Italy.  This  practice  continued  in  England  till 
the  reign  of  John. 

The  Curia  regis  seems  to  have  differed  only  in 
name  from  the  Concilium  regium.  It  is  also  called 
Curia  parixim,  from  the  equality  of  the  barons  who 
composed  it,  standing  in  the  same  feudal  degree  of 
relation  to  the  sovereign.  But  we  are  not  yet  ar- 
rived at  the  subject  of  jurisdiction,  which  it  is  very 
difficult  to  keep  distinct  from  what  is  immediately 
before  us. 

$  Recueil  des  Hist.,  t.  xi.,p.  300,  and  preface,  p. 
179.  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  u.,  p.  508. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


99 


period,  instances  occur,  in  which  the 
kings  of  France  appear  to  have  acted 
with  the  concurrence  of  an  assembly, 

Occasional  more  numerous  and  more  par- 
assemblies  ticularly  summoned  than  the 
of  barons.  rovai  council.  At  such  a  con- 
ress,  held  in  1146,  the  crusade  of  Louis 
We  find  also  an 
prince  in  some 


v: 


II.  was  undertaken.* 
ordinance  of  the  same 


collections,  reciting  that  he  had  convoked 
a  general  assembly  at  Soissons,  wher 
many  prelates  and  barons  then  presen 
had  consented  and  requested  that  privat 
wars  might  cease  for  the  term  of  te 
years.  f  The  famous  Saladine  tithe  wa 
imposed  upon  lay  as  well  as  ecclesiastica 
revenues  by  a  similar  convention  in  1  188. 
And  when  Innocent  IV.,  during  his  con 
test  with  the  Emperor  Frederick,  request 
ed  an  asylum  in  France,  St.  Louis,  thoug 
much  inclined  to  favour  him,  venturec 
only  to  give  a  conditional  permission,  pro 
vided  it  were  agreeable  to  his  barons 
whom,  he  said,  a  king  of  France  wa 
bound  to  consult  in  such  circumstances 
Accordingly  he  assembled  the  Frenc] 
barons,  who  unanimously  refused  thei 
consent.^ 

It  was  the  ancient  custom  of  the  kings 
of  France  as  well  as  of  England,  and  in 
Cours  Pi6-  deed  of  all  those  vassals  who  af 
nieres.  fected  a  kind  of  sovereignty,  to 
hold  general  meetings  of  their  barons 
called  Cours  Plenieres  or  Parliaments,  a 
the  great  festivals  of  the  year.  These 
assemblies  were  principally  intended  to 
make  a  display  of  magnificence,  and  to 
keep  the  feudal  tenants  in  good-humour 
nor  is  it  easy  to  discover  that  they  passec 
in  any  thing  but  pageantry.  ||  Some  re- 
spectable antiquaries  have  however  been 
of  opinion,  that  affairs  of  state  were  oc- 
casionally discussed  in  them  ;  and  this  is 


*  Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  119.  This,  he  observes,  is  the 
first  instance  in  which  the  word  parliament  is  used 
for  a  deliberative  assembly. 

t  Ego  Ludovicus  Dei  gratia  Francorum  rex,  ad 
reprimendum  fervorem  malignantium,  et  compe- 
scendum  violentas  praedorum  manus,  postulationi- 
bns  cleri  et  assensu  baronias,  toti  regno  pacem  con- 
stituimus.  Ea  causa,  anno  Incarnati  Verbi  1155, 
iv  idus  Jun.  Suessionense  concilium  celebre  ad- 
unavimus,  et  affuerunt  archiepiscopi  Remensis, 
Senonensis  et  eqrum  suffraganei ;  item  barones, 
comes  Flandrensis,  Trecensis,  et  Nivemensis  et 
quamplures  alii,  et  dux  Burgundiae.  Ex  quorum 
beneplacito  ordinavimus  a  veniente  Pascha  ad 
decem  annos,  ut  omnes  ecclesiae  regni  et  omnes 

agricolae  etc.  pacem  habeant  et  securitatem 

In  pacem  istam  juraverunt  Dux  Burgundiae,  Comes 
Flandrise, et  reliqui  barones  quiaderant. 

This  ordinance  is  published  in  Du  Chesne, 
Script.  Rerum.  Gallicarum,  t.  iv.,  and  in  Recueil 
des  Histor.,  t.  xiv.,  p.  387 ;  but  not  in  the  general 
collection. 

t  Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  315.          $  Ibid.,  t.  iv.,  p.  306. 

!!  Du  Cange,  Dissert.  5,  sur  Joinville. 
G2 


certainly  by  no  means  inconsistent  with 
probability,  though  not  sufficiently  estab- 
lished by  evidence.* 

Excepting  a  few  instances,  most  of 
which  have  been  mentioned,  it  does  not 
appear  that  the  kings  of  the  house  of 
Capet  acted  according  to  the  advice  and 
deliberation  of  any  national   assembly, 
such  as  assisted  the  Norman  sovereigns 
of  England;  nor  was  any  consent  re- 
quired for  tlie  validity  of  their  edicts,  ex- 
cept that  of  the  ordinary  council,  chiefly 
formed  of  their  household  officers  and 
less  powerful  vassals.     This  is  at  first 
sight  very  remarkable.     For  there  can 
be  no  doubt  that  the  government  of  Hen- 
ry I.  or  Henry   II.   was  incomparably 
stronger  than  that  of  Louis  VI.  or  Louis 
VII.     But  this  apparent  absoluteness  of 
the   latter  was  the  result  of  their  real 
weakness  and  the  disorganization  of  the 
monarchy.     The  peers  of  France  were 
infrequent  in  their  attendance  upon  the 
king's  council,  because  they  denied  its 
coercive  authority.     It  was  a  Limitations 
fundamental  principle,  that  ev-  of  royal 
ery  feudal  tenant  was  so  far  P?yer  in  Ie- 


sovereign  within  the  limits  of 
his  fief,  that  he  could  not  be  bound  by 
any  law  without  his  consent.  The  king, 
says  St.  Louis  in  his  Establishments, 
cannot  make  proclamation,  that  is,  de- 
clare any  new  law,  in  the  territory  of  a 
baron  without  his  consent,  nor  can  the 
baron  do  so  in  that  of  a  vavassor.f  Thus, 
if  legislative  power  be  essential  to  sover- 
eignty, we  cannot  in  strictness  assert 
the  King  of  France  to  have  been  sover- 
eign beyond  the  extent  of  his  domanial 
;erritory.  Nothing  can  more  strikingly 
illustrate  the  dissimilitude  of  the  French 
and  English  constitutions  of  government, 
than  the  sentence  above  cited  from  the 
code  of  St.  Louis. 

Upon  occasions,  when  the  necessity  of 
common  deliberation,  or  of  giv-  substitutes 
ng  to  new  provisions  more  ex-  for  iegi*ia- 
ensive  scope  than  the  limits  of  jjje  author" 
a  single  fief,  was  too  glaring  to  ' 
>e  overlooked,  congresses  of  neighbour- 
ng  lords  met  in  order  to  agree  upon  reso- 
utions,  which  each  of  them  undertook  to 
execute  within  his  own  domains.  The 
ting  was  sometimes  a  contracting  party, 
>ut  without  any  coercive  authority  over 
hie  rest.  Thus  we  have  what  is  called 
n  ordinance,  but,  in  reality,  an  agree- 


*  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscript.,  t.  xli.  Recueil 
es  Hist.,  t.  xi.,  preface,  p.  155. 

t  Ne  li  Rois  ne  puet  mettre  ban  en  la  terre  au 
aron  sans  son  assentment,  ne  li  Bers  [Baronl  ne 
uet  mettre  ban  en  la  terre  au  vavasor.— Ordorx- 
ances  dee  Rois,  1. 1.,  p.  126. 


100 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


ment,  between  the  king  (Philip  Angus-  of  St.  Louis,  about  1269 ;  and  their  ill- 
tus),  the  Countess  of  Troyes  or  Cham-  judged  confidence  in  this  feudal  privilege 
pagne,  and  the  Lord  of  Dampierre  (Count  still  led  them  to  absent  themselves  from 
of  Flanders),  relating  to  the  Jews  in  their  |  the  royal  council.  It  seems  impossible  to 
domains ;  which  agreement  or  ordinance, 
it  is  said,  should  endure  "  until  ourselves, 
and  the  Countess  of  Troyes,  and  Guy  de 
Dampierre,  who  make  this  contract,  shall 
dissolve  it  with  the  consent  of  such  of  our 
barons  as  we  shall  summon  for  that  pur- 
pose."* 

Ecclesiastical  councils  were  another 
substitute  for  a  regular  legislature;  and 
this  defect  in  the  political  constitution 
rendered  their  encroachments  less  ob- 
noxious, and  almost  unavoidable.  That 
of  Troyes  in  878,  composed  perhaps  in 
part  of  laymen,  imposed  a  fine  upon  the 
invaders  of  church  property.!  And  the 
council  of  Toulouse,  in  1229,  prohibited 
the  erection  of  any  new  fortresses,  or  the 
entering  into  any  leagues,  except  against 
the  enemies  of  religion;  and  ordained 
that  judges  should  administer  justice  gra- 
tuitously, and  publish  the  decrees  of  the 
council  four  times  in  the  year.J 

The  first  unequivocal  attempt,  for  il 
First  meas-  waf  nothing  more,  at  general 
uresofgen-  legislation,  was  under  Louis 

VII.L'  'm.  1223' in  an  ordinance, 

which,  like  several  of  that  age, 
relates  to  the  condition  and  usurious  deal- 
ings of  the  Jews.  It  is  declared  in  the 
preamble  to  have  been  enacted,  per  as- 
sensum  archiepiscoporum,  episeopomm, 
comitum,  baronum,  et  militum  regni 
Franciae,  qui  Judaeos  habent,  etqui  Judaeos 
non  habent.  This  recital  is  probably  un- 
true, and  intended  to  cloak  the  bold  inno- 
vation contained  in  the  last  clause  of  the 
following  provision :  Sciendum,  quod  nos 
et  barones  nostri  statuimus  et  ordinavi- 
mus  de  statu  Judaeorum  quod  nullus  nos- 
trtim  alterius  Judaeos  recipere  potest  vel 
retinere  ;  et  hoc  intelligendum  est  tarn  de  his 
qui  stalilimentum  juraverint,  quam  de  illis 
qui  non  juraverint.^  This  was  renewed 
with  some  alteration  in  1230,  de  communi 
consilio  baronum  nostrorum.|| 

But  whatever  obedience  the  vassals  of 
the  crown  might  pay  to  this  ordinance, 
their  original  exemption  from  legislative 
control  remained,  as  we  have  seen,  un- 
impaired at  the  date  of  the  Establishments 


*  Quousque  nos,  et  comitissa  Trecensis,  et 
Guide  de  Domna  petra,  qui  hoc  facimus,  per  nos, 
et  illos  de  baronibus  nostris,  quos  ad  hoc  vocare  vo- 
lumus,  illud  diffaciamus.— Ordonnances  des  Rois, 
t.  i.,  p.  39.  This  ordinance  bears  no  date,  but  it 
was  probably  between  1218  and  1223,  the  year  of 
Philip's  death! 

t  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  6. 

t  Velly,  t.  iv.,  p.  132. 

$  Ordonn.  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  47.         ||  Id.,  p.  53. 


doubt  that  the  barons  of  France  might 
have  asserted  the  same  right,  which 
those  of  England  had  obtained,  that  of 
being  duly  summoned  by  special  writ, 
and  thus  have  rendered  their  consent 
necessary  to  every  measure  of  legisla- 
tion. But  the  fortunes  of  France  were 
different.  The  Establishments  of  St. 
Louis  are  declared  to  be  made  "par 
grand  conseil  de  sages  hommes  et  de 
bons  clers,"  but  no  mention  is  made  of 
any  consent  given  by  the  barons;  nor 
does  it  often,  if  ever,  occur  in  subsequent 
ordinances  of  the  French  kings. 

The  nobility  did  not  long  continue  safe 
in  their  immunity  from  the  king's  Legislative 
legislative  power.      In  the   en-  power  of 
suing  reign  of  Philip  the  Bold, 
Beaumanoir  lays  it  down,  though 
in  very  moderate    and   doubtful   terms, 
that  "  when  the   king  makes  any   ordi- 
nance  specially  for   his   own  domains, 
the  barons  do  not  cease  to  act  in  their 
territories  according  to  the  ancient  usage ; 
but,  when  the  ordinance  is   general,   it 
ought  to  run  through  the  whole  kingdom, 
and  we  ought  to  believe  that  it  is  made 
with  good  advice,  and  for  the  common 
benefit."*     In  another  place  he  says  with 
more   positiveness,   that    "the    king   is 
sovereign  above  all,  and  has  of  right  the 
general  custody  of  the  realm,  for  which 
cause  he  may  make  what  ordinances  he 
pleases  for  the  common  good,  and  what 
he  ordains  ought  to  be  observed ;  nor  is 
there  any  one  so  great  but  may  be  drawn 
into  the  king's  court  for  default  of  right 
or  for  false  judgment,  or  in  matters  that 
affect    the    sovereign."!      These    latter 
words  give  us  a  clew  to  the  solution  of 
the  problem,  by  what  means  an  absolute 
monarchy    was    established    in   Causes  of 
France.     For  though  the  barons   this- 
would  have  been  little  influenced  by  the 
authority  of  a  lawyer  like  Beaumanoir, 
they  were  much  less  able  to  resist  the 
coercive  logic  of  a  judicious  tribunal.     It 
was  in  vain  for  them  to  deny  the  obliga- 
tion of  royal  ordinances  within  their  own 
domains,  when  they  were  compelled  to 
acknowledge  the  jurisdiction  of  the  par- 
liament of  Paris,  which  took  a  very  dif- 
ferent view   of  their  privileges.     This 
progress   of  the   royal  jurisdiction  will 
fall  under  the  next  topic  of  inquiry,  and 
is   only  now  hinted  at,  as  the  probable 
means  of  confirming  the  absolute  legisla- 
tive power  of  the  French  crown. 


Coutumes  de  Beauvoisis,  c.  48.        f  C.  34 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


101 


The  ultimate  source,  however,  of  this 
increased  authority,  will  be  found  in  the 
commanding  attitude  assumed  by  the 
kings  of  France  from  the  reign  of  Philip 
Augustus,  and  particularly  in  the  annex- 
ation of  the  two  great  fiefs  of  Normandy 
and  Toulouse.  Though  the  chatelains 
and  vavassors  who  had  depended  upon 
those  fiefs  before  their  reunion  were, 
agreeably  to  the  text  of  St.  Louis's  ordi- 
nance, fully  sovereign,  in  respect  of  le- 
gislation, within  their  territories,  yet  they 
were  little  competent,  and  perhaps  little 
disposed,  to  offer  any  opposition  to  the 
royal  edicts ;  and  the  same  relative  su- 
periority of  force,  which  had  given  the 
first  kings  of  the  house  of  Capet  a  tolera- 
bly effective  control  over  the  vassals  de- 
pendant on  Paris  and  Orleans,  while  they 
hardly  pretended  to  any  over  Normandy 
and  Toulouse,  was  now  extended  to  the 
greater  part  of  the  kingdom.  St.  Louis, 
in  his  scrupulous  moderation,  forbore  to 
avail  himself  of  all  the  advantages  pre- 
sented by  the  circumstances  of  his  reign ; 
and  his  Establishments  bear  testimony  to 
a  state  of  political  society,  which,  even 
at  the  moment  of  their  promulgation, 
was  passing  away.  The  next  thirty 
years  after  his  death,  with  no  marked 
crisis,  and  with  little  disturbance,  silently 
demolished  the  feudal  system,  such  as 
had  been  established  in  France  during 
the  dark  confusion  of  the  tenth  century. 
Philip  the  Fair,  by  help  of  his  lawyers 
and  his  financiers,  found  himself,  at  the 

*  It  is  almost  unanimously  agreed  among  French 
writers,  that  Philip  the  Fair  first  introduced  a  rep- 
resentation of  the  towns  into  his  national  assembly 
of  States  General.  Nevertheless,  the  Chronicles 
of  St.  Denis,  and  other  historians  of  rather  a  late 
date,  assert  that  the  deputies  of  towns  were  pres- 
ent at  a  parliament  in  1241,  to  advise  the  king  what 
should  be  done  in  consequence  of  the  Count  of  An- 
gouleme's  refusal  of  homage.— Boulainvilliers,  Hist, 
de  1'Ancien  Gouvernement  de  France,  t.  ii.,  p.  20. 
Villaret,  t.  ix.,  p.  125.  The  latter  pretends  even 
that  they  may  be  traced  a  century  farther  back : 
on  voit  deja  les  gens  de  bonnes  villes  assister  aux 
etats  de  1145,  ibid.  But  he  quotes  no  authority 
for  this  ;  and  his  vague  language  does  not  justify 
us  in  supposing  that  any  representation  of  the 
three  estates,  properly  so  understood,  did,  or  in- 
deed could,  take  place  in  1145,  while  the  power  of 
the  aristocracy  was  unbroken,  and  very  few  towns 
had  been  incorporated.  If  it  be  true  that  the  depu- 
ties of  some  royal  towns  were  summoned  to  the 
parliament  of  1241,  the  conclusion  must  not  be  in- 
ferred, that  they  possessed  any  consenting  voice, 
nor  perhaps  that  they  formed,  strictly  speaking,  an 
integrant  portion  of  the  assembly.  There  is  reason 
to  believe,  that  deputies  from  the  royal  burghs  of 
Scotland  occasionally  appeared  at  the  bar  of  par- 
liament long  before  they  had  any  deliberative  voice. 
— Pinkertpn's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  371. 

An  ordinance  of  St.  Louis,  quoted  in  a  very  re- 
spectable book,  Vaissette's  History  of  Languedoc, 
t.  iii.,  p.  480,  but  not  published  in  the  Recueil  des 


beginning  of  tbe  fourteenth  conttuy,  the 
real  master^  pf  ;lfi$  ^subjects. 

There  was  however  one  essential  priv- 
ilege which  he-co'iM  'no}  liope,  Con\o«ation 
to  overturn  by  force,  thelmtau-*^^*68 
nity  from  taxation  enjoyed  by  phSiJuhe7 
his  barons.  This,  it  will  be  re-  fair. 
membered,  embraced  the  whole  extent 
of  their  fiefs,  and  their  tenantry  of  every 
description;  the  king  having  no  more 
right  to  impose  a  tallage  upon  the  de- 
mesne towns  of  his  vassals,  than  upon 
themselves.  Thus  his  resources,  in  point 
of  taxation,  were  limited  to  his  own  do- 
mains ;  including  certainly,  under  Philip 
the  Fair,  many  of  the  noblest  cities  in 
France,  but  by  no  means  sufficient  to 
meet  his  increasing  necessities.  We 
have  seen  already  the  expedients  em- 
ployed by  this  rapacious  monarch;  a 
shameless  depreciation  of  the  coin,  and, 
what  was  much  more  justifiable,  the 
levying  taxes  within  the  territories  of 
his  vassals  by  their  consent.  Of  these 
measures,  the  first  was  odious,  the  sec- 
ond slow  and  imperfect.  Confiding  in 
his  sovereign  authority,  though  recently, 
yet  almost  completely  established,  and 
little  apprehensive  of  the  feudal  princi- 
ples, already  grown  obsolete  and  dis- 
countenanced, he  was  bold  enough  to 
make  an  extraordinary  innovation  in  the 
French  constitution.  This  was  the  con- 
vocation of  the  States  General,  a  repre- 
sentative body,  composed  of  the  three 
orders  of  the  nation.*  They  were  first 


Ordonnances,  not  only  shows  the  existence,  in  one 
instance,  of  a  provincial  legislative  assembly,  but  is 
the  earliest  proof  perhaps  of  the  tiers  etat  appear- 
ing as  a  constituent  part  of  it.  This  relates  to  the 
seneschaussee,  or  county,  of  Beaucaire  in  Langue- 
doc, and  bears  date  in  1254.  It  provides,  that  if  the 
seneschal  shall  think  fit  to  prohibit  the  export  of 
merchandise,  he  shall  summon  some  of  the  pre- 
lates, barons,  knights,  and  inhabitants  of  the  chief 
towns,  by  whose  advice  he  shall  issue  such  prohi- 
bition, and  not  recall  it,  when  made,  without  like 
advice.  But  though  it  is  interesting  to  see  the  pro- 
gressive importance  of  the  citizens  of  towns,  yet 
this  temporary  and  insulated  ordinance  is  not  of 
itself  sufficient  to  establish  a  constitutional  right. 
Neither  do  we  find  therein  any  evidence  of  repre- 
sentation; it  rather  appears  that  the  persons  as- 
sisting in  this  assembly  were  notables,  selected  by 
the  seneschal. 

I  am  not  aware  of  any  instance  of  regular  pro- 
vincial estates  being  summoned  with  such  full 
powers,  although  it  was  very  common  in  the  four- 
teenth century  to  ask  their  consent  to  grants  of 
money,  when  the  court  was  unwilling  to  convoke 
the  States  General.  Yet  there  is  a  passage  in  a 
book  of  considerable  credit,  the  Grand  Customary, 
or  Somme  Rurale  of  Bouteiller,  which  seems  to 
render  general  the  particular  case  of  the  seneschaus- 
see of  Beaucaire.  Bouteiller  wrote  about  the  end 
of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  great  courts  sum- 
moned from  time  to  time  by  the  baillis  and  senes- 
chals were  called  assizes.  Their  usual  function 


102 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


convened  in  1302,  in  order  to 'give  more 
weight  to  tlie  king's  catlike, tin  his  great 
quarrel  with  Boniface  VIII. ;  but  their 
earliest  grant,  of  a  subsidy  is  in  1314. 
Thus  the  nobility  surrendered  to  the 
crown  their  last  privilege  of  territorial 
independence ;  and  having  first  submit- 
ted to  its  appellant  jurisdiction  over  their 
tribunals,  next  to  its  legislative  suprem- 
acy, now  suffering  their  own  dependants 
to  become,  as  it  were,  immediate,  and  a 
third  estate  to  rise  up  almost  co-ordinate 
with  themselves,  endowed  with  new  fran- 
chises, and  bearing  a  new  relation  to  the 
monarchy. 

It  is  impossible  not  to  perceive  the  mo- 
tives of  Philip  in  imbodying  the  deputies 
of  towns  as  a  separate  estate  in  the  na- 
tional representation.  He  might,  no  ques- 
tion, have  convoked  a  parliament  of  his 
barons,  and  obtained  a  pecuniary  contri- 
bution, which  they  would  have  levied 
upon  their  burgesses  and  other  tenants. 
But  besides  the  ulterior  policy  of  dimin- 
ishing the  control  of  the  barons  over 
their  dependants,  he  had  good  reason  to 
expect  more  liberal  aid  from  the  immedi- 
ate representatives  of  the  people,  than 
through  the  concession  of  a  dissatisfied 
aristocracy.  He  must  be  blind  indeed, 
says  Pasquier,  who  does  not  see  that  the 
roturier  was  expressly  summoned  to  this 
assembly,  contrary  to  the  ancient  insti- 
tutions of  France,  for  no  other  reason 
than  that,  inasmuch  as  the  burden  was 
intended  to  fall  principally  upon  him,  he 
might  engage  himself  so  far  by  promise, 
that  he  could  not  afterward  murmur  or 
become  refractory.*  Nor  would  I  deny 
the  influence  of  more  generous  princi- 
ples ;  the  example  of  neighbouring  coun- 
tries, the  respect  due  to  the  progressive 
civilization  and  opulence  of  the  towns, 

was  to  administer  justice,  especially  by  way  of  ap- 
peal, and  perhaps  to  redress  abuses  of  inferior  offi- 
cers. But  he  seems  to  give  them  a  more  extended 
authority.  En  assise,  he  says,  appel!6s  les  sages 
et  seigneurs  du  pais,  peuvent  estre  mises  sus  nou- 
velles  constitutions,  et  ordonnances  sur  le  pais  et 
destruites  autre  que  seront  grevables,  et  un  autre 
temps  now,  et  doivent  etre  publiees,  afin  que  mil  ne 
les  pueust  ignorer,  et  lors  ne  les  peut  ne  doit  ja- 
mais  nul  redarguer. — Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscrip- 
tions, t.  XXK.,  p.  606, 

The  taille  was  assessed  by  respectable  persons 
chosen  by  the  advice  of  the  parish  priests  and  oth- 
ers, which  gave  the  people  a  sort  of  share  in  the 
repartition,  to  use  a  French  term,  of  public  burdens ; 
a  matter  of  no  small  importance,  where  a  tax  is 
levied  on  visible  property. — Ordonnances  des  Rois, 
p.  291.  Beaumanoir,  p.  269.  This  however  con- 
tinued, I  believe,  to  be  the  practice  in  later  times  ; 
I  know  it  is  so  in  the  present  system  of  France  ; 
and  is  perfectly  distinguishable  from  a  popular  con- 
sent to  taxation. 

*  Rechercb.es  de  la  France,  1.  ii.,  c.  7. 


and  the  application  of  that  ancient  maxim 
of  the  northern  monarchies,  that  who- 
ever was  elevated  to  the  perfect  dignity 
of  a  freeman,  acquired  a  claim  to  partici- 
pate in  the  imposition  of  public  tributes. 
It  is  very  difficult  to  ascertain  the  con- 
stitutional rights  of  the  States 
General,  claimed  or  admitted,  the  states 
during  forty  years  after  their  General  as 
first  convocation.  If  indeed  we  totaxati°n- 
could  implicitly  confide  in  an  historian  of 
the  sixteenth  century,  who  asserts  that 
Louis  Hutin  bound  himself  and  his  suc- 
cessors not  to  levy  any  tax  without  the 
consent  of  the  three  estates,  the  problem 
would  find  its  solution.*  This  ample 
charter  does  not  appear  in  the  French  ar- 
chives ;  and  though  by  no  means  to  be 
rejected  on  that  account,  when  we  con- 
sider the  strong  motives  for  its  destruc- 
tion, cannot  fairly  be  adduced  as  an  au- 
thentic fact.  Nor  can  we  altogether  in- 
fer, perhaps,  from  the  collection  of  ordi- 
nances, that  the  crown  had  ever  inten- 
tionally divested  itself  of  the  right  to  im- 
pose tallages  on  its  domanial  tenants. 
All  others,  however,  were  certainly  ex- 
empted from  that  prerogative ;  and  there 
seems  to  have  been  a  general  sentiment, 
that  no  tax  whatever  could  be  levied  with- 
out free  consent  of  the  estates. f  Louis 
Hutin,  in  a  charter  granted  to  the  nobles 
and  burgesses  of  Picardy,  promises  to 
abolish  the  unjust  taxes  (maltotes)  impo- 
sed by  his  father  ;J  and  in  another  instru- 
ment, called  the  charter  of  Normandy, 
declares  that  he  renounces  for  himself 
and  his  successors  all  undue  tallages  and 
exactions,  except  in  case  of  evident  util- 
ity. §  This  exception  is  doubtless  of  per- 
ilous ambiguity ;  yet,  as  the  charter  was 
literally  wrested  from  the  king  by  an  in- 
surrectionary league,  it  might  be  expect- 
ed that  the  same  spirit  would  rebel  against 
his  royal  interpretation  of  state-necessi- 
ty. His  successor,  Philip  the  Long,  tried 
the  experiment  of  a  gabelle,  or  excise 
upon  salt.  But  it  produced  so  much  dis- 
content, that  he  was  compelled  to  assem- 
ble the  States  General,  and  to  publish  an 
ordinance  declaring  that  the  impost  was 
not  designed  to  be  perpetual,  and  that,  if 


*  Boulainvilliers  (Hist,  de  1'Anc.  Gouvernement, 
t.  ii.,  p.  128)  refers  for  this  to  Nicholas  Gilles,  a 
chronicler  of  no  great  repute. 

f  Mably  (Observat.  sur  1'Hist.  de  France,  1.  v., 
c,  1)  is  positive  against  the  right  of  Philip  the  Fair 
and  his  successors  to  impose  taxes.  Montlosier 
(Monarchic  Franchise,  t.  L,  p.  202)  is  of  the  same 
opinion.  In  fact,  there  is  reason  to  believe,  that 
the  kings  in  general  did  not  claim  that  prerogative 
absolutely,  whatever  pretexts  they  might  set  up  for 
occasional  stretches  of  power. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  566. 

I  Idem,  t.  i.,  p.  589. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


103 


a  sufficient  supply  for  the  existing  war 
could  be  found  elsewhere,  it  should  in- 
stantly determine.*  Whether  this  was 
done,  I  do  not  discover ;  nor  do  I  con- 
ceive that  any  of  the  sons  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  inheriting  much  of  his  rapacity  and 
ambition,  abstained  from  extorting  money 
without  consent.  Philip  of  Valois  renew- 
ed and  augmented  the  duties  on  salt  by 
his  own  prerogative,  nor  had  the  abuse 
of  debasing  the  current  coin  been  ever 
carried  to  such  a  height  as  during  his 
reign,  and  the  first  years  of  his  successor. 
These  exactions,  aggravated  by  the  smart 
of  a  hostile  invasion,  produced  a  very  re- 
markable concussion  in  the  government 
of  France. 

I  have  been  obliged  to  advert,  in  an- 
statesGen-  otner  place,  to  the  memorable 
erai  of  1355  resistance  made  by  the  Estates 
and  1356..  General  of  1355  and  1356  to  the 
royal  authority,  on  account  of  its  insep- 
arable connexion  with  the  civil  history 
of  France.f  In  the  present  chapter,  the 
assumption  of  political  influence  by  those 
assemblies  deserves  particular  notice. 
Not  that  they  pretended  to  restore  the 
ancient  constitution  of  the  northern  na- 
tions, still  flourishing  in  Spain  and  Eng- 
land, the  participation  of  legislative  pow- 
er with  the  crown.  Five  hundred  years 
of  anarchy  and  ignorance  had  swept  away 
all  remembrance  of  those  general  diets, 
in  which  the  capitularies  of  the  Carlovin- 
gian  dynasty  had  been  established  by 
common  consent.  Charlemagne  himself 
was  hardly  known  to  the  French  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  except  as  the  hero 
of  some  silly  romance  or  ballad.  The 
States  General  remonstrated,  indeed, 
against  abuses,  and  especially  the  most 
flagrant  of  all,  the  adulteration  of  money ; 
but  the  ordinance  granting  redress  ema- 
nated altogether  from  the  king,  and  with- 
out the  least  reference  to  their  consent, 
which  sometimes  appears  to  be  studiously 
omitted.J  But  the  privilege  upon  which 
the  states  under  John  solely  relied  for 

*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  679. 

*  Chap,  i.,  p.  42. 

J  The  proceedings  of  States  General  held  under 
Philip  IV.  and  his  sons  have  left  no  trace  in  the 
French  statute-book.  Two  ordinances  alone,  out 
of  some  hundred  enacted  by  Philip  of  Valois,  ap- 
pear to  have  been  founded  upon  their  suggestions. 

It  is  absolutely  certain  that  the  States  General 
of  France  had  at  no  period,  and  in  no  instance,  a 
co-ordinate  legislative  authority  with  the  crown, 
or  even  a  consenting  voice.  Mably,  Boulainvil- 
liers,  and  Montlosier,  are  as  decisive  on  this  sub- 
ject as  the  most  courtly  writers  of  that  country. 
It  follows  as  a  just  consequence,  that  France  never 
possessed  a  free  constitution ;  nor  had  the  monar- 
chy any  limitations  in  respect  of  enacting  laws, 
save  those  which,  until  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
the  feudal  principles  had  imposed. 


securing  the  redress  of  grievances,  was 
that  of  granting  money,  and  of  regulating 
its  collection.  The  latter,  indeed,  though 
for  convenience  it  maybe  devolved  upon 
the  executive  government,  appears  to  be 
incident  to  every  assembly  in  which  the 
right  of  taxation  resides.  That,  accord- 
ingly, which  met  in  1355  nominated  a 
committee,  chosen  out  of  the  three  or- 
ders, which  was  to  sit  after  their  separa- 
tion, and  which  the  king  bound  himself 
to  consult,  not  only  as  to  the  internal  ar- 
rangements of  his  administration,  but 
upon  every  proposition  of  peace  or  armi- 
stice with  England.  Deputies  were  de- 
spatched into  each  district,  to  superintend 
the  collection,  and  receive  the  produce 
of  the  subsidy  granted  by  the  states.* 
These  assumptions  of  power  would  not 
long,  we  may  be  certain,  have  left  the 
sole  authority  of  legislation  in  the  king, 
and  might  perhaps  be  censured  as  usurpa- 
tion, if  the  peculiar  emergency  in  which 
France  was  then  placed  did  not  furnish 
their  defence.  But,  if  it  be  true  that  the 
kingdom  was  reduced  to  the  utmost  dan- 
ger and  exhaustion,  as  much  by  malver- 
sation of  its  government  as  by  the  ar- 
mies of  Edward  III.,  who  shall  deny  to 
its  representatives  the  rights  of  ultimate 
sovereignty,  and  of  suspending  at  least 
the  royal  prerogatives,  by  the  abuse  of 
which  they  were  falling  into  destruc- 
tion ?f  I  confess  that  it  is  exceedingly 
difficult,  or  perhaps  impracticable,  with 
such  information  as  we  possess,  to  de- 
cide upon  the  motives  and  conduct  of  the 
States  General,  in  their  several  meetings 
before  and  after  the  battle  of  Poitiers. 
Arbitrary  power  prevailed ;  and  its  op- 
ponents became,  of  course,  the  theme  of 
obloquy  with  modern  historians.  Frois- 
sart,  however,  does  not  seem  to  impute 
any  fault  to  these  famous  assemblies  of 
the  States  General ;  and  still  less  a  more 
contemporary  historian,  the  anonymous 
continuator  of  Nangis.  Their  notices, 
however,  are  very  slight ;  and  our  chief 
knowledge  of  the  parliamentary  history 
of  France,  if  I  may  employ  the  expres- 
sion, must  be  collected  from  the  royal 
ordinances  made  upon  these  occasions, 
or  from  unpublished  accounts  of  their 

*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  hi.,  p.  21 ,  and  preface, 
p.  42.  This  preface  by  M.  Secousse,  the  editor, 
gives  a  very  clear  view  of  the  general  and  provin- 
cial assemblies  held  in  the  reign  of  John.  Boulain- 
villiers,  Hist,  de  1'Anc.  Gouvernement  de  France, 
t.  ii.,  or  Villaret,  t.  ix.,may  be  perused  with  advan- 
tage. 

•f  The  second  continuator  of  Nangis  in  the  Spi- 
cilegium  dwells  on  the  heavy  taxes,  diminution  of 
money,  and  general  oppressiveness  of  government 
in  this  age,  t.  iii.,  p.  108. 


104 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


transactions.  Some  of  these,  which  are 
quoted  by  the  later  French  historians,  are 
of  course  inaccessible  to  a  writer  in  this 
country.  But  a  manuscript  in  the  British 
Museum,  containing  the  early  proceed- 
ings of  that  assembly  which  met  in  Octo- 
ber, 1356,  immediately  after  the  battle  of 
Poitiers,  by  no  means  leads  to  an  unfa- 
vourable estimate  of  its  intentions.*  The 
tone  of  their  representations  to  the  Duke 
of  Normandy  (Charles  V.,  not  then  call- 
ed dauphin)  is  full  of  loyal  respect ;  their 
complaints  of  bad  administration,  though 
bold  and  pointed,  not  outrageous  ;  their 
offers  of  subsidy  liberal.  The  necessity 
of  restoring  the  coin  is  strongly  repre- 
sented, as  the  grand  condition  upon  which 
they  consented  to  tax  the  people,  who 
had  been  long  defrauded  by  the  base 
money  of  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  succes- 
sors.! 

*  Cotton  MSS.  Titus,  t.  xii.,  fol.  58-74.  This 
manuscript  is  noticed,  as  an  important  document, 
in  the  preface  to  the  third  volume  of  Ordonnances, 
p.  48,  by  M.  Secousse,  who  had  found  it  mention- 
ed in  the  Bibliotheque  Historique  of  Le  Long,  No. 
11,242.  No  French  antiquary  appears,  at  least  be- 
fore that  time,  to  have  seen  it ;  but  Boulainvilliers 
conjectured  that  it  related  to  the  assembly  of  states 
in  February,  1356  (1357),  and  M.  Secousse  suppo- 
sed it  rather  to  be  the  original  journal  of  the  pre- 
ceding meeting  in  October,  1356,  from  which  a 
copy,  found  among  the  manuscripts  of  Dupuy,  and 
frequently  referred  to  by  Secousse  himself  in  his 
preface,  had  been  taken.  M.  Secousse  was  per- 
fectly right  in  supposing  the  manuscript  in  ques- 
tion to  relate  to  the  proceedings  of  October,  and  not 
of  February  ;  but  it  is  not  an  original  instrument. 
It  forms  part  of  a  small  volume  written  on  vellum, 
and  containing  several  other  treatises.  It  seems, 
however,  as  far  as  I  can  judge,  to  be  another  copy 
of  the  account  which  Dupuy  possessed,  and  which 
Secousse  so  often  quotes,  under  the  name  of  Pro- 
ces-verbal. 

f  Et  estoit  et  est  1'entente  de  ceulx  qui  a  la  ditte 
convocation  estoient  que  quelconque  ottroy  ou  ayde 
qu'ils  feissent,  ils  eussent  bonne  monnoye  et  esta- 
ble  selon  1'advis  des  trois  estats — et  que  les  char- 
tres  et  lettres  faites  pour  les  reformations  du  roy- 
aume  par  le  roy  Philippe  le  bel,  et  toutes  celles 
qui  furent  faites  par  le  roy  notre  seigneur  qui  est  a 
present  fussent  confirmees  enterinees  tenues  et 
gardees  de  point  en  point ;  et  toutes  les  aides  quel- 
conques  qui  faites  soient  fussent  recues  et  distri- 
butes par  ceulx  qui  soient  a  ce  commis  par  les  trois 
estats,  et  autorisees  par  M.  le  Due  et  sur  certaines 
autres  conditions  et  modifications  justes  et  raisson- 
ables  et  prouffitables  et  semble  que  ceste  aide  eust 
6te  moult  grant  et  moult  prouffitable,  et  trop  plus 
que  aides  de  fait  de  monnoye.  Car  elle  se  feroit 
de  volonte  du  peuple  et  consentement  commun 
selon  Dieu  et  selon  conscience  :  Et  le  prouffit  que 
on  prent  et  veult  on  prendre  sur  le  fait  de  la  mon- 
noye duquel  on  veult  faire  le  fait  de  la  guerre,  et 
ce  soil  a  la  destruction  et  a  este  au  temps  passe  du 
roy  et  du  royaume  et  des  subjets  ;  Et  si  se  destruit 
le  billon  tant  par  fontures  et  blanchis  comme  autre- 
ment,  ne  le  fait  ne  peuet  durer  longuement  qu'il  ne 
vienne  &  destruction  si  on  continue  longuement ; 
Et  si  est  tout  certain  que  les  gens  d'armes  ne 
vouldroient  estre  contens  de  leurs  gaiges  par  foible 
monnoye,  &c. 


But  whatever  opportunity  might  now 
be  afforded  for  establishing  a  just  Troubles 
and  free  constitution  in  France  *"  Paris, 
was  entirely  lost.  [A.  D.  1357.]  Charles, 
inexperienced  and  surrounded  by  evil 
counsellors,  thought  the  States  General 
inclined  to  encroach  upon  his  rights,  of 
which,  in  the  best  part  of  his  life,  he  was 
always  abundantly  careful.  He  dismiss- 
ed therefore  the  assembly,  and  had  re- 
course to  the  easy  but  ruinous  expedient 
of  debasing  the  coin.  This  led  to  sedi- 
tions at  Paris,  by  which  his  authority  and 
even  his  life  were  endangered.  In  Feb- 
ruary, 1357,  three  months  after  the  last 
meeting  had  been  dissolved,  he  was 
obliged  to  convoke  the  states  again,  and 
to  enact  an  ordinance  conformable  to  the 
petitions  tendered  by  the  former  assem- 
bly.* This  contained  many  excellent 
provisions,  both  for  the  redress  of  abuses, 
and  the  vigorous  prosecution  of  the  war 
against  Edward ;  and  it  is  difficult  to  con- 
ceive, that  men  who  advised  measures  so 
conducive  to  the  public  weal,  could  have 
been  the  blind  instruments  of  the  King 
of  Navarre.  But  this,  as  I  have  already 
observed,  is  a  problem  in  history  that 
we  cannot  hope  to  resolve.  It  appears, 
however,  that  in  a  few  weeks  after  the 
promulgation  of  this  ordinance,  the  pro- 
ceedings of  the  reformers  fell  into  dis- 
credit, and  their  commission  of  thirty-six, 
to  whom  the  collection  of  the  new  sub- 
sidy, the  redress  of  grievances,  and,  in 
fact,  the  whole  administration  of  govern- 
ment, had  been  intrusted,  became  unpop- 
ular. The  subsidy  produced  much  less 
than  they  had  led  the  people  to  expect ; 
briefly,  the  usual  consequence  of  demo- 
cratical  emotions  in  a  monarchy  took 
place.  Disappointed  by  the  failure  of 
hopes  unreasonably  entertained,  and  im- 
providently  encouraged,  and  disgusted  by 
the  excesses  of  the  violent  demagogues, 
the  nation,  especially  its  privileged  class- 
es, who  seem  to  have  concurred  in  the 
original  proceedings  of  the  States  Gen- 
eral, attached  themselves  to  the  party  of 
Charles,  and  enabled  him  to  quell  oppo- 
sition by  force. f  Marcel,  provost  of  the 
traders,  a  municipal  magistrate  of  Paris, 
detected  in  the  overt  execution  of  a  trai- 
torous conspiracy  with  the  King  of  Na- 
varre, was  put  to  death  by  a  private  hand. 
Whatever  there  had  been  of  real  patriot- 
ism in  the  States  General,  artfully  con- 
founded, according  to  the  practice  of 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  hi.,  p.  121. 

f  Discordia  mota,  illi  tres  status  ab  incepto  prp- 
posito  cessaverunt.  Ex  tune  enim  regni  negotia 
male  ire,  &c. — Continuator  Gul.  de  Nangis  in  Spi- 
cilegio,  t.  iii.,  p.  115. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


105 


courts,  with  these  schemes  of  disaffected 
men,  shared  in  the  common  obloquy; 
whatever  substantial  reforms  had  been 
projected,  the  government  threw  aside  as 
seditious  innovations.  Charles,  who  had 
assumed  the  title  of  regent,  found  in  the 
States  General  assembled  at  Paris  in 
1359,  a  very  different  disposition  from 
that  which  their  predecessors  had  dis- 
played, and  publicly  restored  all  counsel- 
lors whom  in  the  former  troubles  he  had 
been  compelled  to  discard.  Thus  the 
monarchy  resettled  itself  on  its  ancient 
basis  ;  or,  more  properly,  acquired  addi- 
tional stability.* 

Both  John,  after  the  peace  of  Bre- 
Taxes  im-  ^£m>  anc*  Charles  V.  imposed 
posed  by  taxes  without  consent  of  the 
John  and  States  General.f  The  latter  in- 
'  deed  hardly  ever  convoked  that 
assembly.  [A.  D.  1380.]  Upon  his  death 
Remedial  ^e  contention  between  the 
ordinance  of  crown  and  representative  body 
Charles  vi.  was  renewed,  and  in  the  first 
meeting  held  after  the  accession  of 
Charles  VI.  the  government  was  com- 
pelled to  revoke  all  taxes  illegally  im- 
posed since  the  reign  of  Philip  IV.  This 
is  the  most  remedial  ordinance,  perhaps, 
in  the  history  of  French  legislation.  "  We 
will,  ordain,  and  grant,"  says  the  king, 
"  that  the  aids,  subsidies,  and  impositions, 
of  whatever  kind,  and  however  imposed, 
that  have  had  course  in  the  realm  since 
the  reign  of  our  predecessor  Philip  the 
Fair,  shall  be  repealed  and  abolished  ; 
and  we  will  and  decree,  that  by  the  course 
which  the  said  impositions  have  had,  we 
or  our  successors  shall  not  have  acquired 
any  right,  nor  shall  any  prejudice  be 
wrought  to  our  people,  nor  to  their  privi- 
leges and  liberties,  which  shall  be  re- 
established in  as  full  a  manner  as  they 
enjoyed  them  in  the  reign  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  or  at  any  time  since  ;  and  we  will 
and  decree,  that  if  any  thing  has  been 
done  contrary  to  them  since  that  time 
to  the  present  hour,  neither  we  nor  our 
successors  shall  take  any  advantage 
therefrom. "J  If  circumstances  had  turn- 


*  A  very  full  account  of  these  transactions  is 
given  by  Secousse,  in  his  History  of  Charles  the 
Bad,  p.  107,  and  in  his  preface  to  the  third  volume 
of  the  Ordonn.  des  Rois.  The  reader  must  make 
allowance  for  the  usual  partialities  of  a  French  his- 
torian, where  an  opposition  to  the  reigning  prince 
is  his  subject.  A  contrary  bias  is  manifested  by 
Boulainvilliers  and  Mably,  whom,  however,  it  is 
well  worth  while  to  hear. 

t  Mably,  1.  v.,  c.  5,  note  5. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  Ti.,  p.  564.  The 
ordinance  is  long,  containing  frequent  repetitions, 
and  a  great  redundance  of  words,  intended  to  give 
more  force,  or  at  least  solemnity. 


ed  out  favourably  for  the  cause  of  liberty, 
this  ordinance  might  have  been  the  basis 
of  a  free  constitution,  in  respect  at  least 
of  immunity  from  arbitrary  taxation. 
But  the  coercive  measures  of  the  court 
and  tumultuous  spirit  of  the  Parisians 
produced  an  open  quarrel,  in  which  the 
popular  party  met  with  a  decisive  failure. 

It  seems  indeed  impossible,  that  a 
number  of  deputies,  elected  merely  for 
the  purpose  of  granting  money,  can  pos- 
sess that  weight,  or  be  invested  in  the 
eyes  of  their  constituents  with  that 
awfulness  of  station,  which  is  required 
to  withstand  the  royal  authority.  The 
States  General  had  no  right  of  redressing 
abuses,  except  by  petition ;  no  share  in 
the  exercise  of  sovereignty,  which  is 
inseparable  from  the  legislative  power. 
Hence,  even  in  their  proper  department 
of  imposing  taxes,  they  were  supposed 
incapable  of  binding  their  constituents 
without  their  specific  assent.  Whether 
it  were  the  timidity  of  the  deputies,  or 
false  notions  of  freedom,  which  produced 
this  doctrine,  it  was  evidently  repugnant 
to  the  stability  and  dignity  of  a  represent- 
ative assembly.  Nor  was  it  less  ruin- 
ous in  practice  than  mistaken  in  theory. 
For  as  the  necessary  subsidies,  after  be- 
ing provisionally  granted  by  the  states, 
were  often  rejected  by  their  electors,  the 
king  found  a  reasonable  pretence  for  dis- 
pensing with  the  concurrence  of  his  sub- 
jects when  he  levied  contributions  upon 
them. 

The  States  General  were  convoked  but 
rarely  under  Charles  VI.  and  States  General 

VII.,    both    Of    Whom    levied  under  Charles 

money  without  their  concur-  VII- 
rence.  Yet  there  are  remarkable  testi- 
monies under  the  latter  of  these  princes, 
that  the  sanction  of  national  representa- 
tives was  still  esteemed  strictly  requisite 
to  any  ordinance  imposing  a  general  tax, 
however  the  emergency  of  circumstances 
might  excuse  a  more  arbitrary  procedure. 
Thus  Charles  VII.,  in  1436,  declares  that 
he  has  set  up  again  the  aids  which  had 
been  previously  abolished  by  the  consent 
of  the  three  estates.*  And  in  the  important 
edict  establishing  the  companies  of  or- 
donnance,  which  is  recited  to  be  done  by 
the  advice  and  counsel  of  the  States  Gen- 
eral assembled  at  Orleans,  the  forty-first 
section  appears  to  bear  a  necessary  con- 
struction, that  no  tallage  could  lawfully 
be  imposed  without  such  consent. f  It  is 
maintained  indeed  by  some  writers,  that 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xiii.,  p.  211. 

f  Ibid.,  p.  312.  Boulainvilliers  mentions  other 
instances,  where  the  states  granted  money  during 
this  reign,  t.  iii.,  p.  70. 


106 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


the  perpetual  tattle  established  about  thi 
same  time  was  actually  granted  by  these 
states  of  1439,  though  it  does  not  so  ap 
pear  upon  the  face  of  any  ordinance.* 
And  certainly  this  is  consonant  to  the 
real  and  recognised  constitution  of  tha 
age? 

But  the  crafty  advisers  of  courts  in  the 
Provincial  fifteenth  century,  enlightened  by 
states.  experience  of  past  dangers,  were 
averse  to  encountering  these  great  polit- 
ical masses,  from  which  there  were,  even 
in  peaceful  times,  some  disquieting  inter- 
ferences, some  testimonies  of  public  spirit 
and  recollections  of  liberty  to  apprehend. 
The  kings  of  France,  indeed,  had  a  re- 
source, which  generally  enabled  them  to 
avoid  a  convocation  of  the  States  Gen- 
eral, without  violating  the  national  fran- 
chises. From  provincial  assemblies,  co  m- 
posed  of  the  three  orders,  they  usually 
obtained  more  money  than  they  could 
have  extracted  from  the  common  repre- 
sentatives of  the  nation,  and  heard  less 
of  remonstrance  and  demand.f  Langue- 
doc  in  particular  had  her  own  assembly 
of  states,  and  was  rarely  called  upon  to 
send  deputies  to  the  general  body,  or 
representatives  of  what  was  called  the 
Languedoil.  But  Auvergne,  Normandy, 
and  other  provinces  belonging  to  the  lat- 
ter division,  had  frequent  convocations  of 
their  respective  estates,  during  the  inter- 
vals of  the  States  General ;  intervals, 
which  by  this  means  were  protracted  far 
beyond  that  duration  to  which  the  exi- 
gences of  the  crown  would  otherwise 
have  confined  them.J  This  was  one  of 
the  essential  differences  between  the 
constitutions  of  France  and  England,  and 
arose  out  of  the  original  disease  of  the 
former  monarchy,  the  distraction  and 
want  of  unity  consequent  upon  the  de- 
cline of  Charlemagne's  family,  which 
separated  the  different  provinces  in  re- 
spect of  their  interests  and  domestic  gov- 
ernment from  each  other. 

But  the  formality  of  consent,  whether 
by  general  or  provincial  states,  now  ceas- 
ed to  be  reckoned  indispensable.  The 
lawyers  had  rarely  seconded  any  efforts 
to  restrain  arbitrary  power :  in  their  ha- 
tred of  feudal  principles,  especially  those 
of  territorial  jurisdiction,  every  generous 
sentiment  of  freedom  was  proscribed;  or 
if  they  admitted  that  absolute  prerogative 
might  require  some  checks,  it  was  such 
only  as  themselves,  not  the  national  rep- 
resentatives, should  impose.  Charles 


*  Brequigny,  preface  au  treizieme  tome  des  Or- 
donnances. — Boulainvilliers,  t.  iii.,  p.  108. 
t  Villaret,  t.  xi.,  p.  270. 
j  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  iii.,  preface. 


VII.  levied  money  by  his  own  authority. 
Louis  XI.  carried  this  encroach-  Taxes  of 
ment  to  the  highest  pitch,  of  ex-  ^^  XI- 
action.  It  was  the  boast  of  courtiers, 
that  he  first  released  the  kings  of  France 
from  dependance  (hors  de  page) ;  or,  in 
other  words,  that  he  effectually  demol- 
ished those  barriers,  which,  however  im- 
perfect and  ill-placed,  had  imposed  some 
impediment  to  the  establishment  of  des- 
potism.* 

The  exactions  of  Louis,  however, 
though  borne  with  patience,  did  not  pass 
for  legal  with  those  upon  whom  they 
pressed.  Men  still  remembered  their  an- 
cient privileges,  which  they  might  see 
with  mortification  well  preserved  in  Eng- 
land. "  There  is  no  monarch  or  lord 
upon  earth  (says  Philip  de  Comines,  him- 
self bred  in  courts),  who  can  raise  a  far- 
thing upon  his  subjects,  beyond  his  own 
domains,  without  their  free  concession, 
xcept  through  tyranny  and  violence.  l£ 
maybe  objected  that  in  some  cases  there 
may  not  be  time  to  assemble  them,  and 
that  war  will  bear  no  delay ;  but  I  reply  (he 
Droceeds),  that  such  haste  ought  not  to 

made,  and  there  will  be  time  enough ; 
and  I  tell  you  that  princes  are  more  pow- 
erful, and  more  dreaded  by  their  enemies, 
when  they  undertake  any  thing  with  the 
onsent  of  their  subje'cts."f 
The  States  General  met  but  twice  du- 
ring the  reign  of  Louis  XL,  and  states  Gene- 
on  neither  occasion  for  the  pur-  ral  °f  Tours 
)ose  of  granting  money.     But in 
an  assembly  in  the  first  year  of  Charles 
III.,  the  States  of  Tours,  in  1484,  is  too 
mportant  to  be  overlooked,  as  it  marks 
he  last  struggle  of  the  French  nation  by 
ts   legal  representatives  for  immunity 
rom  arbitrary  taxation. 

A  warm  contention  arose  for  the  re- 
gency upon  the  accession  of  Charles 
VIII. ,  between  his  aunt,  Anne  de  Beaujeu, 
whom  the  late  king  had  appointed  by  tes- 
ament,  and  the  princes  of  the  blood,  at 
he  head  of  whom  stood  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  afterward  Louis  XII.  The  lat- 
er combined  to  demand  a  convocation 


*  The  preface  to  the  sixteenth  volume  of  Ordon- 
ances,  before  quoted,  displays  a  lamentable  pic- 
ure  of  the  internal  situation  of  France  in  conse- 
jience  of  excessive  taxation,  and  other  abuses. 
These  evils,  in  a  less  aggravated  degree,  continued 
ver  since  to  retard  the  improvement,  and  diminish 
he  intrinsic  prosperity,  of  a  country  so  extraordi- 
larily  endowed  with  natural  advantages.  Philip 
le  Comines  was  forcibly  struck  with  the  different 
ituation  of  England  and  the  Netherlands.  And 
sir  John  Fortescue  has  a  remarkable  passage  on 
he  poverty  and  servitude  of  the  French  commons, 
Contrasted  with  English  freemen. — Difference  of 
imited  and  absolute  monarchy,  p.  17. 

f  Mem.  de  Comines,  1.  iv,,  c.  19. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


107 


of  the  States  General,  which  accordingly 
took  place.  The  king's  minority  and  the 
factions  at  court  seemed  no  unfavourable 
omens  for  liberty.  But  a  scheme  was 
artfully  contrived,  which  had  the  most 
direct  tendency  to  break  the  force  of  a 
popular  assembly.  The  deputies  were 
classed  in  six  nations,  who  debated  in 
separate  chambers,  and  consulted  each 
other  only  upon  the  result  of  their  re- 
spective deliberations.  It  was  easy  for 
the  court  to  foment  the  jealousies  natural 
to  such  a  partition.  Two  nations,  the 
Norman  and  Burgundian,  asserted  that 
the  right  of  providing  for  the  regency  de- 
volved, in  the  king's  minority,  upon  the 
States  General;  a  claim  of  great  bold- 
ness, and  certainly  not  much  founded 
upon  precedents.  In  virtue  of  this,  they 
proposed  to  form  a  council,  not  only  of 
the  princes,  but  of  certain  deputies,  to  be 
elected  by  the  six  nations  who  composed 
the  states.  But  the  other  four,  those  of 
Paris,  Aquitaine,  Languedoc,  and  Lan- 
guedoil  (which  last  comprised  the  cen- 
tral provinces),  rejected  this  plan,  from 
which  the  two  former  ultimately  desisted, 
and  the  choice  of  counsellors  was  left  to 
the  princes. 

A  firmer  and  more  unanimous  spirit 
was  displayed  upon  the  subject  of  public 
reformation.  The  tyranny  of  Louis  XI. 
had  been  so  unbounded,  that  all  ranks 
agreed  in  calling  for  redress,  and  the  new 
governors  were  desirous,  at  least  by  pun- 
ishing his  favourites,  to  show  their  incli- 
nation towards  a  change  of  system. 
They  were  very  far,  however,  from  ap- 
proving the  propositions  of  the  States 
General.  These  went  to  points  which 
no  court  can  bear  to  feel  touched,  though 
there  is  seldom  any  other  mode  of  re- 
dressing public  abuses ;  the  profuse  ex- 
pense of  the  royal  household,  the  num- 
ber of  pensions  and  improvident  grants, 
the  excessive  establishment  of  troops. 
The  states  explicitly  demanded  that  the 
taille  and  all  other  arbitrary  imposts 
should  be  abolished ;  and  that  from 
thenceforward,  "  according  to  the  natural 
liberty  of  France,"  no  tax  should  be  lev- 
ied in  the  kingdom  without  the  consent 
of  the  states.  It  was  with  great  difficul- 
ty, and  through  the  skilful  management 
of  the  court,  that  they  consented  to  the 
collection  of  the  taxes  payable  in  the  time 
of  Charles  VII.,  with  the  addition  of  one 
fourth,  as  a  gift  to  the  king  upon  his  ac- 
cession. This  subsidy  they  declare  to  be 
granted  "  by  way  of  gift  and  concession, 
and  not  otherwise,  and  so  as  no  one 
should  from  thenceforward  call  it  a  tax, 
but  a  gift  and  concession."  And  this 


was  only  to  be  in  force  for  two  years, 
after  which  they  stipulated  that  another 
meeting  should  be  convoked.  But  it  was 
little  likely  that  the  government  would 
encounter  such  a  risk ;  and  the  princes, 
whose  factious  views  the  states  had  by 
no  means  seconded,  felt  no  temptation  to 
urge  again  their  convocation.  No  as- 
sembly in  the  annals  of  France  seems, 
notwithstanding  some  party  selfishness 
arising  out  of  the  division  into  nations,  to 
have  conducted  itself  with  so  much  pub- 
lic spirit  and  moderation;  nor  had  that 
country  perhaps  ever  so  fair  a  prospect 
of  establishing  a  legitimate  constitution.* 
V.  The  right  of  jurisdiction  has  under- 
gone changes  in  France  and  in  successive 
the  adjacent  countries,  still  more 
remarkable  than  those  of  the 
legislative  power;  and  passed  France, 
through  three  very  distinct  stages,  as  the 
popular,  aristocratic,  or  regal  influence 
predominated  in  the  political  system. 
The  Franks,  Lombards,  and  original 
Saxons  seem  alike  to  have  been  scheme  of 
jealous  of  judicial  authority,  Jurisdl"tlon- 
and  averse  to  surrendering  what  con- 
cerned every  man's  private  right,  out  of 
the  hands  of  his  neighbours  and  his 
equals.  Every  ten  families  are  supposed 
to  have  had  a  magistrate  of  their  own 
election  :  the  tithing-man  of  England,  the 
decanus  of  France  and  Lombardy.f  Next 
in  order  was  the  centenarius  or  hundred- 
ary,  whose  name  expresses  the  extent 
of  his  jurisdiction,  and  who,  like  the  de- 
canus, was  chosen  by  those  subject  to 
it.|  But  the  authority  of  these  petty 
magistrates  was  gradually  confined  to  the 
less  important  subjects  of  legal  inquiry. 
No  man,  by  a  capitulary  of  Charlemagne, 
could  be  empleaded  for  his  life,  or  liberty, 
or  lands,  or  servants,  in  the  hundred 
court. §  In  such  weighty  matters,  or  by 

*  I  am  altogether  indebted  to  Gamier  for  the 
proceedings  of  the  States  of  Tours.  His  account, 
Hist,  de  France,  t.  xviii.,  p.  154-348,  is  extremely 
copious,  and  derived  from  a  manuscript  journal. 
Comines  alludes  to  them  sometimes,  but  with  little 
particularity. 

t  The  decanus  is  mentioned  by  a  writer  of  the 
ninth  age  as  the  lowest  species  of  judge,  immedi- 
ately under  the  centenarius.  The  latter  is  com- 
pared to  the  plebanus,  or  priest  of  a  church,  where 
baptism  was  performed,  and  the  former  to  an  in- 
ferior presbyter. — Du  Cange,  v.  Decanus;  and 
Muratori,  Antiq.  Ital.,  Dissert,  x. 

t  It  is  evident  from  the  Capitularies  of  Charle- 
magne, Baluze,  t.  i.,  p.  426  and  466,  that  the  cen- 
tenarii  were  elected  by  the  people  ;  that  is,  I  sup- 
pose, the  freeholders. 

§  Ut  nullus  homo  in  placito  centenarii  neque  ad 
mortem,  neque  ad  libertatem  suam  amittendam,  aut 
ad  res  reddendas  vel  mancipia  judicetur.  Sed  ista 
aut  in  praesentia  comitis  vel  missorum  nostrorum 
judicentur.— Capit.,  A.  D.  812.  Baluz.,  p.  497. 


108 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


way  of  appeal  from  the  lower  jurisdic- 
tions, the  count  of  the.  district  was  judge. 
He  indeed  was  appointed  by  the  sover- 
eign ;  but  his  power  was  checked  by  as- 
sessors, called  Scabini,  who  held  their 
office  by  the  election,  or  at  least  the  con- 
currence, of  the  people.*  These  Scabini 
may  be  considered  as  a  sort  of  jury, 
though  bearing  a  closer  analogy  to  the 
Judices  Selecti,  who  sat  with  the  pretor 
in  the  tribunals  of  Rome.  An  ultimate  ap- 
peal seems  to  have  lain  to  the  count  pal- 
atine, an  officer  of  the  royal  household ; 
and  sometimes  causes  were  decided  by 
the  sovereign  himself.f  Such  was  the 
original  model  of  judicature  ;  but  as  com- 
plaints of  injustice  and  neglect  were  fre- 
quently made  against  the  counts,  Charle- 
magne, desirous  on  every  account  to 
control  them,  appointed  special  judges, 
called  Missi  Regii,  who  held  as-sizes  from 
place  to  place,  inquired  into  abuses  and 
maladministration  of  justice,  enforced 
its  execution,  and  expelled  inferior  judges 
from  their  offices  for  misconduct. J 

This  judicial  system  was  gradually  su- 
perseded by  one  founded  upon  totally  op- 
posite principles,  those  of  feudal  privi- 
Territoriai  lege.  It  is  difficult  to  ascertain 
jurisdiction.  tne  progress  of  territorial  juris- 
diction. In  many  early  charters  of  the 
French  kings,  beginning  with  one  of 
Dagobert  I.,  in  630,  we  find  inserted  in 
their  grants  of  land  an  immunity  from  the 

*  Baluzii  Capitularia,  p.  466.  Muratori,  Dissert. 
10.  Du  Cange.  v.  Scabini.  These  Scabini  may  be 
traced  by  the  light  of  charters  down  to  the  eleventh 
century.— Recueildes  Historiens,  t.  vi.,  preface,  p. 
186.  There  is,  in  particular,  a  decisive  proof  of 
their  existence  in  918,  in  a  record  which  I  have  al- 
ready had  occasion  to  quote. — Vaissette,  Hist,  de 
Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  56.  Du  Cange, 
Baluze,  and  other  antiquaries,  have  confounded  the 
Scabini  with  the  Rachimburgii,  of  whom  we  read 
in  the  oldest  laws.  But  M.  Guizot  has  proved  the 
latter  were  landowners,  acting  in  the  county 
courts  as  judges  under  the  presidency  of  the  count, 
but  wholly  independent  of  him.  The  Scabini  in 
Charlemagne's  age  superseded  them.— Essai  sur 
PHistoire  de  France,  p.  259,  272. 

t  Du  Cange,  Dissertation  14,  sur  Joinville ;  and 
Glossary,  v.  Comites  Palatini;  Mem.  de  1'Acad. 
des  Inscript.,  t.  xxx.,  p.  590.  Louis  the  Debonair 
gave  one  day  in  every  week  for  hearing  causes ; 
»  but  his  subjects  were  required  not  to  have  recourse 
to  him,  unless  where  the  Missi  or  the  counts  had 
not  done  justice. — Baluze,  t.  i.,  p.  668.  Charles 
the  Bald  expressly  reserves  an  appeal  to  himself 
from  the  inferior  tribunals. — Capit.  869,  t.  ii.,  p.  2]  5. 
In  his  reign,  there  was  at  least  a  claim  to  sover- 
eignty preserved. 

t  For  the  jurisdiction  of  the  Missi  Regii,  besides 
the  Capitularies  themselves,  see  Muratori's  eighth 
Dissertation.  They  went  their  circuits  four  times 
a  year.— Capitul.,  A.  D.  812.  A.  D.  823.  A  ves- 
tige of  this  institution  long  continued  in  the  prov- 
ince of  Auvergne,  under  the  name  of  Grands  Jours 
d'Auvergne ;  which  Louis  XI.  revived  in  1479. — 
Gamier,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xviii.,  p.  458. 


entrance  of  the  ordinary  judges,  either  to 
hear  causes,  or  to  exact  certain  dues  ac- 
cruing to  the  king  and  to  themselves. 
These  charters  indeed  relate  to  church 
lands,  which,  as  it  seems  implied  by  a  law 
of  Charlemagne,  universally  possessed 
an  exemption  from  ordinary  jurisdiction. 
A  precedent,  however,  in  Marculfus,  leads 
us  to  infer  a  similar  immunity  to  have 
been  usually  in  gifts  to  private  persons.* 
These  rights  of  justice  in  the  beneficiary 
tenants  of  the  crown  are  attested  in  sev- 
eral passages  of  the  capitularies.  And  a 
charter  of  Louis  I.  to  a  private  individual 
contains  a  full  and  exclusive  concession 
of  jurisdiction  over  all  persons  resident 
within  the  territory,  though  subject  to  the 
appellant  control  of  the  royal  tribunals.! 
It  is  obvious,  indeed,  that  an  exemption 
from  the  regular  judicial  authorities  im- 
plied or  naturally  led  to  a  right  of  admin- 
istering justice  in  their  place.  But  this 
could  at  first  hardly  extend  beyond  the 
tributaries  or  villeins  who  cultivated  their 
master's  soil,  or,  at  most,  to  free  persons 
without  property,  resident  in  the  terri- 
tory. To  determine  their  quarrels,  or 
chastise  their  offences,  was  no  very  illus- 
trious privilege.  An  allodial  freeholder 
could  own  no  jurisdiction  but  that  of  the 
king.  It  was  the  general  prevalence  of 
sub-infeudation  which  gave  importance  to 
the  territorial  jurisdictions  of  the  nobility. 
For  now  the  military  tenants,  instead  of 
repairing  to  the  county-court,  sought 
justice  in  that  of  their  immediate  lord ; 
or  rather  the  count  himself,  become  the 
suzerain  instead  of  the  governor  of  his 
district,  altered  the  form  of  his  tribunal 
upon  the  feudal  model. J  A  system  of 
procedure  so  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  the 
age  spread  universally  over  France  and 


*  Marculfi  Formulae,  1.  i.,  c.  17. 

f  Et  nullus  comes,  nee  vicarius,  nee  juniores 
eorum,  nee  ullus  judex  publicus  illorum  homines, 
qui  super  illorum  aprisione  habitant,  aut  in  illorum 
proprio,  distringere  nee  judicare  praBsumant ;  sed 
Johannes  et  filii  sui,  et  posteritas  illorum,  illi  eos 
judicent  et  distringant.  Et  quicquid  per  legem 
judicaverint,  stabilis  permaneat.  Et  si  extra  legem 
fecerint,  per  legem  emendent. — Baluzii  Capitularia, 
t.  ii.,  p.  1405. 

This  appellant  control  was  preserved  by.  the 
capitulary  of  Charles  the  Bald,  quoted  already, 
over  the  territorial,  as  well  as  royal  tribunals.  Si 
aliquis  episcopus,  vel  comes  ac  vassus  noster  suo 
homini  contra  rectum  et  justitiam  fecerit,  et  si  inde 
ad  nos  reclamaverit,  sciat  quia,  sicut  ratio  et  lex 
est,  hoc  emendare  faciemus. 

J  We  may  perhaps  infer,  from  a  capitulary  of 
Charlemagne  in  809,  that  the  feudal  tenants  were 
already  employed  as  assessors  in  the  administra- 
tion of  justice,  concurrently  with  the  Scabini  men- 
tioned above.  Ut  nullus  ad  placitum  venire  coga- 
tur,  nisi  qui  causam  habet  ad  quajrendum,  exceptis 
scabinis  et  vassallis  comitum. — Baluz.,  Capitularia, 
t.  i.,p.  465. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


109 


Germany.  The  tribunals  of  the  king 
were  forgotten  like  his  laws ;  the  one  re- 
taining as  little  authority  to  correct,  as 
the  other  to  regulate,  the  decisions  of  a 
territorial  judge.  The  rules  of  evidence 
were  superseded  by  that  monstrous  birth 
of  ferocity  and  superstition,  the  judicial 
combat,  and  the  maxims  of  law  reduced 
to  a  few  capricious  customs,  which  varied 
in  almost  every  barony. 

These  rights  of  administering  justice 
were  possessed  by  the  owners  of  fiefs  in 
very  different  degrees ;  and,  in  -France, 
its  divisions,  were  divided  into  the  high,  the 
'  middle,  and  the  low  jurisdic- 
tion.* The  first  species  alone  (la  haute 
justice)  conveyed  the  power  of  life  and 
death ;  it  was  inherent  in  the  baron  and 
the  chatelain,  and  sometimes  enjoyed  by 
the  simple  vavassor.  The  lower  jurisdic- 
tions were  not  competent  to  judge  in 
capital  cases,  and  consequently  forced  to 
send  such  criminals  to  the  court  of  the 
superior.  But  in  some  places,  a  thief 
taken  in  the  fact  might  be  punished  with 
death  by  a  lord  who  had  only  the  low  ju- 
risdiction. In  England,  this  privilege  was 
known  by  the  uncouth  terms  of  Infangthef 
and  Outfangthef.  The  high  jurisdiction, 
however,  was  not  very  common  in  this 
country,  except  in  the  chartered  towns. f 

Several  customs  rendered  these  rights 
its  adminis-  of  jurisdiction  far  less  instru- 
tration.  mental  to  tyranny  than  we  might 
infer  from  their  extent.  While  the  counts 
were  yet  officers  of  the  crown,  they  fre- 
quently appointed  a  deputy,  or  viscount,  to 
administer  justice.  Ecclesiastical  lords, 
who  were  prohibited  by  the  canons  from 
inflicting  capital  punishment,  and  sup- 
posed to  be  unacquainted  with  the  law 
followed  in  civil  courts,  or  unable  to  en- 
force it,  had  an  officer  by  name  of  advo- 
cate or  vidame,  whose  tenure  was  often 
feudal  and  hereditary.  The  viguiers  (vi- 
carii),  bailiffs,  provosts,  and  seneschals  of 


*  Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  131.  Denisart,  Houard,  and 
other  law-books. 

t  A  strangely  cruel  privilege  was  possessed  in 
Aragon  by  the  lords  who  had  not  the  higher  juris- 
diction, and  consequently  could  not  publicly  exe- 
cute a  criminal ;  that  of  starving  him  to  death  in 
prison.  This  was  established  by  law  in  1247.  Si 
vassallus  dpmini  non  habentis  merum  nee  mixtum 
imperium,  in  loco  occiderit  vassallum,  dominus  loci 
potest  eum  occidere  fame,  frigore  et  siti.  Etquili- 
bet  dominus  loci  habet  hanc  jurisdictionem  necandi 
fame,  frigore  et  siti  in  suo  loco,  licet  nullam  aliam 
jurisdictionem  criminalem  habeat. — Du  Cange, 
voc.  Fame  necare. 

It  is  remarkable,  that  the  Neapolitan  barons  had 
no  criminal  jurisdiction,  at  least  of  the  higher  kind, 
till  the  reign  of  Alfonso,  in  1443,  who  sold  this  de- 
structive privilege,  at  a  time  when  it  was  almost 
abolished  in  other  kingdoms. — Giannone,  1.  xxii.,  c. 
5,  and  1.  xxvi.,  c.  6. 


lay  lords  were  similar  ministers,  though 
not  in  general  of  so  permanent  a  right  in 
their  offices,  or  of  such  eminent  station,  as 
the  advocates  of  monasteries.  It  seems 
to  have  been  an  established  maxim,  at 
least  in  later  times,  that  the  lord  could 
not  sit  personally  in  judgment,  but  must 
intrust  that  function  to  his  bailiff  and  vas- 
sals.* According  to  the  feudal  rules,  the 
lord's  vassals  or  peers  of  his  court  were 
to  assist  at  all  its  proceedings.  "  There 
are  some  places,"  says  Beaumanoir, 
"where  the  plaintiff  decides  in  judgment, 
and  others,  where  the  vassals  of  the  lord 
decide.  But  even  where  the  bailiff  is  the 
judge,  he  ought  to  advise  with  the  most 
prudent,  and  determine  by  their  advice ; 
since  thus  he  shall  be  most  secure  if  an 
appeal  is  made  from  his  judgment."! 
And  indeed  the  presence  of  these  asses- 
sors was  so  essential^  to  all  territorial 
jurisdiction,  that  no  lord,  to  whatever 
rights  of  justice  his  fief  might  entitle  him, 
was  qualified  to  exercise  them,  unless  he 
had  at  least  two  vassals  to  sit  as  peers 
in  his  court.J 

These  courts  of  a  feudal  barony  or 
manor  required  neither  the  knowledge  of 
positive  law,  nor  the  dictates  of  natural 
sagacity.  In  all  doubtful  cases,  and  es- 
pecially where  a  crime  not  capable  of 
notorious  proof  was  charged,  the  Trial  by 
combat  was  awarded;  and  God,  as  combat, 
they  deemed,  was  the  judge. $  The  no- 


*  Boutillier,  in  his  Somme  Rurale,  written  near 
the  end  of  the  fourteenth  century,  asserts  this  pos- 
itively. II  convient  quilz  facent  jugier  par  aultre 
que  par  eulx,  cest  a  savoir  par  leurs  hommes  feu- 
daulx  a  leur  semonce  et  conjurt  [7]  on  de  leur  bailiff 
ou  lieutenant,  et  ont  ressort  a  leur  souverain,  fol.  3. 

t  Coutumes  de  Beauvoisis,  p.  11. 

j  It  was  lawful,  in  such  case,  to  borrow  the  vas- 
sals of  the  superior  lord. — Thaumassiere  sur  Beau- 
manoir, p.  375.  See  Du  Cange,  v.  Pares  ;  an  ex- 
cellent article,  and  Placitum. 

In  England  a  manor  is  extinguished,  at  least  as 
to  jurisdiction,  when  there  are  not  two  freeholders 
subject  to  escheat  left  as  suiters  to  the  court-baron. 
Their  tenancy  must  therefore  have  been  created 
before  the  statute  of  Quia  emptores,  18  Edw.  I. 
(1290),  since  which  no  new  estate  in  fee  simple  can 
be  held  of  the  lord,  nor,  consequently,  be  liable  to 
escheat  to  him. 

$  Trial  by  combat  does  not  seem  to  have  estab- 


approved.  The  former  species  of  decision  may, 
however,  be  met  with  under  the  first  Merovingian 
kings  (Greg.  Turon.,  1.  vii.,  c.  19 ;  1.  x.,  c.  10),  and 
seems  to  have  prevailed  in  Burgundy.  It  is  estab- 
lished by  the  laws  of  the  Alemanni  or  Swabians. — 
Baluz.,  t.  i.,  p.  80.  It  was  always  popular  in  Lom- 
bardy.  Luitprand,  king  of  the  Lombards,  says  in 
one  of  his  laws  :  Incerti  sumus  de  judicio  Dei,  et 
quosdam  audivimus  per  pugnam  sine  justa  causa 
suam  causam  perdere.  Sed  propter  consuetudinem 
gentis  nostrae  Langobardorum  legem  impiam  vetare 


110 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    II. 


bleman  fought  on  horseback,  with  all  his 
arms  of  attack  and  defence ;  the  plebeian 
on  foot,  with  his  club  and  target.  The 
same  were  the  weapons  of  the  champi- 
ons, to  whom  women  and  ecclesiastics 
were  permitted  to  intrust  their  rights.* 
If  the  combat  was  intended  to  ascertain 
a  civil  right,  the  vanquished  party  of 
course  forfeited  his  claim,  and  paid  a  fine. 
If  he  fought  by  proxy,  the  champion  was 
liable  to  have  his  hand  struck  off;  a  reg- 
ulation necessary  perhaps  to  obviate  the 
corruption  of  these  hired  defenders.  In 
criminal  cases,  the  appellant  suffered,  in 
the  event  of  defeat,  the  same  punishment 
which  the  law  awarded  to  the  offence  of 
which  he  accused  his  adversary.!  Even 
where  the  cause  was  more  peaceably 
tried,  and  brought  to  a  regular  adjudica- 
tion by  the  court,  an  appeal  for  false 
judgment  might  indeed  be  made  to  the 
suzerain,  but  it  could  only  be  tried  by  bat- 
tle.:}: And  in  this,  the  appellant,  if  he 
would  impeach  the  concurrent  judgment 
of  the  court  below,  was  compelled  to 
meet  successively  in  combat  every  one 
of  its  members;  unless  he  should  van- 
quish them  all  within  the  day,  his  life,  if 
he  escaped  from  so  many  hazards,  was 
forfeited  to  the  law.  If  fortune  or  mira- 
cle should  make  him  conqueror  in  every 
contest,  the  judges  were  equally  subject 
to  death,  and  their  court  forfeited  their  ju- 
risdiction for  ever.  A  less  perilous  mode 
of  appeal  was  to  call  the  first  judge  who 
pronounced  a  hostile  sentence  into  the 
field.  If  the  appellant  came  off  victorious 
in  this  challenge,  the  decision  was  re- 
versed, but  the  court  was  not  impeached.  § 
But  for  denial  of  justice,  that  is,  for  a  re- 
fusal to  try  his  suit,  the  plaintiff  repaired 
to  the  court  of  the  next  superior  lord,  and 
supported  his  appeal  by  testimony.  ||  Yet, 

non  possumus.— Muratori,  Script.  Rerum  Italica- 
rum,  t.  ii.,  p.  65.  Otho  II.  established  it  in  all  dis- 
putes concerning  real  property ;  and  there  is  a  fa- 
mous case,  where  the  right  of  representation,  or 
E reference  of  the  son  of  a  deceased  elder  child  to 
is  uncle  in  succession  to  his  grandfather's  estate, 
was  settled  by  this  test. 

*  For  the  ceremonies  of  trial  by  combat,  see 
Houard,  Anciennes  Loix  Francoises,  t.  i.,  p.  264. 
"Velly,  t.  vi.,  p.  106.  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi., 
preface,  p.  189.  Du  Cange,  v.  Duellum.  The 
great  original  authorities  are  the  Assises  de  Jeru- 
salem, c.  104,  and  Beaumanoir,  c.  31. 

t  Beaumanoir,  p.  315. 

j  Idem,  c.  61.  In  England  the  appeal  for  false 
judgment  to  the  king's  court  was  not  tried  by  battle. 
— Glanvil,  1.  xii.,  c.  7. 

$  Idem,  c.  61. 

II  Id.,  p.  315.  The  practice  was  to  challenge  the 
second  witness,  since  the  testimony  of  one  was  in- 
sufficient. But  this  must  be  done  before  he  com- 
pletes his  oath,  says  Beaumanoir,  for  after  he  has 
been  sworn,  he  must  be  heard  and  believed,  p.  316. 


even  here,  the  witnesses  might  be  defied, 
and  the  pure  stream  of  justice  turned  at 
once  into  the  torrent  of  barbarous  con- 
test.* 

Such  was  the  judicial  system  of  France, 
when  St.  Louis  enacted  that  great  Estabiish- 
code  which  bears  the  name  of  his  ments  of 
Establishments.  The  rules  of  St>  L< 
civil  and  criminal  procedure,  as  well  as 
the  principles  of  legal  decisions,  are  there 
laid  down  with  much  detail.  But  that 
incomparable  prince,  unable  to  overthrow 
the  judicial  combat,  confined  himself  to 
discouraging  it  by  the  example  of  a  wiser 
jurisprudence.  It  was  abolished  through- 
out the  royal  domains.  The  bailiffs  and 
seneschals  who  rendered  justice  to  the 
king's  immediate  subjects,  were  bound  to 
follow  his  own  laws.  He  not  only  re- 
ceived appeals  from  their  sentences  in 
his  own  court  of  peers,  but  listened  to 
all  complaints  with  a  kind  of  patriarchal 
simplicity.  "  Many  times,"  says  Joinville, 
"  I  have  seen  the  good  saint,  after  hearing 
mass  in  the  summer  season,  lay  himself 
at  the  foot  of  an  oak  in  the  wood  of 
Vincennes,  and  make  us  all  sit  round 
him;  when  those  who  would  came  and 
spake  to  him,  without  let  of  any  officer, 


No  one  was  bound,  as  we  may  well  believe,  to  be 
a  witness  for  another,  in  cases  where  such  an  ap- 
peal might  be  made  from  his  testimony. 

*  Mably  is  certainly  mistaken  in  his  opinion,  that 
appeals  for  denial  of  justice  were  not  older  than 
the  reign  of  Philip  Augustus.— (Observations  sur 
1'Hist.  de  F.,  1.  iii.,  c.  3.)  Before  this  time  the  vas- 
sal's remedy,  he  thinks,  was  to  make  war  upon  his 
lord.  And  this  may  probably  have  been  frequently 
practised.  Indeed  it  is  permitted,  as  we  have  seen, 
by  the  code  of  St.  Louis.  But  those  who  were  not 
strong  enough  to  adopt  this  dangerous  means  of 
redress,  would  surely  avail  themselves  of  the  as- 
sistance of  the  suzerain,  which  in  general  would  be 
readily  afforded.  We  find  several  instances  of  the 
king's  interference  for  the  redress  of  injuries,  in 
Suger's  life  of  Louis  VI.  That  active  and  spirited 
prince,  with  the  assistance  of  his  illustrious  biogra- 
pher, recovered  a  great  part  of  the  royal  authority, 
which  had  been  reduced  to  the  lowest  ebb  in  the 
long  and  slothful  reign  of  his  father,  Philip  I.  One 
passage,  especially,  contains  a  clear  evidence  of 
the  appeal  for  denial  of  justice,  and  consequently 
refutes  Mably 's  opinion.  In  1105,  the  inhabitants 
of  St.  Severe,  in  Berri,  complain  of  their  lord 
Humbald,  and  request  the  king  aut  ad  exequendam 
justitiam  cogere,  aut  jure  pro  injuria  castrum  lege 
Salica  amittere.  I  quote  from  the  preface;  to  the 
fourteenth  volume  of  the  Recueil  des  Historiens,  p. 
44.  It  may  be  noticed  by  the  way,  that  lex  Salica 
is  here  used  for  the  feudal  customs;  in  which 
sense  I  believe  it  not  unfrequently  occurs.  Many 
proofs  might  be  brought  of  the  interposition  of  both 
Louis  VI.  and  VII.  in  the  disputes  between  their 
barons  and  arriere  vassals.  Thus  the  war  between 
the  latter  and  Henry  II.  of  England,  in  1166,  was 
occasioned  by  his  entertaining  a  complaint  from  the 
Count  of  Auvergne,  without  waiting  for  the  decis- 
ion of  Henry,  as  Duke  of  Guienne. — Velly,  t.  iii.,  p. 
190.  Lyttleton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  448.  Recu- 
eil des  Historiens,  ubi  supra,  p.  49. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


Ill 


and  he  would  ask  aloud  if  there  were  any 
present  who  had  suits;  and  when  they 
appeared,  would  bid  two  of  his  bailiffs 
determine  their  cause  upon  the  spot."* 

The  influence  of  this  new  jurisprudence 
established  by  St.  Louis,  combined  with 
the  great  enhancements  of  the  royal  pre- 
rogatives in  every  other  respect,  produ- 
ced a  rapid  change  in  the  legal  adminis- 
tration of  France.  Though  trial  by  com- 
bat occupies  a  considerable  space  in  the 
work  of  Beaumanoir,  written  under  Phil- 
ip the  Bold,  it  was  already  much  limited. 
Appeals  for  false  judgment  might  some- 
times be  tried,  as  he  expresses  it,  par  erre- 
mens  de  plait,  that  is,  I  presume,  where 
the  alleged  error  of  the  court  below  was 
in  matter  of  law.  For  wager  of  battle 
was  chiefly  intended  to  ascertain  contro- 
verted facts. f  So  where  the  suzerain 
saw  clearly  that  the  judgment  of  the  in- 
ferior court  was  right,  he  ought  not  to 
permit  the  combat.  Or  if  the  plaintiff, 
even  in  the  first  instance,  could  produce 
a  record  or  a  written  obligation ;  or  if  the 
fact  before  the  court  was  notorious,  there 
was  no  room  for  battle.^  It  would  be  a 
hard  thing,  says  Beaumanoir,  that  if  one 
had  killed  my  near  relation  in  open  day, 
before  many  credible  persons,  I  should  be 
compelled  to  fight  in  order  to  prove  his 
death.  This  reflection  is  the  dictate  of 
common  sense,  and  shows  that  the  pre- 
judice in  favour  of  judicial  combat  was 
dying  away.  In  the  Assises  de  Jerusa- 
lem, a  monument  of  customs  two  hun- 
dred years  earlier  than  the  age  of  Beau- 
manoir, we  find  little  mention  of  any 
other  mode  of  decision.  The  compiler 
of  that  book  thinks  it  would  be  very  in- 
jurious, if  no  wager  of  battle  were  to  be 
allowed  against  witnesses  in  causes  af- 
fecting succession;  since  otherwise  ev- 
ery right  heir  might  be  disinherited,  as  it 
would  be  easy  to  find  two  persons  who 
would  perjure  themselves  for  money,  if 
they  had  no  fear  of  being  challenged  for 
their  testimony.^  This  passage  indicates 
the  real  cause  of  preserving  the  judicial 
combat ;  systematic  perjury  in  witness- 
es, and  want  of  legal  discrimination  in 
judges. 

It  was,  in  all  civil  suits,  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  litigant  parties,  to  adopt  the 
law  of  the  Establishments  instead  of  re- 
sorting to  combat.  ||  As  gentler  manners 
prevailed,  especially  among  those  who 
did  not  make  arms  their  profession,  the 
wisdom  and  equity  of  the  new  code  were 
naturally  preferred.  The  superstition 

*  Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  i.,  p.  25. 

t  Beaumanoir,  p.  22.       t  Id.,  p.  314. 

$  C.  167.  II  Beaumanoir,  p.  309. 


|  which  had  originally  led  to  the  latter  lost 
its  weight  through  experience  and  the 
uniform  opposition  of  the  clergy.     The 
same  superiority  of  just  and  settled  rules 
over  fortune  and  violence,  which  had  for- 
warded the  encroachments  of  the  eccle- 
siastical courts,  was  now  manifested  in 
those  of  the  king.     Philip  Augustus,  by  a 
famous  ordinance  in  1190,  first  establish- 
ed royal  courts  of  justice,  held  by  the 
officers  called  bailiffs  or  seneschals,  who 
acted  as  the  king's  lieutenants  in  his  do- 
mains.*   Every  barony,  as  it  became  re- 
united to  the  crown,  was  subjected  to  the 
jurisdiction  of  one  of  these  officers,  and 
took  the  name  of  a  bailliage  or  a  senes- 
chaussee ;    the  former  name  prevailing 
most  in  the  northern,  the  latter  in  the 
southern  provinces.     The  vassals  whose 
lands  depended  upon,  or,  in  feudal  lan- 
guage, moved  from  the  superiority  of  this 
fief,  were  obliged  to  submit  to  the  ressort 
or  supreme  appellant  jurisdiction  of  the 
royal  court  established  in  it.f    This  be- 
gan rapidly  to  encroach  upon  the  feudal 
rights  of  justice.    In  a  variety  of  cases, 
termed  royal,  the  territorial  court  was 
pronounced  incompetent ;  they  were  re- 
served for  the  judges  of  the 
crown ;  and,  in  every  case,  un-  J2jaJ1Sibu 
less  the  defendant  excepted  to  progress  of 
the  jurisdiction,  the  royal  court  Jjjj0iuri8~ 
might  take  cognizance  of  a  suit, 
and  decide  it  in  exclusion  of  the  feudal 
judicature. I    The  nature  of  cases  reserv- 
ed under  the  name  of  royal  was  kept  in 
studied  ambiguity,  under  cover  of  which 
the  judges  of  the  crown  perpetually  strove 
to  multiply  them.     Louis  X.,  when  re- 
quested by  the  barons  of  Champagne  to 
explain  what  was  meant  by  royal  causes, 
gave  this  mysterious  definition:   Every 
thing  which  by  right  or  custom  ought  ex- 
clusively to  come  under  the  cognizance 
of  a  sovereign  prince. §     Vassals  were 
permitted  to  complain  in  the  first  instance 
to  the  king's  court,  of  injuries  committed 
by  their  lords.     These  rapid  and  violent 
encroachments  left  the  nobility  no  alter- 
native but  armed  combinations  to  support 
their  remonstrances.     Philip  the  Fair  be- 
queathed to  his  successor  the  task  of  ap- 
peasing a  storm  which  his  own  adminis- 
tration had  excited.     Leagues  were  form- 
ed in  most  of  the  northern  provinces  for 
the  redress  of  grievances,  in  which  the 
third  estate,  oppressed  by  taxation,  uni- 

*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  18. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Ballivi.  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 
scriptions, t.  xxx.,  p.  603.  Mably,  1.  iv.,  c.  4.  Bou- 
lainvilliers,  t.  ii.,  p.  22. 

t  Mably,  Boulainvilliers.    Montlosier,  t.  i.,  p.  104. 

§  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  p.  606. 


112 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[GHAP.  II. 


ted  with  the  vassals,  whose  feudal  privi- 
leges had  been  infringed.  Separate  char- 
ters were  granted  to  each  of  these  con- 
federacies by  Louis  Hutin,  which  con- 
tain many  remedial  provisions  against 
the  grosser  violations  of  ancient  rights, 
though  the  crown  persisted  in  restrain- 
ing territorial  jurisdictions.*  Appeals  be- 
came more  common  for  false  judgment, 
as  well  as  denial  of  right ;  and  in  neither 
was  the  combat  permitted.  It  was  still, 
however,  preserved  in  accusations  of  hei- 
nous crimes,  unsupported  by  any  testi- 
mony but  that  of  the  prosecutor,  and  was 
never  abolished  by  any  positive  law,  ei- 
ther in  France  or  England.  But  instan- 
ces of  its  occurrence  are  not  frequent 
even  in  the  fourteenth  century  ;  and  one 
of  these,  rather  remarkable  in  its  circum- 
stances, must  have  had  a  tendency  to  ex- 
plode the  remaining  superstition  which 
had  preserved  this  mode  of  decision.! 

The  supreme  council,  or  court  of  peers, 
Royal  coun-  to  whose  deliberative  functions 
eii,  or  court  I  have  already  adverted,  was 
ofpeers.  ajso  fae  great  judicial  tribu- 
nal of  the  French  crown  from  the  acces- 
sion of  Hugh  Capet.  By  this  alone  the 
barons  of  France,  or  tenants  in  chief  of 
the  king,  could  be  judged.  To  this  court 
appeals  for  denials  of  justice  were  refer- 
red. It  was  originally  composed,  as  has 
been  observed,  of  the  feudal  vassals,  co- 
equals  of  those  who  were  to  be  tried  by 
it;  and  also  of  the  household  officers, 
whose  right  of  concurrence,  however 
anomalous,  was  extremely  ancient.  J  But 
after  the  business  of  the  court  came  to 

*  Hoc  perpetuo  prohibemus  edicto,  ne  subditi, 
seu  justiciaries  praelatorum  aut  baronum  nostro- 
rum  aut  aliorum  subjectorum  nostrorum,  trahan- 
tur  in  causam  coram  nostris  officialibus,  nee  eorum 
causae,  nisi  in  casu  ressorti,  in  nostris  curiis  audian- 
tur,  vel  in  alio  casu  ad  nos  pertinent!. — Ordonnan- 
ces des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  362.  This  ordinance  is  of 
Philip  the  Fair,  in  1302 ;  but  those  passed  under 
Louis  Hutin  are  to  the  same  effect.  They  may  be 
read  at  length  in  the  Ordonnances  des  Rois;  or 
abridged  by  Boulainvilliers,  t.  ii.,  p.  94. 

t  Philip  IV.  restricted  trial  by  combat  to  cases 
where  four  conditions  were  united.  The  crime 
must  be  capital :  Its  commission  certain :  The  ac- 
cused greatly  suspected :  And  no  proof  to  be  ob- 
tained by  witnesses.  Under  these  limitations,  or 
at  least  some  of  them,  for  it  appears  that  they  were 
not  all  regarded,  instances  occur  for  some  cen- 
turies. 

See  the  singular  story  of  Carouges  and  Le  Gris, 
to  which  1  allude  in  the  text.— Villaret,  t.  xi.,  p.  412. 
Trial  by  combat  was  allowed  in  Scotland  exactly 
under  the  same  conditions  as  in  France.— Pinker- 
ton's  Hist,  of  Scotl.v  vol.  i.,  p.  66. 

t  This  court  had  always,  it  must  be  owned,  a 
pretty  considerable  authority  over  some  of  the 
royal  vassals.  Even  in  Robert's  reign,  the  Count 
of  Anjou  and  another  nobleman  of  less  importance 
were  summoned  before  it. — Recueil  des  Historiens, 
t.  x..  p.  473.  4719. 


increase  through  the  multiplicity  of  ap- 
peals, especially  from  the  bailiffs  estab- 
lished by  Philip  Augustus  in  the  royal 
domains,  the  barons  found  neither  leisure 
nor  capacity  for  the  ordinary  administra- 
tion of  justice,  and  reserved  their  attend- 
ance for  occasions  where  some  of  their 
own  orders  were  implicated  in  a  criminal 
process.  St  Louis,  anxious  for  regular- 
ity and  enlightened  decisions,  cours  po- 
made a  considerable  alteration  nieres. 
by  introducing  some  counsellors  of  infe- 
rior rank,  chiefly  ecclesiastics,  as  advi- 
sers of  the  court,  though,  as  is  supposed, 
without  any  decisive  suffrage.  The  court 
now  became  known  by  the  name  of  par- 
liament. Registers  of  its  proceedings 
were  kept,  of  which  the  earliest  extant 
are  of  the  year  1254.  It  was  still  per- 
haps in  some  degree  ambulatory ;  but  by 
far  the  greater  part  of  its  sessions  in  the 
thirteenth  century  were  at  Paris.  The 
counsellors  nominated  by  the  king,  some 
of  them  clerks,  others  of  noble  rank,  but 
not  peers  of  the  ancient  baronage,  ac- 
quired insensibly  a  right  of  suffrage.* 

An  ordinance  of  Philip  the  Fair  in  1302 
is  generally  supposed  to  have  parliament 
fixed  the  seat  of  parliament  at  «f  Paris. 
Paris,  as  well  as  altered  its  constituent 
parts. f  Perhaps  a  series  of  progressive 
changes  has  been  referred  to  a  single 
epoch.  But  whether  by  virtue  of  this 
ordinance,  or  of  more  gradual  events,  the 
character  of  the  whole  feudal  court  was 
nearly  obliterated  in  that  of  the  parlia- 
ment of  Paris.  A  systematic  tribunal 
took  the  place  of  a  loose  aristocratic  as- 
sembly. It  was  to  hold  two  sittings  in 
the  year,  each  of  two  months'  duration ; 
it  was  composed  of  two  prelates,  two 
counts,  thirteen  clerks,  and  as  many  lay- 
men. Great  changes  were  made  after- 
ward in  this  constitution.  The  nobility, 
who  originally  sat  there,  grew  weary  of 
an  attendance  which  detained  them  from 
war  and  from  their  favourite  pursuits  at 
lome.  The  bishops  were  dismissed  to 
;heir  necessary  residence  upon  obligations 
their  sees. |  As  they  withdrew,  of  a  vassal, 
that  class  of  regular  lawyers,  original- 


*  Boulainvilliers,  t.  ii.,  p.  29,  44.  Mably,  1.  iv., 
c.  2.  Encyclopedic,  Art.  Parlement.  Mem.  de 
'A cad.  des  Inscript.,  t.  xxx.,  p.  603.  The  great 
difficulty  I  have  found  in  this  investigation  will 
>lead  my  excuse  if  errors  are  detected. 

t  Pasquier  (Recherch.es  de  la  France,  1.  ii.,  c.  3) 
iublished  this  ordinance,  which,  indeed,  as  the  ed- 
tor  of  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  547,  observes, 
is  no  ordinance,  but  a  regulation  for  the  execution 
of  one  previously  made ;  nor  doe's  it  establish  the 
residence  of  the  Parliament  of  Paris. 

t  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  vii.,  p.  303,  and  En- 
cyclopedic, Art.  Parlement,  are  the  best  authorities 
I  have  found.  There  may  very  possibly  be  supe- 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


113 


ly  employed,  as  it  appears,  in  the  pre- 
paratory business  without  any  decisive 
voice,  came  forward  to  the  higher  places, 
and  established  a  complicated  and  tedi- 
ous system  of  procedure,  which  was  al- 
ways characteristic  of  French  jurispru- 
dence. They  introduced  at  the  same 
time  a  new  theory  of  absolute  power 
and  unlimited  obedience.  All  feudal 
Decline  of  privileges  were  treated  as  en- 
the  feudal  croachments  on  the  imprescrip- 
tible rights  of  monarchy.  With 
the  natural  bias  of  lawyers  in  favour  of 
prerogative  conspired  that  of  the  clergy, 
who  fled  to  the  king  for  refuge  against 
the  tyranny  of  the  barons.  In  the  civil 
and  canon  laws  a  system  of  political 
maxims  was  found,  very  uncongenial  to 
the  feudal  customs.  The  French  law- 
yers of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies frequently  gave  their  king  the  title 
of  emperor,  and  treated  disobedience  to 
him  as  sacrilege.* 

But  among  these  lawyers,  although  the 
general  tenants  of  the  crown  by  barony 
ceased  to  appear,  there  still  continued  to 
sit  a  more  eminent  body,  the  lay  and 
Peers  of  spiritual  peers  of  France,  repre- 
France.  sentatives,  as  it  were,  of  that  an- 
cient baronial  aristocracy.  It  is  a  very  con- 
troverted question  at  what  time  this  exclu- 
sive dignity  of  peerage,  a  word  obviously 
applicable  by  the  feudal  law  to  all  persons 
coequal  in  degree  of  tenure,  was  reserv- 
ed to  twelve  vassals.  At  the  coronation 
of  Philip  Augustus,  in  1179,  we  first  per- 
ceive the  six  great  feudatories,  dukes  of 
Burgundy,  Normandy,  Guienne,  counts  of 
Toulouse,  Flanders,  Champagne,  distin- 
guished by  the  offices  they  performed  in 
that  ceremony.  It  was  natural  indeed 
that,  by  their  princely  splendour  and  im- 
portance, they  should  eclipse  such  petty 
lords  as  Bourbon  and  Coucy,  however 
equal  in  quality  of  tenure.  During  the 
reign  of  Philip  Augustus,  six  ecclesiasti- 
cal peers,  the  duke-bishops  of  Rheims, 
Laon,  and  Langres,  the  count-bishops  of 
Beauvais,  Chalons,  and  Noyon,  were 
added,  as  a  sort  of  parallel  or  counter- 
poise, f  Their  precedence  does  not,  how- 
ever, appear  to  have  carried  with  it  any 
other  privilege,  at  least  in  judicature, 
than  other  barons  enjoyed.  But  their 
pre-eminence  being  fully  confirmed,  Phil- 
ip the  Fair  set  the  precedent  of  augment- 
ing their  original  number,^:  by  conferring 
the  dignity  of  peerage  on  the  Duke  of 

rior  works  on  this  branch  of  the  French  constitu- 
tion, which  have  not  fallen  into  my  hands. 

*  Mably,  1.  iv.,  c.  2,  note  10. 

t  Velly,  t.  ii,  p.  287 ;  t.  lii.,  p.  221 ;  t.  iv.,  p.  41. 

J  Ibid.,  t.  vii.,  p.  97. 
H 


Britany  and  the  Count  of  Artois.  Oth- 
er creations  took  place  subsequently;  but 
they  were  confined,  during  the  period 
comprised  in  this  work,  to  princes  of  the 
royal  blood.  The  peers  were  constant 
members  of  the  parliament,  from  which 
other  vassals  holding  in  chief  were  nev- 
er perhaps  excluded  by  law,  but  their  at- 
tendance was  rare  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, and  soon  afterward  ceased  altogeth- 
er.* 

A  judicial  body  composed  of  the  great- 
est nobles  in  France,  as  well  as  Pro  regg  of 
of  learned  and  eminent  law-  thejurisdic- 
yers,  must  naturally  have  soon  tio" .of  the 
become  politically  important.  p 
Notwithstanding  their  disposition  to  en- 
hance every  royal  prerogative,  as  op- 
posed to  feudal  privileges,  the  parliament 
was  not  disinclined  to  see  its  own  pro- 
tection invoked  by  the  subject.  It  ap- 
pears by  an  ordinance  of  Charles  V.,  in 
1371,  that  the  nobility  of  Languedoc  had 
appealed  to  the  parliament  of  Paris 
against  a  tax  imposed  by  the  king's  au- 
thority; and  this,  at  a  time  when  the 
French  constitution  did  not  recognise  the 
levying  of  money  without  consent  of  the 
States  General,  must  have  been  a  just 
ground  of  appeal,  though  the  present  ordi- 
nance annuls  and  overturns  it.f  During 
the  tempests  of  Charles  VI. 's  unhappy 
reign,  the  parliament  acquired  a  more 
decided  authority,  and  held,  in  some  de- 
gree, the  balance  between  the  contending 
factions  of  Orleans  and  Burgundy.  This 
influence  was  partly  owing  to  one  re- 
markable function  attributed  to  the  par- 
liament, which  raised  it  much  above  the 
level  of  a  merely  political  tribunal,  and 
has  at  various  times  wrought  striking 
effects  in  the  French  monarchy. 

The  few  ordinances  enacted  by  kings 
of  France  in  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth  centuries  were  gen- 
erally  by  the  advice  of  their 
royal  council,  in  which  prob-  ment> 
ably  they  were  solemnly  declared  as  well 
as  agreed  upon.  But  after  the  gradual 
revolution  of  government,  which  took 
away  from  the  feudal  aristocracy  all  con- 
trol over  the  king's  edicts,  and  substi- 
tuted a  new  magistracy  for  the  ancient 
baronial  court,  these  legislative  ordi- 
nances were  commonly  drawn  up  by  the 
interior  council,  or  what  we  may  call  the 
ministry.  They  were  in  some  instances 
promulgated  by  the  king  in  parliament. 
Others  were  sent  thither  for  registration, 
or  entry  upon  their  records.  This  for- 
mality was  by  degrees,  if  not  from  the 


*  Encyclopedic,  Art.  Parlement,  p.  6. 
t  Mably,  1.  v.,  c.  5,  note  5. 


114 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP,  II. 


beginning,  deemed  essential  to  render 
them  authentic  and  notorious,  and  there- 
fore indirectly  gave  them  the  sanction 
and  validity  of  a  law.*  Such,  at  least, 
appears  to  have  been  the  received  doc- 
trine before  the  end  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  It  has  been  contended  by 
Mably  among  other  writers,  that  at  so 
early  an  epoch,  the  parliament  of  Paris 
did  not  enjoy,  nor  even  claim  to  itself,  that 
anomalous  right  of  judging  the  expedi- 
ency of  edicts  proceeding  from  the  king, 
which  afterward  so  remarkably  modified 
the  absoluteness  of  his  power.  In  the 
fifteenth  century,  however,  it  certainly 
manifested  pretensions  of  this  nature : 
first,  by  registering  ordinances  in  such  a 
manner  as  to  testify  its  own  unwilling- 
ness and  disapprobation,  of  which  one  in- 
stance occurs  as  early  as  1418,  and  an- 
other in  1443  ;  and,  afterward,  by  remon- 
strating against,  and  delaying  the  regis- 
tration of  laws,  which  it  deemed  inimical 
to  the  public  interest.  A  conspicuous 
proof  of  this  spirit  was  given  in  their  op- 
position to  Louis,  XL  when  repealing  the 
Pragmatic  Sanction  of  his  father ;  an  or- 
dinance essential,  in  their  opinion,  to  the 
liberties  of  the  Gallican  church.  In  this 
instance  they  ultimately  yielded ;  but  at 
another  time  they  persisted  in  a  refusal 
to  enregister  letters  containing  an  aliena- 
tion of  the  royal  domain. f 

The  counsellors   of  parliament  were 
Counsellors  of  originally  appointed    by  the 

P2nt«Hbr  &P~  kin£  ;     alld    tne7    were    even 

life  and  by  changed  according  to  circum- 
eiection.  stances.  Charles  V.  made 
the  first  alteration,  by  permitting  them  to 
fill  up  vacancies  by  election ;  which  usage 
continued  during  the  next  reign.  Charles 
VII.  resumed  the  nomination  of  fresh 
members  upon  vacancies.  Louis  XI. 
even  displaced  actual  counsellors.  But 
in  1468,  from  whatever  motive,  he  pub- 
lished a  most  important  ordinance,  de- 
claring the  presidents  and  counsellors  of 
parliament  immoveable,  except  in  case 
of  legal  forfeiture. |  This  extraordinary 
measure  of  conferring  independence  on 
a  body,  which  had  already  displayed  a 
consciousness  of  its  eminent  privilege 
by  opposing  the  registration  of  his  edicts, 
is  perhaps  to  be  deemed  a  proof  of  that 
short-sightedness  as  to  points  of  substan- 
tial interest  so  usually  found  in  crafty 
men.  But,  be  this  as  it  may,  there  was 
formed  in  the  parliament  of  Paris  an  in- 


*  Encyclopedic,  Art.  Parlement. 

t  Mably,  1.  vi.,  c.  5,  note  19  and  21.  Gamier, 
Hist,  de  France,  t.  xvii.,  p.  219,  380. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xiv.,  p.  231.  Encyclopedic,  Art. 
Parlement. 


dependent  power  not  emanating  from  the 
royal  wil),  nor  liable,  except  through 
force,  to  be  destroyed  by  it;  which,  in 
later  times,  became  almost  the  sole  de- 
positary, if  not  of  what  we  should  call 
the  love  of  freedom,  yet  of  public  spirit 
and  attachment  to  justice.  France,  so 
fertile  of  great  men  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  might  better  spare, 
perhaps,  from  her  annals  any  class  and 
description  of  them  than  her  lawyers. 
Doubtless  the  parliament  of  Paris,  with 
its  prejudices  and  narrow  views,  its  high 
notions  of  loyal  obedience,  so  strangely 
mixed  up  with  remonstrances  and  resist- 
ance, its  anomalous  privilege  of  objecting 
to  edicts,  hardly  approved  by  the  nation 
who  did  not  participate  in  it,  and  over- 
turned with  facility  by  the  king,  when- 
ever he  thought  fit  to  exert  the  sinews  of 
his  prerogative,  was  but  an  inadequate 
substitute  for  that  co-ordinate  sover- 
eignty, that  equal  concurrence  of  natural 
representatives  in  legislation,  which  has 
long  been  the  exclusive  pride  of  our  gov- 
ernment, and  to  which  the  States  Gen-  , 
eral  of  France,  in  their  best  days,  had  " 
never  aspired.  No  man  of  sane  under- 
standing would  desire  to  revive  institu- 
tions both  uncongenial  to  modern  opin- 
ions and  to  the  natural  order  of  society. 
Yet  the  name  of  the  parliament  of  Paris 
must  ever  be  respectable.  It  exhibited, 
upon  various  occasions,  virtues  from 
which  human  esteem  is  as  inseparable  as 
the  shadow  from  the  substance ;  a  severe 
adherence  to  principles,  an  unaccommo- 
dating sincerity,  individual  disinterested- 
ness and  consistency.  Whether  indeed 
these  qualities  have  been  so  generally 
characteristic  of  the  French  people  as  to 
afford  no  peculiar  commendation  to  the 
parliament  of  Paris,  it  is  rather  for  the 
observer  of  the  present  day  than  the  his- 
torians of  past  times  to  decide.* 


*  The  province  of  Languedoc,  with  its  depend- 
ances  of  Quercy  and  Rouergue,  having  belonged 
almost  in  full  sovereignty  to  the  counts  of  Tou- 
louse, was  not  perhaps  subject  to  the  feudal  resort, 
or  appellant  jurisdiction  of  any  tribunal  at  Paris. 
Philip  the  Bold,  after  its  reunion  to  the  crown,  es- 
tablished the  parliament  of  Toulouse,  a  tribunal 
without  appeal,  in  1280.  This  was  however  sus- 
pended from  1291  to  1443,  during  which  interval 
the  parliament  of  Paris  exercised  an  appellant 
jurisdiction  over  Languedoc. — Vaissette,  Hist,  de 
Lang.,  t.  iv.,  p.  60,  71,  524.  Sovereign  courts  or 
parliaments  were  established  by  Charles  VII.  at 
Grenoble  for  Dauphine,  and  by  Louis  XI.  at  Bor- 
deaux and  Dijon  for  Guienne  and  Burgundy.  The 
parliament  of  Rouen  is  not  so  ancient.  These  in- 
stitutions rather  diminished  the  resort  of  the  par- 
liament of  Paris,  which  had  extended  over  Bur- 
gundy, and,  in  time  of  peace,  over  Guienne. 

A  work  has  appeared  within  a  very  few  years, 
which  throws  an  abundant  light  on  the  judicial 
system,  and  indeed  on  the  whole  civil  policy  of 


PART  I!.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


115 


The  principal  causes  that  operated  in 
f    subverting   the    feudal    system 

Oft uses  ot  .,  1111 

the  decline  may  be  comprehended  under 
of  the  feu-  three  distinct  heads;  the  in- 
"'  creasing  power  of  the  crown, 
the  elevation  of  the  lower  ranks,  and  the 
decay  of  the  feudal  principle. 

It  has  been  my  object  in  the  last  pages 
Acquisi-  to  Pomt  out  the  acquisitions  of 
tions  of"  power  by  the  crown  of  France 
power  by  jn  respect  of  legislative  and  ju- 
"'  dicial  authority.  The  principal 
augmentations  of  its  domain  have  been 
Augments-  historically  mentioned  in  the 
tionofthe  last  chapter;  but  the  subject 
domain.  may  here  require  further  notice. 
The  French  kings  naturally  acted  upon  a 
system,  in  order  to  recover  those  pos- 
sessions which  the  improvidence  or  ne- 
cessities of  the  Carlovingian  race  had 
suffered  almost  to  fall  away  from  the 
monarchy.  This  course,  pursued  with 
tolerable  steadiness  for  two  or  three  cen- 
turies, restored  their  effective  power. 
By  escheat  or  forfeiture,  by  bequest  or 
succession,  a  number  of  fiefs  were  mer- 
ged in  their  increasing  domain.*  It  was 


France,  as  well  as  other  countries,  during  the  mid- 
dle ages.  I  allude  to  L'Esprit,  Origine  et  Progres 
des  Institutions  judiciaires  des  principaux  Pays  de 
1'Europe,  by  M.  Meyer,  of  Amsterdam;  especially 
the  first  and  third  volumes.  It  would  have  been 
fortunate  had  its  publication  preceded  that  of  the 
first  edition  of  the  present  work  ;  as  I  might  have 
rendered  this  chapter  on  the  feudal  system  in  many 
respects  more  perspicuous  and  correct.  As  it  is, 
without  availing  myself  of  M.  Meyer's  learning  and 
acuteness  to  illustrate  the  obscurity  of  these  re- 
searches, or  discussing  the  few  questions  upon 
which  I  might  venture,  with  deference,  to  adhere 
to  another  opinion,  neither  of  which  could  con- 
veniently be  done  on  the  present  occasion,  I  shall 
content  myself  with  this  general  reference  to  a  per- 
formance of  singular  diligence  and  ability,  which 
no  student  of  these  antiquities  should  neglect.  In 
all  essential  points  I  am  happy  not  to  perceive  that 
M.  Meyer's  views  of  the  middle  ages  are  far  differ- 
ent from  my  own. — Note  to  the  fourth  edit. 

*  The  word  domain  is  calculated,  by  a  seeming 
ambiguity,  to  perplex  the  reader  of  French  history. 
In  its  primary  sense,  the  domain  or  demesne  (do- 
minicum)  of  any  proprietor  was  confined  to  the 
lands  in  his  immediate  occupation ;  excluding 
those  of  which  his  tenants,  whether  in  fief  or  vil- 
lanage,  whether  for  a  certain  estate  or  at  will,  had 
an  actual  possession,  or,  in  our  law-language,  per- 
nancy  of  the  profits.  Thus  the  compilers  of 
Domesday-Book  distinguish,  in  every  manor,  the 
lands  held  by  the  lord  in  demesne  from  those  occu- 
pied by  his  villeins  or  other  tenants.  And  in  Eng- 
land, the  word,  if  not  technically,  yet  in  use  is  still 
confined  to  this  sense.  But  in  a  secondary  accep- 
tation, more  usual  in  France,  the  domain  compre- 
hended all  lands  for  which  rent  was  paid  (censives), 
and  which  contributed  to  the  regular  annual  rev- 
enue of  the  proprietor.  The  great  distinction  was 
between  lands  in  demesne  and  those  in  fief.  A 
grant  of  territory,  whether  by  the  king  or  another 
lord,  comprising  as  well  domanial  estates  and  tribu- 
tary towns  as  feudal  superiorities,  was  expressed  | 


part  of  their  policy  to  obtain  possession 
of  arriere-fiefs,  and  thus  to  become  ten- 
ants of  their  own  barons.  In  such  cases 
the  king  was  obliged,  by  the  feudal  du- 
ties, to  perform  homage,  by  proxy,  to  his 
subjects,  and  engage  himself  to  the  ser- 
vice of  his  fief.  But,  for  every  political 
purpose,  it  is  evident  that  the  lord  could 
have  no  command  over  so  formidable  a 
vassal.* 

The  reunion  of  so  many  fiefs  was  at- 
tempted to  be  secured  by  a  legal  princi- 
ple, that  the  domain  was  inalienable  and 
imprescriptible.  This  became  at  length  a 
fundamental  maxim  in  the  law  of  France. 
But  it  does  not  seem  to  be  much  older 
than  the  reign  of  Philip  V.,  who,  in  1318, 
revoked  the  alienations  of  his  predeces- 
sors, nor  was  it  thoroughly  established, 
even  in  theory,  till  the  fifteenth  century,  f 
Alienations,  however,  were  certainly  very 
repugnant  to  the  policy  of  Philip  Augus- 
tus and  St.  Louis.  But  there  was  one 
species  of  infeudation,  so  consonant  to 
ancient  usage  and  prejudice,  that  it  could 
not  be  avoided  upon  any  suggestions  of 
policy ;  this  was  the  investiture  of  young- 
er princes  of  the  blood  with  considera- 
ble territorial  appanages.  It  is  remarka- 
ble that  the  epoch  of  appanages  on  so 
great  a  scale  was  the  reign  of  St.  Louis, 
whose  efforts  were  constantly  directed 
against  feudal  independence.  Yet  he  in- 
vested his  brothers  with  the  counties  of 
Poitou,  Anjou,  and  Artois,  and  his  sons 
with  those  of  Clermont  and  Alen9on. 


to  convey  "  in  dominico  quod  est  in  dominico,  et  in 
"eodo  quod  est  in  feodo."  Since,  therefore,  fiefs, 
even  those  of  the  vavassors  or  inferior  tenantry, 
were  not  part  of  the  lord's  domain,  there  is,  as  I 
said,  an  apparent  ambiguity  in  the  language  of  his- 
;orians  who  speak  of  the  reunion  of  provinces  to 
;he  royal  domain.  This  ambiguity,  however,  is 
rather  apparent  than  real.  When  the  dutchy  of 
Normandy,  for  example,  is  said  to  have  been  uni- 
ted by  Philip  Augustus  to  his  domain,  we  are  not, 
of  course,  to  suppose  that  the  soil  of  that  province 
became  the  private  estate  of  the  crown.  It  con- 
inued,  as  before,  in  the  possession  of  the  Norman 
barons  and  their  sub-vassals,  who  had  held  their 
estates  of  the  dukes.  But  it  is  meant  only  that 
he  King  of  France  stood  exactly  in  the  place  of 
he  Duke  of  Normandy,  with  the  same  rights  of 
possession  over  lands  absolutely  in  demesne,  of 
•ents  and  customary  payments  from  the  burgesses 
of  towns  and  tenants  in  roture  or  villanage,  and  of 
feudal  services  from  the  military  vassals.  The  im- 
mediate superiority,  and  the  immediate  resort  or 
urisdiction  over  these,  devolved  to  the  crown ; 
and  thus  the  dutchy  of  Normandy,  considered  as 
a  fief,  was  reunited,  or,  more  properly,  merged  in 
;he  royal  domain,  though  a  very  small  part  of  the 
territory  might  become  truly  domanial. 

*  See  a  memorial  on  the  acquisition  of  arriere- 
fiefs  by  the  kings  of  France,  in  Me"m.  de  1'Acad. 
des  Inscript.,  t.  1,  by  M.  Dacier. 

f  Preface  au  15me  tome  des  Ordonnances,  par 
M.  de  Pastoret. 


116 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  1L 


This  practice,  in  later  times,  produced 
very  mischievous  consequences. 

Under  a  second  class  of  events  that 
contributed  to  destroy  the  spirit  of  the 
feudal  system,  we  may  reckon  the  aboli- 
tion of  villanage ;  the  increase  of  com- 
merce, and  consequent  opulence  of  mer- 
chants and  artisans ;  and  especially  the 
institutions  of  free  cities  and  boroughs. 
This  is  one  of  the  most  important  and 
interesting  steps  in  the  progress  of  soci- 
ety during  the  middle  ages,  and  deserves 
particular  consideration. 

The  provincial  cities  under  the  Roman 
Free  and  empire  enjoyed,  as  is  well  known, 
chartered  a  municipal  magistracy  and  the 
towns,  rig^  Of  internal  regulation.  It 
would  not  have  been  repugnant,  perhaps, 
to  the  spirit  of  the  Frank  and  Gothic  con- 
querors, to  have  left  them  in  possession 
of  these  privileges.  But  there  seems  no 
satisfactory  proof  that  they  were  pre- 
served either  in  France  or  in  Italy  ;*  or, 
if  they  existed  at  all,  they  were  swept 
away,  in  the  former  country,  during  the 
confusion  of  the  ninth  century,  which 
ended  in  the  establishment  of  the  feudal 
system.  Every  town,  except  within  the 
royal  domains,  was  subject  to  some  lord. 
In  episcopal  cities  the  bishop  possessed 
a  considerable  authority;  and  in  many 
there  was  a  class  of  resident  nobility. 
It  is  probable  that  the  proportion  of  free- 
men was  always  greater  than  in  the 
country;  some  sort  of  retail  trade,  and 
even  of  manufacture,  must  have  existed 
in  the  rudest  of  the  middle  ages,  and  con- 
sequently some  little  capital  was  required 
for  their  exercise.  Nor  was  it  so  easy  to 
oppress  a  collected  body,  as  the  scatter- 
ed and  dispirited  cultivators  of  the  soil. 
Probably  therefore  the  condition  of  the 
towns  was  at  all  times  by  far  the  more 
tolerable  servitude ;  and  they  might  en- 
joy several  immunities  by  usage,  before 
the  date  of  those  charters  which  gave 
them  sanction.  In  Provence,  where  the 
feudal  star  shone  with  a  less  powerful 
ray,  the  cities,  though  not  independently 
governed,  were  more  flourishing  than  the 
French.f  Marseilles,  in  the  beginning  of 

*  M.  de  Brequigny  says  that  Lyons  and  Rheims 
can  trace  their  own  municipal  government  some 
centuries  higher  than  the  establishment  of  com- 
munes by  Louis  VI.  The  former  city,  which  indeed 
was  not  French  at  that  time,  never  had  a  charter 
of  incorporation.— Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xi., 
preface,  p.  4.  This  preface  contains  an  excellent 
account  of  the  origin  and  privileges  of  chartered 
towns  in  France. 

t  There  were  more  freemen  in  Provence,  says 
an  historian  of  the  country,  than  in  any  other  part 
of  France ;  and  the  revolutions  of  the  monarchy 
being  less  felt  than  elsewhere,  our  towns  naturally 


the  twelfth  age,  was  able  to  equip  pow- 
erful navies,  and  to  share  in  the  wars  of 
Genoa  and  Pisa  against  the  Saracens  of 
Sardinia. 

The  earliest  charters  of  community 
granted  to  towns  in  France  have  Earliest 
been  commonly  referred  to  the  charters, 
time  of  Louis  the  Sixth  ;  though  it  is  not 
improbable  that  some  cities  in  the  south 
had  a  municipal  government  by  custom,  if 
not  by  grant,  at  an  earlier  period.*  Noyon, 
St.  Quentin,  Laon,  and  Amiens  appeared 
to  have  been  the  first  that  received  eman- 
cipation at  the  hands  of  this  prince. f  The 

preserved  their  municipal  government.  I  have 
borrowed  this  quotation  from  Heeren,  Essai  sur 
I'lnfluence  des  Croisades,  p.  122,  to  whom  I  am  in- 
debted for  other  assistance.  Vaissette  also  thinks 
that  the  inhabitants  of  towns  in  Languedoc  were 
personally  free  in  the  tenth  century ;  though  those 
of  the  country  were  in  servitude. — Hist,  de  Lan- 
guedoc, t.  ii.,  p.  111. 

*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  ubi  supra,  p.  7.  These 
charters  are  as  old  as  1110,  but  the  precise  date  is 
unknown. 

t  The  Benedictine  historians  of  Languedoc  are 
of  opinion  that  the  city  of  Nismes  had  municipal 
magistrates  even  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth  centu-  J 
ry,  t.  ii.,  p.  111.  However  this  maybe,  the  citizens 
of  Narbonne  are  expressly  mentioned  in  1080.— Ap- 
pendix, p.  208.  The  burgesses  of  Carcassone  appear 
by  name  in  a  charter  of  1107,  p.  515.  In  one  of 
1131,  the  consuls  of  Beziers  are  mentioned;  they 
existed  therefore  previously,  p.  409,  and  Appen- 
dix, p.  959.  The  magistrates  of  St.  Antonin  en 
Rouergue  are  named  in  1136  ;  those  of  Montpelier 
in  1142 ;  of  Narbonne  in  1148 ;  and  of  St.  Gilles  in 
1149,  pp.  515,  432,  442,  464.  The  capitouls  of 
Toulouse  pretend  to  an  extravagant  antiquity ;  but 
were  in  fact  established  by  Alfonso,  count  of  Tou- 
louse, who  died  in  1148.  In  1152,  Raymond  V.  con- 
firmed the  regulations  made  by  the  common  coun- 
cil of  Toulouse,  which  became  the  foundation  of 
the  customs  of  that  city,  p.  472. 

If  we  may  trust  altogether  to  the  Assises  de  Je- 
rusalem in  their  present  shape,  the  court  of  bur- 
gesses having  jurisdiction  over  persons  of  that  rank 
was  instituted  by  Godfrey  of  Bouillon,  who  died 
1100. — Ass.  de  Jerus.,  c.  2.  This  would  be  even  ear- 
lier than  the  charter  of  London,  granted  by  Henry 
I.  Lord  Lyttleton  goes  so  far  as  to  call  it  "  certain, 
that  in  England  many  cities  and  towns  were  bod- 
ies corporate  and  communities  long  before  the  alter- 
ation introduced  into  France  by  the  charters  of 
Louis  le  Gros.'V-Hist.  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  29. 
But  this  position,  as  I  shall  more  particularly  show 
in  another  place,  is  not  borne  out  by  any  good 
authority,  if  it  extends  to  any  internal  jurisdiction, 
and  management  of  their  own  police ;  whereof, 
except  in  the  instance  of  London,  we  have  no 
proof  before  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 

But  the  incorporation  of  communities  seems  to 
have  been  decidedly  earlier  in  Spain  than  in  any 
other  country.  Alfonso  V.,  in  1020,  granted  a  char- 
ter to  Leon,  which  is  said  to  mention  the  common 
council  of  that  city  in  terms  that  show  it  to  be  an 
established  institution.  During  the  latter  part  of 
the  eleventh  century,  as  well  as  in  subsequent 
times,  such  charters  are  very  frequent. — Marina, 
Ensayo  Historico-Critico  sobre  las  siete  partidas. 
In  several  instances,  we  rind  concessions  of  smaller 
privileges  to  towns  without  any  political  power. 
Thus  Berenger,  count  of  Barcelona,  in  1025  con- 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


117 


chief  towns  in  the  royal  domains  were 
successively  admitted  to  the  same  privi- 
leges during  the  reigns  of  Louis  VI.,  Louis 
VII.,  and  Philip  Augustus.  This  exam- 
ple was  gradually  followed  by  the  peers 
and  other  barons ;  so  that  by  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  custom  had 
causes  of  prevailed  over  all  France.  It 
fhem'not  to  s  ^een  sometimes  imagined, 
be  found  in  that  the  crusades  had  a  mate- 
the  crusades,  rial  influence  in  promoting  the 
erection  of  communities.  Those  expedi- 
tions would  have  repaid  Europe  for  the 
prodigality  of  crimes  and  miseries  which 
attended  them,  if  this  notion  were  found- 
ed in  reality.  But  I  confess  that  in  this, 
as  in  most  other  respects,  their  beneficial 
consequences  appear  to  me  very  much 
exaggerated.  The  cities  of  Italy  obtain- 
ed their  internal  liberties  by  gradual  en- 
croachments, and  by  the  concessions  of 
the  Franconian  emperors.  Those  upon 
the  Rhine  owed  many  of  their  privile- 
ges to  the  same  monarchs,  whose  cause 
they  had  espoused  in  the  rebellions  of 
Germany.  In  France,  the  charters  grant- 
ed by  Louis  the  Fat  could  hardly  be  con- 
nected with  the  first  crusade,  in  which 
the  crown  had  taken  no  part,  and  were 
long  prior  to  the  second.  It  was  not 
till  fifty  years  afterward  that  the  barons 
seem  to  have  trod  in  his  steps  by  granting 
charters  to  their  vassals,  and  these  do 
not  appear  to  have  been  particularly  re- 
lated in  time  to  any  of  the  crusades. 
Still  less  can  the  corporations,  erected 
by  Henry  II.  in  England,  be  ascribed  to 
these  holy  wars,  in  which  our  country 
had  hitherto  taken  no  considerable  share. 
The  establishment  of  chartered  towns 
nor  in  deiib-  m  France  has  also  been  ascri- 
erate  poi-  bed  to  deliberate  policy.  "  Lou- 
icy-  is  the  Gross,"  says  Robertson, 

firms  to  the  inhabitants  of  that  city  all  the  franchi- 
ses which  they  already  possess.  These  seem  how- 
ever to  be  confined  to  exemption  from  paying  rent, 
and  from  any  jurisdiction  below  that  of  an  officer  de- 
puted by  the  count. — De  Marca,  Marca  Hispanica, 
p.  1038.  Another  grant  occurs  in  the  same  volume, 
p.  909,  from  the  Bishop  of  Barcelona  in  favour  of 
a  town  of  his  diocess.  By  some  inattention,  Rob- 
ertson has  quoted  these  charters  as  granted  to  "  two 
villages  in  the  county  of  Rousillon." — Hist.  Charles 
V.,  note  16.  The  charters  of  Tortosa  and  Lerida 
in  1149  do  not  contain  any  grant  of  jurisdiction,  p. 
1303. 

The  corporate  towns  in  France  and  England 
always  enjoyed  fuller  privileges  than  these  Cata- 
lonian  charters  impart.  The  essential  character- 
istics of  a  commune,  according  to  M.  Brequigny, 
were  : — an  association  confirmed  by  charter ;  a 
code  of  fixed  sanctioned  customs ;  and  a  set  of 
privileges,  always  including  municipal  or  elective 
government. — Ordonnances,  ubi  supra,  p.  3.  A 
distinction  ought  however  to  be  pointed  out,  which 
is  rather  liable  to  elude  observation,  between  com- 


"  in  order  to  create  some  power  that 
I  might  counterbalance  those  potent  vas- 
sals who  controlled  or  gave  law  to  the 
crown,  first  adopted  the  plan  of  confer- 
ring new  privileges  on  the  towns  situa- 
ted within  his  own  domain."  Yet  one 
does  not  immediately  perceive  what 
strength  the  king  could  acquire  by  grant- 
ing these  extensive  privileges  within  his 
own  domains,  if  the  great  vassals  were 
only  weakened,  as  he  asserts  afterward, 
by  following  his  example.  In  what 
sense,  besides,  can  it  be  meant,  that 
Noyon  or  Amiens,  by  obtaining  certain 
franchises,  became  a  power  that  could 
counterbalance  the  Duke  of  Normandy 
or  Count  of  Champagne?  It  is  more 
natural  to  impute  this  measure,  both  in 
the  king  and  his  barons,  to  their  pecunia- 
ry exigencies ;  for  we  could  hardly  doubt 
that  their  concessions  were  sold  at  the 
highest  price,  even  if  the  existing  char- 
ters did  not  exhibit  the  fullest  proof  of 
it.*  It  is  obvious,  however,  that  the 
coarser  methods  of  rapine  must  have 
grown  obsolete,  and  the  rights  of  the  in- 
habitants of  towns  to  property  establish- 
ed, before  they  could  enter  into  any  com- 
pact with  their  lord  for  the  purchase  of 
liberty.  Guibert,  abbot  of  St.  No-  circum- 
gent,  near  Laon,  relates  the  estab-  stances 
lishment  of  a  community  in  that  Jfg'jSj 
city  with  circumstances  that,  in  the  treaty  of 
main,  might  probably  occur  in  any  Laon- 
other  place.  Continual  acts  of  violence 
and  robbery  having  been  committed, 
which  there  was  no  police  adequate  to 
prevent,  the  clergy  and  principal  inhabi- 
tants agreed  to  enfranchise  the  populace 
for  a  sum  of  money,  and  to  bind  the 
whole  society  by  regulations  for  general 
security.  These  conditions  were  gladly 
accepted ;  the  money  was  paid,  and  the 
leading  men  swore  to  maintain  the  priv- 


munes,  or  corporate  towns,  and  boroughs  (bourge- 
oisies). The  main  difference  was,  that  in  the  lat- 
ter there  was  no  elective  government,  the  magis- 
trates being  appointed  by  the  king  or  other  supe- 
rior. In  the  possession  of  fixed  privileges  and  ex- 
emptions, in  the  personal  liberty  of  their  inhabitants, 
and  in  the  certainty  of  their  legal  usages,  there 
was  no  distinction  between  corporate  towns  and 
mere  boroughs  ;  and  indeed  it  is  agreed  that  every 
corporate  town  was  a  borough,  though  every  bor- 
ough was  not  a  corporation. f  The  French  anti- 
quary quoted  above  does  not  trace  these  inferior 
communities  or  boroughs  higher  than  the  charters 
of  Louis  VI.  But  we  find  the  name,  and  a  good 
deal  of  the  substance,  in  England  under  William 
the  Conqueror,  as  is  manifest  from  Domesday-Book. 

*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xi.,  preface,  p.  18  et  50. 

t  The  preface  to  the  twelfth  volume  of  Ordonnances  des 
Rois  contains  a  full  account  of  bourgeoisies,  as  that  to 
the  eleventh  does  of  communes.  A  great  part  of  it,  how- 
ever, is  applicable  to  both  species,  or  rather  to  the  genua 
and  the  species. — See  too  that  to  the  fourteenth  volume  of 
Recueil  des  Historiens,  p.  74. 


118 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II, 


ileges  of  the  inferior  freemen.  The 
Bishop  of  Laon,  who  happened  to  be  ab- 
sent, at  first  opposed  this  new  institution, 
but  was  ultimately  induced  by  money  to 
take  a  similar  oath  ;  and  the  community 
was  confirme  by  the  king.  Unluckily 
for  himself,  the  bishop  afterward  annull- 
ed the  charter;  when  the  inhabitants,  in 
despair  at  seeing  themselves  reduced  to 
servitude,  rose  and  murdered  him.  This 
was  in  1112  ;  and  Guibert's  narrative  cer- 
tainly does  not  support  the  opinion  that 
charters  of  community  proceeded  from 
the  policy  of  government.  He  seems  to 
have  looked  upon  them  with  the  jealousy 
of  a  feudal  abbot,  and  blames  the  Bishop 
of  Amiens  for  consenting  to  such  an  es- 
tablishment in  his  city,  from  which,  ac- 
cording to  Guibert,  many  evils  resulted. 
In  his  sermons,  we  are  told,  this  abbot 
used  to  descant  on  "  those  execrable  com- 
munities, where  serfs,  against  law  and 
justice,  withdraw  themselves  from  the 
power  of  their  lords."* 

In  some  cases  they  were  indebted  for 
success  to  their  own  courage  and  love  of 
liberty.  Oppressed  by  the  exactions  of 
their  superiors,  they  had  recourse  to 
•*rms,  and  united  themselves  in  a  com- 
mon league  confirmed  by  oath,  for  the 
sake  of  redress.  One  of  these  associa- 
tions took  place  at  Mans  as  early  as 
1067,  and,  though  it  did  not  produce  any 
charter  of  privileges,  is  a  proof  of  the 
spirit  to  which  ultimately  the  superior 
classes  were  obliged  to  submit.f  Sev- 
eral charters  bear  witness  that  this  spir- 
it of  resistance  was  justified  by  oppres- 
sion. Louis  VII.  frequently  declares 
the  tyranny  exercised  over  the  towns  to 
be  his  motive  for  enfranchising  them. 
Thus  the  charter  of  Mantes  in  1150  is 
said  to  be  given  pro  nimia  oppressione 
pauperum:  that  of  Compiegne  in  1153, 
propter  enormitates  clericorum  :  that  of 
Dourlens,  granted  by  the  Count  of  Pon- 
thieu  in  1202,  propter  injurias  et  moles- 
tias  a  potentibus  terrae  burgensibus  fre- 
quenter illatas.J 

The  privileges  which  these  towns  of 
The  extent  France  derived  from  their  char- 
of  their  ters  were  surprisingly  exten- 
prmieges.  sjve ;  especially  if  we  do  not 
suspect  some  of  them  to  be  merely  in 
confirmation  of  previous  usages.  They 
were  made  capable  of  possessing  com- 
mon property,  and  authorized  to  use  a 
common  seal  as  the  symbol  of  their  in- 
corporation. The  more  oppressive  and 

*  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  x.,  448.  Du 
Cange,  voc.  Communia. 

t  Recueil  des  Historians,  t.  xiv.,  preface,  p.  66. 
t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xi.,  preface,  p.  17. 


ignominious  tokens  of  subjection,  such  as 
the  fine  paid  to  the  lord  for  permission 
to  marry  their  children,  were  abolished. 
Their  payments  of  rent  or  tribute  were 
limited  both  in  amount  and  as  to  the  oc- 
casions when  they  might  be  demanded  : 
and  these  were  levied  by  assessors  of 
their  own  electing.  Some  obtained  an 
exemption  from  assisting  their  lord  in 
war ;  others  were  only  bound  to  follow 
him  when  he  personally  commanded; 
and  almost  all  limited  their  service  to 
one,  or  at  the  utmost  very  few  days.  If 
they  were  persuaded  to  extend  its  dura- 
tion, it  was,  like  that  of  feudal  tenants,  at 
the  cost  of  their  superior.  Their  cus- 
toms, as  to  succession  and  other  matters 
of  private  right,  were  reduced  to  certain- 
ty, and,  for  the  most  part,  laid  down  in 
the  charter  of  incorporation.  And  the 
observation  of  these  was  secured  by  the 
most  valuable  privilege  which  the  char- 
tered towns  obtained  :  that  of  exemption 
from  the  jurisdiction,  as  well  of  the  roy- 
al as  the  territorial  judges.  They  were 
subject  only  to  that  of  magistrates,  either 
wholly  elected  by  themselves,  or  in  some 
places,  with  a  greater  or  less  participa- 
tion of  choice  in  the  lord.  They  were 
empowered  to  make  special  rules,  or,  as 
we  call  them,  by-laws,  so  as  not  to  con- 
travene the  provisions  of  their  charter  or 
the  ordinances  of  the  king.* 

It  was  undoubtedly  far  from  the  inten- 
tion of  tho^e  barons  who  confer- 
red such  immunities  upon  their  offree*10 
subjects  to  relinquish  their  own  towns  with 
superiority  and  rights  not  ex-  tl 
pressly  conceded.  But  a  remarkable 
change  took  place  in  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  which  affected,  in  a 
high  degree,  the  feudal  constitution  of 
France.  Towns,  distrustful  of  their  lord's 
fidelity,  sometimes  called  in  the  king  as 
guarantee  of  his  engagements.  The  first 
stage  of  royal  interference  led  to  a  more 
extensive  measure.  Philip  Augustus 
granted  letters  of  safeguard  to  communi- 
ties dependant  upon  the  barons,  assuring 
to  them  his  own  protection  and  patron- 
age, f  And  this  was  followed  up  so  quick- 
[y  by  the  court,  if  we  believe  some  wri- 
ters, that  in  the  next  reign,  Louis  VIII. 
pretended  to  the  injmediate  sovereignty 
Wer  all  chartered  towns,  in  exclusion  of 
their  original  lords. J  Nothing,  perhaps, 


*  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  prefaces  aux  tomes  xi. 
t  xiL  Du  Cange,  voc.  Conununia,  Hpstis.  Car- 
jentier,  Suppl.  ad  Du  Cange,  v.  Hostis.  Mably, 
Observations  sur  FHist.  de  France,  1.  iii.,  c.  7. 

f  Mably,  ibid. 

j  Reputabat  civitates  omnes  suas  esse,  in  quibus 
ommuniae  essent.  I  mention  this  in  deference  to 
Du  Cange,  Mably.  and  others,  who  assume  the 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


119 


had  so  decisive  an  effect  in  subverting  the 
feudal  aristocracy.  The  barons  perceiv- 
ed too  late,  that  for  a  price  long  since 
lavished  in  prodigal  magnificence  or  use- 
less warfare,  they  had  suffered  the  source 
of  their  wealth  to  be  diverted,  and  the 
nerves  of  their  strength  to  be  severed 
The  government  prudently  respected  the 
privileges  secured  by  charter.  Philip  the 
Long  established  an  officer  in  all  large 
towns  to  preserve  peace  by  an  armed  po- 
lice; but,  though  subject  to  the  orders 
of  the  crown,  he  was  elected  by  the  bur- 
gesses ;  and  they  took  a  mutual  oath  of 
fidelity  to  each  other.  Thus  shielded  un- 
der the  king's  mantle,  they  ventured  to 
encroach  upon  the  neighbouring  lords, 
and  to  retaliate  for  the  long  oppression 
of  the  commonalty.*  Every  citizen  was 
bound  by  oath  to  stand  by  the  common 
cause  against  all  aggressors,  and  this  ob- 
ligation was  abundantly  fulfilled.  In  or- 
der to  swell  their  numbers,  it  became  the 
practice  to  admit  all  who  came  to  reside 
within  their  walls  to  the  rights  of  burgh- 
ership,  even  though  they  were  villeins, 
appertenant  to  the  soil  of  a  master,  from 
whom  they  had  escaped,  f  Others,  hav- 


fact  as  incontrovertible  ;  but  the  passage  is  only  in 
a  monkish  chronicler,  whose  authority,  were  it 
even  more  explicit,  would  not  weigh  much  in  a 
matter  of  law.  Beaumanoir,  however,  sixty  years 
afterward,  lays  it  down,  that  no  one  can  erect  a 
commune  without  the  king's  consent,  c.  50,  p.  268. 
And  this  was  an  unquestionable  maxim  in  the  four- 
teenth century. — Ordonnances,  t.  xi.,  p.  29. 

*  In  the  charter  of  Philip  Augustus  to  the  town 
of  Roye  in  Picardy,  we  read  :  If  any  stranger, 
whether  noble  or  villein,  commits  a  wrong  against 
the  town,  the  mayor  shall  summon  him  to  answer 
for  it ;  and,  if  he  does  not  obey  the  summons,  the 
mayor  and  inhabitants  may  go  and  destroy  his 
house,  in  which  we  (the  Jung)  will  lend  them  our 
assistance,  if  the  iiouse  be  too  strong  for  the  bur- 
gesses to  pull  down :  except  the  case  of  one  of  our 
.vassals,  whose  house  shall  not  be  destroyed  ;  .but 
he  shall  not  be  allowed  to  enter  the  town,  till  he 
has  made  amends  at  the  discretion  of  the  mayor 
and  jurats. — Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xi.,  p.  228. 
This  summary  process  could  only,  as  I  conceive, 
be  employed,  if  the  house  was  situated  within  the 
jurisdiction  -of  the  commune.  —  See  charter  of 
Crespy,  id.,  p.  253.  In  other  cases,  the  application 
for  redress  was  to  be  made  in  the  first  instance  to 
the  lord  of  the  territory  wherein  the  delinquent  re- 
sided. But,  upon  his  failing  to  enforce  satisfaction, 
the  mayor  and  jurats  might  satisfy  themselves ;  li- 
ceat  justitiam  quaerere,  prout  poterunt^  that  is, 
might  pull  down  his  house,  provided  they  could. 
Mably  positively  maintains  the  communes  to  have 
had  the  right  of  levying  war,  1.  iii.,  c.  7.  And  Bre- 
quigny  seems  to  coincide  with  him. — Ordonnances, 
preface,  p.  46.  See  also  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t. 
iii.,  p.  115.  The  territory  of  a  .commune  was  call- 
ed Pax  (p.  185) ;  an  expressive  word. 

t  One  of  the  most  remarkable  privileges  of  char- 
tered towns  was  that  of  conferring  freedom  on  run- 
away serfs,  if  they  were  not  reclaimed  by  their 
masters  within  a  certain  time.  This  was  a  pjetty 
general  law.  Si  quis  nativus  quiete  per  unum  an- 


ing  obtained  the  same  privileges,  contin- 
ued to  dwell  in  the  country;  but,  upon 
any  dispute  with  their  lords,  called  in  the 
assistance  of  their  community.  Philip 
the  Fair,  erecting  certain  communes  in 
Languedoc,  gave  to  any  who  would  de- 
clare on  oath  that  he  was  aggrieved  by 
the  lord  or  his  officers,  the  right  of  being 
admitted  a  burgess  of  the  next  town,  upon 
paying  one  mark  of  silver  to  the  king, 
and  purchasing  a  tenement  of  a  definite 
value.  But  the  neglect  of  this  condition, 
and  several  other  abuses,  are  enumerated 
in  an  instrument  of  Charles  V.,  redressing 
the  complaints  made  ,by  the  nobility  and 
rich  ecclesiastics  of  the  neighbourhood.* 
In  his  reign  the  feudal  independence  had 
so  completely  yielded,  that  the  court  be- 
gan to  give  in  to  a  new  policy,  which  was 
ever  after  pursued;  that  of  maintaining 
the  dignity  and  privileges  of  the  noble 
class  against  those  attacks  which  wealth 
and  liberty  encouraged  the  plebeians  to 
make  upon  them. 

The  maritime  towns  of  the  south  of 
France  entered  into  separate  Maritime 
alliances  with  foreign  states ;  towns  pecu- 
as  Narbonne  with  Genoa  in  liarl,y  'f^ 
1 166,  and  Montpelier  in  the  next  F 
century.  At  the  death  of  Raymond  VII., 
Avignon,  Aries,  and  Marseilles  affected  to 
set  up  republican  governments ;  but  they 
were  soon  brought  into  subjection.!  The 
independent  character  of  maritime  towns 
was  not  peculiar  to  those  of  the  southern 
provinces.  Edward  II.  and  Edward  III. 
negotiated,  and  entered  into  alliances 
with  the  towns  of  Flanders,  to  which 
neither  their  count,  nor  the  King  of 
France  were  parties.  J  Even  so  late  as  the 
reign  of  Louis  XL,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy 
did  not  hesitate  to  address  the  citizens  of 
Rouen,  in  .consequence  of  the  capture  of 
some  ships,  as  if  they  had  formed  an  inde- 
pendent state. §  This  evidently  arose  out 
of  the  ancient  customs  of  private  war- 
fare, which,  lojig  after  they  were  re- 
pressed by  a  stricter  police  at  home,  con- 
;inued  with  lawless  violence  on  the  ocean, 
and  gave  a  character  of  piracy  to  the 
onimercial  enterprise  of  the  middle  ages. 


num  et  unum  diem  in  aliqua  villa  privilegiata  man- 
serit,  ita  <juod  in  eorum  communem  gyldam  tan- 
quam  civis  receptus  fuerit,  eo  ipso  a  villenagio  lib- 
erabitur. — Glanvil.,  1.  v..  c.  5.  The  cities  of  Lan- 
guedoc had  the  same  privilege. — Vaissette,  t.  iii., 
>.  528,  530.  And  the  editor  of  the  Ordonnances 
speaks  of  it  as  general,  p.  44.  A  similar  custom 
was  established  in  Germany ;  but  the  term  of  pre- 
scription was,  in  some  places  at  least,  much  longer 
han  a  year  and  a  day. — Pfeffel,  t.  i.,  p.  294. 

*  Martenne,  Thesaur.  Anecd.,  t.  i.,  p.  1515. 

t  Velly,  t.  iv.,  p.  446  ;  t.  v.,  p.  97. 

t  Rymer,  t.  iv. ,  passim. 

<j  Gamier,  t.  xvii.,  p.  396. 


120 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  II. 


Notwithstanding  the  forces  which  in 
opposite  directions  assailed  the  feudal 
Military  system,  from  the  enhancement 
service  of  of  royal  prerogative,  and  the 
feudal  elevation  of  the  chartered  towns, 

tenants        .  .    .  ,  j    ,  , 

oommu-  its  resistance  would  have  been 
ted  for  much  longer  but  for  an  intrinsic 

ney'  decay.  No  political  institution 
can  endure,  which  does  not  rivet  itself  to 
the  hearts  of  men  by  ancient  prejudice 
or  acknowledged  interest.  The  feudal 
compact  had  originally  much  of  this 
character.  Its  principle  of  vitality  was 
warm  and  active.  In  fulfilling  the  obli- 
gations of  mutual  assistance  and  fidelity 
by  military  service,  the  energies  of  friend- 
ship were  awakened,  and  the  ties  of 
moral  sympathy  superadded  to  those  of 
positive  compact.  While  private  wars 
were  at  their  height,  the  connexion  of 
lord  and  vassal  grew  close  and  cordial, 
in  proportion  to  the  keenness  of  their 
enmity  towards  others.  It  was  not  the 
object  of  a  baron  to  disgust  and  empover- 
ish  his  vavassors  by  enhancing  the  profits 
of  seigniory ;  for  there  was  no  rent  of 
such  price  as  blood,  nor  any  labour  so 
serviceable  as  that  of  the  sword. 

But  the  nature  of  feudal  obligation 
was  far  better  adapted  to  the  partial 
quarrels  of  neighbouring  lords  than  to 
the  wars  of  kingdoms.  Customs,  found- 
ed upon  the  poverty  of  the  smaller  gen- 
try, had  limited  their  martial  duties  to  a 
period  never  exceeding  forty  days,  and 
diminished  according  to  the  subdivisions 
of  the  fief.  They  could  undertake  an  ex- 
pedition, but  not  a  campaign ;  they  could 
burn  an  open  town,  but  had  seldom  leis- 
ure to  besiege  a  fortress.  Hence,  when 
the  kings  of  France  and  England  were 
engaged  in  wars,  which,  on  our  side  at 
least,  might  be  termed  national,  the  inef- 
ficiency of  the  feudal  militia  became  evi- 
dent. It  was  not  easy  to  employ  the 
military  tenants  of  England  upon  the 
frontiers  of  Normandy  and  the  Isle  of 
France,  within  the  limits  of  their  term  of 
service.  When,  under  Henry  II.  and 
Richard  I.,  the  scene  of  war  was  fre- 
quently transferred  to  the  Garonne  or  the 
Charente,  this  was  still  more  impractica- 
ble. The  first  remedy  to  which  sover- 
eigns had  recourse,  was  to  keep  their 
vassals  in  service  after  the  expiration  of 
their  forty  days,  at  a  stipulated  rate  of 
pay.*  But  this  was  frequently  neither 
convenient  to  the  tenant,  anxious  to  re- 
turn back  to  his  household,  nor  to  the 
king,  who  could  not  readily  defray  the 
charges  of  an  army.f  Something  was 

*  Du  Cange,  et  Carpentier,  voc.  Hostis. 

f  There   are  several  instances  where    armies 


j  to  be  devised  more  adequate  to  the  exi- 
|  gency,  though  less  suitable  to  the  feudal 
spirit.  By  the  feudal  law,  the  fief  was, 
in  strictness,  forfeited  by  neglect  of  at- 
tendance upon  the  lord's  expedition.  A 
milder  usage  introduced  a  fine,  which, 
however,  was  generally  rather  heavy, 
and  assessed  at  discretion.  An  instance 
of  this  kind  has  been  noticed  in  an  ear- 
lier part  of  the  present  chapter,  from  the 
muster-roll  of  Philip  the  Bold's  expedi- 
tion against  the  Count  de  Foix.  The 
first  Norman  kings  of  England  made 
these  amercements  very  oppressive.  But 
when  a  pecuniary  payment  became  the 
regular  course  of  redeeming  personal  ser- 
vice, which,  under  the  name  of  escuage, 
may  be  referred  to  the  reign  of  Henry  II., 
it  was  essential  to  liberty  that  the  mili- 
tary tenant  should  not  lie  at  the  mercy 
of  the  crown.*  Accordingly,  one  of  the 
most  important  provisions  contained  in 
the  Magna  Charta  of  John,  secures  the 
assessment  of  escuage  in  parliament. 
This  is  not  renewed  in  the  character  of 
Henry  III.,  but  the  practice  during  his 
reign  was  conformable  to  its  spirit. 

The  feudal  military  tenures  had  super- 
seded that  earlier  system  of  public  de- 
fence, which  called  upon  every  man,  and 
especially  upon  every  landholder,  to  pro- 
tect his  country.f  The  relations  of  a  vas- 


broke  up,  at  the  expiration  of  their  limited  term  of 
service,  in  'consequence  of  disagreement  with  the 
sovereign.  Thus,  at  the  siege  of  Avignon  in  1226, 
Theobald,  count  of  Champagne,  retired  with  his 
troops,  that  he  might  not  promote  the  king's  de- 
signs upon  Languedoc.  At  that  of  Angers  in  1230, 
nearly  the  same  thing  occurred. — M.  Paris,  p.  308. 

*  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  16,  conceives 
that  escuage  may  have  been  levied  by  Henry  I. ; 
the  earliest  mention  of  it,  however,  in  a  record,  is 
under  Henry  II.  in  1159.— Lyttleton's  Hist,  of 
Henry  II.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  13. 

t  Every  citizen,  however  extensive  may  be  his 
privileges,  is  naturally  bound  to  repel  invasion.  A 
common  rising  of  the  people  in  arms,  though  not 
always  the  most  convenient  mode  of  resistance, 
is  one  to  which  all  governments  have  a  right  to  re- 
sort. Volumus,  says  Charles  the  Bald,  ut  cujus- 
cunque  nostrum  homo,  in  cujuscunque  regno  sit, 
cum  seniore  suo  in  hostem,  vel  aliis  suis  utilitati- 
bus  pergat :  nisi  talis  regni  invasio,quam  Lanlweri 
dicunt  (quodabsit),  accident,  ut  omnis  populus  illi- 
us  regni  ad  earn  repellendam  communiter  pergat. — 
Baluzii  Capitularia,  t.  ii.,  p.  44.  This  very  ancient 
mention  of  the  Landwehr,  or  insurrectional  militia, 
so  signally  called  forth  in  the  present  age,  will 
strike  the  reader.  The  obligation  of  bearing  arms 
in  defensive  war  was  peculiarly  incumbent  on  the 
freeholder,  or  allodialist.  It  made  part  of  the  trin- 
oda  necessitas,  in  England,  erroneously  confound- 
ed by  some  writers  with  a  feudal  military  tenure. 
But  when  these  latter  tenures  became  nearly  uni- 
versal, the  original  principles  of  public  defence 
were  almost  obliterated  ;  and  I  know  not  how  far 
allodial  proprietors,  where  they  existed,  were  called 
upon  for  service.  Kings  did  not,  however,  always 
dispense  with  such  aid  as  the  lower  people  could 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


121 


sal  came  in  place  of  those  of  a  subject 
and  a  citizen.  This  was  the  revolution 
of  the  ninth  century.  In  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth,  another  innovation  rather 
more  gradually  prevailed,  and  marks  the 
third  period  in  the  military  history  of 
Europe.  Mercenary  troops  were  substi- 
Empioyment  tuted  for  the  feudal  militia, 
of  mercenary  Undoubtedly  there  could  never 
troops.  have  been  a  time  when  valour 
was  not  to  be  purchased  with  money ;  nor 
could  any  employment  of  surplus  wealth 
be  more  natural  either  to  the  ambitious 
or  the  weak;  but  we  cannot  expect  to 
find  numerous  testimonies  of  facts  of 
this  description.*  In  public  national  his- 
tory, I  am  aware  of  no  instance  of  what 
may  be  called  a  regular  army  (unless  we 
consider  the  Antrustions  of  the  Merovin- 
gian kings  as  such),  more  ancient  than 
the  body-guards,  or  huscarles,  of  Canute 
the  Great.  These  select  troops  amount- 
ed to  six  thousand  men,  on  whom  he 
probably  relied  to  ensure  the  subjection 
of  England.  A  code  of  martial  law,  com- 
piled for  their  regulation,  is  extant  in  sub- 
stance ;  and  they  are  reported  to  have  dis- 
played a  military  spirit  of  mutual  union, 
of  which  their  master  stood  in  awe.f 

supply.  Louis  the  Fat  called  oSk  the  militia  of  towns 
and  parishes  under  their  priests,  who  marched  at 
their  head,  though  they  did  not  actually  command 
them  in  battle.  In  the  charters  of  incorporation 
which  towns  received,  the  number  of  troops  required 
was  usually  expressed.  These  formed  the  infantry 
of  the  French  amies,  perhaps  more  numerous  than 
formidable  to  an  enemy.  In  the  war  of  the  same 
prince  with  the  Emperor  Henry  V.,  all  the  popula- 
tion of  the  frontier  provinces  was  called  out ;  for 
the  militia  of  the  counties  of  Rheims  and  Chalons 
is  said  to  have  amounted  to  sixty  thousand  men. 
Philip  IV.  summoned  one  foot-soldier  for  every 
twenty  hearths  to  take  the  field  after  the  battle  of 
Courtrai. — (Daniel,  Hist,  de  la  Milice  Frangaise. 
Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  62  ;  t.  vii.,  p.  287.)  Commissions  of 
array,  either  to  call  out  the  whole  population,  or,  as 
was  more  common,  to  select  the  most  serviceable 
by  forced  impressment,  occur  in  English  records 
from  the  reign  of  Edward  I.— (Stuart's  View  of  So- 
ciety, p.  400.)  And  there  are  even  several  writs 
directed  to  the  bishops,  enjoining  them  to  cause  all 
ecclesiastical  persons  to  be  arrayed  and  armed  on 
account  of  an  expected  invasion. — Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p. 
726  (46  E.  III.) ;  t.  vii.,  p.  1.62  (1  R.  II.)  ;  and  t. 
viii.,  p.  270  (3  H.  IV.). 

*  The  preface  to  the  eleventh  volume  of  Recueil 
des  Historiens,  p.  232,  notices  the  word  solidarii, 
for  hired  soldiers,  as  early  as  1030.  It  was  proba- 
bly unusual  at  that  time  ;  though  in  Roger  Hove- 
den,  Ordericus  Vitalis,  and  other  writers  of  the 
twelfth  century,  it  occurs  not  very  unfrequently. 
We  may  perhaps  conjecture  the  abbots,  as  both  the 
richest  and  most  defenceless,  to  have  been  the  first 
who  availed  themselves  of  mercenary  valour. 

t  For  these  facts,  of  which  I  remember  no  men- 
tion in  English  history,  I  am  indebted  to  the  Danish 
collection  of  Langebek,  Scriptores  Rerum  Danica- 
rum  Medii  ^Evi.  Though  the  Leges  Castrenses 
Canuti  Magni,  published  by  him,  t.  iii.,  p.  141,  are 


Harold  II.  is  also  said  to  have  had  Danish 
soldiers  in  pay.  But  the  most  eminent 
example  in  that  age  of  a  mercenary  army, 
is  that  by  whose  assistance  William 
achieved  the  conquest  of  England.  His- 
torians concur  in  representing  this  force 
to  have  consisted  of  sixty  thousand  men. 
He  afterward  hired  soldiers  from  vari- 
ous regions  to  resist  an  invasion  from 
Norway.  William  Rufus  pursued  the 
same  course.  Hired  troops  did  not,  how- 
ever, in  general  form  a  considerable  por- 
tion of  armies,  till  the  wars  of  Henry  II. 
and  Philip  Augustus.  Each  of  these 
monarchs  took  into  pay  large  bodies  of 
mercenaries,  chiefly,  as  we  may  infer 
from  their  appellation  of  Braban§ons,  en- 
listed from  the  Netherlands.  These  were 
always  disbanded  on  cessation  of  hostili- 
ties :  and  unfit  for  any  habits  but  of  idle- 
ness and  license,  oppressed  the  peasant- 
ry and  ravaged  the  country  without  con- 
trol. But  their  soldier-like  principles  of 
indiscriminate  obedience,  still  more  than 
their  courage  and  field-discipline,  render- 
ed them  dear  to  kings,  who  dreaded  the 
free  spirit  of  a  feudal  army.  It  wras  by 
such  a  foreign  force  that  John  saw  him- 
self on  the  point  of  abrogating  the  Great 
Charter,  and  reduced  his  barons  to  the 
necessity  of  tendering  his  kingdom  to  a 
prince  of  France.* 

It  now  became  manifest,  that  the  prob- 
abilities of  war  inclined  to  the  party 
who  could  take  the  field,  with  selected 
and  experienced  soldiers.  The  command 
of  money  was  the  command  of  armed 
hirelings,  more  sure  and  steady  in  battle, 
as  we  must  confess  with  shame,  than 
the  patriot  citizen.  Though  the  nobility 
still  composed  in  a  great  degree  the 
strength  of  an  army,  yet  they  served  in 


not  in  their  original  statutory  form,  they  proceed 
from  the  pen  of  Sweno,  the  earliest  Danish  histo- 
rian, who  lived  under  Waldemar  I.,  less  than  a 
century  and  a  half  after  Canute.  I  apply  the  word 
huscarle,  familiar  in  Anglo-Saxon  documents,  to 
these  military  retainers,  on  the  authority  of  Lange- 
bek in  another  place,  t.  ii.,  p.  454.  The  object  of 
Canute's  institutions  was  to  produce  a  uniformity 
of  discipline  and  conduct  among  his  soldiers,  and 
thus  to  separate  them  more  decidedly  from  the  peo- 
ple. They  were  distinguished  by  their  dress  and 
golden  ornaments.  Their  manners  towards  each 
other  were  regulated  ;  quarrels  and  abusive  words 
subjected  to  a  penalty.  All  disputes,  even  respect- 
ing lands,  were  settled  among  themselves  at  their 
general  parliament.  A  singular  story  is  told,  which, 
if  false,  may  still  illustrate  the  traditionary  charac- 
ter of  these  guards  :  that  Canute  having  killed  one 
of  their  body  in  a  fit  of  anger,  it  was  debated  wheth- 
er the  king  should  incur  the  legal  penalty  of  death ; 
and  this  was  only  compromised  by  his  kneeling  on 
a  cushion  before  the  assembly,  and  awaiting  their 
permission  to  rise,  t.  iii.,  p.  150. 
*  Matt.  Paris. 


122 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  H. 


a  new  character;  their  animating  spirit 
was  that  of  chivalry  rather  than  of  feu- 
dal tenure ;  their  connexion  with  a  su- 
perior was  personal  rather  than  territo- 
rial. The  crusades  had  probably  a  ma- 
terial tendency  to  effectuate  this  revolu- 
tion, by  substituting  what  was  inevitable 
in  those  expeditions,  a  voluntary  stipen- 
diary service  for  one  of  absolute  obliga- 
tion.* It  is  the  opinion  of  Daniel,  that 
in  the  thirteenth  century  all  feudal  ten- 
ants received  pay,  even  during  their  pre- 
scribed term  of  service. f  This  does  not 
appear  consonant  to  the  law  of  fiefs ;  yet 
their  poverty  may  often  have  rendered 
it  impossible  to  defray  the  cost  of  equip- 
ment on  distant  expeditions.  A  large 
proportion  of  the  expense  must  in  all 
cases  have  fallen  upon  the  lord ;  and 
hence  that  perpetually  increasing  taxa- 
tion, the  effects  whereof  we  have  lately 
been  investigating. 

A  feudal  army,  however,  composed  of 
all  tenants  in  chief  and  their  vassals,  still 
presented  a  formidable  array.  It  is  very 
long  before  the  paradox  is  generally  ad- 
mitted, that  numbers  do  not  necessarily 
contribute  to  the  intrinsic  efficiency  of 
armies.  Philip  IV.  assembled  a  great 
force,,  by  publishing  the  arriere-ban,  or 
feudal  summons,  for  his  unhappy  expe- 
dition against  the  Flemings.  A  small 
and  more  disciplined  body  of  troops 
would  not,  probably,  have  met  with  the 
discomfiture  of  Courtray.  Edward  I. 
and  Edward  II.  frequently  called  upon 
those  who  owed  military  service,  in  their 
invasions  of  Scotland-!  But  in  the  French 
wars  of  Edward  III.,  the  whole,  I  think, 
of  his  army  served  for  pay,  and  was  rais- 
ed by  contract  with  men  of  rank  and  in- 
fluence, who  received  wages  for  every 
soldier  according  to  his  station  and  the 
arms  he  bore.  The  rate  of  pay  was  so 
remarkably  high,  that  unless  we  imagine 
a  vast  profit  to  have  been  intended  for 
the  contractors,  the  private  lancers  and 
even  archers  must  have  been  chiefly 
taken  from  the  middling  classes,  the 
smaller  gentry,  or  rich  yeomanry,  of 

*  Joiuville,  in  several  passages,  intimates  that 
most  of  the  knights  serving  in  St.  Louis's  crusade 
received  pay,  either  from  their  superior  lord,  if  he 
were  on  the  expedition,  or  from  some  other,  into 
whose  service  they  entered  for  the  time.  He  set 
out  himself  with  ten  knights,  whom  he  afterward 
found  it  difficult  enough  to  maintain. — Collection 
des  M6moires,  t.  i.,  p.  49,  and  t.  ii.,  p.  53. 

t  Hist,  de  la  Milice  Franchise,  p.  84. 

The  use  of  mercenary  troops  prevailed  much  in 
Germany  during  the  thirteenth  century. — Schmidt, 
t.  iv.,  p.  89.  In  Italy,  it  was  also  very  common ; 
though  its  general  adoption  is  to  be  referred  to  the 
commencement  of  the  succeeding  age. 

t  Rymer,  t.  iii.,  p.  173,  189,  199,  et  alibi  ssepius. 


England.*  This  part  of  Edward's  military 
system  was  probably  a  leading  cause  of 
his  superiority  over  the  French,  among 
whom  the  feudal  tenantry  were  called 
into  the  field,  and  swelled  their  unwieldy 
armies  at  Crecy  and  Poitiers.  Both  par- 
ties, however,  in  this  war  employed  mer- 
cenary troops.  Philip  had  15,000  Ital- 
ian crossbowmen  at  Crecy.  It  had  for 
some  time  before  become  the  trade  of 
soldiers  of  fortune,  to  enlist  under  lead- 
ers of  the  same  description  as  them- 
selves in  companies  of  adventure,  pas- 
sing from  one  service  to  another,  uncon- 
cerned as  to  the  cause  in  which  they 
were  retained.  These  military  adven- 
turers played  a  more  remarkable  part 
in  Italy  than  in  France,  though  not  a  lit- 
tle troublesome  to  the  latter  country. 
The  feudal  tenures  had  at  least  furnish- 
ed a  royal  native  militia,  whose  duties, 
though  much  limited  in  the  extent,  were 
defined  by  usage,  and  enforced  by  princi- 
ple. They  gave  place  in  an  evil  hour  for 
the  people,  and  eventually  for  sovereigns, 
to  contracts  with  mutinous  hirelings,  fre- 
quently strangers,  whose  valour  in  the 
day  of  battle  inadequately  redeemed  their 
bad  faith  and  vexatious  rapacity.  France, 
in  her  calamitous  period  under  Charles 
VI.  and  Charletf  VII.,  experienced  the 
full  effects  of  military  licentiousness. 
At  the  expulsion  of  the  English,  robbery 
and  disorder  were  substituted  for  the 
more  specious  plundering  of  Estnbiish- 
war.  Perhaps  few  measures  menlofa 

regular  force 

liave  ever  been  more  popular,  by  Charles 
as  few  certainly  have  been  VI1- 
more  politic,  than  the  establishment  of 
regular  companies  of  troops  by  an  ordi- 
nance of  Charles  VII.,  in  1444.f  These 
may  justly  pass  for  the  first  example  of 
a  standing  army  in  Europe  ;  though  some 
Italian  princes  had  retained  troops  con- 
stantly in  their  pay,  but  prospectively  to 
Hostilities,  which  were  seldom  long  inter- 
mitted. Fifteen  companies  were  com- 
posed, each  of  a  hundred  men  at  arms, 


Many  proofs  of  this  may  be  adduced  from  Ry- 
ner's  Collection.  The  following  is  from  Brady's 
history  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  86.  The 
wages  allowed  by  contract,  in  1346,  were  Tor  an 
earl,  6s.  8d.  per  day  ;  for  barons  and  bannerets,  4s. ; 
"or  knights,  2s. ;  for  squires,  Is. ;  for  archers  and 
lobelers  (light  cavalry),  6rf. ;  for  archers  on  foot, 
3d. ;  for  Welshmen,  2d.  These  sums,  multiplied 
by  about  24,  to  bring  them  on  a  level  with  the 
>resent  value  of  money,  will  show  the  pay  to  have 
>een  extremely  high.  The  cavalry,  of  course,  fur- 
lished  themselves  with  horses  and  equipments,  as 
well  as  arms,  which  were  very  expensive. — See 
;oo  Chap.  I.,  p.  52  of  this  work. 

f  The  estates  at  Orleans  in  1439  had  advised 
;his  measure,  as  is  recited  in  the  preamble  of  the 
ordinance.— Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  xii.,  p.  3J2. 


PART  II.] 


FEUDAL  SYSTEM. 


123 


or  lancers ;  and,  in  the  language  of  that 
age,  the  whole  body  was  one  thousand 
five  hundred  lances.  But  each  lancer 
had  three  archers,  a  coutiller,  or  soldier 
armed  with  a  knife,  and  a  page  or  valet 
attached  to  him,  all  serving  on  horse- 
back ;  so  that  the  fifteen  companies 
amounted  to  nine  thousand  cavalry.* 
From  these  small  beginnings,  as  they 
must  appear  in  modern  times,  arose  the 
regular  army  of  France,  which  every  suc- 
ceeding king  was  solicitous  to  augment. 
The  ban  was  sometimes  convoked,  that 
is,  the  possessors  of  fiefs  were  called 
upon  for  military  service  in  subsequent 
ages  ;  but  with  more  of  ostentation  than 
real  efficiency. 

The  feudal  compact,  thus  deprived  of 
Decay  of  feu-  its  original  efficacy,  soon  lost 
dai  principles,  the  respect  and  attachment 
which  had  attended  it.  Homage  and  in- 
vestiture became  unmeaning  ceremonies ; 
the  incidents  of  relief  and  aid  were  felt 
as  burdensome  exactions.  And  indeed 
the  rapacity  with  which  these  were  lev- 
ied, especially  by  our  Norman  sovereigns 
and  their  barons,  was  of  itself  sufficient 
to  extinguish  all  the  generous  feelings 
of  vassalage.  Thus  galled,  as  it  were, 
by  the  armour  which  he  was  compelled 
to  wear,  but  not  to  use,  the  military  ten- 
ant of  England  looked  no  longer  with 
contempt  upon  the  owner  of  land  in  soc- 
cage,  who  held  his  estate  with  almost 
the  immunities  of  an  allodial  proprietor. 
But  the  profits  which  the  crown  reaped 
from  wardships,  and  perhaps  the  preju- 
dices of  lawyers,  prevented  the  abolition 
of  military  tenures,  till  the  restoration  of 
Charles  II.  In  France,  the  fiefs  of  no- 
blemen were  very  unjustly  exempted 
from  all  territorial  taxation ;  though  the 
tailles  of  later  times  had,  strictly  speak- 
ing, only  superseded  the  aids  to  which 
they  had  been  always  liable.  This  dis- 
tinction, it  is  well  known,  was  not  an- 
nihilated till  that  event  which  annihilated 
all  distinctions,  the  French  revolution. 

It  is  remarkable,  that,  although  the 
feudal  sytem  established  in  England  upon 
the  conquest  broke  in  very  much  upon 
our  ancient  Saxon  liberties;  though  it 
was  attended  with  harsher  servitudes 
than  in  any  other  country,  particularly 
those  two  intolerable  burdens,  wardship 
and  marriage  ;  yet  it  has  in  general  been 
treated  with  more  favour  by  English  than 
French  writers.  The  hardiness  with 
which  the  ancient  barons  resisted  their 
sovereign,  and  the  noble  struggles  which 

*  Daniel,  Hist,  de  la  Milice  Fran<jaise,  p.  266. 
Villaret,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xv.,  p.  394. 


they  made  for  civil  liberty,  especially  in 
that  Great  Charter,  the  basement,  at 
least,  if  not  the  foundation,  of  our  free 
constitution,  have  met  with  a  kindred 
sympathy  in  the  bosoms  of  Englishmen ; 
while,  from  an  opposite  feeling,  the 
French  have  been  shocked  at  that  aris- 
tocratic independence,  which  cramped 
the  prerogatives,  and  obscured  the  lustre, 
of  their  crown.  Yet  it  is  precisely  to 
this  feudal  policy  that  France  is  indebt- 
ed for  that  which  is  ever  dearest  to  her 
children,  their  national  splendour  and 
power.  That  kingdom  would  have  been 
irretrievably  dismembered  in  the  tenth 
century,  if  the  laws  of  feudal  dependance 
had  not  preserved  its  integrity.  Empires 
of  unwieldy  bulk,  like  that  of  Charle- 
magne, have  several  times  been  dissolv- 
ed by  the  usurpation  of  provincial  gov- 
ernors, as  is  recorded  both  in  ancient 
history  and  in  that  of  the  Mahometan 
dynasties  in  the  East.  What  question 
can  there  be,  that  the  powerful  dukes  of 
Guienne  or  counts  of  Toulouse  would 
have  thrown  off  all  connexion  with  the 
crown  of  France,  when  usurped  by  one 
of  their  equals,  if  the  slight  dependance 
of  vassalage  had  not  been  substituted  for 
legitimate  subjection  to  a  sovereign  1 

It  is  the  previous  state  of  society 
under  the  grandchildren  of  Charlemagne, 
which  we  must  always  keep  in  mind,  if 
we  would  appreciate  the  effects  of  the 
feudal  system  upon  the  welfare  of  man- 
kind. The  institutions  of  the  eleventh 
century  must  be  compared  with  those  of 
the  ninth,  not  with  the  advanced  civiliza- 
tion of  modern  times.  If  the  view  that 
I  have  taken  of  those  dark  ages  is  cor- 
rect, the  state  of  anarchy,  which  we  usu- 
ally term  feudal,  was  the  natural  result 
of  a  vast  and  barbarous  empire  feebly  ad- 
ministered, and  the  cause,  rather  than 
effect,  of  the  general  establishment  of 
feudal  tenures.  These,  by  preserving  the 
mutual  relations  of  the  whole,  kept  alive 
the  feeling  of  a  common  country  and 
common  duties;  and  settled,  after  the 
lapse  of  ages,  into  the  free  constitution 
of  England,  the  firm  monarchy  of  France, 
and  the  federal  union  of  Germany. 

The  utility  of  any  form  of  polity  may 
be  estimated,  by  its  effect  upon  General  es_ 
national  greatness  and  security,  umate  of 
upon  civil  liberty  and  private  tneadvau- 
rights,  upon  the  tranquillity  and  SS^Suit- 
order  of  society,  upon  the  in-  ing  from  the 
crease  and  diffusion  of  wealth,  [^dalsys' 
or  upon  the   general  tone  of 
moral  sentiment  and  energy.     The  feu- 
dal constitution  was   certainly,  as  has 
been  observed  already,  little  adapted  for 


124 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   II. 


the  defence  of  a  mighty  kingdom,  far  less 
for  schemes  of  conquest.  But  as  it  pre- 
vailed alike  in  several  adjacent  countries, 
none  had  any  thing  to  fear  from  the  mil- 
itary superiority  of  its  neighbours.  It 
was  this  inefficiency  of  the  feudal  militia, 
perhaps,  that  saved  Europe  during  the 
middle  ages  from  the  danger  of  universal 
monarchy.  In  times  when  princes  had 
little  notion  of  confederacies  for  mutual 
protection,  it  is  hard  to  say  what  might 
not  have  been  the  successes  of  an  Otho 
the  Great,  a  Frederick  Barbarossa,  or  a 
Philip  Augustus,  if  they  could  have  wield- 
ed the  whole  force  of  their  subjects 
whenever  their  ambition  required.  .  If  an 
empire  equally  extensive  with  that  of 
Charlemagne,  and  supported  by  military 
despotism,  had  been  formed  about  the 
twelfth  or  thirteenth  centuries,  the  seeds 
of  commerce  and  liberty,  just  then  begin- 
ning to  shoot,  would  have  perished :  and 
Europe,  reduced  to  a  barbarous  servi- 
tude, might  have  fallen  before  the  free 
barbarians  of  Tartary. 

If  we  look  at  the  feudal  polity  as  a 
scheme  of  civil  freedom,  it  bears  a  noble 
countenance.  To  the  feudal  law  it  is 
owing,  that  the  very  names  of  right  and 
privilege  were  not  swept  away,  as  in 
Asia,  by  the  desolating  hand  of  power. 
The  tyranny  which,  on  every  favourable 
moment,  was  breaking  through  all  bar- 
riers, would  have  rioted  without  control, 
if,  when  the  people  were  poor  and  dis- 
united, the  nobility  had  not  been  brave 
and  free.  So  far  as  the  sphere  of  feudal- 
ity extended,  it  diffused  the  spirit  of  lib- 
erty, and  the  notions  of  private  right. 
Every  one,  I  think,  will  acknowledge 
this,  who  considers  the  limitations  of  the 
services  of  vassalage,  so  cautiously  mark- 
ed in  those  law-books  which  are  the 
records  of  customs,  the  reciprocity  of  ob- 
ligation between  the  lord  and  his  tenant, 
the  consent  required  in  every  measure  of 
a  legislative  or  a  general  nature,  the  se- 
curity, above  all,  which  every  vassal 
found  in  the  administration  of  justice  by 
his  peers,  and  even  (we  may  in  this  sense 
say)  in  the  trial  by  combat.  The  bulk  of 
the  people,  it  is  true,  were  degraded  by 
servitude,  but  this  had  no  connexion  with 
the  feudal  tenures. 

The  peace  and  good  order  of  society 
were  not  promoted  by  this  system. 
Though  private  wars  did  not  originate  in 
the  feudal  customs,  it  is  impossible  to 
doubt  that  they  were  perpetuated  by  so 
convenient  an  institution,  which  indeed 
owed  its  universal  establishment  to  no 
other  cause.  And  as  predominant  hab- 
its of  warfare  are  totally  irreconcila- 


ble with  those  of  industry,  not  merely 
by  the  immediate  works  of  destruction 
which  render  its  efforts  unavailing,  but 
through  that  contempt  of  peaceful  occu- 
pations which  they  produce,  the  feudal 
system  must  have  been  intrinsically  ad- 
verse to  the  accumulation  of  wealth,  and 
the  improvement  of  those  arts,  which 
mitigate  the  evils  or  abridge  the  labours 
of  mankind. 

But  as  the  school  of  moral  discipline, 
the  feudal  institutions  were  perhaps  most 
to  be  valued.  Society  had  sunk,  for  sev- 
eral centuries  after  the  dissolution  of  the 
Roman  empire,  into  a  condition  of  utter 
depravity  ;  where,  if  any  vices  could  be 
selected  as  more  eminently  characteris- 
tic than  others,  they  were  falsehood, 
treachery,  and  ingratitude.  In  slowly 
purging  off  the  lees  of  this  extreme  cor- 
ruption, the  feudal  spirit  exerted  its  ame- 
liorating influence.  Violation  of  faith 
stood  first  in  the  catalogue  of  crimes, 
most  repugnant  to  the  very  essence  of  a 
feudal  tenure,  most  severely  and  prompt- 
ly avenged,  most  branded  by  general  in- 
famy. The  feudal  law-books  breathe 
throughout  a  spirit  of  honourable  obliga- 
tion. The  feudal  course  of  jurisdiction 
promoted,  what  trial  by  peers  is  pecu- 
liarly calculated  to  promote,  a  keener 
feeling  and  readier  perception  of  moral 
as  well  as  of  leading  distinctions.  And 
as  the  judgment  and  sympathy  of  man- 
kind are  seldom  mistaken  in  these  great 
points  of  veracity  and  justice,  except 
through  the  temporary  success  of  crimes, 
or  the  want  of  a  definite  standard  of  right, 
they  gradually  recovered  themselves, 
when  law  precluded  the  one  and  sup- 
plied the  other.  In  the  reciprocal  ser- 
vices of  lord  and  vassal,  there  was  ample 
scope  for  every  magnanimous  and  disin- 
terested energy.  The  heart  of  man, 
when  placed  in  circumstances  which 
have  a  tendency  to  excite  them,  will  sel- 
dom be  deficient  in  such  sentiments.  No 
occasions  could  be  more  favourable  than 
the  protection  of  a  faithful  supporter,  or 
the  defence  of  a  beneficent  suzerain, 
against  such  powerful  aggression,  as  left 
little  prospect  except  of  sharing  in  his 
ruin. 

From  these  feelings,  engendered  by  the 
feudal  relation,  has  sprung  up  the  peculiar 
sentiment  of  personal  reverence  and  at- 
tachment towards  a  sovereign  which  we 
denominate  loyalty;  alike  distinguisha- 
ble from  the  stupid  devotion  of  eastern 
slaves,  and  from  the  abstract  respect  with 
which  free  citizens  regard  their  chief 
magistrate.  Men  who  had  been  used  to 
swear  fealty,  to  profess  subjection,  to  fol- 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


125 


low,  at  home  and  in  the  field,  a  feudal  su- 
perior and  his  family,  easily  transferred 
the  same  allegiance  to  the  monarch.  It 
was  a  very  powerful  feeling,  which  could 
make  the  bravest  men  put  up  with  slights 
and  ill  treatment  at  the  hands  of  their 
sovereign ;  or  call  forth  all  the  energies 
of  disinterested  exertion  for  one  whom 
they  never  saw,  and  in  whose  character 
there  was  nothing  to  esteem.  In  ages 
when  the  rights  of  the  community  were 
unfelt,  this  sentiment  was  one  great  pre- 
servative of  society  ;  and,  though  collat- 


eral or  even  subservient  to  more  enlar 
ged  principles,  it  is  still  indispensable  to 
the  tranquillity  and  permanence  of  every 
monarchy.  In  a  moral  view,  loyalty  has 
scarcely  perhaps  less  tendency  to  refine 
and  elevate  the  heart  than  patriotism  it- 
self; and  holds  a  middle  place  in  the 
scale  of  human  motives,  as  they  ascend 
from  the  grosser  inducements  of  self-in- 
terest, to  the  furtherance  of  general  hap- 
piness and  conformity  to  the  purposes  of 
infinite  Wisdom. 


CHAPTER  III. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  ITALY,  FROM  THE   EXTINCTION  OF  THE  CARLOVINGIAN  EM- 
PERORS TO  THE  INVASION   OF  NAPLES  BY  CHARLES  VIII. 


PART  I. 

State  of  Italy  after  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat— 
Coronation  of  Othp  the  Great. — State  of  Rome. 
— Conrad  II. — Union  of  the  Kingdom  of  Italy 
with  the  Empire. — Establishment  of  the  Nor- 
mans in  Naples  and  Sicily. — Roger  Guiscard. — 
Rise  of  the  Lombard  Cities. — They  gradually 
become  more  independent  of  the  Empire.— Their 
Internal  Wars.  — Frederick  Barbarossa.  —  De- 
struction of  Milan. — Lombard  League. — Battle 
of  Legnano. — Peace  of  Constance. — Temporal 
Principality  of  the  Popes.— Guelf  and  Ghibelm 
Factions.— Othp  IV.— Frederick  II.  — Arrange- 
ment of  the  Italian  Republics. — Second  Lombard 
War. — Extinction  of  the  House  of  Swabia. — 
Causes  of  the  Success  of  Lombard  Republics. — 
Their  prosperity — and  Forms  of  Government. — 
Contentions  between  the  Nobility  and  People. 
— Civil  Wars. — Story  of  Giovanni  di  Vicenza.* 

AT  the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat  in  888, 

Stateof  Italy  Jhat    Part    9f  Jtaly    which    acl 

at  the  end  of  knowledged  the  supremacy  of 

the  ninth  -   the  western  empire  was  divi- 

ury>       ded,  like  France  and  Germany, 


*  The  authorities  upon  which  this  chapter  is 
founded,  and  which  do  not  always  appear  at  the 
foot  of  the  page,  are  chiefly  the  following.  1.  Mu- 
ratori's Annals  of  Italy  (twelve  volumes  in  4to.  or 
eighteen  in  8vo.)  comprehend  a  summary  of  its  his- 
tory from  the  beginning  of  the  Christian  era  to  the 
peace  of  Aix  la  Chapelle.  The  volumes  relating 
to  the  middle  ages,  into  which  he  has  digested  the 
original  writers  contained  in  his  great  collection, 
Scriptores  Rerum  Italicarum,  are  by  much  the 
best ;  and  of  these,  the  part  which  extends  from 
the  seventh  or  eighth  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury, is  the  fullest  and  most  useful.  Muratori's  ac- 
curacy is  in  general  almost  implicitly  to  be  trusted, 
and  his  plain  integrity  speaks  in  all  his  writings ; 
but  his  mind  was  not  philosophical  enough  to  dis- 
criminate the  wheat  from  the  chaff,  and  his  habits 
of  life  induced  him  to  annex  an  imaginary  impor- 
tance to  the  dates  of  diplomas  and  other  inconsid- 
erable matters.  His  narrative  presents  a  mere 


among  a  few  powerful  vassals,  hereditary 
governors  of  provinces.  The  principal 
of  these  were  the  dukes  of  Spoleto  and 

skeleton  devoid  of  juices ;  and  besides  its  intolera- 
ble aridity,  it  labours  under  that  confusion  which  a 
merely  chronological  arrangement  of  concurrent 
and  independent  events  must  always  produce.  2. 
The  dissertations  on  Italian  Antiquities,  by  the 
same  writer,  may  be  considered  either  as  one  or 
two  works.  In  Latin,  they  form  six  volumes  in 
folio,  enriched  with  a  great  number  of  original  doc- 
uments. In  Italian,  they  are  freely  translated  by 
Muratori  himself,  abridged,  no  doubt,  and  without 
most  of  the  original  instruments,  but  well  furnish- 
ed with  quotations,  and  abundantly  sufficient  for 
most  purposes.  They  form  three  volumes  in  quar- 
to. 1  have  in  general  quoted  only  the  number  of 
the  dissertation,  on  account  of  the  variance  be- 
tween the  Latin  and  Italian  works :  in  cases  where 
the  page  is  referred  to,  I  have  indicated,  by  the 
title,  which  of  the  two  I  intend  to  vouch.  3.  St. 
Marc,  a  learned  and  laborious  Frenchman,  has 
written  a  chronological  abridgment  of  Italian  his- 
tory, somewhat  in  the  manner  of  H6nault,  but  so 
strangely  divided  by  several  parallel  columns  in  ev- 
ery page,  that  I  could  hardly  name  a  book  more 
inconvenient  to  the  reader.  His  knowledge,  like 
Muratori's,  lay  a  good  deal  in  points  of  minute  in- 
quiry ;  and  he  is  chiefly  to  be  valued  in  ecclesiastical 
history.  The  work  descends  only  to  the  thirteenth 
century.  4.  Denina's  Rivoluzioni  d'ltalia,  origi- 
nally published  in  1769,  is  a  perspicuous  and  lively 
book,  in  which  the  principal  circumstances  are 
well  selected.  It  is  not  perhaps  free  from  errors 
in  fact,  and  still  less  from  those  of  opinion  ;  but, 
till  lately,  I  do  not  know  from  what  source  a  gen- 
eral acquaintance  with  the  history  of  Italy  could 
have  been  so  easily  derived.  5.  The  publication 
of  M.  Sismondi's  Histoire  des  R^publiques  Italien- 
nes  has  thrown  a  blaze  of  light  around  the  most 
interesting,  at  least  in  many  respects,  of  European 
countries  during  the  middle  ages.  I  am  happy  to 
bear  witness,  so  far  as  my  own  studies  have  ena- 
bled me,  to  the  learning  and  diligence  of  this  wri- 
ter; qualities  which  the  world  is  sometimes  apt 
not  to  suppose,  where  they  perceive  so  much  elo- 
quence and  philosophy.  1  cannot  express  my  opin- 


126 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES! 


[CHAP.  III. 


Tuscany,  the  marquises  of  Ivrea,  Susa, 
and  Friuli.  The  great  Lombard  dutchy 
of  Benevento,  which  had  stood  against 
the  arms  of  Charlemagne,  and  comprised 
more  than  half  the  present  kingdom  of 
Naples,  had  now  fallen  into  decay,  and 
was  straitened  by  the  Greeks  in  Apulia, 
and  by  the  principalities  of  Capua  and 
Salerno,  which  had  been  severed  from  its 
own  territory,  on  the  opposite  coast.* 
And  m  the  Though  princes  of  the  Carlo  vin- 
firstpartof  gian  line  continued  to  reign  in 
the  tenth.  France,  their  character  was  too 
little  distinguished  to  challenge  the  obe- 
dience of  Italy,  already  separated  by  fam- 
ily partitions  from  the  Transalpine  na- 
tions ;  and  the  only  contest  was  among 
her  native  chiefs.  One  of  these,  Beren- 
ger,  originally  Marquis  of  Friuli,  or  the 
March  of  Treviso,  reigned  for  thirty-six 
years,  but  with  continually  disputed  pre- 
tensions ;  and,  after  his  death,  the  calam- 
ities of  Italy  were  sometimes  aggravated 
by  tyranny,  and  sometimes  by  intestine 

ion  of  M.  Sismondi  in  this  respect  more  strongly 
than  by  saying  that  his  work  has  almost  superseded 
the  annals  of  Muratori ;  I  mean  from  the  twelfth 
century,  before  which  period  his  labour  hardly  be- 

S'ns.  Though  doubtless  not  more  accurate  than 
uratori,  he  has  consulted  a  much  more  extensive 
list  of  authors;  and,  considered  as  a  register  of 
facts  alone,  his  history  is  incomparably  more  use- 
ful. These  are  combined  in  so  skilful  a  manner, 
as  to  diminish,  in  a  great  degree,  that  inevitable 
confusion  which  arises  from  frequency  of  transi- 
tion and  want  of  general  unity.  It  is  much  to  be 
regretted,  that  from  too  redundant  details  of  unne- 
cessary circumstances,  and  sometimes,  if  I  may 
take  the  liberty  of  saying  so,  from  unnecessary  re- 
flections, M .  Sismondi  has  run  into  a  prolixity  which 
will  probably  intimidate  the  languid  students  of  our 
age.  It  is  the  more  to  be  regretted,  because  the 
History  of  Italian  Republics  is  calculated  to  pro- 
duce a  good  far  more  important  than  storing  the 
memory  with  historical  facts,  that  of  communica- 
ting to  the  reader's  bosom  some  sparks  of  the  dig- 
nified philosophy,  the  love  for  truth  and  virtue, 
which  live  along  its  eloquent  pages.  6.  To  Mu- 
ratori's  collection  of  original  writers,  the  Scriptores 
Rerum  Italicarum,  in  twenty -four  volumes  in  folio, 
I  have  paid  considerable  attention ;  perhaps  there 
is  no  volume  of  it  which  I  have  not  more  or  less 
consulted.  But,  after  the  annals  of  the  same  wri- 
ter, and  the  work  of  M.  Sismondi,  I  have  not 
thought  myself  bound  to  repeat  a  laborious  search 
into  all  the  authorities  upon  which  those  writers 
depend.  The  utility,  for  the  most  part,  of  perusing 
original  and  contemporary  authors,  consists  less 
in  ascertaining  mere  facts,  than  in  acquiring  that 
insight  into  the  spirit  and  temper  of  their  times, 
which  it  is  utterly  impracticable  for  any  compiler 
to  impart.  It  would  be  impossible  for  me  to  dis- 
tinguish what  information  I  have  derived  from 
these  higher  sources ;  in  cases,  therefore,  where 
no  particular  authority  is  named,  I  would  refer  to 
the  writings  of  Muratori  and  Sismondi,  especial- 
ly the  latter,  as  the  substratum  of  the  following 
chapter.. 

*  Giannone,  Istoria  Civile  di  Napoli,  1.  vii.  Sis- 
mondi, Hist,  des  Republiques  Italiennes,  t.  i.,  p. 
244. 


war.  The  Hungarians  desolated  Lom- 
bardy ;  the  southern  coasts  were  infested 
by  the  Saracens,  now  "masters  of  Sicily. 
Plunged  in  an  abyss,  from  which  she  saw 
no  other  means  of  extricating  herself, 
Italy  lost  sight  of  her  favourite  independ- 
ence, and  called  in  the  assistance  of  Otho 
the  First,  king  of  Germany.  Little  op- 
position was  made  to  this  powerful  mon- 
arch. Berenger  II.,  the  reigning  sover- 
eign of  Italy,  submitted  to  hold  the  king- 
dom of  him  as  a  fief.*  But  some  years 
afterward,  new  disturbances  ari-  othothe 
sing,  Otho  descended  from  the  Great- 
Alps  a  second  time  [A.  D.  961],  deposed 
Berenger,  and  received  at  the  hands  of 
Pope  John  XII.  the  imperial  dignity, 
which  had  been  suspended  for  nearly  for- 
ty years. 

Every  ancient  prejudice,  every  recol- 
lection, whether  of  Augustus  or  of  Char- 
lemagne, had  led  the  Italians  to  annex 
the  notion  of  sovereignty  to  the  name 
of  Roman  emperor ;  nor  were  Otho,  or 
his  two  immediate  descendants,  by  any 
means  inclined  to  waive  these  supposed 
prerogatives,  which  they  were  well  able 
to  enforce.  Most  of  the  Lombard  princes 
acquiesced  without  apparent  repugnance 
in  the  new  German  government,  which 
was  conducted  by  Otho  the  Great  with 
much  prudence  and  vigour,  and  occasion- 
ally with  severity.  The  citizens  of  Lom- 
bardy  were  still  better  satisfied  with  a 
change,  that  ensured  a  more  tranquil  and 
regular  administration  than  they  had  ex- 
perienced under  the  preceding  kings. 
But  in  one,  and  that  the  chief  of  Italian 
cities,  very  different  sentiments  were 
prevalent.  We  find,  indeed,  a  con-  internal 
siderable  obscurity  spread  over  the  state  of 
internal  history  of  Rome,  during  Rome> 
the  long  period  from  the  recovery  of  Italy 
by  Belisarius  to  the  end  of  the  eleventh 
century.  The  popes  appear  to  have  pos- 
sessed some  measure  of  temporal  power, 
even  while  the  city  was  professedly  gov- 
erned by  the  exarchs  of  Ravenna,  in  the 
name  of  the  eastern  empire.  This  power 
became  more  extensive  after  her  separa- 
tion from  Constantinople.  It  was,  how- 
ever, subordinate  to  the  undeniable  sover- 
eignty of  the  new  imperial  family,  who 
were  supposed  to  enter  upon  all  the  rights 
of  their  predecessors.  There  was  al- 
ways an  imperial  officer,  or  prefect,  in 
that  city,  to  render  criminal  justice ;  an 
oath  of  allegiance  to  the  emperor  was 
taken  by  the  people  ;  and  upon  any  irreg- 
ular election  of  a  pope,  a  circumstance 
by  no  means  unusual,  the  emperors  held 


*  Muratori,  A.  D.  951.     Denina,  Rivoluzioni 
d'ltalia,  1.  iz.,  c.  6. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


127 


themselves  entitled  to  interpose.  But  the 
spirit  and  even  the  institutions  of  the 
Romans  were  republican.  Amid  the 
darkness  of  the  tenth  century,  which  no 
contemporary  historian  dissipates,  we 
faintly  distinguish  the  awful  names  of 
senate,  consuls,  and  tribunes,  the  domes- 
tic magistracy  of  Rome.  These  shadows 
of  past  glory  strike  us  at  first  with  sur- 
prise; yet  there  is  no  improbability  in 
the  supposition,  that  a  city  so  renowned 
and  populous,  and  so  happily  sheltered 
from  the  usurpation  of  the  Lombards, 
might  have  preserved,  or  might  afterward 
establish,  a  kind  of  municipal  govern- 
ment, which  it  would  be  natural  to  dig- 
nify with  those  august  titles  of  antiquity.* 
During  that  anarchy  which  ensued  upon 
the  fall  of  the  Carlovingian  dynasty,  the 
Romans  acquired  an  independence  which 
they  did  not  deserve.  The  city  became 
a  prey  to  the  most  terrible  disorders  ;  the 
papal  chair  was  sought  for  at  best  by 
bribery,  or  controlling  influence,  often  by 
violence  and  assassination ;  it  was  filled 
by  such  men  as  naturally  rise  by  such 
means,  whose  sway  was  precarious,  and 
generally  ended  either  in  their  murder  or 
degradation.  For  many  years  the  su- 
preme pontiffs  were  forced  upon  the 
church  by  two  women  of  high  rank,  but 
infamous  reputation,  Theodora  and  her 
daughter  Marozia.  The  kings  of  Italy, 
whose  election  in  a  diet  of  Lombard 
princes  and  bishops  at  Roncaglia  Avas  not 
conceived  to  convey  any  pretension  to  the 
sovereignty  of  Rome,  could  never  obtain 
any  decided  influence  in  papal  elections, 
which  were  the  object  of  struggling  fac- 
tions among  the  resident  nobility.  In 
this  temper  of  the  Romans,  they  were  ill 
disposed  to  resume  habits  of  obedience 
to  a  foreign  sovereign.  The  next  year 
after  Otho's  coronation  [A.  D.  972],  they 
rebelled,  the  pope  at  their  head ;  but  were 
of  course  subdued  without  difficulty. 
The  same  republican  spirit  broke  out 
whenever  the  emperors  were  absent  in 
Germany,  especially  during  the  minority 
of  Otho  III.,  and  directed  itself  against 
the  temporal  superiority  of  the  pope. 
But  when  that  emperor  attained  man- 
hood, he  besieged  and  took  the  city, 
crushing  all  resistance  by  measures  of 
severity;  and  especially  by  the  execu- 
tion of  the  consul  Crescentius,  a  leader 
of  the  popular  faction,  to  whose  instiga- 
tion the  tumultuous  license  of  Rome  was 
principally  ascribed. f 

*  Muratori,  A.  D.  967,  987,  1015,  1087.  Sis- 
mondi,  t.  i.,  p.  155. 

t  Sismondi,  t.  i.,  p.  164,  makes  a  patriot  hero  ol 
Crescentius.  But  we  know  so  little  of  the  man 


At  the  death  of  Otho  III.  without  chil- 
dren, in  1002,  the  compact  be-  Henry  11. 
tween  Italy  and  the  emperors  »nd  Ardoin. 
of  the  house  of  Saxony  was  determined. 
Her  engagement  of  fidelity  was  certainly 
not  applicable  to  every  sovereign  whom 
the  princes  of  Germany  might  raise  to 
their  throne.  Accordingly  Ardoin,  mar- 
quis of  Ivrea,  was  elected  king  of  Italy. 
But  a  German  party  existed  among  the 
Lombard  princes  and  bishops,  to  which 
his  insolent  demeanour  soon  gave  a  pre- 
text for  inviting  Henry  II.,  the  new  king 
Of  Germany,  collaterally  related  to  their 
late  sovereign.  Ardoin  was  deserted  by 
most  of  the  Italians,  but  retained  his  for- 
mer subjects  in  Piedmont,  and  disputed 
the  crown  for  many  years  with  Henry, 
who  passed  very  little  time  in  Italy.  Du- 
ring this  period  there  was  hardly  any 
recognised  government;  and  the  Lom- 
bards became  more  and  more  accustom- 
ed, through  necessity,  to  protect  them- 
selves, and  to  provide  for  their  own  inter- 
nal police.  Meanwhile  the  German  na- 
tion had  become  odious  to  the  Italians. 
The  rude  soldiery,  insolent  and  addicted 
to  intoxication,  were  engaged  in  frequent 
disputes  with  the  citizens,  wherein  the 
latter,  as  is  usual  in  similar  cases,  were 
exposed  first  to  the  summary  vengeance 
of  the  troops,  and  afterward  to  penal 
chastisement  for  sedition.*  In  one  of 
these  tumults,  at  the  entry  of  Henry  II., 
in  1004,  the  city  of  Pavia  was  burnt  to 
the  ground,  which  inspired  its  inhabitants 
wit%a  constant  animosity  against  that 
emperor.  Upon  his  death  in  1024,  the 
Italians  were  disposed  to  break  once 
more  their  connexion  with  Germany, 
which  had  elected  as  sovereign  Conrad, 
duke  of  Franconia.  They  offered  their 
crown  to  Robert,  king  of  France,  and  to 
William,  duke  of  Guienne;  but  neither 
of  them  was  imprudent  enough  to  involve 
himself  in  the  difficult  and  faithless  pol- 
itics j3f  Italy.  It  may  surprise  us  that  no 
candidate  appeared  from  among  her  na-^ 
tive  princes.  But  it  had  been  the  dex-" 
terous  policy  of  the  Othos  to  weaken  the 
great  Italian  fiefs,  which  were  still  rather 
considered  as  hereditary  governments 
than  as  absolute  patrimonies,  by  separa- 
ting districts  from  their  jurisdiction,  under 
inferior  marquises  and  rural  counts.f 
The  bishops  were  incapable  of  becoming 
competitors,  and  generally  attached  to 


or  the  times,  that  it  seems  better  to  follow  the 
common  tenour  of  history,  without  vouching  for 
the  accuracy  of  its  representations. 

*  Muratori,  A.  D.  1027, 1037. 

t  Denina,  1.  ix.,  c.  11.  Muratori,  Antiq.  Ital , 
Dissert.  8.  Annali  d'ltalia,  A.  D.  989. 


128 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   III. 


the  German  party.  The  cities  already 
possessed  material  influence,  but  were 
disunited  by  mutual  jealousies.  [A.  D. 
1024.]  Since  ancient  prejudices,  there- 
Election  of  fore,  precluded  a  federate  league 
Conrad  ii.  of  independent  principalities  and 
republics,  for  which  perhaps  the  actual 
condition  of  Italy  unfitted  her,  Eribert, 
archbishop  of  Milan,  accompanied  by 
some  other  chief  men  of  Lombardy,  re- 
paired to  Constance,  and  tendered  the 
crown  to  Conrad,  which  he  was  already 
disposed  to  claim  as  a  sort  of  dependance 
upon  Germany.  It  does  not  appear  that 
either  Conrad  or  his  successors  were 
ever  regularly  elected  to  reign  over  It- 
aly;* but  whether  this  ceremony  took 
place  or  not,  we  may  certainly  date  from 
that  time  the  subjection  of  Italy  to  the 
Germanic  body.  It  became  an  unques- 
tionable maxim,  that  the  votes  of  a  few 
German  princes  conferred  a  right  to  the 
sovereignty  of  a  country  which  had  never 
been  conquered,  and  which  had  never  for- 
mally recognised  this  superiority.!  But 
it  was  an  equally  fundamental  rule,  that 
the  elected  king  of  Germany  £ould  not 
assume  the  title  of  Roman  emperor,  until 
his  coronation  by  the  pope.  The  middle 
appellation  of  King  of  the  Romans  was 
invented  as  a  sort  of  approximation  to  the 
imperial  dignity.  But  it  was  not  till  the 
reign  of  Maximilian  that  the  actual  coro- 
nation at  Rome  was  dispensed  with,  and 
the  title  of  emperor  taken  immediately 
after  the  election. 

The  period  between  Conrad  of  Uran- 
conia  and  Frederick  Barbarossa,  or  from 
about  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  to  that 
of  the  twelfth  century,  is  marked  by 
three  great  events  in  Italian  history  ;  the 
struggle  between  the  empire  and  the  pa- 
pacy for  ecclesiastical  investitures,  the 
establishment  of  the  Norman  kingdom  in 
Naples,  and  the  formation  of  distinct  and 
nearly  independent  republic^  among  the 
v 

*  Muratori,  A.  D.  1026.  It  is  said  afterward,  p. 
367,  that  he  was  a  Romanis  ad  Imperatorem  elec- 
tus.  The  people  of  Rome  therefore  preserved 
their  nominal  right  of  concurring  in  the  election  of 
an  emperor.  Muratori,  in  another  place,  A.  D. 
1040,  supposes  that  Henry  III.  was  chosen  king  of 
Italy,  though  he  allows  that  no  proof  of  it  exists  ; 
and  there  seems  no  reason  for  the  supposition. 

t  Gunther,  the  poet  of  Frederick  Barbarossa,  ex- 
presses this  not  inelegantly  : — 

Romani  gloria  regni 

Nos  penes  est ;  quemcunque  sibi  Germania  regem 
Praeficit,  hunc  dives  submisso  vertice  Roma 
Accipit,  et  verso  Tiberim  regit  ordine  Rhenus. 

Gunther,  Ligurinus  ap.  Struvium  Corpus  Hist. 

German.,  p.  266. 

Yet  it  appears  from  Otho  of  Frisingen,  an  unques- 
tionable authority,  that  some  Italian  nobles  con- 
curred, or  at  least  were  present  and  assisting,  in 
the  election  of  Frederick  himself,  1.  ii.,  c.  i. 


cities  of  Lombardy.  The  first  of  these 
will  find  a  more  appropriate  place  in  a 
subsequent  chapter,  where  I  shall  trace 
the  progress  of  ecclesiastical  power.  But 
it  produced  a  long  and  almost  incessant 
state  of  disturbance  in  Italy ;  and  should 
be  mentioned  at  present  as  one  of  the 
main  causes  which  excited  in  that  coun- 
try a  systematic  opposition  to  the  im- 
perial authority. 

The  southern  provinces  of  Italy,  in  the 
beginning  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, were  chiefly  subject  to  to«e,«f 
the  Greek  empire,  which  had  southern 
latterly  recovered  part  of  its  II 
losses,  and  exhibited  some  ambition  and 
enterprise,  though  without  any  intrinsic 
vigour.  They  were  governed  by  a  lieu- 
tenant, styled  Catapan,*  who  resided  at 
Bari  in  Apulia.  On  the  Mediterranean 
coast,  three  dutchies,  or  rather  republics, 
of  Naples,  Gaeta,  and  Amalfi,  had  for 
several  ages  preserved  their  connexion 
with  the  Greek  empire,  and  acknowl- 
edged its  nominal  sovereignty.  The 
Lombard  principalities  of  Benevento, 
Salerno,  and  Capua,  had  much  declined 
from  their  ancient  splendour.  The  Greeks 
were,  however,  not  likely  to  attempt  any 
further  conquests  :  the  court  of  Constan- 
tinople had  relapsed  into  its  usual  indo- 
lence ;  nor  had  they  much  right  to  boast 
of  successes,  rather  due  to  the  Saracen 
auxiliaries,  whom  they  hired  from  Sicily. 
No  momentous  revolution  apparently 
threatened  the  south  of  Italy,  and  least 
of  all  could  it  be  anticipated  from  what 
quarter  the  storm  was  about  to  gather. 

The  followers  of  Rollo,  who  rested 
from  plunder  and  piracy  in  the  BtAQmtmt 
quiet  possession  of  Normandy,  oftheNor- 
became  devout  professors  of  the  mans  »t 
Christian  faith,  and  particularly  * 
addicted  to  the  custom  of  pilgrimage, 
which  gratified  their  curiosity  and  spirit 
of  adventure.  In  small  bodies,  well 
armed,  on  account  of  the  lawless  charac- 
ter of  the  countries  through  which  they 
passed,  the  Norman  pilgrims  visited  the 
shrines  of  Italy  and  even  the  Holy  Land. 
Some  of  these,  very  early  in  the  eleventh 
century,  were  engaged  by  a  Lombard 
prince  of  Salerno  against  the  Saracens, 
who  had  invaded  his  territory ;  and 
through  that  superiority  of  valour,  and 
perhaps  of  corporal  strength,  which  this 
singular  people  seem  to  have  possess- 
ed above  all  other  Europeans,  they 
made  surprising  havoc  among  the  ene- 
my, f  This  exploit  led  to  fresh  engage- 


*  Catapanus,  from  Kara  wav,  one  employed  in  the 
general  administration  of  affairs, 
t  Giannone,  t.  ii.,  p.  7  [edit.  1753].    I  should  ob- 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


129 


ments,  and  these  engagements  drew  new 
adventurers  from  Normandy ;  they  found- 
ed the  little  city  of  Aversa  near  Capua, 
and  were  employed  by  the  Greeks  against 
the  Saracens  of  Sicily.  But,  though  per- 
forming splendid  services  in  this  war, 
they  were  ill  repaid  by  their  ungrateful 
employers ;  and  being  by  no  means  of  a 
temper  to  bear  with  injury,  they  revenged 
themselves  by  a  sudden  invasion  of  Apu- 
lia. This  province  was  speedily  sub- 
dued, and  divided  among  twelve  Norman 
Conquests  counts  [A.  D.  1042];  but  soon  af- 
of  Robert  terward  Robert  Guiscard,  one  of 
Guisoard.  twejve  brothers,  many  of  whom 
were  renowned  in  these  Italian  wars, 
acquired  the  sovereignty ;  and  adding 
Calabria  to  his  conquests  [A.  D.  1057], 
put  an  end  to  the  long  dominion  of  the 
Eastern  emperors  in  Italy.*  He  reduced 
the  principalities  of  Salerno  and  Bene- 
vento,  in  the  latter  instance  sharing  the 
spoil  with  the  pope,  who  took  the  city  to 
himself,  while  Robert  retained  the  terri- 
tory. His  conquests  in  Greece,  which 
he  invaded  with  the  magnificent  design 
of  overthrowing  the  Eastern  empire, 
were  at  least  equally  splendid,  though 
less  durable.  [A.  D.  1061.]  Roger,  his 
younger  brother,  undertook  meanwhile 
the  romantic  enterprise,  as  it  appeared, 
of  conquering  the  Island  of  Sicily,  with 
a  small  body  of  Norman  volunteers. 
But  the  Saracens  were  broken  into  petty 
states,  and  discouraged  by  the  bad  suc- 
cess of  their  brethren  in  Spain  and  Sar- 
dinia. After  many  years  of  war,  Roger 
became  sole  master  of  Sicily,  and  took 
the  title  of  count.  The  son  of  this  prince, 
upon  the  extinction  of  Robert  Guiscard's 
posterity,  united  the  two  Norman  sover- 
eignties, and  subjugating  the  free  repub- 
lics of  Naples  and  Amalfi,  and  the  princi- 
pality of  Capua  [A.  D.  1127],  established 
a  boundary  which  has  hardly  been  changed 
since  his  time.f 

The  first  successes  of  these  Norman 
Papal  inves-  leaders  were  viewed  unfavoura- 
tituresof  bly  by  the  popes.  Leo  IX. 
Naples.  marched  in  person  against  Rob- 
ert Guiscard  with  an  army  of  German 

serve,  that  St.  Marc,  a  more  critical  writer  in  ex- 
amination of  facts  than  Giannone,  treats  this  first 
adventure  of  the  Normans  as  unauthenticated. 
— Abrege  Chronologique,  p.  990. 

*  The  final  blow  was  given  to  the  Greek  domi- 
nation over  Italy  by  the  capture  of  Ban,  in  1071, 
after  a  siege  of  four  years.  It  had  for  some  time 
been  confined  to  this  single  city. — Muratori,  St. 
Marc. 

t  M.  Sismondi  has  excelled  himself  in  descri- 
bing the  conquest  of  Amalfi  and  Naples  by  Roger 
Guiscajd  (t.  i.,  c.  4) ;  warming  his  imagination 
with  visions  of  liberty  and  virtue  in  those  obscure 
republics,  which  no  real  history  survives  to  dispel. 


mercenaries,  but  was  beaten  and  made 
prisoner  in  this  unwise  enterprise,  the 
scandal  of  which  nothing  but  good  for- 
tune could  have  lightened.  He  fell,  how- 
ever, into  the  hands  of  a  devout  people, 
who  implored  his  absolution  for  the 
crime  of  defending  themselves ;  and 
whether  through  gratitude,  or  as  the 
price  of  his  liberation,  invested  them 
with  their  recent  conquests  in  Apulia  as 
fiefs  of  the  Holy  See.  This  investiture 
was  repeated  and  enlarged,  as  the  popes, 
especially  in  their  contention  with  Henry 
IV.  and  Henry  V.,  found  the  advantage 
of  using  the  Normans  as  faithful  auxilia- 
ries. Finally,  Innocent  II. ,  in  1139,  con- 
ferred upon  Roger  the  title  of  King  of 
Sicily.  It  is  difficult  to  understand  by 
what  pretence  these  countries  could  be 
claimed  by  the  see  of  Rome  in  sover- 
eignty, unless  by  virtue  of  the  pretended 
donation  of  Constantine,  or  that  of  Louis 
the  Debonair,  which  is  hardly  less  suspi- 
cious ;*  and,  least  of  all,  how  Innocent 
II.  could  surrender  the  liberties  of  the 
city  of  Naples,  whether  that  was  consid- 
ered as  an  independent  republic,  or  as  a 
portion  of  the  Greek  empire.  But  the 
Normans,  who  had  no  title  but  their 
swords,  were  naturally  glad  to  give  an 
appearance  of  legitimacy  to  their  con- 
quest ;  and  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  even 
in  the  hands  of  the  most  powerful  princes 
in  Europe,  never  ceased  to  pay  a  feudal 
acknowledgment  to  the  chair  of  St.  Peter. 
The  revolutions  which  time  brought 
forth  on  the  opposite  side  of  Italy  were 
still  more  interesting.  Under  the  Lom- 
bard and  French  princes,  every  progress  Of 
city  with  its  adjacent  district  was  the  Lom- 
subject  to  the  government  and  bard  Clties- 
jurisdiction  of  a  count,  who  was  himself 
subordinate  to  the  duke  or  marquis  of 
the  province.  From  these  counties  it 
was  the  practice  of  the  first  German  em- 
perors to  dismember  particular  towns  or 
tracts  of  country,  granting  them  upon  a 
feudal  tenure  to  rural  lords,  by  many  of 
whom  also  the  same  title  was  assumed. 
Thus  by  degrees  the  authority  of  the  ori- 
ginal officers  was  confined  almost  to  the 
walls  of  their  own  cities ;  and  in  many 
cases  the  bishops  obtained  a  grant  of  the 
temporal  government,!  and  exercised  the 
functions  which  had  belonged  to  the  count. 


e  Muratori  presumes  to  suppose,  that  the  inter- 
polated, if  not  spurious,  grants  of  Louis  the  Debo- 
nair, Otho  I.,  and  Henry 'II.,  to  the  «ee  of  Rome, 
were  promulgated  about  the  time  of  the  first  con- 
cessions to  the  Normans,  in  order  to  give  the  popes 
a  colourable  pretext  to  dispose  of  the  southern 
provinces  of  Italy.  A.  D  1059. 

t  Muratori,  Antiquit.  Italiae,  Dissert.  8.  Annali 
d'ltalia,  A.  D.  989.  Antichita  Eetensi,  p.  26 


130 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  111. 


'  It  is  impossible  to  ascertain  the  time  at 
which  the  cities  of  Lombardy  began  to 
assume  a  republican  form  of  government, 
or  to  trace  with  precision  the  gradations 
of  their  progress.  The  last  historian  of 
Italy  asserts,  that  Otho  the  First  erected 
them  into  municipal  communities,  and 
permitted  the  election  of  their  magis- 
trates ;  but  of  this  he  produces  no  evi- 
dence ;  and  Muratori,  from  whose  author- 
ity it  is  rash  to  depart  without  strong 
reasons,  is  not  only  silent  about  any 
charters,  but  discovers  no  express  une- 
quivocal testimonies  of  a  popular  govern- 
ment for  the  whole  eleventh  century.* 
The  first  appearance  of  the  citizens  act- 
ing for  themselves,  is  in  a  tumult  at  Mi- 
lan, in  991,  when  the  archbishop  was  ex- 
pelled from  the  city.f  But  this  was  a 
transitory  ebullition,  and  we  must  descend 
lower  for  more  specific  proofs.  It  is  pos- 
sible that  the  disputed  succession  of  Ar- 
doih  and  Henry,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
eleventh  age,  and  the  kind  of  interregnum 
which  then  took  place,  gave  the  inhabi- 
tants an  opportunity  of  choosing  magis- 
trates, and  of  sharing  in  public  delibera- 
tions. A  similar  relaxation  indeed  of  gov- 
ernment in  France,  had  exposed  the  peo- 
ple to  greater  servitude,  and  established 
a  feudal  aristocracy.  But  the  feudal  te- 
nures seem  not  to  have  produced  in  Italy 
that  systematic  and  regular  subordination 
which  existed  in  France  during  the  same 
period;  nor  were  the  mutual  duties  of 
the  relation  between  lord  and  vassal  so 
well  understood  or  observed.  Hence  we 
find  not  only  disputes,  but  actual  civil 
war  between  the  lesser  gentry  or  vavas- 
sors,  and  the  higher  nobility,  their  imme- 
diate superiors.  These  differences  were 
adjusted  by  Conrad  the  Salic,  who  pub- 
lished a  remarkable  edict  in  1037,  by 
which  the  feudal  law  of  Italy  was  re- 
duced to  more  certainty. \  From  this 
disunion  among  the  members  of  the  feu- 
dal confederacy,  it  was  more  easy  for  the 
citizens  to  render  themselves  secure 
against  its  dominion.  The  cities,  too,  of 
Lombardy,  were  far  more  populous  and 
better  defended  than  those  of  France; 
they  had  learned  to  stand  sieges  in  the 
Hungarian  invasions  of  the  tenth  century, 
,  and  had  acquired  the  right  of  protect- 
ing themselves  by  strong  fortifications. 
Those  which  had  been  placed  under  the 
temporal  government  of  their  bishops 
had  peculiar  advantages  in  struggling  for 


'  emancipation.*  This  circumstance  in  the 
|  state  of  Lombardy  I  consider  as  highly 
I  important  towards  explaining  the  subse- 
'  quent  revolution.  Notwithstanding  sev- 
eral exceptions,  a  churchman  was  less 
likely  to  be  bold  and  active  in  command 
than  a  soldier;  and  the  sort  of  election 
which  was  always  necessary,  and  some- 
times more  than  nominal,  on  a  vacancy 
of  the  see,  kept  up  among  the  citizens  a 
notion  that  the  authority  of  their  bishop 
and  chief  magistrate  emanated  in  some 
degree  from  themselves.  In  many  in- 
stances, especially  in  the  church  of  Milan, 
the  earliest,  perhaps,  and  certainly  the 
most  famous  of  Lombard  republics,  there 
occurred  a  disputed  election ;  two,  or 
even  three  competitors,  claimed  the 
archiepiscopal  functions,  and  were  com- 
pelled, in  the  absence  of  the  emperors, 
to  obtain  the  exercise  of  them  by  means 
of  their  own  faction  among  the  citizens. f 
These  were  the  general  causes,  which, 
operating  at  various  times  during  the 
eleventh  century,  seem  gradually  to  have 


*  Sismondi,  t.  i.,  p.  97,  384.    Muratori,  Disaert. 
9. 

t  Muratori,  Annali  d'ltali*. 
$  Ibid.    St.  Marc. 


*  The  bishops  seem  to  have  become  counts, 
or  temporal  governors  of  their  sees,  about  the 
end  of  the  tenth,  or  before  the  middle  of  the  elev- 
enth century. — Muratori,  Dis.  8.  Denina,  1.  ix., 
c.  11.  St.  Marc,  A.  D.  1041,  1047,  1070.  In  Ar- 
nulf  s  History  of  Milan,  written  before  the  close  of 
the  latter  age,  we  have  a  contemporary  evidence. 
And  from  the  perusal  of  that  work  1  should  infer, 
that  the  archbishop  was,  in  the  middle  of  the  llth 
century,  the  chief  magistrate  of  the  city.  But,  at 
the  same  time,  it  appears  highly  probable,  that  an 
assembly  of  the  citizens,  or  at  least  a  part  of  the 
citizens,  partook  in  the  administration  of  public  af- 
fairs.— Muratori,  Scriptores  Rerum  Italicarum,  t. 
iv.,  p.  16,  22, 23,  and  particularly  the  last.  In  most 
cities  to  the  eastward  of  the  Tesino,  the  bishops 
lost  their  temporal  authority  in  the  twelfth  centu- 
ry, though  the  archbishop  of  Milan  had  no  small 
prerogatives  while  that  city  was  governed  as  a  re- 
public. But  in  Piedmont  they  continued  longer  in 
the  enjoyment  of  power.  Vercelli  and  even  Turin 
were  almost  subject  to  their  respective  prelates  till 
the  thirteenth  century.  For  this  reason  among 
others,  the  Piedmontese  cities  are  hardly  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  republics  of  Lombardy. — De- 
nina, Istoria  dell'Italia  Occidentale,  t.  i.,  p.  191. 

t  Muratori,  A.  D.  1345.  Sometimes  the  inhab- 
itants of  a  city  refused  to  acknowledge  a  bishop 
named  by  the  emperor,  as  happened  at  Pavia  and 
Asti  about  1057.— Arnulf,  p.  22.  This  was,  in  oth- 
er words,  setting  up  themselves  as  republics.  But 
the  most  remark  able  instance  of  this  kind  occurred 
in  1070,  when  the  Milanese  absolutely  rejected 
Godfrey,  appointed  by  Henry  IV.,  and  after  a  re- 
sistance of  several  years,  obliged  the  emperor  to 
fix  upon  another  person.  The  city  had  been  pre- 
viously involved  in  long  and  violent  tumults,  which, 
though  rather  belonging  to  ecclesiastical  than  civil 
history,  as  they  arose  out  of  the  endeavours  made 
to  .re form  the  conduct  and  enforce  the  celibacy  of 
the  clergy,  had  a  considerable  tendency  to  diminish 
the  archbishop's  authority,  and  to  give  a  republican 
character  to  the  inhabitants.  These  proceedings  are 
told  at  great  length  by  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  A.  D.  1056- 
1077.  4rnulf  and  Landulf  are  the  original  sources. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY, 


131 


'produced  a  republican  form  of  govern- 
ment in  the  Italian  cities.  But  this  part 
of  history  is  very  obscure*  The  archives 
of  all  cities  before  the  reign  of  Frederick 
Barbarossa  have  perished.  For  many 
years  there  is  a  great  deficiency  of  con- 
temporary Lombard  historians,  and  those 
of  a  later  age,  who  endeavoured  to  search 
into  the  antiquities  of  their  country,  have 
found  only  some  barren  and  insulated 
events  to  record.  We  perceive,  howev- 
er, throughout  the  eleventh  century,  that 
the  cities  were  continually  in  warfare 
with  each  other.  This,  indeed,  was  ac- 
cording to  the  manners  of  that  age,  and 
no  inference  can  absolutely  be  drawn 
from  it  as  to  their  internal  freedom.  But 
it  is  observable,  that  their  chronicles 
speak,  in  recording  these  transactions, 
of  the  people,  and  not  of  their  leaders, 
which  is  the  true  republican  tone  of  his- 
tory. Thus,  in  the  Annals  of  Pisa,  we 
read  under  the  years  1002  and  1004,  of 
victories  gained  by  the  Pisaijg  over  the 
people  of  Lucca ;  in  1006,  that  the  Pisans 
and  Genoese  conquered  Sardinia.*  These 
annals  indeed  are  not  by  a  contemporary 
writer,  nor  perhaps  of  much  authority. 
But  we  have  an  original  account  of  a 
war  that  broke  out  in  1057,  between  Pa- 
via  and  Milan,  in  which  the  citizens  are 
said  to  have  raised  armies,  made  allian- 
ces, hired  foreign  troops,  and  in  every 
respect  acted  like  independent  states. f 
There  was,  in  fact,  no  power  left  in  the 
empire  to  control  them.  The  two  Hen- 
rys IV.  and  V.  were  so-  much  embar- 
rassed during  the  quarrel  concerning  in- 
vestitures, and  the  continual  troubles  of 
Germany,  that  they  were  less  likely  to 
interfere  with  the  rising  freedom  of  the 
Italian  cities,  than  to  purchase  their  as- 
sistance by  larg<e  concessions.  Henry 
IV.  granted  a  charter  to  Pisa,  in  1081, 
full  of  the  most  important  privileges, 
promising  even  not  to  name  any  mar- 
quis of  Tuscany  without  the  people's 
consent;^  and  it  is  possible,  that  al- 
though the  instruments  have  perished, 
other  places  might  obtain  similar  ad- 
vantages. However  this  may  be,  it  is 
certain  that,  before  the  death  of  Henry 

*  Murat.,  Diss.  45.  Arnulfus,  the  historian  of 
Milan,  makes  no  mention  of  any  temporal  counts, 
which  seems  to  be  a  proof  that  there  were  none  in 
any  authority.  He  speaks  always  of  Mediolanen- 
ses,  Papienseg,  Ravenates,  &.c.  This  history  was 
written  about  1085,  but  relates  to  the  earlier  part 
of  that  century.  That  of  Landulfus  corroborates 
this  supposition,  which  indeed  is  capable  of  proof 
as  to  Milan  and  several  other  cities  in  which  the 
temporal  government  had  been  legally  vested  in 
the  bishops. 

t  Murat.,  Dies.  45.  Arnulf,,  Hist.  Medjc}an.,p.  22. 

J  Murat.,  Pissdrt.  45. 
12 


V4,  in  1125,  almost  all  ihe  cities  of  Lorn- 
bardy,  and  many  among  those  of  Tusca- 
ny, were  accustomed  to  elect  their  own 
magistrates,*  and  to  act  as  independent 
communities,  in  waging  war  and  in  do- 
mestic government.* 

The  territory  subjected  originally  to 
the  count  or  bishop  of  these  Their  acquit 
cities  had  been  reduced,  as  I  siuons  of 
mentioned  above,  by  numerous  territory- 
concessions  to  the  rural  nobility*  But 
the  new  republics,  deeming  themselves 
entitled  to  all  which  their  former  gov- 
ernors had  once  possessed,  began  to 
attack  their  nearest  "neighbours,  and  to 
recover  the  sovereignty  of  all  their  an- 
cient territory,  They  besieged  the  cas- 
tles of  the  rural  counts,  and  successively 
reduced  them  into  subjection.  They 
suppressed  some  minor  communities, 
which  had  been  formed,  in  imitation  of 
themselves,  by  little  towns  belonging 
to  their  district.  Sometimes  they  pur- 
chased feudaj  superiorities  or  territorial 
jurisdictions,  and,  according  to  a  policy 
not  unusual  with  the  stronger  party,  con- 
verted the  rights  of  property  into  those 
of  government.!  Hence,  at  the  middle 
of  the  twelfth  century,  we  are  assured 
by  a  contemporary  writer,  that  hardly 
any  nobleman  could  be  found  except  the 
Marquis  of  Montferrat,  who  had  not  sub- 
mitted to  some  city.J  We  may  except 

j  also,  I  should  presume,  the  families  of 
Este  and  Malaspina,  as  well  as  that  of 

j  Savoy.    Muratori  produces  many  charters 

|  of  mutual  compact  between  the  nobles 
and  the  neighbouring  cities ;  whereof 

1  one  invariable  article  is,  that  the  former 
should  reside  within  the  walls  a  certain 
number  of  months  in  the  year.$  .The 
rural  nobility,  thus  deprived  of  the  inde- 
pendence which  had  endeared  their  cas- 
tles, imbibed  a  new  ambition  of  directing 
the  municipal  government  of  the  cities, 
which,  during  the  first  period  of  the  re- 
publics, was  chiefly  in  the  hands  of  the 
superior  families.  It  was  the  sagacious 
policy  of  the  Lombards  to  invite  settlers 
by  throwing  open  to  them  the  privileges 
of  citizenship,  and  sometimes  they  even 
bestowed  them  by  compulsion.  Some- 

*  Murat.,  Annali  d'ltal.,  A.  D.  1107. 

f  Ildominioutile  delle  citta  e  de' villaggi  era  tal- 
volta  diviso  fra  due  o  piu  padroni,  ossia  che  s'as- 
segnassero  a  ciascuno  diversi  quartieri,  o  si  divi- 
dessero  i  proventi  della  gabelle,  ovvero  che  1'uno 
signore  godesse  d'una  spezie  della  giurisdizione, 
e  1'altro  d'un'  altra.— Denina,  1.  xii.,  c.  3.  This 
produced  a  vast  intricacy  of  titles,  which  was  of 
course  advantageous  to  those  who  wanted  a  pre- 
text for  robbing  their  neighbours. 

t  Otho  Frisingena,  I,  ii.,  c.  13. 

$  Murat,,  Diss.  49. 


132 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


times  a  city,  imitating  the  wisdom  of 
ancient  Rome,  granted  these  privileges 
to  all  the  inhabitants  of  another.*  Thus 
the  principal  cities,  and  especially  Milan, 
reached,  before  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  a  degree  of  population  very  far 
beyond  that  of  the  capitals  of  the  great 
kingdoms.  Within  their  strong  walls  and 
deep  trenches,  and  in  the  midst  of  their 
well-peopled  streets,  the  industrious  dwelt 
secure  from  the  license  of  armed  pilla- 
gers and  the  oppression  of  feudal  tyrants. 
Artisans,  whom  the  military  landholders 
contemned,  acquired  and  deserved  the 
right  of  bearing  arms  for  their  own  and 
the  public  defence.f  Their  occupations 
became  liberal,  because  they  were  the 
foundation  of  their  political  franchises; 
the  citizens  were  classed  in  companies 
according  to  their  respective  crafts ;  each 
of  which  had  its  tribune  or  standard-bearer 
(gonfalonier),  at  whose  command,  when 
any  tumult  arose  or  enemy  threatened, 
they  rushed  in  arms  to  muster  in  the 
market-place. 

But,  unhappily,  we  cannot  extend  the 
Their  mutual  sympathy,  which  institutions 
animosities.  so  fun  of  liberty  create,  to  the 
national  conduct  of  these  little  republics. 
Their  love  of  freedom  was  alloyed  by 
that  restless  spirit,  from  which  a  democ- 
racy is  seldom  exempt,  of  tyrannising 
over  weaker  neighbours.  They  played 
over  again  the  tragedy  of  ancient  Greece, 
with  all  its  circumstances  of  inveterate 
hatred,  unjust  ambition,  and  atrocious 
retaliation,  though  with  less  consummate 
actors  upon  the  scene.  Among  all  the 
Lombard  cities,  Milan  was  the  most  con- 
spicuous, as  well  for  power  and  popula- 
tion, as  for  the  abuse  of  those  resour- 
ces by  arbitrary  and  ambitious  conduct. 
Thus,  in  1111,  they  razed  the  town  of 
Lodi  to  the  ground,  distributing  the  in- 
habitants among  six  villages,  and  sub- 
jecting them  to  an  unrelenting  despo- 
tism. J  Thus,  in  1118,  they  commenced 


*  Murat,  Diss.  49. 

t  Otho  Frisingensis  ap.  Murat.  Scr.  Rer.  ItaL, 
t.  vi.,  p.  708.  Ut  etiam  ad  comprimendos  vicinos 
materia  non  careant,  inferioris  ordinis  juvenes,  vel 
quoslibet  contemptibilium  etiam  mechanicarum  ar- 
tium  opifices,  quos  caeterae  gentes  ab  honestioribus 
et  liberioribus  studiis  tanquam  pestem  propellunt, 
ad  militiae  cingulum,  vel  dignitatum  gradus  assu- 
mere  non  dedignantur.  Ex  quo  facturn  est,  ut 
caeteris  orbis  civitatibus,  divitiis  et  potentia  prae- 
emineant. 

J  The  animosity  between  Milan  and  Lodi  was  of 
very  old  standing.  It  originated,  according  to  Ar- 
nulf,  in  the  resistance  made  by  the  inhabitants  of 
the  latter  city  to  an  attempt  made  by  Archbishop 
Eribert  to  force  a  bishop  of  his  own  nomination 
upon  them.  The  bloodshed,  plunder,  and  confla 
grations  which  had  ensued,  would,  he  says,  fill  i 
volume,  if  they  were  related  at  length. — Scriptoree 


a  war  of  ten  years'  duration  with  the 
little  city  of  Como ;  but  the  surprising 
Derseverance  of  its  inhabitants  procured 
•or  them  better  terms  of  capitulation, 
though  they  lost  their  original  independ- 
ence. The  Cremonese  treated  so  harsh- 
y  the  town  of  Crema,  that  it  revolted 
rom  them,  and  put  itself  under  the  pro- 
tection of  Milan.  Cities  of  more  equal 
brces  carried  on  interminable  hostilities 
)y  wasting  each  other's  territory,  de- 
stroying the  harvests,  and  burning  the  vil- 
ages. 

The  sovereignty  of  the  emperors, 
meanwhile,  though  not  very  ef-  sovereignty 
fective,  was  in  theory  always  of  the  em- 
admitted.  Their  name  was  perors- 
ased  in  public  acts,  and  appeared  upon 
the  coin.  When  they  came  into  Italy, 
they  had  certain  customary  supplies  of 
provisions  called  fodrum  regale,  at  the 
expense  of  the  city  where  they  resided ; 
during  their  presence,  all  inferior  magis- 
tracies were  suspended,  and  the  right  of 
urisdiction  devolved  upon  them  alone. 
But  such  was  the  jealousy  of  the  Lom- 
bards, that  they  built  the  royal  palaces 
without  their  gates;  a  precaution  to 
which  the  emperors  were  compelled  to 
submit.  This  was  at  a  very  early  time 
a  subject  of  contention  between  the  in- 
habitants of  Pavia  and  Conrad  II.,  whose 
palace,  seated  in  the  heart  of  the  city,  they 
had  demolished  in  a  sedition,  and  were 
unwilling  to  rebuild  in  that  situation.* 

Such  was  the  condition  of  Italy  when 
Frederick  Barbarossa,  duke  of  Frederick 
Swabia,  and  nephew  of  the  last  Barbarossa. 
emperor,  Conrad  III.,  ascended  the  throne 
of  Germany.  His  accession  forms  the 
commencement  of  a  new  period,  the  du- 
ration of  which  is  about  one  hundred 
years,  and  which  is  terminated  by  the 
death  of  Conrad  IV.,  the  last  emperor  of 
the  house  of  Swabia.  It  is  characteri- 
zed, like  the  former,  by  three  distinguish- 
ing features  in  Italian  history;  the  vic- 
torious struggle  of  the  Lombard  and  oth- 
er cities  for  independence,  the  final  es- 
tablishment of  a  temporal  sovereignty 
over  the  middle  provinces  by  the  popes, 
and  the  union  of  the  kingdom  of  Naples 
to  the  dominions  of  the  house  of  Swabia. 
In  Frederick  Barbarossa  the  Italians 
found  a  very  different  sovereign  from 
the  two  last  emperors,  Lothaire  and  Con- 
rad III.,  who  had  seldom  appeared  in 


Rerum  Italic.,  t.  iv.,  p.  16.  And  this  is  the  testi- 
mony of  a  writer  who  did  not  live  beyond  1085. 
Seventy  years  more,  either  of  hostility  or  servitude, 
elapsed,  before  Lodi  was  permitted  to  respire. 

*  Otho  Frisingensis,  p.  710.    Muratori,  A.  D. 
1027. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


133 


Italy,  and  with  forces  quite  inadequate 
to  control  such  insubordinate  subjects. 
The  distinguished  valour  and  ability  of 
this  prince  rendered  a  severe  and  arbi- 
trary temper,  and  a  haughty  conceit  of 
his  imperial  rights,  more  formidable.  He 
believed,  or  professed  to  believe,  the 
magnificent  absurdity,  that,  as  successor 
of  Augustus,  he  inherited  the  kingdoms 
of  the  world.  In  the  same  right  he 
more  powerfully,  if  not  more  rationally, 
laid  claim  to  the  entire  prerogatives  of 
the  RbWan  emperors  over  their  own  sub- 
jects ;  and  in  this  the  professors  of  the 
civil  law,  which  was  now  diligently  stud- 
ied, lent  him  their  aid  with  the  utmost 
servility.  To  such  a  disposition  the  self- 
government  of  the  Lombard  cities  ap- 
peared mere  rebellion.  Milan,  especial- 
ly, the  most  renowned  of  them  all,  drew 
down  upon  herself  his  inveterate  re- 
sentment. He  found,  unfortunately,  too 
good  a  pretence  in  her  behaviour  towards 
Lodi.  Two  natives  of  that  ruined  city* 
threw  themselves  at  the  emperor's  feet, 
imploring  him,  as  the  ultimate  source  of 
justice,  to  redress  the  wrongs  of  their 
country.  It  is  a  striking  proof  of  the 
terror  inspired  by  Milan,  that  the  consuls 
of  Lodi  disavowed  the  complaints  of  their 
countrymen,  and  the  inhabitants  trembled 
at  the  danger  of  provoking  a  summary 
vengeance,  against  which  the  imperial 
arms  seemed  no  protection.*  The  Mi- 
lanese, however,  abstained  from  attack- 
ing the  people  of  Lodi,  though  they  treat- 
ed with  contempt  the  emperor's  order  to 
leave  them  at  liberty.  Frederick,  mean- 
while, came  into  Italy,  and  held  a  diet  at 
Roncaglia,  where  complaints  poured  in 
from  many  quarters  against  the  Milanese. 
Pa  via  and  Cremona,  their  ancient  ene- 
mies, were  impatient  to  renew  hostilities 
under  the  imperial  auspices.  Brescia, 
Tortona,  and  Crema  were  allies,  or  rath- 
er dependants,  of  Milan.  Frederick  soon 
took  occasion  to  attack  the  latter  confed- 
eracy. Tortona  was  compelled  to  surren- 
der, and  levelled  to  the  ground.  But  a 
feudal  army  was  soon  dissolved ;  the 
emperor  had  much  to  demand  his  atten- 
tion at  Rome,  where  he  was  on  ill  terms 
with  Adrian  IV. ;  and  when  the  imperial 
troops  were  withdrawn  from  Lombardy, 
the  Milanese  rebuilt  Tortona,  and  expell- 
ed the  citizens  of  Lodi  from  their  dwel- 
lings. Frederick  assembled  a  fresh  army, 

*  See  an  interesting  account  of  these  circum- 
stances in  the  narrative  of  Otho  Morena,  a  citizen 
of  Lodi.— Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  vi.,  p.  966.  M.  Sis- 
mondi,  who  reproaches  Morena  for  partiality  to- 
wards Frederick  in  the  Milanese  war,  should  have 
remembered  the  provocations  of  Lodi. — Hist,  des 
Republ.  Ital.,  t.  ii.,p.  102. 


to  which  almost  every  city  of  Lombard)', 
willingly  or  by  force,  contributed  its  mi- 
litia. It  is  said  to  have  exceeded  a  hun- 
dred thousand  men.  The  Milanese  shut 
themselves  up  within  their  walls;  and 
perhaps  might  have  defied  the  imperial 
forces,  if  their  immense  population,  which 
gave  them  confidence  in  arms,  had  not 
exposed  them  to  a  different  enemy.  Mi- 
lan was  obliged  by  hunger  to  capitulate, 
upon  conditions  not  very  severe,  if  a  van- 
quished people  could  ever  safely  rely 
upon  the  convention  that  testifies  their 
submission. 

[A.  D.  1158.]  Frederick,  after  the  sur- 
render of  Milan,  held  a  diet  at  Ron-  Diet  of 
caglia,  where  the  effect  of  his  vie-  R°ncagiia. 
tories  was  fatally  perceived.  The  bishops, 
the  higher  nobility,  the  lawyers,  vied  with 
one  another  in  exalting  his  prerogatives. 
He  defined  the  regalian  rights,  as  they 
were  called,  in  such  a  manner  as  to  ex- 
clude the  cities  and  private  proprietors 
from  coining  money,  and  from  tolls  or  ter- 
ritorial dues,  which  they  had  for  many 
years  possessed.  These,  however,  he  per- 
mitted them  to  retain  for  a  pecuniary  stip- 
ulation. A  more  important  innovation 
was  the  appointment  of  magistrates,  with 
the  title  of  podesta,  to  administer  justice, 
concurrently  with  the  consuls;  but  he 
soon  proceeded  to  abolish  the  latter  of- 
fice in  many  cities,  and  to  throw  the 
whole  government  into  the  hands  of  his 
own  magistrates.  He  prohibited  the  cit- 
ies from  levying  war  against  each  other. 
It  may  be  presumed,  that  he  showed  no 
favour  to  Milan.  The  capitulation  was 
set  at  naught  in  its  most  express  provis- 
ions ;  a  podesta  was  sent  to  supersede  the 
consuls,  and  part  of  the  territory  taken 
away.  Whatever  might  be  the  risk  of 
resistance,  and  the  Milanese  had  experi- 
enced enough  not  to  undervalue  it,  they 
were  determined  rather  to  see  their  liber- 
ties at  once  overthrown,  than  gradually 
destroyed  by  a  faithless  tyrant.  They 
availed  themselves  of  the  absence  of  his 
army  to  renew  the  war.  Its  issue  was 
more  calamitous  than  that  of  the  last. 
Almost  all  Lombardy  lay  patient  under 
subjection.  The  email  town  of  Crema, 
always  the  faithful  ally  of  Milan,  stood  a 
memorable  siege  against  the  imperial 
army ;  but  the  inhabitants  were  ultimate- 
ly compelled  to  capitulate  for  their  lives, 
and  the  vindictive  Cremonese  razed  their 
dwellings  to  the  ground.*  But  all  smaller 


*  The  siege  of  Crema  is  told  at  great  length  by 
Otto  Morena ;  it  is  interesting,  not  only  as  a  display 
of  extraordinary,  though  unsuccessful,  perseve- 
rance and  intrepidity,  but  as  the  most  detailed  ac- 
count of  the  methods  used  in  the  attack  and  de- 


134 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   III. 


capture  and  calamities  were  forgotten,  when  | 
destruction  the  great  city  of  Milan,  worn  j 
of  Milan.  ou^  by  famnie  rather  than  sub- 
dued by  force,  was  reduced  to  surrender 
at  discretion.  Lombardy  stood  in  anx- 
ious suspense  to  know  the  determination 
of  Frederick  respecting  this  ancient  me- 
tropolis, the  seat  of  the  early  Christian 
emperors,  and  second  only  to  Rome  in 
the  hierarchy  of  the  Latin  church.  A 
delay  of  three  weeks  excited  fallacious 
hopes  ;  but,  at  'the  end  of  that  time,  an 
order  was  given  to  the  Milanese  to  evac- 
uate their  habitations.  The  deserted 
streets  were  instantly  occupied  by  the 
imperial  army ;  the  people  of  Pavia  and 
Cremona,  of  Lodi  and  Como,  were  com- 
missioned to  revenge  themselves  on  the 
respective  quarters  of  the  city  assigned 
to  them ;  and  in  a  few  days  the  pillaged 
churches  stood  alone  amid  the  ruins  of 
what  had  been  Milan. 

[A.  D.  1162.]  There  was  now  little  left 
of  that  freedom  to  which  Lombardy  had 
aspired:  it  was  gone  like  a  pleasant 
dream,  and  she  awoke  to  the  fears  and 
miseries  of  servitude.  Frederick  obeyed 
the  dictates  of  his  vindictive  temper,  and 
of  the  policy  usual  among  statesmen. 
He  abrogated  the  consular  regimen  in 
some  even  of  the  cities  which  had  sup- 
ported him,  and  established  his  podesta 
in  their  place.  This  magistrate  was  al- 
ways a  stranger,  frequently  not  even  an 
Italian ;  and  he  came  to  his  office  with 
all  those  prejudices  against  the  people  he 
was  to  govern,  which  cut  off  every  hope 
of  justice  and  humanity.  The  citizens  of  [ 
Lombardy,  especially  the  Milanese,  who 
had  been  dispersed  in  the  villages  ad- 
joining their  ruined  capital,  were  unable 
to  meet  the  perpetual  demands  of  tribute. 
In  some  parts,  it  is  said,  two  thirds  of  the 
produce  of  their  lands,  the  only  wealth 
that  remained,  were  extorted  from  them 
by  the  imperial  officers.  It  was  in  vain 
that  they  prostrated  themselves  at  the 
feet  of  Frederick.  He  gave  at  the  best 
only  vague  promises  of  redress;  they 
were  in  his  eyes  rebels,  his  delegates  had 
acted  as  faithful  officers,  whom,  even  if 
they  had  gone  a  little  beyond  his  inten- 
tions, he  could  not  be  expected  to  punish. 

But  there  still  remained,  at  the  heart 
of  Lombardy,  the  strong  principle  of  na- 
tional liberty,  imperishable  among  the 
perishable  armies  of  her  patriots,  incon- 
sumable in  the  conflagration  of  her  cities.* 


fence  of  fortified  places,  before  the  introduction  of 
artillery.— ^Scrip.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  vi.,  p.  1032-1052. 
*  Quae  neque  Dardaniis  campis  potuere  perire, 
£Jec  cum  capta  capi,  uec  cum  combusta  cremari. 

Ennius. 


Those  whom  private  animosities  had  led 
to  assist  the  German  conqueror,  blushed 
at  the  degradation  of  their  country,  and 
at  the  share  they  had  taken  in  it.  [A.  D. 
1167.]  A  league  was  secretly  League  of 
formed,  in  winch  Cremona,  one  Lombardy 
of  the  chief  cities  on  the  imperi-  J?aj"8* . 
al  side,  took  a  prominent  part.  ' 
Those  beyond  the  Adige,  hitherto  not 
much  engaged  in  the  disputes  of  central 
Lombardy,  had  already  formed  a  separate 
confederacy,  to  secure  themselres  from 
encroachments,  which  appeared^Rhnore 
unjust  as  they  had  never  borne  arms 
against  the  emperor.  [A.  D.  1164.]  Their 
first  successes  corresponded  to  the  jus- 
tice of  their  cause ;  Frederick  was  re- 
pulsed from  the  territory  of  Verona,  a 
fortunate  augury  for  the  rest  of  Lombar- 
dy. These  two  clusters  of  cities,  on  the 
east  and  west  of  the  Adige,  now  uni- 
ted themselves  into  the  famous  Lombard 
League,  the  terms  of  which  were  settled 
'in  a  general  diet.  Their  alliance  was  to 
last  twenty  years;  during  which  they 
pledged  themselves  to  mutual  assistance 
against  any  one  who  should  exact  more 
from  them  than  they  had  been  used  to 
perform  from  the  time  of  Henry,  to  the 
first  coming  of  Frederick  into  Italy  ;  im- 
plying in  this  the  recovery  of  their  elect- 
ive magistracies,  their  rights  of  war  and 
peace,  and  those  lucrative  privileges, 
which,  under  the  name  of  regalian,  had 
been  wrested  from  them  in  the  diet  of 
Roncaglia.* 

This  union  of  the  Lombard  cities  was 
formed  at  a  very  favourable  juncture. 
Frederick  had,  almost  ever  since  his  ac- 
cession, been  engaged  in  open  hostility 
with  the  see  of  Rome,  and  was  pursuing 
the  fruitless  policy  of  Henry  IV.,  who 
had  endeavoured  to  substitute  an  anti- 
pope  of  his  own  faction  for  the  legitimate 
pontiff.  In  the  prosecution  of  this  scheme, 
he  had  besieged  Rome  with  a  great  army, 
which,  the  citizens  resisting  longer  than 
he  expected,  fell  a  prey  to  the  autumnal 
pestilence  that  visits  the  neighbourhood 

*  For  the  nature  and  conditions  of  the  Lombard 
league,  besides  the  usual  authorities,  see  Muratori's 
48th  dissertation.  The  words,  a  tempore-  Hen- 
rid  Regis  usque  ad  introitum  imperatoris  Frederi. 
ci,  leave  it  ambiguous  which  of  the  Henries  was  in- 
tended. Muratori  thinks  it  was  Henry  IV.,  be- 
cause the  cities  then  began  to  be  independent.  It 
seems,  however,  natural,  when  a  king  is  mention, 
ed  without  any  numerical  designation,  to  interpret 
it  of  the  last  bearing  that  name ;  as  we  say  King 
William  for  William  the  Third.  And  certainly 
the  liberties  of  Lombardy  were  more  perfect  under 
Henry  V.  than  his  father ;  besides  which,  the  one 
reign  might  still  be  remembered,  and  the  other 
rested  in  tradition.  The  question,  however,  is  of 
little  moment, 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


135 


of  that  capital.  The  flower  of  German 
nobility  was  cut  off  by  this  calamity^  and 
the  emperor  recrossed  the  Alps,  entirely 
unable  for  the  present  to  withstand  the 
Lombard  confederacy.  Their  first  overt 
act  of  insurrection  was  the  rebuilding  of 
Milan ;  the  confederate  troops  all  joined 
in  this  undertaking;  and  the  Milanese, 
still  numerous,  though  dispersed  and  per- 
secuted, revived  as  a  powerful  republic. 
Lodi  was  compelled  to  enter  into  the 
league ;  Pavia  alone  continued  on  the  im- 
perial side.  As  a  check  to  Pavia,  and  to 
the  Marquis  of  Montferrat,  the  most  po- 
tent of  the  independent  nobility,  the  Lom- 
bards planned  the  erection  of  a  new  city 
between  the  confines  of  these  two  ene- 
mies, in  a  rich  plain  to  the  south  of  the 
Po,  and  bestowed  upon  it,  in  compliment 
to  the  pope,  Alexander  III.,  the  name  of 
Alessandria.  Though,  from  its  hasty 
construction,  Alessandria  was,  even  in 
that  age,  deemed  rude  in  appearance,  it 
rapidly  became  a  thriving  and  populous 
city.*  The  intrinsic  energy  and  resour- 
ces of  Lombardy  were  now  made  mani- 
fest. Frederick,  who  had  triumphed  by 
their  disunion,  was  unequal  to  contend 
against  their  league.  After  several  years 
of  indecisive  war,  the  emperor  invaded 
the  Milanese  territory,  but  the  confeder- 
ates gave  him  battle,  and  gained  a  com- 
Battie  of  plete  victory  at  Legnano.  [A.  D. 
Legnano.  H76.]  Frederick  escaped  alone 
and  disguised  from  the  field,  with  little 
hope  of  raising  a  fresh  army,  though  still 
reluctant  from  shame  to  acquiesce  in  the 
freedom  of  Lombardy.  He  was  at  length 
persuaded,  through  the  mediation  of  the 
republic  of  Venice,  to  consent  to  a  truce 
of  six  years,  the  provisional  terms  of 
which  were  all  favourable  to  the  league. 
It  was  weakened,  however,  by  the  de- 
fection of  some  of  its  own  members; 
Cremona,  which  had  never  cordially  uni- 
ted with  her  ancient  enemies,  made  sep- 
arate conditions  with  Frederick,  and  suf- 
fered herself  to  be  named  among  the  cit- 
ies on  the  imperial  side  in  the  armistice. 
Tortona,  and  even  Alessandria,  followed 
the  same  course  during  the  six  years  of 
its  duration ;  a  fatal  testimony  of  unsub- 
dued animosities,  and  omen  of  the  calam- 
ities of  Italy.  At  the  expiration  of  the 
truce,  Frederick's  anxiety  to  secure  the 
crown  for  his  son  overcame  his  pride, 

*  Alessandria  was  surnamed,  in  derision,  della 
paglia:  from  the  thatch  with  which  the  houses 
were  covered.  Frederick  was  very  desirous  to 
change  its  name  to  Caesarea,  as  it  is  actually  call- 
ed in  the  peace  of  Constance,  being  at  that  time 
on  the  imperial  side  But  it  soon  recovered  its 
former  appellation. 


and  the  famous  peace  of  Con-  Peace  or 
stance  [A.  D.  1183]  established  Constance 
the  Lombard  republics  in  real  independ- 
ence, v, 
By  the  treaty  of  Constance,  the  cities 
were  maintained  in  the  enjoyment  of  all 
the  regalian  rights,  whether  within  their 
walls  or  in  their  district,  which  they 
could  claim  by  usage.  Those  of  levying 
war,  of  erecting  fortifications,  and  of 
administering  civil  and  criminal  justice, 
were  specially  mentioned.  The  nomina- 
tion of  their  consuls,  or  other  magistrates, 
was  left  absolutely  to  the  citizens ;  but 
they  were  to  receive  the  investiture  of 
their  office  from  an  imperial  legate.  The 
customary  tributes  of  provision  during 
the  emperor's  residence  in  Italy  were 
preserved  ;  and  he  was  authorized  to  ap- 
point in  every  city  a  judge  of  appeal  in 
civil  causes.  The  Lombard  league  was 
confirmed,  and  the  cities  were  permitted 
to  renew  it  at  their  own  discretion ;  but 
they  were  to  take  every  ten  years  an 
oath  of  fidelity  to  the  emperor.  This  just 
compact  preserved,  along  with  every  se- 
curity for  the  liberties  and  welfare  of  the 
cities,  as  much  of  the  imperial  preroga- 
tives as  could  be  exercised  by  a  foreign 


& 


sovereign,  consistently  with  the  people's 
happiness.* 

The  successful  insurrection  oT  Lom- 
bardy is  a  memorable  refutation  of  that 
system  of  policy  to  which  its  advocates 
gave  the  appellation  of  vigorous,  and 
which  they  perpetually  hold  forth  as  the 
only  means  through  which  a  disaffected 
people  are  to  be  restrained.  By  a  certain 
class  of  statesmen,  and  by  all  men  of  harsh 
and  violent  disposition,  measures  of  con- 
ciliation, adherence  to  the  spirit  of  trea- 
ties, regard  to  ancient  privileges,  or  to 
those  rules  of  moral  justice  which  are 
paramount  to  all  positive  right,  are  al- 
ways treated  with  derision.  Terror  is 
their  only  specific,  and  the  physical  ina- 
bility to  rebel  their  only  security  for  alle 
giance.  But  if  the  razing  of  cities,  the 
abrogation  of  privileges,  the  empoverish- 
ment  and  oppression  of  a  nation,  could 
assure  its  constant  submission,  Frederick 
Barbarossa  would  never  have  seen  the 
militia  of  Lombardy  arrayed  against  him 
at  Legnano.  Whatever  may  be  the  pres-  "\ 
sure  upon  a  conquered  people,  there  will 
come  a  moment  of  their  recoil.  Nor  is 
it  material  to  allege,  in  answer  to  the 
present  instance,  that  the  accidental  de- 
struction of  Frederick's  army  by  disease 
enabled  the  cities  of  Lombardy  to  suc- 
ceed in  their  resistance.  The  fact  may 

*  Muratori,  Antiquitates  Italiea,  Dise,  5CK 


136 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


well  be  disputed ;  since  Lombardy,  when 
united,  appears  to  have  been  more  than 
equal  to  a  contest  with  any  German  force 
that  could  have  been  brought  against  her ; 
but,  even  if  we  admit  the  effect  of  this 
circumstance,  it  only  exhibits  the  preca- 
riousness  of  a  policy,  which  collateral 
events  are  always  liable  to  disturb.  Prov- 
idence reserves  to  itself  various  means, 
by  which  the  bonds  of  the  oppressor  may 
be  broken ;  and  it  is  not  for  human  saga- 
city to  anticipate,  whether  the  army  of  a 
conqueror  shall  moulder  in  the  unwhole- 
some marshes  of  Rome,  or  stiffen  with 
frost  in  a  Russian  winter. 

The  peace  of  Constance  presented  a 
noble  opportunity  to  the  Lombards  of 
establishing  a  permanent  federal  union 
of  small  republics ;  a  form  of  government 
congenial  from  the  earliest  ages  to  Italy, 
and  that,  perhaps,  under  which  she  is 
again  destined  one  day  to  flourish.  They 
were  entitled  by  the  provisions  of  that 
treaty  to  preserve  their  league,  the  basis 
of  a  more  perfect  confederacy,  which  the 
course  of  events  would  have  emancipated 
from  every  kind  of  subjection  to  Germa- 
ny.* But  dark,  long-cherished  hatreds, 
and  that  implacable  vindictiveness  which, 
at  least  in  former  ages,  distinguished  the 
private  ^manners  of  Italy,  deformed  her 
nationaWharacter,  which  can  only  be  the 
aggregate  of  individual  passions.  For 
revenge  she  threw  away  the  pearl  of 
great  price,  and  sacrificed  even  the  rec- 
ollection of  that  liberty,  which  had 
stalked  like  a  majestic  spirit  among  the 
ruins  of  Milan. f  It  passed  away,  that 
high  disdain  of  absolute  power,  that  stead- 
iness and  self-devotion,  which  raised  the 
half-civilized  Lombards  of  the  twelfth 
century  to  the  level  of  those  ancient  re- 
publics, from  whose  history  our  first  no- 
tions of  freedom  and  virtue  are  derived. 
The  victim  by  turns  of  selfish  and  san- 
guinary factions,  of  petty  tyrants,  and  of 
foreign  invaders,  Italy  has  fallen  like  a 

*  Though  there  was  no  permanent  diet  of  the 
Lombard  league,  the  consuls  and  podestas  of  the 
respective  cities  composing  it  occasionally  met  in 
congress,  to  deliberate  upon  measures  of  general 
safety.  Thus  assembled,  they  were  called  Rec- 
tores  Societatis  Lombardiae.  It  is  evident  that,  if 
Lombardy  had  continued  in  any  degree  to  preserve 
the  spirit  of  union,  this  congress  might  readily 
have  become  a  permanent  body,  like  the  Helvetic 
diet,  with  as  extensive  powers  as  are  necessary  in 
a  federal  constitution. — Muratori,  Antichita  Ital- 
iane,  t.  iii.,  p.  126,  Dissert.  50,  Sismondi,  t.  ii., 
p.  189. 

f  Anzi  girar  la  liberta  mirai, 
E  baciar  lieta  ogni  ruina,  e  dire, 
Ruine  si,  ma  servitu  non  mai. 

Gaetana  Passerini  (ossia  piuttoslo  Giovan  Bat- 
tista  Pastorini)  in  Mathias,  Componimenti 
Lirici,  vol.  iii.,  p.  331. 


star  from  its  place  in  heaven ;  she  has 
seen  her  harvests  trodden  down  by  the 
horses  of  the  stranger,  and  the  blood  of 
her  children  wasted  in  quarrels  not  their 
own;  Conquering  or  conquered,  in  the  in- 
dignant language  of  her  poet,  still  alike  a 
slave,*  a  long  retribution  for  the  tyranny 
of  Rome. 

Frederick  did  not  attempt  to  molest 
the  .cities  of  Lombardy  in  the  en-  Affairs  of 
joyment  of  those  privileges  con-  Sicilv- 
ceded  by  the  treaty  of  Constance.  His 
ambition  was  diverted  to  a  new  scheme 
for  aggrandizing  the  house  of  Swabia,  by 
the  marriage  of  his  eldest  son,  Henry, 
with  Constance,  the  aunt  and  heiress  of 
William  II.,  king  of  Sicily.  That  king- 
dom, which  the  first  monarch,  Roger, 
had  elevated  to  a  high  pitch  of  renown 
and  power,  fell  into  decay  through  the 
misconduct  of  his  son  William,  surnamed 
the  Bad,  and  did  not  recover  much  of  its 
lustre  under  the  second  William,  though 
styled  the  Good.  His  death  without 
issue  was  apparently  no  remote  event, 
and  Constance  was  the  sole  legitimate 
surviver  of  the  royal  family.  It  is  a  cu- 
rious circumstance,  that  no  hereditary 
kingdom  appears  absolutely  to  have  ex- 
cluded females  from  its  throne,  except 
that  which,  from  its  magnitude,  was  of 
all  the  most  secure  from  falling  into  the 
condition  of  a  province.  The  Sicilians 
felt  too  late  the  defect  of  their  constitu- 
tion, which  permitted  an  independent 
people  to  be  transferred,  as  the  dowry  of 
a  woman,  to  a  foreign  prince,  by  whose 
ministers  they  might  justly  expect  to  be 
insulted  and  oppressed.  Henry,  whose 
marriage  with  Constance  took  place  in 
1186,  and  who  succeeded  in  her  right  to 
the  throne  of  Sicily  three  years  afterward, 
was  exasperated  by  a  courageous,  but  un- 
successful effort  of  the  Norman  barons, 
to  preserve  the  crown  for  an  illegitimate 
branch  of  the  royal  family ;  and  his  reign 
is  disgraced  by  a  series  of  atrocious  cru- 
elties. The  power  of  the  house  of  Swa- 
bia was  now  at  its  zenith  on  each  side 
of  the  Alps ;  Henry  received  the  Impe- 
rial crown  the  year  after  his  father's 
death  in  the  third  crusade,  and  even  pre- 
vailed upon  the  princes  of  Germany  to 
elect  his  infant  son  Frederick  as  his  suc- 
cessor. But  his  own  premature  decease 
clouded  the  prospects  of  his  family :  Con- 
stance survived  him  but  a  year;  and  a 
child  of  four  years  old  was  left  with  the 
inheritance  of  a  kingdom,  which  his  fa- 
ther's severity  had  rendered  disaffected, 

*  Per  servir  sempre,  o  vincitrice  o  vinta. — Fili- 
caja. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


137 


and  which  the  leaders  of  German  merce- 
naries in  his  service  desolated  and  dispu- 
ted. 

During  the  minority  of  Frederick  II., 
innocent  from  1198  to  1216,  the  papal  chair 

i«.  was  filled  by  Innocent  III. ;  a 
name  second  only,  and  hardly  second,  to 
that  of  Gregory  VII.  Young,  noble,  and 
intrepid,  he  united  with  the  accustomed 
spirit  of  ecclesiastical  usurpation,  which 
no  one  had  ever  carried  to  so  high  a 
point,  the  more  worldly  ambition  of  con- 
solidating a  separate  principality  for  the 
Holy  See  in  the  centre  of  Italy.  .The 
real  or  spurious  donations  of  Constantine, 
Pepin,  Charlemagne,  and  Louis,  had  given 
rise  to  a  perpetual  claim,  on  the  part  of 
the  popes,  to  very  extensive  dominions  : 
but  little  of  this  had  been  effectuated,  and 
in  Rome  itself  they  were  thwarted  by 
the  prefect,  an  officer  who  swore  fidelity 
to  the  emperor,  and  by  the  insubordinate 
spirit  of  the  people.  In  the  very  neigh- 
bourhood, the  small  cities  owned  no  sub- 
jection to  the  capital,  and  were  probably 
as  much  self-governed  as  those  of  Lom- 
bardy.  One  is  transported  back  to  the 
earliest  times  of  the  republic,  in  reading 
of  the  desperate  wars  between  Rome 
arid  Tibur  or  Tusculum,  neither  of  which 
was  subjugated  till  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century.  At  a  further  distance 
were  the  dutchy  of  Spoleto,  the  march 
of  Ancona,  and  what  had  been  the  exar- 
chate of  Ravenna,  to  all  of  which  the 
popes  had  more  or  less  grounded  pre- 
tensions. Early  in  the  last-mentioned 
age,  the  famous  Countess  Matilda,  to 
whose  zealous  protection  Gregory  VII. 
had  been  eminently  indebted  during  his 
long  dispute  with  the  emperor,  granted 
the  reversion  of  all  her  possessions  to' 
the  Holy  See,  first  in  the  lifetime  of 
Gregory,  and  again  under  the  pontificate 
Bequest  of  of  Paschal  III.  These  were 
the  countess  very  extensive,  and  held  by  dif- 
ferent titles.  Of  her  vast  impe- 
rial fiefs,  Mantua,  Modena,  and  Tus- 
cany, she  certainly  could  not  dispose. 
The  dutchy  of  Spoleto  and  march  of  An- 
cona were  supposed  to  rest  upon  a  differ- 
ent footing.  I  confess  myself  not  dis- 
tinctly to  comprehend  the  nature  of  this 
part  of  her  succession.  These  had  been 
formerly  among  the  great  fiefs  of  the 
kingdom  of  Italy.  But  if  I  understand  it 
rightly,  they  had  tacitly  ceased  to  be  sub- 
ject to  the  emperors,  some  years  before 
they  were  seized  by  Godfrey  of  Lorraine, 
father-in-law  and  stepfather  of  Matilda. 
To  his  son,  her  husband,  she  succeeded 
in  the  possession  of  those  countries. 
They  are  commonly  considered  as  her 


allodial  or  patrimonial  property ;  yet  it 
is  not  easy  to  see  how,  being  herself  a 
subject  of  the  empire,  she  could  transfer 
even  her  allodial  estates  from  its  sover- 
eignty. Nor,  on  the  other  hand,  can  it 
apparently  be  maintained,  that  she  was 
lawful  sovereign  of  countries  which  had 
not  long  since  been  imperial  fiefs,  and 
the  suzerainty  over  which  had  never 
been  renounced.  The  original  title  of 
the  Holy  See,  therefore,  does  not  seem 
incontestable,  even  as  to  this  part  of  Ma- 
tilda's donation.  But  I  state  with  hesita- 
tion a  difficulty,  to  which  the  authors  I 
have  consulted  do  not  advert.*  It  is  cer- 
tain, however,  that  the  emperors  kept 
possession  of  the  whole  during  the 
twelfth  century ;  and  treated  both  Spole- 
to and  Ancona  as  parts  of  the  empire, 
notwithstanding  continual  remonstrances 
from  the  Roman  pontiffs.  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa,  at  the  negotiations  of  Venice  in 
1177,  promised  to  restore  the  patrimony 
of  Matilda  in  fifteen  years ;  but,  at  the 
close  of  that  period,  Henry  VI.  was  not 
disposed  to  execute  this  arrangement, 
and  granted  the  county  in  fief  to  some 
of  his  German  followers.  Upon  his 
death,  the  circumstances  were  favourable 
to  Innocent  III.  The  infant  king  of  Si- 
cily had  been  intrusted  by  Constance  to 
his  guardianship.  A  double  election  of 
Philip,  brother  of  Henry  VI.,  and  of  Otho, 
duke  of  Brunswick,  engaged  the  princes 
of  Germany,  who  had  entirely  overlooked 
the  claims  of  young  Frederick,  in  a  doubt- 
ful civil  war.  Neither  party  was  in  a 
condition  to  enter  Italy  ;  and  the  impe- 
rial dignity  was  vacant  for  several  years, 
till,  the  death  of  Philip  removing  one 
competitor,  Otho  IV.,  whom  the  pope 
had  constantly  favoured,  was  crowned 
emperor.  During  this  interval,  the  Ital- 
ians had  no  superior ;  and  Innocent 
availed  himself  of  it  to  maintain  the  pre- 
tensions of  the  see.  These  he  backed 
by  the  production  of  rather  a  questiona- 
ble document,  the  will  of  Henry  VI.,  said 
to  have  been  found  among  the  baggage 
of  Marquard,  one  of  the  German  soldiers, 
who  had  been  invested  with  fiefs 
by  the  late  emperor.  The  cit-  gJ-J; 
les  of  what  we  now  call  the  ec-  reduced  by 
clesiastical  state  had  in  the  innocent 
twelfth  century  their  own  muni- 

*  It  is  almost  hopeless  to  look  for  explicit  infor- 
mation upon  the  rights  and  pretensions  of  the  Ro- 
man see  in  Italian  writers  even  of  the  eighteenth 
century.  Muratpri,  the  most  learned,  and,  upon 
the  whole,  the  fairest  of  them  all,  moves  cautiously 
over  this  ground ;  except  when  the  claims  of 
Rome  happen  to  clash  with  those  of  the  house  of 
Este.  But  I  have  not  been  able  to  satisfy  myself 


138 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   HI. 


cipal  government,  like  those  of  Lombar- 
dy ;  but  they  were  far  less  able  to  assert 
a  complete  independence.  They  gladly, 
therefore,  put  themselves  under  the  pro- 
tection of  the  Holy  See,  which  held  out 
some  prospect  of  securing  them  from 
Marquard,  and  other  rapacious  partisans, 
without  disturbing  their  internal  regula- 
tions. Thus  the  dutchy  of  Spoleto  and 
march  of  Ancona  submitted  to  Innocent 
III. ;  but  he  was  not  strong  enough  to 
keep  constant  possession  of  such  exten- 
sive territories,  and  some  years  after- 
ward adopted  the  prudent  course  of 
granting  Ancona  in  fief  to  the  Marquis  of 
Este.  He  did  not,  as  may  be  supposed, 
neglect  his  authority  at  home ;  the  pre- 
fect of  Rome  was  now  compelled  to 
swear  allegiance  to  the  pope,  which  put 
an  end  to  the  regular  imperial  supremacy 
over  that  city ;  and  the  privileges  of  the 
citizens  were  abridged.  This  is  the 
proper  era  of  that  temporal  sovereignty 
which  the  bishops  of  Rome  possess  over 
their  own  city,  though  still  prevented  by 
various  causes,  for  nearly  three  centu- 
ries, from  becoming  unquestioned  and 
unlimited. 

The  policy  of  Rome  was  now  more 
clearly  defined  than  ever.  In  order  to 
preserve  what  she  had  thus  suddenly 
gained  rather  by  opportunity  than 
strength,  it  was  her  interest  to  enfeeble 
the  imperial  power,  and  consequently  to 
maintain  the  freedom  of  the  Italian  re- 
League  of  publics.  Tuscany  had  hitherto 
Tuscany,  been  ruled  by  a  marquis  of  the 
emperor's  appointment,  though  her  cities 
were  flourishing,  and,  within  themselves, 
independent.  In  imitation  of  the  Lom- 
bard confederacy,  and  impelled  by  Inno- 
cent III.,  they  now  (with  the  exception 
of  Pisa,  which  was  always  strongly  at- 
tached to  the  empire)  formed  a  similar 
league  for  the  preservation  of  their  rights. 
In  this  league  the  influence  of  the  pope 
was  far  more  strongly  manifested  than 
in  that  of  Lombardy.  Although  the  lat- 
ter had  been  in  alliance  with  Alexander 
III.,  and  was  formed  during  the  height 
of  his  dispute  with  Frederick,  this  eccle- 
siastical quarrel  mingled  so  little  in  their 
struggle  for  liberty,  that  no  allusion  to  it 
is  found  in  the  act  of  their  confederacy. 
But  the  Tuscan  union  was  expressly  es- 
tablished "for  the  honour  and  aggran- 
dizement of  the  apostolic  see."  The 
members  bound  themselves  to  defend 

by  the  perusal  of  some  dry  and  tedious  disserta- 
tions in  St.  Marc  (Abrege  Chronologique  de  1'Hist. 
de  1'Italie,  t.  iv.),  who,  with  learning  scarcely  infe- 
rior to  that  of  Muratori,  possessed  more  opportu- 
nity and  inclination  to  speak  out. 


the  possessions  and  rights  of  the  church ; 
and  not  to  acknowledge  any  king  or  em- 
peror without  the  approbation  of  the 
supreme  pontiff.*  The  Tuscans,  accord- 
ingly, were  more  thoroughly  attached  to 
the  church  party  than  the  Lombards, 
whose  principle  was  animosity  towards 
the  house  of  Swabia.  Hence,  when  In- 
nocent III.,  some  time  after,  supported 
Frederick  II.  against  the  Emperor  Otho 
IV.,  the  Milanese  and  their  allies  were 
arranged  on  the  imperial  side;  but  the 
Tuscans  continued  to  adhere  to  the  pope. 
In  the  wars  of  Frederick  Barbarossa 
against  Milan  and  their  allies,  Factions  of 
we  have  seen  the  cities  of  Lorn-  Gueifn  and 
bardy  divided,  and  a  considera-  Gobelins. 
ble  number  of  them  firmly  attached  to 
the  imperial  interest.  It  does  not  appear, 
I  believe,  from  history,  though  it  is  by  no 
means  improbable,  that  the  citizens  were 
at  so  early  a  time  divided  among  them- 
selves, as  to  their  line  of  public  policy, 
and  that  the  adherence  of  a  particular 
city  to  the  emperor,  or  to  the  Lombard 
league,  was  only,  as  proved  afterward 
the  case,  that  one  faction  or  another  ac- 
quired an  ascendency  in  its  councils. 
But  jealousies  long  existing  between  the 
different  classes,  and  only  suspended  by 
the  national  struggle  which  terminated 
at  Constance,  gave  rise  to  new  modifica- 
tions of  interests,  and  new  relations  to- 
wards the  empire.  About  the  year  1200, 
or  perhaps  a  little  later,  the  two  leading 
parties  which  divided  the  cities  of  Lom- 
bardy, and  whose  mutual  animosity,  hav- 
ing no  general  subject  of  contention,  re- 
quired the  association  of  a  name  to  di- 
rect as  well  as  invigorate  its  prejudices, 
became  distinguished  by  the  celebrated 
appellations  of  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins ;  the 
former  adhering  to  the  papal  side,  the 
latter  to  that  of  the  emperor.  These 
names  were  derived  from  Germany,  and 
had  been  the  rallying  word  of  faction  for 
more  than  half  a  century  in  that  country, 
before  they  were  transported  to  a  still 
more  favourable  soil.  The  Guelfs  took 
their  name  from  a  very  illustrious  family, 
several  of  whom  had  successively  been 
dukes  of  Bavaria  in  the  tenth  and  eleventh 
centuries.  The  heiress  of  the  last  of 
these  intermarried  with  a  younger  son  of 
the  house  of  Este,  a  noble  family  settled 
near  Padua,  and  possessed  of  great  es- 
tates on  each  bank  of  the  lower  Po. 
They  gave  birth  to  a  second  line  of 


*  Quod  possessiones  et  jura  sacrosanctae  ecclesiae 
bona  fide  defenderent ;  et  quod  nullum  in  regem 
aut  imperatorem  reciperent,  nisi  quern  Romarius 
pontifex  approbaret. — Muratori,  Dissert.  48  (Latin, 
t.  iv.,  p.  320 ;  Italian,  t.  iii.,  p.  112). 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


139 


Guelfs,  from  whom  the  royal  house  of 
Brunswick  is  descended.  The  name  of 
Ghibelin  is  derived  from  a  village  in 
Franconia,  whence  Conrad  the  Salic 
came,  the  progenitor,  through  females, 
of  the  Swabian  emperors.  At  the  elec- 
tion of  Lothaire,  in  1125,  the  Swabian 
family  were  disappointed  of  what  they 
considered  almost  an  hereditary  posses- 
sion ;  and  at  this  time  an  hostility  appears 
to  have  commenced  between  them  and 
the  house  of  Guelf,  who  were  nearly  re- 
lated to  Lothaire.  Henry  the  Proud,  and 
his  son,  Henry  the  Lion,  representatives 
of  the  latter  family,  were  frequently  per- 
secuted by  the  Swabian  emperors  :  but 
their  fortunes  belong  to  the  history  of 
Germany.*  Meanwhile  the  elder  branch, 
though  not  reserved  for  such  glorious 
destinies  as  the  Guelfs,  continued  to 
flourish  in  Italy;  the  marquises  of  Este 
were  by  far  the  most  powerful  nobles  in 
eastern  Lombardy,  and  about  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century  began  to  be  consider- 
ed as  heads  of  the  church  party  in  their 
neighbourhood.  They  were  frequently 
chosen  to  the  office  of  podesta,  or  chief 
magistrate,  by  the  cities  of  Romagna; 
and  in  1208,  the  people  of  Ferrara  set  the 
fatal  example  of  sacrificing  their  free- 
dom for  tranquillity,  by  electing  Azzo 
VII. ,  marquis  of  Este,  as  their  lord  or 
sovereign.! 

Otho  IV.  was  son  of  Henry  the  Lion, 
otho  iv.  an(l  consequently  head  of  the 
Guelfs.  On  his  obtaining  the  im- 
perial crown,  the  prejudices  of  Italian 
factions  were  diverted  out  of  their  usual 
channel.  He  was  soon  engaged  in  a 
quarrel  with  the  pope,  whose  hostility  to 
the  empire  was  certain,  into  whatever 
hands  it  might  fall.  In  Milan,  however, 
and  generally  in  the  cities  which  had  be- 
longed to  the  Lombard  league  against 
Frederick  I.,  hatred  of  the  house  of  Swa- 
bia  prevailed  more  than  jealousy  of  the 
imperial  prerogatives ;  they  adhered  to 
names  rather  than  to  principles,  and  sup- 
ported a  Guelf  emperor  even  against  the 
pope.  Terms  of  this  description,  having 
no  definite  relation  to  principles  which  it 
might  be  troublesome  to  learn  and  defend, 
are  always  acceptable  to  mankind,  and 
have  the  peculiar  advantage  of  precluding 
altogether  that  spirit  of  compromise  and 
accommodation,  by  which  it  is  sometimes 
endeavoured  to  obstruct  their  tendency 


*  The  German  origin  of  these  celebrated  fac- 
tions is  clearly  proved  by  a  passage  in  Otho  of 
Frisingen,  who  lived  half  a  century  before  we  find 
the  denominations  transferred  to  Italy. — Struvius, 
Corpus  Hist.  German.,  p.  378,  and  Muratori,  A.  D. 
1152.  t  Sismondi,  t,  ii.,  p.  389. 


to  hate  and  injure  each  other.  From  this 
time,  every  city,  and  almost  every  citi- 
zen, gloried  in  one  of  these  barbarous 
denominations.  In  several  cities  the  im- 
perial party  predominated  through  hatred 
of  their  neighbours,  who  espoused  that 
of  the  church.  Thus  the  inveterate  feuds 
between  Pisa  and  Florence,  Modena  and 
Bologna,  Cremona  and  Milan,  threw  them 
into  opposite  factions.  But  there  was  in 
every  one  of  these  a  strong  party  against 
that  which  prevailed,  and  consequently  a 
Guelf  <5ity  frequently  became  Ghibelin, 
or  conversely,  according  to  the  fluctua- 
tions of  the  time.* 

The  change  to  which  we  have  advert- 
ed in  the  politics  of  the  Guelf  party  last- 
ed only  during  the  reign  of  Otho  IV. 
When  the  heir  of  the  house  of  „  .  .... 
Swabia  grew  up  to  manhood, 
Innocent,  who,  though  his  guardian,  had 
taken  little  care  of  his  interests,  as  long 
as  he  flattered  himself  with  the  hope  of 
finding  a  Guelf  emperor  obedient,  placed 
the  young  Frederick  at  the  head  of  an 
opposition  composed  of  cities  always  at- 
tached to  his  family,  and  of  such  as  im- 
plicitly followed  the  see  of  Rome.  He 
met  with  considerable  success  both  in 
Italy  and  Germany,  and,  after  the  death 
of  Otho,  received  the  imperial  crown. 
But  he  had  no  longer  to  expect  any  as- 
sistance from  the  pope  who  conferred  it. 
Innocent  was  dead,  and  Honorius  III., 
his  successor,  could  not  behold  without 
apprehension  the  vast  power  of  Frede- 
rick, supported  in  Lombardy  by  a  faction 


*  For  the  Guelf  and  Ghibelin  factions,  besides 
the  historians,  the  51st  dissertation  of  Muratori 
should  be  read.  There  is  some  degree  of  inaccu- 
racy in  his  language,  where  he  speaks  of  these  dis- 
tractions expiring  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  Quel  secolo,  e  verp,  abbondo  anch'  esso 
di  molte  guerre,  ma  nulla  si  opero  sotto  nome  o 
pretesto  delle  fazioni  suddette.  Solamente  riten- 
nero  esse  piede  in  alcune  private  famiglie. — Anti- 
chita  Italiane,  t.  iii.,  p.  148.  But  certainly  the 
names  of  Guelf  and  Ghibelin,  as  party  distinctions, 
may  be  traced  all  through  the  fifteenth  century.  • 
The  former  faction  showed  itself  distinctly  in  the 
insurrection  of  the  cities  suoject  to  Milan,  upon  the 
death  of  Galeazzo  Visconti,  in  1404.  It  appeared 
again  in  the  attempt  of  the  Milanese  to  re-establish 
their  republic  in  1447. — Sismondi,  t.  ix.,  p.  334.  So 
in  1477,  Ludovico  Sforza  made  use  of  Ghibelin 
prejudices  to  exclude  the  regent  Bonne  of  Savoy  as 
a  Guelf.—  Sismondi,  t.  xi.,  p.  79.  In  the  ecclesias- 
tical state,  the  same  distinctions  appear  to  have 
been  preserved  still  later.  Stefano  Infessura,  in 
1487,  speaks  familiarly  of  them.— Script.  Rer.  Ital., 
t.  iii.,  p.  1221.  And  even  in  the  conquest  of  Milan 
by  Louis  XII.,  in  1500,  the  Guelfs  of  that  city  are 
represented  as  attached  to  the  French  party,  while 
the  Ghibelins  abetted  Ludovico  Sforza  and  Maxi- 
milian.— Guicciardini,  p.  399.  Other  passages  in 
the  same  historian  show  these  factions  to  have  been 
alive  in  various  parts  of  Italy. 


140 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


which  balanced  that  of  the  church,  and 
menacing  the  ecclesiastical  territories  on 
the  other  side  by  the  possession  of  Naples 
and  Sicily.  This  kingdom,  feudatory  to 
Rome,  and  long  her  firmest  ally,  was  now, 
by  a  fatal  connexion  which  she  had  not 
been  able  to  prevent,  thrown  into  the 
scale  of  her  most  dangerous  enemy. 
Hence  the  temporal  dominion  which  In- 
nocent III.  had  taken  so  much  pains  to 
establish,  became  a  very  precarious  pos- 
session, exposed  on  each  side  to  the  at- 
tacks of  a  power  that  had  legitimate  pre- 
tensions to  almost  every  province  com- 
posing it.  The  life  of  Frederick  II.  was 
wasted  in  an  unceasing  contention  with 
the  church,  and  with  his  Italian  subjects, 
whom  she  excited  to  rebellions  against 
him.  Without  inveighing,  like  the  popish 
writers,  against  this  prince,  certainly  an 
encourager  of  letters,  and  endowed  with 
many  eminent  qualities,  we  may  lay  to 
his  charge  a  good  deal  of  dissimulation  ; 
I  will  not  add  ambition,  because  I  am  not 
aware  of  any  period  in  the  reign  of  Fred- 
erick when  he  was  not  obliged  to  act  on 
his  defence  against  the  aggression  of  oth- 
ers. But  if  he  had  been  a  model  of  vir- 
tues, such  men  as  Honorius  III.,  Gregory 
IX.,  and  Innocent  IV.,  the  popes  with 
whom  he  had  successively  to  contend, 
would  not  have  given  him  respite,  while 
he  remained  master  of  Naples,  as  well  as 
the  empire.* 

It  was  the  custom  of  every  pope  to 
urge  princes  into  a  crusade,  which  the 
condition  of  Palestine  rendered  indispen- 
sable, or,  more  properly,  desperate.  But 
this  great  piece  of  supererogatory  devo- 
tion had  never  yet  been  raised  into  an  ab- 
solute duty  of  their  station,  nor  had  even 
private  persons  been  ever  required  to 
take  up  the  cross  by  compulsion.  Ho- 
norius III.,  however,  exacted  a  vow  from 
Frederick,  before  he  conferred  upon  him 
the  imperial  crown,  that  he  would  under- 
take a  crusade  for  the  deliverance  of  Je- 
rusalem. Frederick  submitted  to  this  en- 


*  The  rancour  of  bigoted  Catholics  against 
Frederick  has  hardly  subsided  at  the  present  day. 
A  very  moderate-commendation  of  him  in  Tirabos- 
chi,  vol.  iv.,  t.  7,  was  not  suffered  to  pass  uncon- 
tradicted  by  the  Roman  editor.  And  though  Mu- 
ratori  shows  quite  enough  prejudice  against  that 
emperor's  character,  a  fierce  Roman  bigot,  whose 
animadversions  are  printed  in  the  17th  volume  of 
his  annals  (8vo  edition),  flies  into  paroxysms  of  fury 
at  every  syllable  that  looks  like  moderation.  It  is 
well  known  that,  although  the  public  policy  of 
Rome  has  long  displayed  the  pacific  temper  of 
weakness,  the  thermometer  of  ecclesiastical  senti- 
ment in  that  city  stands  very  nearly  as  high  as  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  Giannone,  who  suffered 
for  his  boldness,  has  drawn  Frederick  II.  very  fa- 
vourably, perhaps  too  favourably,  in  the  16th  and 
17th  books  of  the  Istoria  Civile  di  Napoli. 


gagement,  which  perhaps  he  never  de- 
signed to  keep,  and  certainly  endeavour- 
ed afterward  to  evade.  Though  he  be- 
came by  marriage  nominal  king  of  Jeru- 
salem,* his  excellent  understanding  was 
not  captivated  with  so  barren  a  prospect, 
and  at  length  his  delays  in  the  perform- 
ance of  his  vow  provoked  Gregory  IX. 
to  issue  against  him  a  sentence  of  ex- 
communication. Such  a  thunderbolt  was 
not  to  be  lightly  regarded ;  and  Frederick 
sailed  the  next  year  for  Palestine.  But 
having  disdained  to  solicit  absolution  for 
what  he  considered  as  no  crime,  the 
court  of  Rome  was  excited  to  still  fiercer 
indignation  against  this  profanation  of  a 
crusade  by  an  excommunicated  sovereign. 
Upon  his  arrival  in  Palestine,  he  receiv- 
ed intelligence  that  the  papal  troops  had 
broken  into  the  kingdom  of  Naples.  No 
one  could  rationally  have  blamed  Freder- 
ick if  he  had  quitted  the  Holy  Land  as 
he  found  it ;  but  he  made  a  treaty  with 
the  Saracens,  which,  though  by  no  means 
so  disadvantageous  as  under  all  the  cir- 
cumstances might  have  been  expected, 
served  as  a  pretext  for  new  calumnies 
against  him  in  Europe.  The  charge  of 
irreligion,  eagerly  and  successfully  prop- 
agated, he  repelled  by  persecuting  edicts 
against  heresy,  that  do  no  great  honour 
to  his  memory,  and  availed  him  little  at 
the  time.  Over  his  Neapolitan  dominions 
he  exercised  a  rigorous  government,  ren- 
dered perhaps  necessary  by  the  levity 
and  insubordination  characteristic  of  the 
inhabitants,  but  which  tended,  through  the 
artful  representations  of  Honorius  and 
Gregory,  to  alarm  and  alienate  the  Italian 
republics. 

A  new  generation  had  risen  up  in  Lom- 
bardy  since  the  peace  of  Con-  Hiswars 
stance,  and  the  prerogatives  re-  with  the 
served  by  that  treaty  to  the  em-  Lombards- 


*  The  second  wife  of  Frederick  was  lolante,  or 
Violante,  daughter  of  John,  count  of  Brienne,  By 
Maria,  eldest  daughter  and  heiress  of  Isabella,  wife 
of  Conrad,  marquis  'of  Montferrat.  This  Isabella 
was  the  youngest  daughter  of  Almaric  or  Amaury, 
king  of  Jerusalem,  and  by  the  deaths  of  her  broth- 
er Baldwin  IV.,  of  her  eldest  sister  Sibilla,  wife  of 
Guy  de  Lusignan,  and  that  sister's  child  Baldwin  V., 
succeeded  to  a  claim  upon  Jerusalem,  which,  since 
the  victories  of  Saladin,  was  not  very  profitable.  It 
is  said  that  the  kings  of  Naples  deduce  their  title 
to  that  sounding  inheritance  from  this  marriage  of 
Frederick  (Giannone,!.  xvi.,  c.  2),  but  the  extinc- 
tion of  Frederick's  posterity  must  have,  strictly 
speaking,  put  an  end  to  any  right  derived  from 
him  ;  and  Giannone  himself  indicates  a  better  title 
by  the  cession  of  Maria,  a  princess  of  Antioch,  and 
legitimate  heiress  of  Jerusalem,  to  Charles  of  An- 
jou,  in  1272.  Ifow  far  indeed  this  may  have  been 
regularly  transmitted  to  the  present  King  of  Naples 
I  do  not  know,  and  am  sure  that  it  is  not  worth 
while  to  inquire. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


141 


pire  were  so  seldom  called  into  action, 
that  few  cities  were  disposed  to  recol- 
lect their  existence.  They  denominated 
themselves  Guelfs  or  Ghibelins,  accord- 
ing to  habit,  and  out  of  their  mutual  op- 
position, but  without  much  reference  to 
the  empire.  Those  however  of  the  for- 
mer party,  and  especially  Milan,  retained 
their  antipathy  to  the  house  of  Swabia. 
Though  Frederick  II.  was  entitled,  as  far 
as  established  usage  can  create  a  right,  to 
the  sovereignty  of  Italy,  the  Milanese 
would  never  acknowledge  him,  nor  per- 
mit his  coronation  at  Monza,  according 
to  ancient  ceremony,  with  the  iron  crown 
of  the  Lombard  kings.  The  pope  foment- 
ed, to  the  utmost  of  his  power,  this  dis- 
affected spirit,  and  encouraged  the  Lom- 
bard cities  to  renew  their  former  league. 
This,  although  conformable  to  a  provis- 
ion in  the  treaty  of  Constance,  was  man- 
ifestly hostile  to  Frederick,  and  may  be 
considered  as  the  commencement  of  a 
second  contest  between  the  republican 
cities  of  Lombardy  and  the  empire.  But 
there  was  a  striking  difference  between 
this  and  the  former  confederacy  against 
Frederick  Barbarossa.  In  the  league  of 
1167,  almost  every  city,  forgetting  all 
smaller  animosities  in  the  great  cause  of 
defending  the  national  privileges,  contrib- 
uted its  share  of  exertion  to  sustain  that 
perilous  conflict ;  and  this  transient  una- 
nimity in  the  people  so  distracted  by  in- 
ternal faction  as  the  Lombards,  is  the  su- 
rest witness  to  the  justice  of  their  under- 
taking. Sixty  years  afterward,  their  war 
against  the  second  Frederick  had  less  of 
provocation  and  less  of  public  spirit.  It 
was  in  fact  a  party  struggle  of  Guelf -and 
Ghibelin  cities,  to  which  the  names  of  the 
church  and  the  empire  gave  more  of  dig- 
nity and  consistence. 

The  republics  of  Italy  in  the  thirteenth 

century  were  so  numerous  and 
mento?"  independent,  and  their  revolutions 
Lombard  so  frequent,  that  it  is  a  difficult 

matter  to  avoid  -confusion  in  fol- 
lowing their  history.  It  will  give  more 
arrangement  to  our  ideas,  and  at  the  same 
time  illustrate  the  changes  that  took  place 
in  these  little  states,  if  we  consider  them 
as  divided  into  four  clusters  or  constella- 
tions, not  indeed  unconnected  one  with 
another,  yet  each  having  its  own  centre 
of  motion,  and  its  own  boundaries.  The 
first  of  these  we  may  suppose  formed  of 
the  cities  in  central  Lombardy,  between 
the  Sessia  and  the  Adige,  the  Alps  and 
the  Ligurian  mountains ;  it  comprehends 
Milan,  Cremona,  Pavia,  Brescia,  Berga- 
mo, Parma,  Piacenza,  Mantua,  Lodi, 
Alessandria,  and  several  others  less  dis- 


tinguished. These  were  the  original  seats 
of  Italian  liberty,  the  great  movers  in  the 
wars  of  the  elder  Frederick.  Milan  was 
at  the  head  of  this  cluster  of  cities,  and 
her  influence  gave  an  ascendency  to  the 
Guelf  party ;  she  had,  since  the  treaty  of 
Constance,  rendered  Lodi  and  Pavia  al- 
most her  subjects,  and  was  in  strict 
union  with  Brescia  and  Piacenza.  Par- 
ma, however,  and  Cremona,  were  unsha- 
ken defenders  of  the  empire.  In  the  sec- 
ond class  we  may  place  the  cities  of  the 
March  of  Verona,  between  the  Adige  and 
the  frontiers  of  Germany.  Of  these  there 
were  but  four  worth  mentioning :  Vero- 
na, Vicenza,  Padua,  and  Treviso.  The 
citizens  of  all  the  four  were  inclined  to 
the  Guelf  interests ;  but  a  powerful  body 
of  rural  nobility,  who  had  never  been 
compelled,  like  those  upon  the  upper  Po, 
to  quit  their  fortresses  in  the  hilly  coun- 
try, or  reside  within  the  walls,  attached 
themselves  to  the  opposite  denomina- 
tion.* SomejDf  them  obtained  very  great 
authority  in  the  civil  feuds  of  these  four 
republics;  and  especially  two  brothers, 
Eccelin  and  Alberic  da  Romano,  of  a  rich 
and  distinguished  family,  known  for  its 
devotion  to  the  empire.  By  extraordina- 
ry vigour  and  decision  of  character,  by 
dissimulation  and  breach  of  oaths,  by  the 
intimidating  effects  of  almost,  unparalleled 
cruelty,  Eccelin  da  Romano  became  after 
some  years  the  absolute  master  of  three 
cities,  Padua,  Verona,  and  Vicenza ;  and 
the  Guelf  party,  in  consequence,  was  en- 
tirely subverted  beyond  the  Adige  during 
the  continuance  of  his  tyranny. f  An- 
other cluster  was  composed  of  the  cities 
in  Romagna;  Bologna,  Imola,  Faenza, 
Ferrara,  and  several  others.  Of  these 
Bologna  was  far  the  most  powerful,  and, 
as  no  city  was  more  steadily  for  the  in- 
terests of  the  church,  the  Guelfs  usually 
predominated  in  this  class  ;  to  which  also 
the  influence  of  the  house  of  Este  not  a 
little  contributed.  Modena,  though  not 
geographically  within  the  limits  of  this 
division,  may  be  classed  along  with  it, 
from  her  constant  wars  with  Bologna. 

*  Sismondi,  t.  ii.,  p.  222. 

t  The  cruelties  of  Eccelin  excited  universal  hor- 
ror, in  an  age  when  inhumanity  towards  enemies 
was  as  common  as  fear  and  revenge  could  make  it. 
It  was  a  usual  trick  of  beggars,  all  over  Italy,  to 
pretend  that  they  had  been  deprived  of  their  eyes 
or  limbs  by  the  Veronese  tyrant.  There  is  hardly 
an  instance  in  European  history  of  so  sanguinary 
a  government  subsisting  for  more  than  twenty 
years.  The  crimes  of  Eccelin  are  remarkably  well 
authenticated  by  the  testimony  of  several  contem- 
porary writers,  who  enter  into  great  details.  Most 
of  these  are  found  in  the  seventh  volume  of  Scrip- 
tores  Rerum  Italicarum.  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  33,, 
111,  203,  is  more  full  than  any  of  the  moderns. 


142 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP,  lit 


A  fourth  class  will  comprehend  the  whole 
of  Tuscany,  separated  almost  entirely 
from  the  politics  of  Lombardy  and  Ro- 
magna.  Florence  headed  the  Guelf  cit- 
ies in  this  province,  Pisa  the  Ghibelin. 
The  Tuscan  union  was  formed,  as  has 
been  said  above,  by  Innocent  III.,  and 
was  strongly  inclined  to  the  popes ;  but 
gradually  the  Ghibelin  party  acquired  its 
share  of  influence ;  and  the  cities  of  Sie- 
na, Arezzo,  and  Lucca,  shifted  their  poli- 
cy, according  to  external  circumstances 
or  the  fluctuations  of  their  internal  fac- 
tions. The  petty  cities  in  the  region  of 
Spoleto  and  Ancona  hardly  perhaps  de- 
serve the  name  of  republics ;  and  Genoa 
does  not  readily  fall  into  any  of  our  four 
classes,  unless  her  wars  with  Pisa  may 
be  thought  to  connect  her  with  Tuscany.* 

After  several  years  of  transient  hostil- 
ity and  precarious  truce,  the  Guelf  cities 
of  Lombardy  engaged  in  a  regular  and 
protracted  war  with  Frederick  II.,  or, 
more  properly,  with  their  Ghibelin  adver- 
saries. Few  events  of  this  contest  de- 
serve particular  notice.  Neither  party 
ever  obtained  such  decisive  advantages 
as  had  alternately  belonged  to  Frederick 
Barbarossa  and  the  Lombard  confedera- 
cy, during  the  war  of  the  preceding  cen- 
tury. A  defeat  of  the  Milanese  by  the 
emperor,  at  Corte  Nuova,  in  1237,  was 
balanced  by  his  unsuccessful  siege  of 
Brescia  the  next  year.  The  Pisans  as- 
sisted Frederick  to  gain  a  great  naval  vic- 
tory over  the  Genoese  fleet  in  1241 ;  but 
he  was  obliged  to  rise  from  the  blockade 
of  Parma,  which  had  left  the  standard  of 
Ghibelinism  in  1248.  Ultimately,  how- 
ever, the  strength  of  the  house  of  Swabia 
was  exhausted  by  so  tedious  a  struggle ; 
the  Ghibelins  of  Italy  had  their  vicissi- 
tudes of  success ;  but  their  country,  and 
even  themselves,  lost  more  and  more  of 
the  ancient  connexion  with  Germany. 

In  this  resistance  to  Frederick  II.,  the 
Lombards  were  much  indebted  to  the 

*  I  have  taken  no  notice  of  Piedmont  in  this  divis- 
ion. The  history  of  that  country  is  far  less  eluci- 
dated by  ancient  or  modern  writers  than  that  of 
other  parts  of  Italy.  It  was  at  this  time  divided 
between  the  counts  of  Savoy  and  marquises  of 
Montferrat.  But  Asti,  Chieri,  and  Turin,  especial- 
ly the  two  former,  appear  to  have  had  a  republican 
form  of  government.  They  were  however  not  ab- 
solutely independent.  The  only  Piedmontese  city 
that  can  properly  be  considered  as  a  separate  state, 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  was  Vercelli ;  and  even 
there  the  bishop  seems  to  have  possessed  a  sort  of 
temporal  sovereignty.  Denina,  author  of  the  Ri- 
voluzioni  d'ltalia,  first  printed  in  1769,  lived  to  pub- 
lish in  his  old  age  a  history  of  western  Italy,  or 
Piedmont,  from  which  I  have  gleaned  a  few  facts. 
— Istoria  dell'  Italia  Occidentale ;  Torino,  1809,  6 
vola.  8vo. 


constant  support  of  Gregory  IX.  and  his 
successor,  Innocent  IV. ;  and  the  Guelf, 
or  the  church  party,  were  used  as  sy- 
nonymous terms.  These  pontiffs  bore 
an  unquenchable  hatred  to  the  house  of 
Swabia.  No  concessions  mitigated  their 
animosity ;  no  reconciliation  was  sincere. 
Whatever  faults  may  be  imputed  to  Fred- 
erick, it  is  impossible  for  any  one,  not 
blindly  devoted  to  the  court  of  Rome,  to 
deny,  that  he  was  iniquitously  proscribed 
by  her  unprincipled  ambition.  His  real 
crime  was  the  inheritance  of  his  ances- 
tors, and  the  name  of  the  house  of  Swa- 
bia. In  1239,  he  was  excommunicated 
by  Gregory  IX.  To  this  he  was  tolera- 
bly accustomed  by  former  experience ; 
but  the  sentence  was  attended  by  an  ab- 
solution of  his  subjects  from  their  alle- 
giance, and  a  formal  deposition.  These 
sentences  were  not  very  effective  upon 
men  of  vigorous  minds,  or  upon  those 
whose  passions  were  engaged  in  their 
cause ;  but  they  influenced  both  those 
who  feared  the  threatenings  of  the  cler- 
gy, and  those  who  wavered  already  as 
to  their  line  of  political  conduct.  In  the 
fluctuating  state  of  Lombardy,  the  ex- 
communication of  Frederick  undermined 
his  interests  even  in  cities,  like  Parma, 
that  had  been  friendly,  and  seemed  to 
identify  the  cause  of  his  enemies  with 
that  of  religion ;  a  prejudice,  artfully  fo- 
mented by  means  of  calumnies  propaga- 
ted against  himself,  and  which  the  con- 
duct of  such  leading  Ghibelins  as  Ecce- 
lin,  who  lived  in  an  open  defiance  of  God 
and  man,  did  not  contribute  to  lessen. 
In  1240,  Gregory  proceeded  to  publish  a 
crusade  against  Frederick,  as  if  he  had 
been  an  open  enemy  to  religion ;  which 
he  revenged  by  putting  to  death  all  the 
prisoners  he  made  who  wore  the  cross. 
There  was  one  thing  wanting  to  make 
the  expulsion  of  the  emperor  from  the 
Christian  commonwealth  more  complete. 
Gregory  IX.  accordingly  projected,  and 
Innocent  IV.  carried  into  effect,  the  con- 
vocation of  a  general  council,  council  of 
This  was  held  at  Lyons  [A.  D.  Lyons. 
1245],  an  imperial  city,  but  over  which 
Frederick  could  no  longer  retain  his  su- 
premacy. In  this  assembly,  where  one 
hundred  and  forty  prelates  appeared,  the 
question  whether  Frederick  ought  to  be 
deposed  was  solemnly  discussed  ;  he  sub- 
mitted to  defend  himself  by  his  advo- 
cates; and  the  pope,  in  the  presence, 
though  without  formally  collecting  the 
suffrages  of  the  council,  pronounced  a 
sentence,  by  which  Frederick's  excom- 
munication was  renewed,  the  empire 
and  all  his  kingdoms  taken  away,  and 


PART  I.J 


ITALY. 


143 


his  subjects  absolved  from  their  fidelity. 
This  is  the  most  pompous  act  of  usurpa- 1 
tion  in  all  the  records  of  the  church  of  ' 
Rome ;   and  the  tacit  approbation  of  a 
general  council  seemed   to    incorporate 
the  pretended  right  of  deposing  kings, 
which  might  have  passed  as  a  mad  vaunt 
of  Gregory  VII.  and  his  successors,  with 
the  established  faith  of  Christendom. 
Upon  the  death  of  Frederick  II.,   in 

Conrad  iv  1250'  ne  ^e^  to  ms  son  Conrad 
a  contest  to  maintain  for  every 
part  of  his  inheritance,  as  well  as  for  the 
imperial  crown.  But  the  vigour  of  the 
house  of  Swabia  was  gone ;  Conrad  was 
reduced  to  fight  for  the  kingdom  of  Na- , 
pies,  the  only  succession  which  he 
could  hope  to  secure  against  the  troops 
of  Innocent  IV.,  who  still  pursued  his 
family  with  implacable  hatred,  and  claim- 
ed that  kingdom  as  forfeited  to  its  feudal 
superior,  the  Holy  See.  After  Conrad's 
premature  death,  which  happened  in  1254, 
the  throne  was  filled  by  his  legitimate 
brother  Manfred,  who  retained  it  by  his 
bravery  and  address,  in  despite  of  the 
popes,  till  they  were  compelled  to  call 
in  the  assistance  of  a  more  powerful 
arm. 

The  death  of  Conrad  brings  to  a  ter- 
mination that  period  in  Italian  history 
which  we  have  described  as  nearly  co- 
extensive with  the  greatness  of  the  house 
of  Swabia.  It  is  perhaps  upon  the  whole 
the  most  honourable  to  Italy;  that  in 
which  she  displayed  the  most  of  national 
energy  and  patriotism.  A  Florentine  or 
Venetian  may  dwell  with  pleasure  upon 
later  times  ;  but  a  Lombard  will  cast  back 
his  eye  across  the  desert  of  centuries,  till 
it  reposes  on  the  field  of  Legnano.  Great 
changes  followed  in  the  foreign  and  in- 
ternal policy,  in  the  moral  and  military 
character  of  Italy.  But  before  we  de- 
scend to  the  next  period,  it  will  be  neces- 
sary to  remark  some  material  circum- 
stances in  that  which  has  just  passed 
under  our  review. 

The  successful  resistance  of  the  Lom- 
causesofthe  bard  ruities  *o  such  princes  as 
success  of  both  the  Fredericks,  must  as- 
Lombardy.  tonish  a  reader  who  brings  to 
the  story  of  these  middle  ages  notions 
derived  from  modern  times.  But  when 
we  consider  not  only  the  ineffectual  con- 
trol which  could  be  exerted  over  a  feu- 
dal army,  bound  only  to  a  short  term  of 
service,  and  reluctantly  kept  in  the  field 
at  its  own  cost,  but  the  peculiar  distrust 
and  disaffection  with  which  many  Ger- 
man princes  regarded  the  house  of  Swa- 
bia, less  reason  will  appear  for  surprise. 
Nor  did  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  almost 


always  in  agitation,  yield  any  material 
aid  to  the  second  Frederick.  The  main 
cause,  however,  of  that  triumph  which 
attended  Lombardy  was  the  intrinsic  en- 
ergy of  a  free  government.  From  the 
eleventh  century,  when  the  cities  be- 
came virtually  republican,  they  put  out 
those  vigorous  shoots  which  are  the 
growth  of  freedom  alone.  Their  domes- 
tic feuds,  their  mutual  wars,  the  fierce  as- 
saults of  their  national  enemies,  checked 
not  their  strength,  their  wealth,  or  their 
population ;  but  rather,  as  the  limbs  are 
nerved  by  labour  and  hardship,  the  re- 
publics of  Italy  grew  in  vigour  and  cour- 
age through  the  conflicts  they  sustained. 
If  we  but  remember  what  savage  license 
prevailed  during  the  ages  that  preceded 
their  rise,  the  rapine  of  public  robbers, 
or  of  feudal  nobles  little  differing  from 
robbers,  the  contempt  of  industrious  arts, 
the  inadequacy  of  penal  laws,  and  the  im- 
possibility of  carrying  them  into  effect, 
we  shall  form  some  notion  of  the  change 
which  was  wrought  in  the  condition  of 
Italy  by  the  growth  of  its  cities.  In 
comparison  with  the  blessings  of  indus- 
try protected,  injustice  controlled,  emu- 
lation awakened,  the  disorders  which 
ruffled  their  surface  appear  slight  and 
momentary.  I  speak  only  of  this  first 
stage  of  their  independence,  and  chiefly 
of  the  twelfth  century,  before  those  civil 
dissensions  had  reached  their  height,  by 
which  the  glory  and  prosperity  of  Lom- 
bardy were  soon  to  be  subverted. 

We  have  few  authentic  testimonies  as 
to  the  domestic  improvement  of  the  free 
Italian  cities,  while  they  still  deserved  the 
name.  But  we  may  perceive  by  history, 
that  their  power  and  population,  accord- 
ing to  their  extent  of  territory,  were  al- 
most incredible.  In  Galvaneus  Flamma, 
a  Milanese  writer,  we  find  a  curious  sta- 
tistical account  of  that  city  in  1288,  which, 
though  of  a  date  about  thirty  years  after 
its  liberties  had  been  overthrown  by 
usurpation,  must  be  considered  as  imply- 
ing a  high  degree  of  previous  advance- 
ment, even  if  we  make  allowance,  as 
probably  we  should,  for  some  exaggera- 
tion. The  inhabitants  are  reckoned  at 
200,000;  the  private  houses  13,000;  the 
nobility  alone  dwelt  in  sixty  streets; 
6000  gentlemen,  or  heavy  cavalry  (mili- 
tes)  might  be  mustered  from  the  city  and 
its  district,  and  240^000  men  capable  of 
arms;  a  force  sufficient,  the  writer  ob- 
serves, to  crush  all  the  Saracens.  There 
were  in  Milan  six  hundred  notaries,  two 
hundred  physicians,  eighty  schoolmas- 
ters, and  fifty  transcribers  of  manuscripts. 
In  the  district  were  one  hundred  and  fifty 


144 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


castles,  with  adjoining  villages.  Such  was 
the  state  of  Milan,  Flamma  concludes,  in 
1288 ;  it  is  not  for  me  to  say  whether  it 
has  gained  or  lost  ground  since  that  time.* 
At  this  period,  the  territory  of  Milan  was 
not  perhaps  more  extensive  than  the 
county  of  Surrey;  it  was  bounded  at  a 
little  distance,  on  almost  every  side,  by 
Lodi,  or  Pavia,  or  Bergamo,  or  Como. 
It  is  possible,  however,  that  Flamma  may 
have  meant  to  include  some  of  these  as 
dependances  of  Milan,  though  not  strictly 
united  with  it.  How  flourishing  must  the 
state  of  cultivation  have  been  in  such  a 
country,  which  not  only  -drew  no  sup- 
plies from  any  foreign  land,  but  exported 
part  of  her  own  produce !  It  was  in  the 
best  age  of  their  liberties,  immediately 
after  the  battle  of  Legnano,  that  the  Mi- 
lanese commenced  the  great  canal  which 
conducts  the  waters  of  the  Tesino  to 
their  capital,  a  work  very  extraordinary 
for  that  time.  During  the  same  period 
the  cities  gave  proofs  of  internal  pros- 
perity that  in  many  instances  have  de- 
scended to  our  own  observation,  in  the 
solidity  and  magnificence  of  their  archi- 
tecture. Ecclesiastical  structures  were 
perhaps  more  splendid  in  France  and 
England ;  but  neither  country  could  pre- 
tend to  match  the  palaces  and  public 
buildings,  the  streets  flagged  with  stone, 
the  bridges  of  the  same  material,  or  the 
commodious  private  houses  of  Italy. f 

The  courage  of  these  cities  was 
wrought  sometimes  to  a  tone  of  insolent 
defiance,  through  the  security  inspired 
by  their  means  of  defence.  From  the 
time  of  the  Romans  to  that  when  the 
use  of  gunpowder  came  to  prevail,  little 
change  was  made,  or  perhaps  could  be 
made,  in  that  part  of  military  science 
which  relates  to  the  attack  and  defence 
of  fortified  places.  We  find  precisely 

*  Muratori,  Script.  Rerum  Italic.,  t.  xi.  This 
expression  of  Flamma  may  seem  to  intimate  that 
Milan  had  declined  in  his  time,  which  was  about 
1340.  Yet,  as  she  had  been  continually  advancing 
in  power,  and  had  not  yet  experienced  any  tyran- 
nical government,  I  cannot  imagine  this  to  have 
been  the  case  ;  and  the  same  Flamma,  who  is  a 
great  flatterer  of  the  Visconti,  and  has  dedicated  a 
particular  work  to  the  praises  of  Azzo,  asserts 
therein  that  he  had  greatly  improved  the  beauty 
and  convenience  of  the  city  ;  though  Brescia,  Cre- 
mona, and  other  places  had  declined.  Azarins, 
too,  a  writer  of  the  same  age,  makes  a  similar  rep- 
resentation.— Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xvi.,  p.  314  and 
317.  Of  Luchino  Visconti  he  says :  Statum  Me- 
diolani  reintegravit  in  tantum,  quod  non  civitas, 
sed  prpvincia  videbatur. 

t  Sismondi,  t.  iv.,  p.  176.  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p. 
426.  See  also  the  observations  of  Denina  on  the 
population  and  agriculture  of  Italy,  1.  xiv.,  c.  9, 
10,  chiefly  indeed  applicable  to  a  period  rather  later 
than  that  of  her  free  republics. 


the  same  engines  of  offence ;  the  cum- 
brous towers,  from  which  arrows  were 
shot  at  the  besieged,  the  machines  from 
which  stones  were  discharged,  the  bat- 
tering-rams which  assailed  the  walls,  and 
the  basket-work  covering  (the  vinea  or 
testudo  of  the  ancients,  and  the  gattus  or 
chatchateil  of  the  middle  ages)  under 
which  those  who  pushed  the  battering 
engines  were  protected  from  the  enemy. 
On  the  other  hand,  a  city  was  fortified 
with  a  strong  wall  of  brick  or  marble, 
with  towers  raised  upon  it  at  intervals, 
and  a  deep  moat  in  front.  Sometimes 
the  ante-mural  or  barbacan  was  added ; 
a  rampart  of  less  height,  which  impeded 
the  approach  of  the  hostile  engines.  The 
gates  were  guarded  with  a  portcullis ;  an 
invention  which,  as  well  as  the  barbacan, 
was  borrowed  from  the  Saracens.*  With 
such  advantages  for  defence,  a  numerous 
and  intrepid  body  of  burghers  might  not 
unreasonably  stand  at  bay  against  a  pow- 
erful army  ;  and  as  the  consequences  of 
capture  were  most  terrible,  while  resist- 
ance was  seldom  hopeless,  we  cannot 
wonder  at  the  desperate  bravery  of  so 
many  besieged  towns.  Indeed,  it  seldom 
happened  that  one  of  considerable  size 
was  taken,  except  by  famine  or  treach- 
ery. Tortona  did  not  submit  to  Freder- 
ick Barbarossa  till  the  besiegers  had 
corrupted  with  sulphur  the  only  fountain 
that  supplied  the  citizens ;  nor  Crema,  till 
tier  walls  were  overtopped  by  the  batter- 
ing engines.  Ancona  held  out  a  noble 

xample  of  sustaining  the  pressure  of 
extreme  famine.  Brescia  tried  all  the 
resources  of  a  skilful  engineer  against 
the  second  Frederick ;  and  swerved  not 
from  her  steadiness,  when  that  prince, 
mitating  an  atrocious  precedent  of  his 
grandfather  at  the  siege  of  Crema,  ex- 
posed his  prisoners  upon  his  battering 

ngines  to  the  stones  that  were  hurled  by 
their  fellow-citizens  upon  the  walls.f 

Of  the  government  which  existed  in 
the  republics  of  Italy  during  the  ^^  5nter. 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  nai  govern- 
no  definite  sketch  can  be  traced.  ment- 
The  chroniclers  of  those  times  are  few 
and  jejune ;  and,  as  is  usual  with  contem- 
aoraries,  rather  intimate  than  describe 
;he  civil  polity  of  their  respective  coun- 
tries. It  would  indeed  be  a  weary  task, 
if  it  were  even  possible,  to  delineate  the 
constitutions  of  thirty  or  forty  little  states 
which  were  in  perpetual  fluctuation.  The 


*  Muratori,  Antiquit.  Ital.,  Dissert.  26. 

f  See  these  sieges  in  the  second  and  third  vol- 
umes of  Sismondi.  That  of  Ancona,  t.  ii.,  p.  145- 
206,  is  told  with  remarkable  elegance,  and  several 
interesting  circumstances. 


PART 


s 


ITALY. 


145 


magistrates  elected  in  almost  all  of  them, 
when  they  first  began  to  shake  off  the 
jurisdiction  of  their  count  or  bishop,  were 
styled  consuls;  a  word  very  expressive 
to  an  Italian  ear,  since,  in  the  darkest 
ages,  tradition  must  have  preserved  some 
acquaintance  with  the  republican  govern- 
ment of  Rome.*  The  consuls  were  al- 
ways annual;  and  their  office  compre- 
hended the  command  of  the  national  mili- 
tia in  war,  as  well  as  the  administration 
of  justice,  and  preservation  of  public  or- 
der ;  but  their  number  was  various ;  two, 
four,  six,  or  even  twelve.  In  their  legis- 
lative and  deliberative  councils,  the  Lom- 
bards still  copied  the  Roman  constitution, 
or  perhaps  fell  naturally  into  the  form 
most  calculated  to  unite  sound  discretion 
with  the  exercise  of  popular  sovereignty. 
A  council  of  trust  and  secrecy  (della  cre- 
denza)  was  composed  of  a  small  number 
of  persons,  who  took  the  management 
of  public  affairs,  and  may  be  called  the 
ministers  of  the  state.  But  the  decision 
upon  matters  of  general  importance,  trea- 
ties of  alliance  or  declarations  of  war, 
the  choice  of  consuls  or  ambassadors, 
belonged  to  the  general  council.  This 
appears  not  to  have  been  uniformly  con- 
stituted in  every  city;  and,  according  to 
its  composition,  the  government  was 
more  or  less  democratical.  An  ultimate 
sovereignty,  however,  was  reserved  to 
the  mass  of  the  people  ;  and  a  parliament 
or  general  assembly  was  held  to  deliber- 
ate on  any  change  in  the  form  of  consti- 
tution.! 

About  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century, 
a  new  and  singular  species  of  magistracy 
was  introduced  into  the  Lombard  cities. 
During  the  tyranny  of  Frederick  I.  he 
had  appointed  officers  of  his  own,  called 
podestas,  instead  of  the  elective  consuls. 
It  is  remarkable  that  this  memorial  of 
despotic  power  should  not  have  excited 
insuperable  alarm  and  disgust  in  the  free 
republics.  But,  on  the  contrary,  they  al- 
most universally,  after  the  peace  of  Con- 
stance, revived  an  office  which  had  been 
abrogated  when  they  first  rose  in  rebell- 
ion against  Frederick.  From  experi- 
ence, as  we  must  presume,  of  the  partial- 
ity which  their  domestic  factions  carried 
into  the  administration  of  justice,  it  be- 
came a  general  practice  to  elect,  by  the 
name  of  podesta,  a  citizen  of  some  neigh- 


*  Landulf  the  younger,  whose  history  of  Milan 
extends  from  1094  to  1133,  calls  himself  publico- 
rum  officiorum  particeps  et  consulum  epistolarum 
dictator.— Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  v.,  p.  488.  This  is, 
I  believe,  the  earliest  mention  of  those  magistrates. 
— Muratori,  Annali  d'ltalia,  A.  D.  1107. 

t  Muratori,  Dissert.  46  and  52.  Sismondi,  t.  i., 
p.  385. 

K 


bouring  state,  as  their  general,  their  crim- 
inal judge,  and  preserver  of  the  peace. 
The  last  duty  was  frequently  arduous, 
and  required  a  vigorous  as  well  as  an  Up- 
right magistrate.  Offences  against  the 
laws  and  security  of  the  commonwealth 
were  during  the  middle  ages  as  often, 
perhaps  more  often,  committed  by  the 
rich  and  powerful,  than  by  the  inferior 
class  of  society.  Rude  and  licentious 
manners,  family  feuds  and  private  re- 
venge, or  the  mere  insolence  of  strength, 
rendered  the  execution  of  criminal  jus- 
tice, practically  and  in  every  day's  expe- 
rience, what  it  is  now  in  theory,  a  neces- 
sary protection  to  the  poor  against  op- 
pression. The  sentence  of  a  magistrate 
against  a  powerful  offender  was  not  pro- 
nounced without  danger  of  tumult ;  it  was 
seldom  executed  without  force.  A  con- 
victed criminal  was  not,  as  at  present,  the 
stricken  deer  of  society,  whose  disgrace 
his  kindred  shrink  from  participating,  and 
whose  memory  they  strive  to  forget.  Im- 
puting his  sentence  to  iniquity,  or  glory- 
ing in  an  act  which  the  laws  of  his  fel- 
low-citizens, but  not  their  sentiments, 
condemned,  he  stood  upon  his  defence 
amid  a  circle  of  friends.  The  law  was  to 
be  enforced  not  against  an  individual,  but 
a  family ;  not  against  a  family,  but  a  fac- 
tion ;  not  perhaps  against  a  local  faction, 
but  the  whole  Guelf  or  Ghibelin  name, 
which  might  become  interested  in  the 
quarrel.  The  podesta  was  to  arm  the 
republic  against  the  refractory  citizen; 
his  house  was  to  be  besieged  and  razed 
to  the  ground,  his  defenders  to  be  quelled 
by  violence  :  and  thus  the  people,  become 
familiar  with  outrage  and  homicide  under 
the  command  of  their  magistrates,  were 
more  disposed  to  repeat  such  scenes  at 
the  instigation  of  their  passions.* 

The  podesta  was  sometimes  chosen  in 
a  general  assembly,  sometimes  by  a 
select  number  of  citizens.  His  office 
was  annual,  though  prolonged  in  peculiar 
emergencies.  He  was  invariably  a  man 
of  noble  family,  even  in  those  cities  which 
excluded  their  own  nobility  from  any 
share  in  the  government.  He  received 
a  fixed  salary,  and  was  compelled  to  re- 
main in  the  city,  after  the  expiration  of 
his  office,  for  the  purpose  of  answering 
such  charges  as  might  be  adduced  against 
his  conduct.  He  could  neither  marry  a 
native  of  the  city,  nor  have  any  relation 
resident  within  the  district,  nor  even,  so 
great  was  their  jealousy,  eat  or  drink  in 


h  Sismondi,  t.  hi.,  p.  258,  from  whom  the  sub- 
stance of  these  observations  is  borrowed.  They 
may  be  copiously  illustrated  by  Villani's  history 
of  Florence,  and  Stella's  annals  of  Genoa, 


146 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


the  house  of  any  citizen.  The  authority 
of  these  foreign  magistrates  was  not  by 
any  means  alike  in  all  cities.  In  some 
he  seems  to  have  superseded  the  consuls, 
and  commanded  the  armies  in  war.  In 
others,  as  Milan  and  Florence,  his  authori- 
ty was  merely  judicial.  We  find,  in  some 
of  the  old  annals,  the  years  headed  by  the 
names  of  the  podestas,  as  by  those  of  the 
consuls  in  the  history  of  Rome.* 

The  effects  of  the  evil  spirit  of  discord, 
Anddissen-  that  had  so  fatally  breathed 
Bions.  upon  the  republics  of  Lombar- 
dy,  were  by  no  means  confined  to  nation- 
al interests,  or  to  the  grand  distinction  of 
Guelf  and  Ghibelin.  Dissensions  glowed 
in  the  heart  of  every  city,  and  as  the  dan- 
ger of  foreign  war  became  distant,  these 
grew  more  fierce  and  unappeasable.  The 
feudal  system  had  been  established  upon 
the  principle  of  territorial  aristocracy ;  it 
maintained  the  authority,  it  encouraged 
the  pride  of  rank.  Hence,  when  the  ru- 
ral nobility  were  compelled  to  take  up 
their  residence  in  cities,  they  preserved 
the  ascendency  of  birth  and  riches.  From 
the  natural  respect  which  is  shown  to 
these  advantages,  all  offices  of  trust  and 
command  were  shared  among  them;  it 
is  not  material  whether  this  were  by  pos- 
itive right  or  continual  usage.  A  limited 
aristocracy  of  this  description,  where  the 
inferior  citizens  possess  the  right  of  se- 
lecting their  magistrates  by  free  suffrage 
from  a  numerous  body  of  nobles,  is  not 
among  the  worst  forms  of  government, 
and  affords  no  contemptible  security 
against  oppression  and  anarchy.  This  re- 
gimen appears  to  have  prevailed  in  most 
of  the  Lombard  cities  during  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  centuries  ;  though,  in  so  great 
a  deficiency  of  authentic  materials,  it 
would  be  too  peremptory  to  assert  this1 
as  an  unequivocal  truth.  There  is  one 
very  early  instance,  in  the  year  1041,  of 
a  civil  war  at  Milan  between  the  capita- 
nei,  or  vassals  of  the  empire,  and  the 
plebeian  burgesses,  which  was  appeased 
by  the  mediation  of  Henry  III.  This  is 
ascribed  to  the  ill  treatment  which  the 
latter  experienced ;  as  was  usual  indeed 
in  all  parts  of  Europe,  but  which  was  en- 
dured with  inevitable  submission  every- 
where else.  In  this  civil  war,  which 
lasted  three  years,  the  nobility  were  obli- 
ged to  leave  Milan,  and  carry  on  the  con- 
test in  the  adjacent  plains  ;f  and  one  of 
their  class,  by  name  Lanzon,  whether 
moved  by  ambition  or  by  virtuous  indig- 

*  Muratori,  Dissert.  46. 

•j-  Landulfus,  Hist.  Mediolan.  in  Script.  Rerum 
Ital.,  t.  iv.,  p.  86.  Muratori,  Dissert.  52.  Annali 
dltalia,  A.  D.  1041.  St.  Marc,  t.  iu.,  p.  94. 


nation  against  tyranny,  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  the  people. 

From  this  time  we  scarcely  find  any 
mention  of  dissensions  among  the  two 
orders,  till  after  the  peace  of  Constance ; 
a  proof,  however  defective  the  contem- 
porary annals  may  be,  that  such  disturb- 
ances had  neither  been  frequent  nor  seri- 
ous. A  schism  between  the  nobles  and 
people  is  noticed  to  have  occurred  at  Fa- 
enza  in  1185.  A  serious  civil  war  of 
some  duration  broke  out  between  them 
at  Brescia  in  1200.  From  this  time  mu- 
tual jealousies  interrupted  the  domestic 
tranquillity  of  other  cities,  but  it  is  about 
1220  that  they  appear  to  have  taken  a  de- 
cided aspect  of  civil  war;  within  a  few 
years  of  that  epoch,  the  question  of  aris- 
tocratical  or  popular  command  was  tried 
by  arms  in  Milan,  Piacenza,  Modena,  Cre- 
mona, and  Bologna.* 

It  would  be  vain  to  enter  upon  the  mer- 
its of  these  feuds,  which  the  meager  his- 
torians of  the  time  are  seldom  much  dis- 
posed to  elucidate,  and  which  they  saw 
with  their  own  prejudices.  A  writer  of 
the  present  age  would  show  little  philos- 
ophy, if  he  were  to  heat  his  passions  by 
the  reflection,  as  it  were,  of  those  forgot- 
ten animosities,  and  aggravate,  like  a  par- 
tial contemporary,  the  failings  of  one  or 
another  faction.  We  have  no  need  of 
positive  testimony  to  acquaint  us  with 
the  general  tenour  of  their  history.  We 
know  that  a  nobility  is  always  insolent, 
that  a  populace  is  always  intemperate; 
and  may  safely  presume  that  the  former 
began  as  the  latter  ended,  by  injustice 
and  abuse  of  power.  At  one  time  the 
aristocracy,  not  content  with  seeing  the 
annual  magistrates  selected  from  their 
body,  would  endeavour  by  usurpation  to 
exclude  the  bulk  of  the  citizens  from  suf- 
frage. At  another,  the  merchants,  grown 
proud  by  riches,  and  confident  of  their 
strength,  would  aim  at  obtaining  the  hon- 
ours of  the  state,  which  had  been  reserv- 
ed to  the  nobility.  This  is  the  inevitable 
consequence  of  commercial  wealth,  and 
indeed  of  freedom  and  social  order,  which 
are  the  parents  of  wealth.  There  is  in 
the  progress  of  civilization  a  term  at 
which  exclusive  privileges  must  be  relax- 
ed, or  the  possessors  must  perish  along 
with  them.  In  one  or  two  cities  a  tem- 
porary compromise  was  made  through 
the  intervention  of  the  pope,  whereby  of- 
fices of  public  trust,  from  the  highest  to 
the  lowest,  were  divided,  in  equal  propor- 
tions or  otherwise,  between  the  nobles 
and  the  people.  This  also  is  no  bad  ex- 


*  Sismondi,  t.  ii.,  p.  444.    Muratori,  Annali  d'lta- 
lia,  A.  D.  1185,  &c. 


PART  I.] 


ITALY. 


147 


pedient,  and  proved  singularly  efficacious 
in  appeasing  the  dissensions  of  Rome. 

There  is,  however,  a  natural  prepon- 
derance in  the  popular  scale,  which,  in  a 
fair  trial,  invariably  gains  on  that  of  the 
less  numerous  class.     The  artisans,  who 
composed  the  bulk  of  the  population,  were 
arranged  in  companies  according  to  their 
occupations.      Sometimes,  as  at  Milan, 
they  formed  separate  associations,  with 
rules   for   their    internal    government. 
The  clubs,  called  at  Milan  la  Motta  and 
la  Credenza,  obtained  a  degree  of  weight 
not  at  all  surprising  to  those  who  consid- 
er the  spirit  of  mutual  attachment  which 
belongs  to  such  fraternities ;  and  we  shall 
see  a  more  striking  instance  of  this  here- 
after in  the  republic  of  Florence.     To  so 
formidable  and  organized  a  democracy, 
the  nobles  opposed  their  numerous  fam- 
ilies, the  generous  spirit  that  belongs  to 
high  birth,  the  influence  of  wealth  and 
established  name.    The  members  of  each 
distinguished  family  appear  to  have  lived 
in  the   same   street ;  their  houses  were 
fortified  with  square  massive  towers  of 
commanding  height,  and  wore  the  sem- 
blance of  castles  within  the  walls  of  a 
city.     Brancaleon,  the  famous  senator  of 
Rome,  destroyed  one  hundred  and  forty 
of  these  domestic  intrenchments,  which 
were  constantly  serving  the  purpose  of 
civil  broils  and  outrage.    Expelled,  as  fre- 
quently happened,  from  the  city,  it  was 
in  the  power  of  the  nobles  to  avail  them- 
selves of  their  superiority  in  the  use  of 
cavalry,  and  to  lay  waste  the  district,  till 
weariness  of  an  unprofitable  contention 
.reduced  the  citizens  to  terms  of  com- 
promise.    But,  when  all  these  resources 
were  ineffectual,  they  were  tempted  or 
forced  to  sacrifice  the  public  liberty  to 
their  own  welfare,  and  lent  their  aid  to  a 
foreign  master  or  a  domestic  usurper. 

In  all  these  scenes  of  turbulence,  wheth- 
er the  contest  was  between  the  nobles 
and  people,  or  the  Guelf  and  Ghibelin 
factions,,  no  mercy  was  shown  by  the 
conquerors.  The  vanquished  lost  their 
homes  and  fortunes,  and,  retiring  to  other 
cities  of  their  own  party,  waited  for  the 
opportunity  of  revenge.  In  a  popular 
tumult  the  houses  of  the  beaten  side  were 
frequently  levelled  to  the  ground;  not 
perhaps  from  a  sort  of  senseless  fury 
which  Muratori  inveighs  against,  but  on 
account  of  the  injury  which  these  forti- 
fied houses  inflicted  upon  the  lower  citi- 
zens. The  most  deadly  hatred  is  that 
which  men,  exasperated  by  proscription 
and  forfeiture,  bear  to  their  country ;  nor 

*  Muratori,  Disiert.  52.    Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  262. 
K8 


have  we  need  to  ask  any  other  cause  for 
the  calamities  of  Italy,  than  the  bitterness 
with  which  an  unsuccessful  faction  was 
thus   pursued   into  banishment.     When 
the  Ghibelins  were  returning  to   Flor- 
ence, after  a  defeat  given  to  the  prevail- 
ing party  in  1260,  it  was  proposed  among 
them  to  demolish  the  city  itself  which 
had  cast  them  out ;  and,  but  for  the  per- 
suasion of  one  man,  Farinata  degl'  Uberti, 
their  revenge  would  have  thus  extinguish- 
ed all  patriotism.*    It  is  to  this  that  we 
must  ascribe  their  proneness  to  call  in 
assistance  from  every  side,  and  to  invite 
any  servitude  for  the  sake  of  retaliating 
upon  their  adversaries.     The  simple  love 
of  public  liberty  is  in  general,  I  fear,  too 
abstract  a  passion  to  glow  warmly  in  the 
human  breast ;  and,  though  often  invigo- 
rated as  well  as  determined  by  personal 
animosities  and  predilections,  is  as  fre- 
quently extinguished  by  the  same  cause. 
Independently  of  the  two  leading  differ- 
ences which  embattled  the  citizens  of  an 
Italian  state,,  their  form  of  government 
and  their  relation  to  the   empire,  there 
were  others  more  contemptible,  though 
not  less  mischievous.     In  every  city  the 
quarrels  of  private  families  became  the 
foundation  of  general  schism,  sedition, 
and  proscription.   Sometimes  these  blend- 
ed themselves  with  the  grand  distinctions 
of  Guelf  and  Ghibelin;  sometimes  they 
were  more  nakedly  conspicuous.     This 
may  be  illustrated  by  one  or  two  promi- 
nent examples.     Imilda  de  Lambertazzi, 
a  noble  young  lady  at  Bologna,  was  sur- 
prised by  her  brothers  in  a  secret  inter- 
view with  Boniface  Gieremei,  whose  fam- 
ly  had  long  been  separated  by  the  most 
nveterate  enmity  from  her  own.     She 
lad  just  time  to  escape  :  while  the  Lam- 
bertazzi despatched  her  lover  with  their 
Doisoned  daggers.     On  her  return  she 
'ound  his  body  still  warm,  and  a  faint 
hope  suggested  the  remedy  of  sucking  the 
venom  from  his  wounds.     But  it   only 
communicated  itself  to  her  own  veins ; 
and  they  were  found  by  her  attendants 
stretched  lifeless  by  each  other's  side. 
So  cruel  an  outrage  wrought  the  Giere- 
mei to  madness;  they  formed  alliances 
with  some  neighbouring  republics;   the 
Lambertazzi  took  the  same  measures  ; 
and  after  a  fight  in  the  streets  of  Bologna 
of  forty  days'  duration,  the  latter  were 
driven  out  of  the  city,  with  all  the  Ghibe- 


G.  Villani,  1.  vi.,  c.  82.  Sismondi.  I  cannot 
forgive  Dante  for  placing  this  patriot  tra  1'anime 

)iu  nere,  in  one  of  the  worst  regions  of  his  Inferno. 
The  conversation  of  the  poet  with  Farinata,  cant. 

0,  is  very  fine,  and  illustrative  of  Florentine  his- 

ory. 


148 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


lins,  their  political  associates.  Twelve 
thousand  citizens  were  condemned  to 
banishment ;  their  houses  razed,  and  their 
estates  confiscated.*  Florence  was  at 
rest  till,  in  1215,  the  assassination  of  an 
individual  produced  a  mortal  feud  between 
the  families  Boundelmonti  and  Uberti,  in 
which  all  the  city  took  a  part.  An  out- 
rage committed  at  Pistoja,  in  1300,  split 
the  inhabitants  into  the  parties  of  Bian- 
chi  and  Neri ;  and  these,  spreading  to 
Florence,  created  one  of  the  most  virulent 
divisions  which  annoyed  that  republic. 
In  one  of  the  changes  which  attended 
this  little  ramification  of  faction,  Florence 
expelled  a  young  citizen  who  had  borne 
offices  of  magistracy,  and  espoused  the 
cause  of  the  Bianchi.  Dante  Alighieri 
retired  to  the  courts  of  some  Ghibelin 
princes,  where  his  sublime  and  inventive 
mind,  in  the  gloom  of  exile,  completed 
that  original  combination  of  vast  and  ex- 
travagant conceptions  with  keen  political 
satire,  which  has  given  immortality  to 
his  name,  and  even  lustre  to  the  petty 
contests  of  his  time.f 

In  the  earlier  stages  of  the  Lombard 
republics,  their  differences,  as  well  mu- 
tual as  domestic,  had  been  frequently  ap- 
peased by  the  mediation  of  the  emperors : 
and  the  loss  of  this  salutary  influence 
may  be  considered  as  no  slight  evil  at- 
tached to  that  absolute  emancipation 
which  Italy  attained  in  the  thirteenth 
century.  The  popes  sometimes  endeav- 
oured to  interpose  an  authority,  which, 
though  not  quite  so  direct,  was  held  in 
greater  veneration;  and,  if  their  own 
tempers  had  been  always  pure  from  the 
selfish  and  vindictive  passions  of  those 
whom  they  influenced,  might  have  pro- 
duced more  general  and  permanent  good. 
But  they  considered  the  Ghibelins  as 
their  own  peculiar  enemies,  and  the  tri- 
umph of  the  opposite  faction  as*  the 
church's  best  security.  Gregory  X.  and 
Nicholas  III.,  whether  from  benevolent 
motives,  or  because  their  jealousy  of 
Charles  of  Anjou,  while  at  the  head  of 
the  Guelfs,  suggested  the  revival  of  a 
Ghibelin  party  as  a  counterpoise  to  his 
power,  distinguished  their  pontificate  by 
enforcing  measures  of  reconciliation  in 
all  Italian  cities ;  but  their  successors  re- 
turned to  the  ancient  policy  and  prejudi- 
ces of  Rome. 

The  singular  history  of  an  individual 


*  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  442.  This  story  may  sug- 
gest that  of  Romeo  and  Juliet,  itself  founded  upon 
an  Italian  novel,  and  not  an  unnatural  picture  of 
manners. 

t  Dino  Compagni,  in  Scr.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  ix.  Vil- 
lani,  1st,  Fiorent.,  1.  viii.  Dante,  passim 


far  less  elevated  in  station  than  Giovanni  di 
popes  or  emperors,  Fra  Giovan-  Vicenza. 
ni  di  Vicenza,  belongs  to  these  times  and 
to  this  subject.  This  Dominican  friar 
began  his  career  at  Bologna,  in  1233, 
preaching  the  cessation  of  war  and  for- 
giveness of  injuries.  He  repaired  from 
thence  to  Padua,  to  Verona,  and  the 
neighbouring  cities.  At  his  command 
men  laid  down  their  instruments  of  war, 
and  embraced  their  enemies.  With  that 
susceptibility  of  transient  impulse  nat- 
ural to  popular  governments,  several  re- 
publics implored  him  to  reform  their  laws 
and  to  settle  their  differences.  A  gen- 
eral meeting  was  summoned  in  the  plain 
of  Paquara,  upon  the  banks  of  the  Adige. 
The  Lombards  poured  themselves  forth 
from  Romagna  and  the  cities  of  the 
March ;  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins,  nobles 
and  burghers,  free  citizens  and  tenantry 
of  feudal  lords,  marshalled  around  their 
carroccios,  caught  from  the  lips  of  the 
preacher  the  illusive  promise  of  universal 
peace.  They  submitted  to  agreements 
dictated  by  Fra  Giovanni,  which  contain 
little  else  than  a  mutual  amnesty ;  wheth- 
er it  were  that  their  quarrels  had  been 
really  without  object,  or  that  he  had  dex- 
terously avoided  to  determine  the  real 
point  of  contention.  But  power  and  rep- 
utation suddenly  acquired  are  transitory. 
Not  satisfied  with  being  the  legislator 
and  arbiter  of  Italian  cities,  he  aimed  at 
becoming  their  master;  and  abused  the 
enthusiasm  of  Vicenza  and  Verona,  to 
obtain  a  grant  of  absolute  sovereignty. 
Changed  from  an  apostle  to  an  usurper, 
the  fate  of  Fra  Giovanni  might  be  pre- 
dicted ;  and  he  speedily  gave  place  to 
those  who,  though  they  made  a  worse 
use  of  their  power,  had,  in  the  eyes  of 
mankind,  more  natural  pretensions  to 
possess  it.* 


PART  II. 

State  of  Italy  after  the  Extinction  of  the  House  of 
Swabia. — Conquest  of  Naples  by  Charles  of 
Anjou. — The  Lombard  Republics  become  sever- 
ally subject  to  Princes  or  Usurpers.— The  Vis- 
conti  ofMilan — their  Aggrandizement. — Decline 
of  the  Imperial  Authority  over  Italy.— Internal 
State  of  Rome.— Rienzi.— Florence— her  forms 
of  Government  historically  traced  to  the  end  of 
the  fourteenth  Century. — Conquest  of  Pisa. — 
Pisa— its  Commerce,  Naval  Wars  with  Genoa, 
and  Decay. — Genoa — her  Contentions  with  Ven- 


'  Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura,  t.  iv.,  p. 
214  (a  verv  well-written  account).  Sismondi,  t, 
ii.,  p.  484. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


149 


ice, — War  of  Chioggia. — Government  of  Genoa. 
— Venice— her  Origin  and  Prosperity. — Vene- 
tian Government— its  Vices. — Territorial  Con- 
quests of  Venice. — Military  System  of  Italy. — 
Companies5- of  Adventure. — 1.  foreign;  Guarni- 
eri,  Hawkwood — and  2.  native ;  Braccio,  Sforza. 
Improvements  in  Military  Service. — Arms,  offen- 
sive and  defensive. — Invention  of  Gunpowder. — 
Naples.— First  Line  of  Anjou. — Joanna  I. — La- 
dislaus. — Joanna  II.— Francis  Sforza  becomes 
Duke  of  Milan. — Alfonso,  king  of  Naples. — 
State  of  Italy  during  the  fifteenth  Century. — 
Florence.— Rise  of  the  Medici,  and  Ruin  of  their 
Adversaries. — Pretensions  of  Charles  VIII.  to 
Naples. 

FROM  the  death  of  Frederick  II.,  in  1250, 
to  the  invasion  of  Charles  VIII.,  in  1494, 
a  long  and  undistinguished  period  occurs, 
which  it  is  impossible  to  break  into  any 
natural  divisions.  It  is  an  age  in  many 
respects  highly  brilliant ;  the  age  of  poe- 
try and  letters,  of  art,  and  of  continual 
improvement.  Italy  displayed  an  intel- 
lectual superiority  in  this  period  over  the 
Transalpine  nations,  which  certainly  had 
not  appeared  since  the  destruction  of  the 
Roman  empire.  But  her  political  history 
presents  a  labyrinth  of  petty  facts,  so  ob- 
scure and  of  so  little  influence  as  not  to 
arrest  the  attention ;  so  intricate  and  in- 
capable of  classification  as  to  leave  only 
confusion  in  the  memory.  The  general 
events  that  are  worthy  of  notice,  and 
give  a  character  to  this  long  period,  are 
the  establishment  of  small  tyrannies  upon 
the  ruins  of  republican  government  in 
most  of  the  cities,  the  gradual  rise  of 
three  considerable  states,  Milan,  Flor- 
ence, and  Venice,  the  naval  and  commer- 
cial rivalry  between  the  last  city  and 
Genoa,  the  final  acquisition  by  the  popes 
of  their  present  territorial  sovereignty, 
and  the  revolutions  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples  under  the  lines  of  Anjou  and  Ar- 
agon. 

After  the  death  of  Frederick  II.,  the 
distinctions  of  Guelf  and  Ghibelin  became 
destitute  of  all  rational  meaning.  The 
most  odious  crimes  were  constantly  per- 
petrated, and  the  utmost  miseries  endur- 
ed, for  an  echo  and  a  shade,  that  mocked 
the  deluded  enthusiasts  of  faction.  None 
of  the  Guelfs  denied  the  nominal,  but  in- 
definite sovereignty  of  the  empire ;  and 
beyond  a  name  the"  Ghibelins  themselves 
would  have  been  little  disposed  to  carry 
it.  But  the  virulent  hatreds  attached  to 
these  words  grew  continually  more  im- 
placable, till  ages  of  ignominy  and  tyran- 
nical government  had  extinguished  every 
energetic  passion  in  the  bosoms  of  a  de- 
graded people. 

In  the  fall  of  the  house  of  Swabia, 
Rome  appeared  to  have  consummated  her 
triumph ;  and  although  the  Ghibelin  party 


was  for  a  little  time  able  to  maintain 
itself,  and  even  to  gain  ground  in  the 
north  of  Italy,  yet  two  events  that  oc- 
curred not  long  afterward  restored  the 
ascendency  of  their  adversaries.  The 
first  of  these  was  the  fall  of  Eccelin  da 
Romano  [A.  D.  1259],  whose  rapid  suc- 
cesses in  Lombardy  appeared  to  threaten 
the  establishment  of  a  tremendous  des- 
potism, and  induced  a  temporary  union 
of  Guelf  and  Ghibelin  states,  by  which 
he  was  overthrown.  The  next1,  and 
far  more  important,  was  the  change  of 
dynasty  in  Naples.  This  king-  Affairs  of 
dom  had  been  occupied,  after  the  NaPles- 
death  of  Conrad,  by  his  illegitimate  broth-  ' 
er,  Manfred,  in  the  behalf,  as  he  at  first 
pretended,  of  young  Conradin  the  heir, 
but  in  fact  as  his  own  acquisition.  [A. 
D.  1254.]  He  was  a  prince  of  an  active 
and  firm  mind,  well  fitted  for  his  difficult 
post,  to  whom  the  Ghibelins  looked  up 
as  their  head,  and  as  the  representative 
of  his  father.  It  was  a  natural  object 
with  the  popes,  independently  of  their  ill- 
will  towards  a  son  of  Frederick  II.,  to 
see  a  sovereign  on  whom  they  could 
better  rely  placed  upon  so  neighbouring 
a  throne.  Charles,  count  of  An-  Charles  of 
jou.  brother  of  St.  Louis,  was  AnJ°u- 
tempted  by  them  to  lead  a  crusade  (for 
as  such  all  wars  for  the  interest  of 
Rome  were  now  considered)  against  the 
Neapolitan  usurper.  [A.  D.  1266.]  The 
chance  of  a  battle  decided  the  fate  of 
Naples,  and  had  a  striking  influence  upon 
the  history  of  Europe  for  several  centu- 
ries. Manfred  was  killed  in  the  field; 
but  there  remained  the  legitimate  heir 
of  the  Fredericks,  a  boy  of  seventeen 
years  old,  Conradin,  son  of  Conrad,  who 
rashly,  as  we  say  at  least  after  the  event, 
attempted  to  regain  his  inheritance.  He 
fell  into  the  hands  of  Charles ;  and  the 
voice  of  those  rude  ages,  as  well  as  of  a 
more  enlightened  posterity,  has  united 
in  branding  with  everlasting  infamy  the 
name  of  that  prince,  who  did  not  hesitate 
to  purchase  the  security  of  his  own  title 
by  the  public  execution  of  an  honourable 
competitor,  or  rather  a  rightful  claimant 
of  the  throne  he  had  usurped.  [A.  D.  1268.] 
With  Conradin  the  house  of  Swabia  was 
extinguished;  but  Constance,  the  daugh- 
ter of  Manfred,  had  transported  Aw  right  to 
Sicily  and  Naples  into  the  house  of  Ara- 
gon,  by  her  marriage  with  Peter  III. 

This  success  of  a  monarch,  selected 
by  the  Roman  pontiffs  as  their  Decline  of 
particular  champion,  turned  the  the  GWbeiin 
tide  of  faction  over  all  Italy.  Party- 
He  expelled  the  Ghibelins  from  Florence, 
of  which  they  had  a  few  years  before 


150 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


obtained  a  complete  command  by  means 
of  their  memorable  victory  upon  the  river 
Arbia.  After  the  fall  of  Conradin,  that 
party  was  everywhere  discouraged.  Ger- 
many held  out  small  hopes  of  support, 
even  when  the  imperial  throne,  which 
had  long  been  vacant,  should  be  filled  by 
one  of  her  princes.  The  populace  were, 
in  almost  every  city,  attached  to  the 
church  and  to  the  name  of  Guelf;  the 
kings  of  Naples  employed  their  arms,  and 
the  popes  their  excommunications,  so 
that  for  the  remainder  of  the  thirteenth 
century  the  name  of  Ghibelin  was  a  term 
of  proscription  in  the  majority  of  Lom- 
bard and  Tuscan  republics.  Charles  was 
constituted  by  the  pope  vicar-general  in 
Tuscany.  This  was  a  new  pretension 
of  the  Roman  pontiffs,  to  name  the  lieu- 
tenants of  the  empire  during  its  vacancy, 
which  indeed  could  not  be  completely 
filled  up  without  their  consent.  It  soon, 
however,  became  evident,  that  he  aimed 
at  the  sovereignty  of  Italy.  Some  of  the 
popes  themselves,  Gregory  X.  and  Nich- 
olas IV.,  grew  jealous  of  their  own  crea- 
ture. At  the  Congress  of  Cremona,  in 
1269,  it  was  proposed  to  confer  upon 
Charles  the  seigniory  of  all  the  Guelf 
cities  ;  but  the  greater  part  were  prudent 
enough  to  choose  him  rather  as  a  friend 
than  a  master.* 

The  cities  of  Lombardy,  however,  of 
The  Lom-  either  denomination,  were  no 
bard  cities  longer  influenced  by  that  gen- 
tec?5eioSrds~  erous  disdain  of  one  man's  will, 
which  is  to  republican  govern- 
ments what  chastity  is  to  women;  a 
conservative  principle,  never  to  be  rea- 
soned upon,  or  subjected  to  calculations 
of  utility.  By  force,  or  stratagem,  or 
free  consent,  almost  all  the  Lombard  re- 
publics had  already  fallen  under  the  yoke 
of  some  leading  citizen,  who  became  the 
lord  (signore),  or,  in  the  Grecian  sense, 
tyrant  of  his  country.  The  first  instance 
of  a  voluntary  delegation  of  sovereignty 
was  that  above  mentioned  of  Ferrara, 
which  placed  itself  under  the  Lord  of 
Este.  Eccelin  made  himself  truly  the 
tyrant  of  the  cities  beyond  the  Adige ; 


*  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  417.  Several,  however, 
including  Milan,  took  an  oath  of  fidelity  to  Charles 
the  same  year.— Ibid.  In  1273,  he  was  lord  of  Ales- 
sandria and  Piacenza,  and  received  tribute  from  Mi- 
lan, Bologna,  and  most  Lombard  cities. — Muratori. 
It  was  evidently  his  intention  to  avail  himself  of 
the  vacancy  of  the  empire,  and  either  to  acquire 
that  title  himself,  or  at  least  to  stand  in  the  same 
relation  as  the  emperors  had  done  to  the  Italian 
states  ;  which,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  twelfth 
and  thirteenth  centuries,  left  them  in  possession 
of  every  thing  that  we  call  independence,  with  the 
reservation  of  a  nominal  allegiance. 


and  such  experience  ought  naturally  to 
have  inspired  the  Italians  with  more 
universal  abhorrence  of  despotism.  But 
every  danger  appeared  trivial  in  the  eyes 
of  exasperated  factions,  when  compared 
with  the  ascendency  of  their  adversaries. 
Weary  of  unceasing  and  useless  contests, 
in  which  ruin  fell  with  an  alternate  but 
equal  hand  upon  either  party,  liberty 
withdrew  from  a  people  who  disgraced 
her  name ;  and  the  tumultuous,  the  brave, 
the  intractable  Lombards,  became  eager 
to  submit  themselves  to  a  master,  and 
patient  under  the  heaviest  oppression. 
Or,  if  tyranny  sometimes  overstepped 
the  limits  of  forbearance,  and  a  sedi- 
tious rising  expelled  the  reigning  prince, 
it  was  only  to  produce  a  change  of  hands, 
and  transfer  the  impotent  people  to  a  dif- 
ferent, and  perhaps  a  worse,  despotism.* 
In  many  cities,  not  a  conspiracy  was 
planned,  not  a  sigh  was  breathed  in  fa- 
vour of  republican  government,  after  once 
they  had  passed  under  the  sway  of  a  sin- 
gle person.  The  progress  indeed  was 
gradual,  though  sure,  from  limited  to 
absolute,  from  temporary  to.  hereditary 
power,  from  a  just  and  conciliating  rule, 
to  extortion  and  cruelty.  But,  before  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  at  the 
latest,  all  those  cities  which  had  spurned 
at  the  faintest  mark  of  submission  to  the 
emperors,  lost  even  the  recollection  of 
self-government,  and  were  bequeathed, 
like  an  undoubted  patrimony,  among  the 
children  of  their  new  lords.  Such  is 
the  progress  of  usurpation;  and  such 
the  vengeance  that  Heaven  reserves  for 
those  who  waste  in  license  and  faction 
its  first  of  social  blessings,  liberty.  | 


«•  See  an  instance  of  the  manner  in  which  one 
tyrant  was  exchanged  for  another,  in  the  fate  of 
Passerine  Bonaccorsi,  lord  of  Mantua,  in  1328. 
Luigi  di  Gonzaga  surprised  him,  rode  the  city 
(corse  la  citta)  with  a  troop  of  horse,  crying  Viva 
il  popolo,  e  muoja  Messer  Passerino  e  le  sue  ga- 
belle  !  killed  Passerino  upon  the  spot,  put  his  son 
to  death  in  cold  blood,  e  poi  si  fece  signore  della 
terra.  Villani,  1,  x.,  c.  99,  observes,  like  a  good 
republican,  that  God  had  fulfilled  in  this  the  words 
of  his  Gospel  (query,  what  Gospel  ?),  I  will  slay 
my  enemy  by  my  enemy !  abbattendo  1'uno  tiranno 
per  1'altro. 

t  See  the  observations  of  Sismondi,  t.  iv.,  p.  212, 
on  the  conduct  of  the  Lombard  signori  (I  know  not 
of  any  English  word  that  characterizes  them,  ex- 
cept tyrant  in  its  primitive  sense),  during  the  first 
period  of  their  dominion.  They  were  generally 
chosen  in  an  assembly  of  the  people,  sometimes  for 
a  short  term,  prolonged  in  the  same  manner.  The 
people  was  consulted  upon  several  occasions.  At 
Milan  there  was  a  council  of  900  nobles,  not  per- 
manent or  representative,  but  selected  and  con- 
vened at  the  discretion  of  the  government,  through- 
out the  reigns  of  the  Visconti. — Corio,  p.  519,  583. 
Thus,  as  Sismondi  remarks,  they  respected  the 
sovereignty  of  the  people,  while  they  destroyed  its 
liberty. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


151 


The  city  most  distinguished  in  both 
TheTorriani  wars  against  thehouse  of  S\ 
and  visconti  bia,  for  an  unconquerable  at- 
at  Miiao.  tachment  to  republican  institu- 
tions, was  the  first  to  sacrifice  them  in  a 
few  years  after  the  death  of  Frederick  II. 
Milan  had  for  a  considerable  time  been 
agitated  by  civil  dissensions  between  the 
nobility  and  inferior  citizens.  These  par- 
ties were  pretty  equally  balanced,  and 
their  success  was  consequently  alternate. 
Each  had  its  own  podesta,  as  a  party- 
leader,  distinct  from  the  legitimate  ma 
gistrate  of  the  city.  At  the  head  of  the 
nobility  was  their  archbishop,  Fra  Leon 
Perego;  the  people  chose  Martin  della 
Torre,  one  of  a  noble  family  which  had 
ambitiously  sided  with  the  democratic 
faction.  In  consequence  of  the  crime  of 
a  nobleman,  who  had  murdered  one  of 
his  creditors,  the  two  parties  took  up 
arms  in  1257.  A  civil  war  of  various 
success,  and  interrupted  by  several  pa- 
cifications, which,  in  that  unhappy  temper, 
could  not  be  durable,  was  terminated  in 
about  two  years  by  the  entire  discomfit- 
ure of  the  aristocracy,  and  by  the  elec- 
tion of  Martin  della  Torre  as  chief  and 
lord  (capitano  e  signore)  of  the  people. 
Though  the  Milanese  did  not  probably  in- 
tend to  renounce  the  sovereignty  resident 
in  their  general  assemblies,  yet  they  soon 
lost  the  republican  spirit ;  five  in  succes- 
sion of  the  family  Delia  Torre  might  be 
said  to  reign  in  Milan  ;  each  indeed  by  a 
formal  election,  but  with  an  implied  re- 
cognition of  a  sort  of  hereditary  title. 
Twenty  years  afterward,  the  Visconti,  a 
family  of  opposite  interests,  supplanted 
the  Torriani  at  Milan;  and  the  rivality 
between  these  great  houses  was  not  at 
an  end  till  the  final  establishment  of 
Matteo  Visconti,  in  1313  ;  but  the  people 
were  not  otherwise  considered  than  as 
aiding  by  force  the  one  or  other  party, 
and  at  most  deciding  between  the  preten- 
sions of  their  masters. 

The  vigour  and  concert  infused  into 
the  Guelf  party  by  the  successes  of 
Charles  of  Anjou,  were  not  very  durable. 
That  prince  was  soon  involved  in  a  pro- 
tracted and  unfortunate  quarrel  with  the 
kings  of  Aragon,  to  whose  protection  his 
revolted  subjects  in  Italy  had  recurred. 
On  the  other  hand,  several  men  of  ener- 
Revivai  of  getic  character  retrieved  the  Ghi- 
theGhibe-  belin  interests  in  Lombardy,  and 
lin  party.  even  in  the  Tuscan  cities.  The 
Visconti  were  acknowledged  heads  of 
that  faction.  A  family  early  established 
as  lords  of  Verona,  the  Della  Scala,  main- 
tained the  credit  of  the  same  denomina- 
tion between  the  Adige  and  the  Adriatic. 


Castruccio  Castrucani,  an  adventurer  of 
remarkable  ability,  rendered  himself 
prince  of  Lucca,  and  drew  over  a  formi- 
dable accession  to  the  imperial  side  from 
the  heart  of  the  church-party  in  Tuscany, 
though  his  death  restored  the  ancient  or- 
der of  things.  The  inferior  tyrants  were 
partly  Guelf,  partly  Ghibelin,  according 
to  local  revolutions ;  but,  upon  the  whole, 
the  latter  acquired  a  gradual  ascendency. 
Those  indeed  who  cared  for  the  independ- 
ence of  Italy,  or  for  their  own  power, 
had  far  less  to  fear  from  the  phantom  of 
imperial  prerogatives,  long  intermitted, 
and  incapable  of  being  enforced,  than 
from  the  new  race  of  foreign  princes, 
whom  the  church  had  substituted  for  the 
house  of  Swabia.  The  Angevin  Kinga  of 
kings  of  Naples  were  sovereigns  Naples  aim 
of  Provence,  and  from  thence  *f$°aIj1ymand 
easily  encroached  upon  Pied- 
mont, and  threatened  the  Milanese.  Rob- 
ert, the  third  of  this  line,  almost  openly 
aspired,  like  his  grandfather,  Charles  I., 
to  a  real  sovereignty  over  Italy.  His  of- 
fers of  assistance  to  Guelf  .cities  in  war 
were  always  coupled  with  a  demand  of 
the  sovereignty.  Many  yielded  to  his 
ambition ;  and  even  Florence  twice  be- 
stowed upon  him  a  temporary  dictator- 
ship. In  1314  he  was  acknowledged 
lord  of  Lucca,  Florence,  Pavia,  Alessan- 
dria, Bergamo,  and  the  cities  of  Romagna. 
In  1318  the  Guelfs  of  Genoa  found  no 
other  resource  against  the  Ghibelin  emi- 
rants  who  were  under  their  walls,  than 
to  resign  their  liberties  to  the  King  of 
Naples  for  the  term  of  ten  years,  which 
he  procured  to  be  renewed  for  six  more. 
The  Avignon  popes,  especially  John 
XXII.,  out  of  blind  hatred  to  the  Empe- 
ror Louis  of  Bavaria  and  the  Visconti 
family,  abetted  all  these  measures  of 
ambition.  But  they  were  rendered  abor- 
tive by  Robert's  death,  and  the  subse- 
quent disturbances  of  his  kingdom. 

At  the  latter  end  of  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, there  were  almost  as  many  princes 
in  the  north  of  Italy  as  there  had  been 
free  cities  in  the  preceding  age.  Their 
equality,  and  the  frequent  domestic  revo- 
lutions which  made  their  seat  unsteady, 
kept  them  for  a  while  from  encroaching 
on  each  other.  Gradually,  however,  they 
became  less  numerous ;  a  quantity  of  ob- 
scure tyrants  were  swept  away  from  the 
smaller  cities ;  and  the  people,  careless 
or  hopeless  of  liberty,  were  glad  to  ex- 
change the  rule  of  despicable  petty  usurp- 
ers for  that  of  more  distinguished  and 
powerful  families.  About  the  state  of 
year  1350,  the  central  parts  of  ^iSmtl 
Lombardy  had  fallen  under  the  die  of  the 


152 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


fourteenth  dominion  of  the  Visconti.  Four 
ury'  other  houses  occupied  the  sec- 
ond rank;  that  of  Este  at  Ferrara  and 
Modena ;  of  Scala  at  Verona,  which  un- 
der Cane  and  Mastino  della  Scala  had 
seemed  likely  to  contest  with  the  lords 
of  Milan  the  supremacy  over  Lombardy ; 
of  Carrara  at  Padua,  which  later  than 
any  Lombard  city  had  resigned  her  lib- 
erty ;  and  of  Gonzaga  at  Mantua,  which, 
without  ever  obtaining  any  material  ex- 
tension of  territory,  continued,  probably 
for  that  reason,  to  reign  undisturbed  till 
the  eighteenth  century.  But  these  uni- 
ted were  hardly  a  match,  as  they  some- 
Power  of  the  times  experienced,  for  the  Vis- 
visconti,  conti.  That  family,  the  object 
of  every  league  formed  in  Italy  for  more 
than  fifty  years,  in  constant  hostility  to 
the  church,  and  well  inured  to  interdicts 
and  excommunications,  producing  no 
one  man  of  military  talents,  but  fertile 
of  tyrants  detested  for  their  perfidious- 
ness  and  cruelty,  was  nevertheless  ena- 
bled, with  almost  uninterrupted  success, 
to  add  city  after  city  to  the  dominion  of 
Milan,  till  it  absorbed  all  the  north  of 
Italy.  Under  Gian  Galeazzo,  whose  reign 
began  in  1385,  the  viper  (their  armorial 
bearing)  assumed  indeed  a  menacing  at- 
titude :*  he  overturned  the  great  family 
of  Scala,  and  annexed  their  extensive 
possessions  to  his  own ;  no  power  inter- 
vened from  Vercelli  in  Piedmont  to  Fel- 
tre  and  Belluno ;  while  the  free  cities  of 
Tuscany,  Pisa,  Siena,  Perugia,  and  even 
Bologna,  as  if  by  a  kind  of  witchcraft, 
voluntarily  called  in  a  dissembling  tyrant 
as  their  master. 

Powerful  as  the  Visconti  were  in  Italy, 
they  were  long  in  washing  .out  the  tinge 
of  recent  usurpation,  which  humbled 
them  before  the  legitimate  dynasties  of 
Europe.  At  the  siege  of  Genoa,  in  1318, 
Robert,  king  of  Naples,  rejected  with  con- 
tempt the  challenge  of  Marco  Viscouti  to 
decide  their  quarrel  in  single  combat. f 
But  the  pride  of  sovereigns,  like  that  of 
private  men,  is  easily  set  aside  for  their 
interest.  Galeazzo  Visconti  purchased 
with  100,000  florins  a  daughter  of  France 
for  his  son,  which  the  French  historians 
mention  as  a  deplorable  humiliation  for 
their  crown.  A  few  years  afterward, 

*  Allusions  to  heraldry  are  very  common  in  the 
Italian  writers.  All  the  historians  of  the  fourteenth 
century  habitually  use  the  viper,  il  biscione,  as  a 
synonyme  for  the  power  of  Milan. 

t  Delia  qual  eosa  il  R&  molto  sdegno  ne  prese. 
Villani,  1.  ix.,  c.  93.  It  was  reckoned  a  misalliance, 
as  Dante  tells  us,  in  the  widow  of  Nino  di  Gallu- 
ra,  a  nobleman  of  Pisa,  though  a  sort  of  prince  in 
Sardinia,  to  marry  one  of  the  Visconti. — Purgato- 
rio,  cant.  8. 


Lionel,  duke  of  Clarence,  second  son  of 
Edward  III.,  certainly  not  an  inferior 
match,  espoused  Galeazzo's  daughter. 
Both  these  connexions  were  short-lived ; 
but  the  union  of  Valentine,  daughter  of 
Gian  Galeazzo,  with  the  Duke  of  Orleans, 
in  1389,  produced  far  more  important  con- 
sequences, and  served  to  transmit  a  claim 
to  her  descendants,  Louis  XII.  and  Fran- 
cis I.,  from  which  the  long  calamities  of 
Italy  at  the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth 
century  were  chiefly  derived.  Not  long 
after  this  marriage  [A.  D.  1395],  the  Vis- 
conti were  tacitly  admitted  among  the 
reigning  princes,  by  the  erection  of  Milan 
into  a  dutchy  under  letters  patent  of  the 
Emperor  Wenceslaus.* 

The  imperial  authority  over  Italy  was 
almost  entirely  suspended  after  Relations  of 
the  death  of  Frederick  II.  A  the  empire 
long  interregnum  followed  in  wuh 
Germany  ;  and  when  the  vacancy  was 
supplied  by  Rodolph  of  Hapsburg  [A.  D. 
1272],  he  was  too  prudent  to  dissipate 
his  moderate  resources,  where  the  great 
house  of  Swabia  had  failed.  About  forty 
years  afterward  [A.  D.  1309],  the  emperor 
Henry  of  Luxemburg,  a  prince,  like  Ro- 
dolph, of  small  hereditary  pos-  Hen 
sessions,  but  active  and  discreet, 
availed  himself  of  the  ancient  respect 
borne  to  the  imperial  name,  and  the  mutual 
jealousies  of  the  Italians,  to  recover  for  a 
very  short  time  a  remarkable  influence. 
But,  though  professing  neutrality,  and  de- 
sire of  union  between  the  Guelfs  and 
Ghibelins,  he  could  not  succeed  in  re- 
moving the  distrust  of  the  former;  his 
exigences  impelled  him  to  large  demands 
of  money;  and  the  Italians,  when  they 
counted  his  scanty  German  cavalry,  per- 
ceived that  obedience  was  altogether  a 
matter  of  their  own  choice.  Henry  died, 
however,  in  time  to  save  himself  from 
any  decisive  reverse.  His  successors, 
Louis  of  Bavaria  and  Charles  IV.,  de- 
scended from  the  Alps  with  similar  mo- 
tives, but  after  some  temporary  good  for- 
tune were  obliged  to  return,  not  without 
discredit.  Yet  the  Italians  never  broke 
that  almost  invisible  thread  which  con- 
nected them  with  Germany ;  the  fal- 
lacious name  of  Roman  emperor  still 
challenged  their  allegiance,  though  con- 
ferred by  seven  Teutonic  electors  with- 
out their  concurrence.  Even  Florence, 
the  most  independent  and  high-spir- 
ited of  republics.,  was  induced  to  make 
a  treaty  with  Charles  IV.  in  1355, 
which,  while  it  confirmed  all  her  actual 


*  Corio,  p.  538. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


153 


liberties,  not  a  little,  by  that  very  confirm- 
ation, affected  her  sovereignty.*  This 
deference  to  the  supposed  prerogatives 
of  the  empire,  even  while  they  were 
least  formidable,  was  partly  owing  to 
jealousy  of  French  or .  Neapolitan  inter- 
ference, partly  to  the  national  hatred  of 
the  popes  who  had  seceded  to  Avignon, 
and  in  some  degree  to  a  misplaced  re- 
spect for  antiquity,  to  which  the  revival 
of  letters  had  given  birth.  The  great  ci- 
vilians, and  the  much  greater  poets  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  taught  Italy  to 
consider  her  emperor  as  a  dormant  sov- 
ereign, to  whom  her  various  principali- 
ties and  republics  were  subordinate,  and 
during  whose  absence  alone  they  had  le- 
gitimate authority. 

In  one  part,  however,  of  that  country, 
Cession  of  RO-  tne  empire  had,  soon  after  the 
magnate  the  commencement  of  this  peri- 
Popes.  ocj?  spontaneously  renounced 
its  sovereignty.  From  the  era  of  Pe- 
pin's  donation,  confirmed  and  extended 
by  many  subsequent  charters,  the  Holy 
See  had  tolerably  just  pretensions  to  the 
province  entitled  Romagna,  or  the  exar- 
chate of  Ravenna.  But  the  popes,  whose 
menaces  were  dreaded  at  the  extremities 
of  Europe,  were  still  very  weak  as  tem- 
poral princes.  Even  Innocent  III.  had 
never  been  able  to  obtain  possession  of 
this  part  of  St.  Peter's  patrimony.  The 
circumstances  of  Rodolph's  accession  in- 
spired Nicholas  III.  with  more  confidence. 
That  emperor  granted  a  confirmation  of 
every  thing  included  in  the  donations  of 

*  The  republic  of  Florence  was  at  this  time  in 
considerable  peril  from  a  coalition  of  the  Tuscan 
cities  against  her,  which  rendered  the  protection 
of  the  emperor  convenient.  But  it  was  very  re- 
luctantly that  she  acquiesced  in  even  a  nominal 
submission  to  his  auchonty.  The  Florentine  en- 
voys, in  their  first  address,  would  only  use  the 
words,  Santa  Corona,  or  Serenissimo  Principe; 
sanza  ricordarlo  itnperadore,  o  dimostrargli  alcuna 
reverenza  di  suggezzione,  domandando  che  il  com- 
mune di  Firenze  volea,  essendogli  ubbidiente,  le  co- 
tali  e  le  cotali  franchigie  per  mantenere  il  suo  popplo 
nell'  usata  libertade. — Mat.  Villani,  p.  274.  (Script. 
Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xiv.)  This  style  made  Charles  angry  ; 
and  the  city  soon  atoned  for  it  by  accepting  his 
privilege.  In  this,  it  must  be  owned,  he  assumes 
a.  decided  tone  of  sovereignty.  The  gonfalonier 
and  priors  are  declared  to  be  his  vicars.  The  dep- 
uties of  the  city  did  homage  and  swore  obedience. 
Circumstances  induced  the  principal  citizens  to 
make  this  submission,  which  they  knew  to  be 
merely  nominal.  But  the  high-spirited  people,  not 
so  indifferent  about  names,  came  into  it  very  un- 
willingly. The  treaty  was  seven  times  proposed, 
and  as  often  rejected  in  the  consiglio  del  popolo, 
before  their  feelings  were  subdued.  Its  publica- 
tion was  received  with  no  marks  of  joy.  The  pub- 
lic buildings  alone  were  illuminated :  but  a  sad  si- 
lence indicated  the  wounded  pride  of  every  private 
citizen.— M.  Villani,  p..  286,  290.  Sismondi,  t.  vi., 
p  238. 


Louis  I.,  Otho,  and  his  other  predeces- 
sors ;  but  was  still  reluctant  or  ashamed 
to  renounce  his  imperial  rights.  Accord- 
ingly, his  charter  is  expressed  to  be 
granted  without  diminution  of  the  empire 
(sine  demembratione  imperii) ;  and  his 
chancellor  received  an  oath  of  fidelity 
from  the  cities  of  Romagna.  But  the 
pope  insisting  firmly  on  his  own  claim, 
Rodolph  discreetly  avoided  involving  him- 
self in  a  fatal  quarrel,  and,  in  1278,  abso- 
lutely released  the  imperial  supremacy 
over  all  the  dominions  already  granted 
to  the  Holy  See.* 

This  is  a  leading  epoch  in  the  tempo- 
ral monarchy  of  Rome.  But  she  stood 
only  in  the  place  of  the  emperor;  and 
her  ultimate  sovereignty  was  compatible 
with  the  practical  independence  of  the 
free  cities,  or  of  the  usurpers  who  had 
risen  up  among  them.  Bologna,  Faenza, 
Rimini,  and  Ravenna,  with  many  others 
less  considerable,  took  an  oath  indeed  to 
the  pope,  but  continued  to  regulate  both 
their  internal  concerns  and  foreign  rela- 
tions at  their  own  discretion.  The  first 
of  these  cities  was  far  pre-eminent  above 
the  rest  for  population  and  renown,  and, 
though  not  without  several  intermissions, 
preserved  a  republican  character  till  the 
end  of  the  fourteenth  century.  The  rest 
were  soon  enslaved  by  petty  tyrants, 
more  obscure  than  those  of  Lombardy. 
It  was  not  easy  for  the  pontiffs  of  Avig- 
non to  reinstate  themselves  in  a  domin- 
ion which  they  seemed  to  have  abandon- 
ed ;  but  they  made  several  attempts  to  re- 
cover it,  sometimes  with  spiritual  arms, 
sometimes  with  the  more  efficacious  aid 
of  mercenary  troops.  The  annals  of 
this  part  of  Italy  are  peculiarly  uninter- 
esting. 

Rome  itself  was,  throughout  the  middle 
ages,  very  little  disposed  to  ac-  internal 
quiesce  in  the  government  of  her  state  of 
bishop.  His  rights  were  indefinite,  Rome- 
and  unconfirmed  by  positive  law;  the 
emperor  was  long  sovereign,  the  people 
always  meant  to  be  free.  Besides  the 
common  causes  of  insubordination  and 
anarchy  among  the  Italians,  which  appli- 
ed equally  to  the  capital  city,  other  senti- 
ments more  peculiar  to  Rome  preserved 
a  continual,  though  not  uniform,  influence 
for  many  centuries.  There  still  remain- 
ed enough,  in  the  wreck  of  that  vast  in- 
heritance, to  swell  the  bosoms  of  her  cit- 
izens with  a  consciousness  of  their  own 
dignity.  They  bore  the  venerable  name, 
they  contemplated  the  monuments  of  art 
and  empire,  and  forgot,  in  the  illusions  of 


*  Muratori,  ad  ann.  1274,  1275, 1278.     Sismon- 
di, t.  iii.,  p.  461. 


154 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


national  pride,  that  the  tutelar  gods  of  the 
buildings  were  departed  for  ever.  About 
the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  these 
recollections  were  heightened  by  the  elo- 
quence of  Arnold  of  Brescia,  a  political 
heretic,  who  preached  against  the  tem- 
poral jurisdiction  of  the  hierarchy.  In  a 
temporary  intoxication  of  fancy,  they 
were  led  to  make  a  ridiculous  show  of 
self-importance  towards  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa,  when  he  came  to  receive  the  impe- 
rial crown ;  but  the  German  sternly  chi- 
ded  their  ostentation,  and  chastised  their 
resistance.*  With  the  popes  they  could 
deal  more  securely.  Several  of  them 
were  expelled  from  Rome  during  that  age 
by  the  seditious  citizens.  Lucius  II.  died 
of  hurts  received  in  a  tumult.  The  gov- 
ernment was  vested  in  fifty-six  senators, 
annually  chosen  by  the  people,  through 
the  intervention  of  an  electoral  body,  ten 
delegates  from  each  of  the  thirteen  dis- 
tricts of  the  city.f  This  constitution 
lasted  not  quite  fifty  years.  In  1192, 
Rome  imitated  the  prevailing  fashion  by 
the  appointment  of  an  annual  foreign  ma- 
gistrate. |  Except  in  name,  the  senator 
of  Rome  appears  to  have  perfectly  re- 
sembled the  podesta  of  other  cities.  This 
magistrate  superseded  the  representative 
senate,  who  had  proved  by  no  means  ade- 
quate to  control  the  most  lawless  aris- 
tocracy of  Italy.  I  shall  not  repeat  the 
story  of  Brancaleon's  rigorous  and  inflex- 
ible justice,  which  a  great  historian  has 
already  drawn  from  obscurity.  It  illus- 
trates not  the  annals  of  Rome  alone,  but 
the  general  state  of  Italian  society,  the  na- 
ture of  a  podesta's  duty,  and  the  difficul- 
ties of  its  execution.  The  office  of  sena- 
tor survives  after  more  than  six  hundred 
years ;  a  foreign  magistrate  still  resides 
in  the  capitol ;  but  he  no  longer  wields 
the  "iron  flail"§  of  Brancaleon,  and  his 
nomination  proceeds  of  course  from  the 
supreme  pontiff,  not  from  the  people.  In 
the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  the 
senate,  and  the  senator  who  succeeded 
them,  exercised  one  distinguishing  attri- 

*  The  impertinent  address  of  a  Roman  orator  to 
Frederick,  and  his  answer,  are  preserved  in  Otho 
of  Frisingen,  1.  ii.,  c.  22,  but  so  much  at  length 
that  we  may  suspect  some  exaggeration.  Otho  is 
rather  rhetorical.  They  may  be  read  in  Gibbon, 
c.69. 

t  Sismondi,  t.  ii.,  p.  36.  Besides  Sismondi  and 
Muratori,  I  would  refer  for  the  history  of  Rome 
during  the  middle  ages  to  the  last  chapters  of  Gib- 
bon's Decline  and  Fall. 

J  Sismondi,  t.  ii.,  p.  308. 

$  The  readers  of  Spenser  will  recollect  the  iron 
flail  of  Talus,  the  attendant  of  Arthegal,  emblemat- 
ic of  the  severe  justice  of  the  lord  deputy  of  Ire- 
land, Sir  Arthur  Grey,  shadowed  under  that  alle- 
gory. 


bute  of  sovereignty,  that  of  coining  gold 
and  silver  money.  Some  of  their  coins 
still  exist,  with  legends  in  a  very  repub- 
lican tone.*  Doubtless  the  temporal  au- 
thority of  the  popes  varied  according  to 
their  personal  character.  Innocent  III. 
had  much  more  than  his  predecessors  for 
almost  a  century,  or  than  some  of  his  suc- 
cessors. He  made  the  senator  take  an 
oath  of  fealty  to  him,  which,  though  not 
very  comprehensive,  must  have  passed  in 
those  times  as  a  recognition  of  his  supe- 
riority, f 

Though  there  was  much  less  obedience 
to  any  legitimate  power  at  Rome  than 
anywhere  else  in  Italy,  even  during  the 
thirteenth  century,  yet  after  the  seces- 
sion of  the  popes  to  Avignon,  their  own 
city  was  left  in  a  far  worse  condition 
than  before.  Disorders  of  every  kind, 
tumult  and  robbery,  prevailed  in  the 
streets.  The  Roman  nobility  were  en- 
gaged in  perpetual  war  with  each  other. 
Not  content  with  their  own  fortified  pal- 
aces, they  turned  the  sacred  monuments 
of  antiquity  into  strongholds,  and  con- 
summated the  destruction  of  time  and 
conquest.  At  no  period  has  the  city  en- 
dured such  irreparable  injuries  ;  nor  was 
the  downfall  of  the  western  empire  so 
fatal  to  its  capital,  as  the  contemptible 
feuds  of  the  Orsini  and  Colonna  fami- 
lies. Whatever  there  was  of  govern- 
ment, whether  administered  by  a  legate 
from  Avignon,  or  by  the  municipal  au- 
thorities, had  lost  all  hold  on  these  pow- 
erful barons.  [A.  D.  1347.]  In  the  midst 
of  this  degradation  and  wretchedness,  an 
obscure  man,  Nicola  di  Rienzi,  The  Tribune 
conceived  the  project  of  resto-  Kienzi. 
ring  Rome  not  only  to  good  order,  but 
even  to  her  ancient  greatness.  He  had 
received  an  education  beyond  his  birth, 
and  nourished  his  mind  with  the  study  of 
the  best  writers.  After  many  harangues 
to  the  people,  which  the  nobility,  blinded 
by  their  self-confidence,  did  not  attempt 
to  repress,  Rienzi  suddenly  excited  an  in- 
surrection, and  obtained  complete  suc- 
cess. He  was  placed  at  the  head  of  a 
new  government,  with  the  title  of  tribune, 
and  with  almost  unlimited  power:  The 
first  effects  of  this  revolution  were  won- 
derful. All  the  nobles  submitted,  though 
with  great  reluctance;  the  roads  were 
cleared  of  robbers ;  tranquillity  was  re- 
stored at  home;  some  severe  examples 
of  justice  intimidated  offenders;  and  the 
tribune  was  regarded  by  all  the  people  as 
the  destined  restorer  of  Rome  and  Italy. 

*  Gibbon,  vol.  xii.,  p.  289.    Muratori,  Antiquit. 
Hal.,  Dissert.  27. 
f  Sismondi,  p.  309. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


155 


Though  the  court  of  Avignon  could  not 
approve  of  such  a  usurpation,  it  tempo- 
rized enough  not  directly  to  oppose  it. 
Most  of  the  Italian  republics,  and  some 
of  the  princes,  sent  ambassadors,  and 
seemed  to  recognise  pretensions  which 
were  tolerably  ostentatious.  The  King 
of  Hungary  and  Queen  of  Naples  sub- 
mitted their  quarrel  to  the  arbitration  of 
Rienzi,  who  did  not,  however,  undertake 
to  decide  upon  it.  But  this  sudden  exal- 
tation intoxicated  his  understanding,  and 
exhibited  failings  entirely  incompatible 
with  his  elevated  condition.  If  Rienzi 
had  lived  in  our  own  age,  his  talents, 
which  were  really  great,  would  have 
found  their  proper  orbit.  For  his  char- 
acter was  one  not  unusual  among  litera- 
ry politicians  ;  a  combination  of  knowl- 
edge, eloquence,  and  enthusiasm  for  ideal 
excellence,  with  vanity,  inexperience  of 
mankind,  unsteadiness,  and  physical  ti- 
midity. As  these  latter  qualities  be- 
came conspicuous,  they  eclipsed  his  vir- 
tues, and  caused  his  benefits  to  be  forgot- 
ten ;  he  was  compelled  to  abdicate  his 
government,  and  retire  into  exile.  After 
several  years,  some  of  which  he  passed 
in  the  prisons  of  Avignon,  Rienzi  was 
brought  back  to  Rome,  with  the  title  of 
senator,  and  under  the  command  of  the 
legate.  It  was  supposed  that  the  Ro- 
mans, who  had  returned  to  their  habits  of 
insubordination,  would  gladly  submit  to 
their  favourite  tribune.  And  this  proved 
the  case  for  a  few  months  ;  but  after  that 
time  they  ceased  altogether  to  respect  a 
man,  who  so  little  respected  himself  in 
accepting  a  station  where  he  could  no 
longer  be  free,  and  Rienzi  was  killed  in  a 
sedition.* 

Once  more,  not  long  after  the  death  of 
subsequent  Rienzi,  the  freedom  of  Rome 
affairs  of  seems  to  have  revived  in  repub- 
lican institutions,  though  with 
names  less  calculated  to  inspire  peculiar 
recollections.  Magistrates  called  ban- 
nerets, chosen  from  the  thirteen  districts 
of  the  city,  writh  a  militia  of  three  thousand 

*  Sismondi,  t.  v.,  c.  37;  t.  vi.,  p.  201.  Gibbon, 
c.  70.  De  Sade,  Vie  de  Petrarque,  t.  ii.,  passim. 
Tiraboschi,  t.  vi.,  p.  339.  It  is  difficult  to  resist 
the  admiration  which  all  the  romantic  circum- 
stances of  Rienzi's  history  tend  to  excite,  and  to 
which  Petrarch  so  blindly  gave  way.  That  great 
man's  characteristic  excellence  was  not  good  com- 
mon sense.  He  had  imbibed  two  notions,  of  which 
it  is  hard  to  say  which  was  the  more  absurd; 
that  Rome  had  a  legitimate  right  to  all  her  an- 
cient authority  over  the  rest  of  the  world ;  and 
that  she  was  likely  to  recover  this  authority  in  con- 
sequence of  the  revolution  produced  by  Rienzi. 
Giovanni  Villani,  living  at  Florence,  and  a  stanch 
republican,  formed  a  very  different  estimate,  which 
weighs  more  than  the  enthusiastic  panegyrics  of 


citizens  at  their  command,  were  placed 
at  the  head  of  this  commonwealth.  The 
great  object  of  this  new  organization  was 
to  intimidate  the  Roman  nobility,  whose 
outrages,  in  the  total  absence  of  govern- 
ment, had  grown  intolerable.  Several 
of  them  were  hanged  the  first  year  by 
order  of  the  bannerets.  The  citizens, 
however,  had  no  serious  intention  of 
throwing  off  their  subjection  to  the 
popes.  They  provided  for  their  own  se- 
curity, on  account  of  the  lamentable  se- 
cession and  neglect  of  those  who  claimed 
allegiance  while  they  denied  protection. 
But  they  were  ready  to  acknowledge 
and  welcome  back  their  bishop  as  their 
sovereign.  Even  without  this,  they  sur- 
rendered their  republican  constitution  in 
1362,  it  does  not  appear  for  what  reason, 
and  permitted  the  legate  of  Innocent  VI. 
to  assume  the  government.*  We  find, 
however,  the  institution  of  bannerets  re- 
vived, and  in  full  authority,  some  years 
afterward.  But  the  internal  history  of 
Rome  appears  to  be  obscure,  and  I  have 
not  had  opportunities  of  examining  it 
minutely.  Some  degree  of  political  free- 
dom the  city  probably  enjoyed  during 
the  schism  of  the  church ;  but  it  is  not 
easy  to  discriminate  the  assertion  of  le- 
gitimate privileges  from  the  licentious 
tumults  of  the  barons  or  populace.  In 
1435,  the  Romans  formally  took  away 
the  government  from  Eugenius  IV.,  and 
elected  seven  signiors  or  chief  magis- 
trates, like  the  priors  of  Florence. f  But 
this  revolution  was  not  of  long  continu- 
ance. On  the  death  of  Eugenius,  the  cit- 
izens deliberated  upon  proposing  a  con- 
stitutional charter  to  the  future  pope. 
Stephen  Porcaro,  a  man  of  good  family, 
and  inflamed  by  a  strong  spirit  of  liberty, 
was  one  of  their  principal  instigators. 
But  the  people  did  not  sufficiently  par- 
take of  that  spirit.  No  measures  were 
taken  upon  this  occasion ;  and  Porcaro, 
whose  ardent  imagination  disguised  the 
hopelessness  of  his  enterprise,  tampering 
in  a  fresh  conspiracy,  was  put  to  death 
under  the  pontificate  of  Nicholas  V.J 
The  province  of  Tuscany  continued 


Petrarch.  La  detta  impresa  del  tribune  era  un' 
opera  fantastica,  e  di  poco  durare,  1.  xii.,  c.  90.  An 
illustrious  female  writer  has  drawn  with  a  single 
stroke  the  character  of  Rienzi,  Crescentius,  and 
Arnold  of  Brescia,  the  fond  restorers  of  Roman  lib- 
erty, qui  ont  pris  lea  souvenirs  pour  les  esptrances. — 
Corinne,  t.  i.,  p.  159.  Could  Tacitus  have  excell- 
ed this? 

*  Matt.  Villani,  p.  576,  604,  709.  Sismondi,  t. 
v.,  p.  92.  He  seems  to  have  overlooked  the  former 
period  of  government  by  bannerets,  and  refers  their 
institution  to  1375. 

t  Script.  Rerum  Italic.,  t.  iii.,  pars  2,  p.  1128. 

t  Id.,  p.  1131,  1134.    Sismondi,  t.  x.,  p.  18. 


156 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   III. 


longer  than  Lombardy  under  the  govern- 
ment of  an  imperial  lieutenant.  It  was 
not  till  about  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  that  the  cities  of  Florence, 
cities  of  Lucca,  Pisa,  Sienna,  Arezzo,  Pis- 
Tuscany.  toia,  and  several  less  considera- 
e-  ble,  which  might  perhaps  have  al- 
ready their  own  elected  magistrates,  be- 
came independent  republics.  Their  his- 
tory is,  with  the  exception  of  Pisa,  very 
scanty  till  the  death  of  Frederick  II. 
The  earliest  fact  of  any  importance  re- 
corded of  Florence  occurs  in  1184,  when 
it  is  said  that  Frederick  Barbarossa  took 
from  her  the  dominion  over  the  district 
or  county,  and  restored  it  to  the  rural 
nobility,  on  account  of  her  attachment 
to  the  church.*  This  I  chiefly  mention 
to  illustrate  the  system  pursued  by  the 
cities,  of  bringing  the  territorial  proprie- 
tors in  their  neighbourhood  under  subjec- 
tion. During  the  reign  of  Frederick  II. 
Florence  became,  as  far  as  she  was  able, 
an  ally  of  the  popes.  There  was  indeed 
a  strong  Ghibelin  party,  comprehending 
many  of  the  greatest  families,  which  oc- 
casionally predominated  through  the  as- 
sistance of  the  emperor.  It  seems,  how- 
ever, to  have  existed  chiefly  amorjg  the 
nobility;  the  spirit  of  the  people  was 
thoroughly  Guelf.  After  several  revolu- 
tions, accompanied  by  alternate  proscrip- 
tion and  demolition  of  houses,  the  Guelf 
party,  through  the  assistance  of  Charles 
of  Anjou,  obtained  a  final  ascendency  in 
1266  ;  and  after  one  or  two  unavailing 
schemes  of  accommodation,  it  was  estab- 
lished as  a  fundamental  law  in  the  Flor- 
entine constitution,  that  ho  person  of 
Ghibelin  ancestry  could  be  admitted  to 
offices  of  public  trust  ;  which,  in  such  a 
government,  was  in  effect  an  exclusion 
from  the  privileges  of  citizenship. 

The  changes  of  internal  government 
Govern-  and  vicissitudes  of  success  among 
mem  of  factions  were  so  frequent  at  Flor- 

Florence. 


time,  that  she  is  compared  by  her  great 
banished  poet  to  a  sick  man,  who,  unable 
to  rest,  gives  himself  momentary  ease, 
by  continual  change  of  posture  in  his 
bed.f  They  did  not  become  much  less 
numerous  after  the  age  of  Dante.  Yet 
the  revolutions  of  Florence  should  per- 
haps be  considered  as  no  more  than  a 
necessary  price  of  her  liberty.  It  was 
lier  boast  and  her  happiness  to  have  es- 

*  Villam,  1.  v.,  c.  12. 

t  E  se  ben  ti  ricordi,  e  vedi  il  Inme, 
Vedrai  te  somigliante  a  quella  inferma, 
Che  non  pud  trovar  posa  in  su  le  piume, 
Ma  con  dar  volta  suo  dolore  scherma. 

Purgatorio,  cant.  vi. 


caped,  except  for  one  short  period,  that 
odious  rule  of  vile  usurpers,  under  which 
so  many  other  free  cities  had  been 
crushed.  A  sketch  of  the  constitution 
of  so  famous  a  republic  ought  riot  to  be 
omitted  in  this  place.  Nothing  else  in 
the  history  of  Italy  after  Frederick  II.  is 
so  worthy  of  our  attention.* 

The  basis  of  the  Florentine  polity  was 
a  division  of  the  citizens  exercising  com- 
merce, into  their  several  companies  or 
arts.  These  were  at  first  twelve,  seven 
called  the  greater  arts,  and  five  lesser; 
but  the  latter  were  gradually  increased  to 
fourteen.  The  seven  greater  arts  were 
those  of  lawyers  and  notaries,  of  dealers 
in  foreign  cloth,  called  sometimes  Cal- 
imala,  of  bankers  or  money-changers,  of 
woollen-drapers,  of  physicians  and  drug- 
gists, of  dealers  in  silk,  and  of  furriers. 
The  inferior  arts  were  those  of  retailers 
of  cloth,  butchers,  smiths,  shoemakers, 
and  builders.  This  division,  so  far  at 
least  as  regarded  the  greater  arts,  was 
as  old  as  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century.f  But  it  was  fully  established, 
and  rendered  essential  to  the  constitu- 
tion, in  1266.  By  the  provisions  made  in 
that  year,  each  of  the  seven  greater  arts 
had  a  council  of  its  own,  a  chief  magis- 
trate or  consul,  who  administered  justice 
in  civil  causes  to  all  members  of  his  com- 
pany, and  a  banneret  (gonfaloniere)  or 
military  officer,  to  whose  standard  they 
repaired  when  any  attempt  was  made  to 
disturb  the  peace  of  the  city. 

The  administration  of  criminal  justice 
belonged  at  Florence,  as  at  other  cities, 
to  a  foreign  podesta,  or  rather  to  two 
foreign  magistrates,  the  podesta  and  the 
capitano  del  popolo,  whose  jurisdiction, 
so  far  as  I  can  trace  it,  appears  to  have 
been  concurrent.^  In  the  first  part  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  the  authority  of 
the  podesta  may  have  been  more  exten- 
sive than  afterward.  These  offices  were 
preserved  till  the  innovations  of  the  Med- 
ici. The  domestic  magistracies  under- 
went more  changes.  Instead  of  consuls, 
which  had  been  the  first  denomination  of 
the  chief  magistrates  of  Florence,  a  col- 


"•  I  have  found  considerable  difficulties  in  this 
part  of  my  task ;  no  author  with  whom  I  am  ac- 
quainted giving  a  tolerable  view  of  the  Florentine 
government,  except  M.  Sismondi,  who  is  himself 
not  always  satisfactory. 

f  Ammirato  ad  ann.  12Q4  et  1235.  Villani  inti- 
mates, 1.  vii.,  c.  13,  that  the  arts  existed  as  commer- 
cial companies  before  12P6.  Machiavelli  and  Sis- 
mondi express  themselves  rather  inaccurately,  as 
if  they  had  been  erected  at  that  time,  which  indeed 
is  the  era  of  their  political  importance. 

J  Matteo  Villani,  p.  194.  G.  Villani  places  the 
institution  of  the  podesta  in  1207 ;  we  find  it  how- 
ever as  early  as  1184.— Ammirato, 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


157 


lege  of  twelve  or  fourteen  persons,  called 
Anziani  or  Buonuomini,  but  varying  in 
name  as  well  as  number  according  to 
revolutions  of  party,  was  established 
about  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  centu- 
ry, to  direct  public  affairs.*  This  order 
was  entirely  changed  in  1282,  and  gave 
place  to  a  new  form  of  supreme  magis- 
tracy, which  lasted  till  the  extinction  of 
the  republic.  Six  priors,  elected  every 
two  months,  from  each  of  the  six  quar- 
ters of  the  city,  and  from  each  of  the 
greater  arts,  except  that  of  lawyers,  con- 
stituted an  executive  magistracy.  They 
lived,  during  their  continuance  in  office, 
in  a  palace  belonging  to  the  city,  and 
were  maintained  at  the  public  cost.  The 
actual  priors,  jointly  with  the  chiefs  and 
councils  (usually  called  la  capitudine)  of 
the  seven  greater  arts,  and  with  certain 
adjuncts  (arroti)  named  by  themselves, 
elected  by  ballot  their  successors.  Such 
was  the  practice  for  about  forty  years 
after  this  government  was  established. 
But  an  innovation,  begun  in  1324,  and 
perfected  four  years  afterward,  gave  a 
peculiar  character  to  the  constitution  of 
Florence.  A  lively  and  ambitious  peo- 
ple, not  merely  jealous  of  their  public 
sovereignty,  but  deeming  its  exercise  a 
matter  of  personal  enjoyment;  aware,  at 
the  same  time,  that  the  will  of  the  whole 
body  could  neither  be  immediately  ex- 
pressed on  all  occasions,  nor  even  through 
chosen  representatives,  without  the  risk 
of  violence  and  partiality,  fell  upon  the 
singular  idea  of  admitting  all  citizens, 
not  unworthy  by  their  station  or  conduct, 
to  offices  of  magistracy  by  rotation. 
Lists  were  separately  made  out  by  the 
priors,  the  twelve  buonuomini,  the  chiefs 
and  councils  of  arts,  the  bannerets  and 
other  respectable  persons,  of  all  citizens, 
Guelfs  by  origin,  turned  of  thirty  years 
of  age,  and,  in  their  judgment,  worthy  of 
public  trust.  The  lists  thus  formed  were 
then  united,  and  those  who  had  composed 
them  meeting  together,  in  number  nine- 
ty-seven, proceeded  to  ballot  upon  every 
name.  Whoever  obtained  sixty-eight 
black  balls  was  placed  upon  the  reformed 
list ;  and  all  the  names  it  contained, 
being  put  on  separate  tickets  into  a  bag 
or  purse  (imborsati),  were  drawn  succes- 
sively as  the  magistracies  were  renewed. 
As  there  were  above  fifty  of  these,  none 
of  which  could  be  held  for  more  than 
four  months,  several  hundred  citizens 
were  called  in  rotation  to  bear  their  share 
in  the  government  within  two  years. 
But,  at  the  expiration  of  every  two  years, 

*  G.  Villani,  1.  vi.,  c.  39. 


the  scrutiny  was  renewed,  and  fresh 
names  were  mingled  with  those  which 
still  continued  undrawn  ;  so  that  accident 
might  deprive  a  man  for  life  of  his  por- 
tion of  sovereignty.* 

Four  councils  had  been  established  by 
the  constitution  of  1266,  for  the  decision 
of  all  propositions  laid  before  them  by 
the  executive  magistrates,  whether  of  a 
legislative  nature  or  relating  to  public 
policy.  These  were  now  abrogated;  and 
in  their  places  were  substituted  one  of 
300  members,  all  plebeians,  called  con- 
siglio  di  popolo,  and  one  of  250,  called  con- 
siglio  di  commune,  into  which  the  nobles 
might  enter.  These  were  changed  by  the 
same  rotation  as  the  magistracies,  every 
four  months. f  A  parliament,  or  general 
assembly  of  the  Florentine  people,  was 
rarely  convoked  ;  but  the  leading  princi- 
ple of  a  democratical  republic,  the  ulti- 
mate sovereignty  of  the  multitude,  was 
not  forgotten.  This  constitution  of  1324 
was  fixed  by  the  citizens  at  large  in  a 
parliament ;  and  the  same  sanction  was 
given  to  those  temporary  delegations  of 
the  signiory  to  a  prince,  which  occasion- 
ally took  place.  What  is  technically 
called  by  their  historians  farsi  popolo, 
was  the  assembly  of  a  parliament,  or  a 
resolution  of  all  derivative  powers  into 
the  immediate  operation  of  the  popular 
will. 

The  ancient  government  of  this  repub- 
lic appears  to  have  been  chiefly  in  the 
hands  of  its  nobility.  These  were  very 
numerous,  and  possessed  large  estates 
in  the  district.  But  by  the  constitution 
of  1266,  which  was  nearly  coincident 
with  the  triumph  of  the  Guelf  faction, 
the  essential  powers  of  magistracy,  as 
well  as  of  legislation,  were  thrown  into 
the  scale  of  the  commons.  The  colleges 
of  arts,  whose  functions  became  so  em- 
inent, were  altogether  commercial.  Many 
indeed  of  the  nobles  enrolled  themselves 
in  these  companies,  and  were  among  the 
most  conspicuous  merchants  of  Florence. 
These  were  not  excluded  from  the  exec- 
utive college  of  the  priors,  at  its  first  in- 
stitution in  1282.  It  was  necessary,  how- 
ever, to  belong  to  one  or  other  of  the 
great  arts  in  order  to  reach  that  magis- 
tracy. The  majority,  therefore,  of  the 
ancient  families,  saw  themselves  pushed 

*  Villani,!.  ix.,  c.  27;  1.  x.,  c.  110;  1.  xi.,  c.  105. 
Sismondi,  t.  v.,  p.  174.  This  species  of  lottery, 
recommending  itself  by  an  apparent  fairness  and 
incompatibility  with  undue  influence,  was  speedily 
adopted  in  all  the  neighbouring  republics,  and  has 
always  continued,  according  to  Sismondi,  in  Lucca, 
and  in  those  cities  of  the  ecclesiastical  state  which 
preserved  the  privilege  of  choosing  their  municipal 
officers,  p.  95.  f  Id.  Ibid. 


158 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP,   III. 


aside  from  the  helm,  which  was  intrust- 
ed to  a  class  whom  they  naturally  held 
in  contempt. 

It  does  not  appear  that  the  nobility 
made  any  overt  opposition  to  these  dem- 
ocratical  institutions.  Confident  in  a 
force  beyond  the  law,  they  cared  less  for 
what  the  law  might  provide  against  them. 
They  still  retained  the  proud  spirit  of  per- 
sonal independence  which  had  belonged 
to  their  ancestors  in  the  fastnesses  of  the 
Apennines.  Though  the  laws  of  Flor- 
ence, and  a  change  in  Italian  customs, 
had  transplanted  their  residence  to  the 
city,  it  was  in  strong  and  lofty  houses 
that  they  dwelt,  among  their  kindred,  and 
among  the  fellows  of  their  rank.  Not- 
withstanding the  tenour  of  the  constitu- 
tion, Florence  was,  for  some  years  after 
the  establishment  of  priors,  incapable  of 
resisting  the  violence  of  her  nobility. 
Her  historians  all  attest  the  outrages  and 
assassinations  committed  by  them  on  the 
inferior  people.  It  was  in  vain  that  jus- 
tice was  offered  by  the  podesta  and  the 
capitano  del  popolo.  Witnesses  dared 
not  to  appear  against  a  noble  offender; 
or  if,  on  a  complaint,  the  officer  of  jus- 
tice arrested  the  accused,  his  family 
made  common  cause  to  rescue  their  kins- 
man, and  the  populace  rose  in  defence  of 
the  laws,  till  the  city  was  a  scene  of  tu- 
mult and  bloodshed.  I  have  already  al- 
luded to  this  insubordination  of  the  higher 
classes  as  general  in  the  Italian  repub- 
lics; but  the  Florentine  writers,  being 
fuller  than  the  rest,  are  our  best  specific 
testimonies.* 

[A.  D.  1295.]  The  dissensions  between 
the  patrician  and  plebeian  orders  ran 
very  high,  when  Giano  della  Bella,  a  man 
of  ancient  lineage,  but  attached,  without 
ambitious  views,  so  far  as  appears,  though 
not  without  passion,  to  the  popular  side, 
introduced  a  series  of  enactments  ex- 
ceedingly disadvantageous  to  the  ancient 
aristocracy.  The  first  of  these  was  the 
appointment  of  an  executive  officer,  the 
gonfalonier  of  justice  ;  whose  duty  it  was 
to  enforce  the  sentences  of  the  podesta 
and  capitano  del  popolo,  in  cases  where 
the  ordinary  officers  were  insufficient.  A 
thousand  citizens,  afterward  increased 
to  four  times  that  number,  were  bound 
to  obey  his  commands.  They  were  dis- 
tributed into  companies,  the  gonfaloniers 
or  captains  of  which  became  a  sort  of 
corporation  or  college,  and  a  constituent 
part  of  government.  [A.  D.  1295.]  This 
new  militia  seems  to  have  superseded 
that  of  the  companies  of  arts,  which  1 


*  Villani,  1.  yii.,  c.  113 ;  1.  viii..  c.  8.    Ammirato 
Storia  Florentine,  1.  iv.,  in  cominciamento. 


lave  not  observed  to  be  mentioned  at  any 
ater  period.  The  gonfalonier  of  justice 
was  part  of  the  signiory  along  with  the 
)riors,  of  whom  he  was  reckoned  the 
resident,  and  changed  like  them  every 
;wo  months.  He  was,  in  fact,  the  first 
magistrate  of  Florence.*  If  Giano  della 
Bella  had  trusted  to  the  efficacy  of  this 
lew  security  for  justice,  his  fame  would 
have  been  beyond  reproach.  But  he  fol- 
owed  it  up  by  harsher  provisions.  The 
lobility  were  now  made  absolutely  inel- 
"gible  to  the  office  of  prior.  For  an  of- 
ence  committed  by  one  of  a  noble  fam- 
ly,  his  relations  were  declared  responsi- 
ble in  a  penalty  of  3000  pounds.  And,  to 
obviate  the  difficulty  arising  from  the  fre- 
quent intimidation  of  witnesses,  it  was 
provided  that  common  fame,  attested  by 
,wo  credible  persons,  should  be  sufficient 
'or  the  condemnation  of  a  noblernan.f 

These  are  the  famous  ordinances  of 
ustice,  which  passed  at  Florence  for  the 
jreat  charter  of  her  democracy.  They 
lave  been  reprobated  in  later  times  as 
scandalously  unjust,  and  I  have  little  in- 
clination to  defend  them.  The  last,  es- 
Decially,  was  a  violation  of  those  eternal 
rinciples,  which  forbid  us,  for  any  cal- 
culations of  advantage,  to  risk  the  sacri- 
ice  of  innocent  blood.  But  it  is  impos- 
sible not  to  perceive  that  the  same  un- 
ust  severity  has  sometimes,  under  a  like 
pretext  of  necessity,  been  applied  to  the 
weaker  classes  of  the  people,  which  they 
were  in  this  instance  able  to  exercise 
towards  their  natural  superiors. 

The  nobility  were  soon  aware  of  the 
position  in  which  they  stood.  For  half 
a  century  their  great  object  was  to  pro- 
ure  the  relaxation  of  the  ordinances  of 
justice.  But  they  had  no  success  with 
an  elated  enemy.  In  three  years'  time, 
indeed,  Giano  della  Bella,  the  author  of 
these  institutions,  was  driven  into  exile ; 
a  conspicuous,  though  by  no  means  sin- 
gular, proof  of  Florentine  ingratitude. J 


*•  It  is  to  be  regretted,  that  the  accomplished 
biographer  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  should  have 
taken  no  pains  to  inform  himself  of  the  most  ordi- 
nary particulars  in  the  constitution  of  Florence. 
Among  many  other  errors,  he  says,  vol.  ii:,  p.  51, 
5th  edit.,  that  the  gonfalonier  of  justice  was  sub- 
ordinate to  the  delegated  mechanics  (a  bad  expres- 
sion), or  priori  dell'  arti,  whose  number  too  he  aug- 
ments to  ten.  The  proper  style  of  the  republic 
seems  to  run  thus  :  I  priori  dell'  arti  e  gonfaloniere 
di  giustizia,  il  popolo  e  '1  comune  della  citta  di  Fi- 
renze.— G.  Villani,  1.  xii.,  c.  109. 

t  Villani,  1.  viii.,  c.  1.  Ammirato,  p.  188,  edit. 
1647.  A  magistrate,  called  1'  esecutor  della  gius- 
tizia, was  appointed  with  authority  equal  to  that 
of  the  podesta,  for  the  special  purpose  of  watching 
over  the  observation  of  the  ordinances  of  justice. — 
Ammirato,  p.  666. 

t  Villani,  1.  viii.,  c.  8. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


155 


The  wealth  and  physical  strength  of  the 
nobles  were  however  untouched ;  and 
their  influence  must  always  have  been 
considerable  ;  in  the  great  feuds  of  Bian- 
chi  and  Neri,  the  ancient  families  were 
most  distinguished.  No  man  plays  a 
greater  part  in  the  annals  of  Florence  at 
the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth  century 
than  Corso  Donati,  chief  of  the  latter  fac- 
tion, who  might  pass  as  representative 
of  the  turbulent,  intrepid,  ambitious  citi- 
zen-noble of  an  Italian  republic.*  But 
the  laws  gradually  became  more  sure  of 
obedience ;  the  sort  of  proscription  which 
attended  the  ancient  nobles  lowered  their 
spirit ;  while  a  new  aristocracy  began  to 
raise  its  head,  the  aristocracy  of  families 
who,  after  filling  the  highest  magistracies 
for  two  or  three  generations,  obtained  an 
hereditary  importance,  which  answered 
the  purpose  of  more  unequivocal  nobili- 
ty; just  as  in  ancient  Rome,  plebeian 
families,  by  admission  to  curule  offices, 
acquired  the  character  and  appellation  of 
nobility,  and  were  only  distinguishable 
by  their  genealogy  from  the  original  pa- 
tricians, f  Florence  had  her  plebeian  no- 
bles (popolani  grandi);  as  well  as  Rome  ; 
the  Peruzzi,  the  Ricci,  the  Albizi,  the 
Medici,  correspond  to  the  Catos,  the 
Pompeys,  the  Brutuses,  and, the  Anto- 
nies.  But  at  Rome  the  two  orders,  after 
an  equal  partition  of  the  highest  offices, 
were  content  to  respect  their  mutual 
privileges  ;  at  Florence  the  commoners 
preserved  a  rigorous  monopoly,  and  the 
distinction  of  high  birth  was,  that  it  de- 
barred men  from  political  franchises  and 
civil  justice.;}: 

This  second  aristocracy  did  not  obtain 
much  more  of  the  popular  affection  than 
that  which  it  superseded.  Public  out- 
rage and  violation  of  law  became  less 
frequent ;  but  the  new  leaders  of  Flor- 
ence are  accused  of  continual  mis- 
government  at  home  and  abroad,  and 
sometimes  of  peculation.  There  was  of 
course  a  strong  antipathy  between  the 
leading  commoners  and  the  ancient  no- 
bles; both  were  disliked  by  the  people. 
In  order  to  keep  the  nobles  under  more 
control,  the  governing  party  more  than 

*  Dino  Compagni.    Villani. 

t  La  nobilta  civile,  se  bene  non  in  baronaggi,  e 
capace  di  grandissimi  honori,  percioche  esercitando 
i  supremi  magistrati  della  sua  patria,  viene  spesso 
a  comandare  a  capitani  d'  eserciti  e  ella  stessa  per 
se  6  in  mare,  6  in  terra,  molte  volta  i  supremi  ca- 
richi  adopera.  E  tale  6  la  Fiorentina  nobilta. — 
Ammirato  delle  Famiglie  Florentine.  Firenze, 
1614,  p.  25. 

t  Quello,  che  all'  altre  citta  suolo  recare  splen- 
dore,  in  Firenze  era  dannoso,  o  veramente  vano  e 
inutile,  says  Ammirato  of  nobility.— Storia  Fioren- 
tina, p.  161. 


once  introduced  a  new  foreign  magis- 
trate, with  the  title  of  captain  of  defence 
(della  guardia),  whom  they  invested  with 
an  almost  unbounded  criminal  jurisdic- 
tion. [A.  D.  1336-1340.]  One  Gabrielli, 
of  Agobbio,  was  twice  fetched  for  this 
purpose;  and  in  each  case  he  behaved 
in  so  tyrannical  a  manner  as  to  occa- 
sion a  tumult.*  His  office,  however, 
was  of  short  duration,  and  the  title  at 
least  did  not  import  a  sovereign  com- 
mand. But  very  soon  afterward  Flor- 
ence had  to  experience  one  taste  of  a 
cup  which  her  neighbours  had  drunk  off 
to  the  dregs,  and  to  animate  her  magnan- 
imous love  of  freedom  by  a  knowledge 
of  the  calamities  of  tyranny. 

A  war  with  Pisa,  unsuccessfully,  if 
not  unskilfully,  conducted,  gave  rise  to 
such  dissatisfaction  in  the  city,  that  the 
leading  commoners  had  recourse  to  an 
appointment  something  like  that  of  Ga- 
brielli, and  from  similar  motives.  Wai- 
tor  de  Briennc,  duko  of  Athens,  was  de- 
scended from  one  of  the  French  crusaders 
who  had  dismembered  the  Grecian  em- 
pire in  the  preceding  century;  but  his 
father,  defeated  in  battle,  had  lost  the 
principality  along  with  his  life,  and  the 
titular  duke  was  an  adventurer  in  the 
court  of  France.  He  had  been,  however, 
slightly  known  at  Florence  on  a  former 
occasion.  There  was  a  uniform  maxim 
among  the  Italian  republics,  that  extraor- 
dinary powers  should  be  conferred  upon 
none  but  strangers.  The  Duke  of  Athens 
was  accordingly  pitched  upon  for  the 
military  command,  which  was  united  with 
domestic  jurisdiction.  This  appears  to 
have  been  promoted  by  the  governing 
party,  in  order  to  curb  the  nobility ;  but 
they  were  soon  undeceived  in  their  ex- 
pectations. The  first  act  of  the  Duke  of 
Athens  was  to  bring  four  of  the  most 
eminent  commoners  to  capital  punish- 
ment for  military  offences.  These  sen- 
tences, whether  just  or  otherwise,  gave 
much  pleasure  to  the  nobles,  who  had 
so  frequently  been  exposed  to  similar 
severity,  and  to  the  populace,  who  are 
naturally  pleased  with  the  humiliation  of 
their  superiors.  Both  of  these  were  ca- 
ressed by  the  duke,  and  both  conspired, 
with  blind  passion,  to  second  his  ambi- 
tious views.  It  was  proposed  and  car- 
ried in  a  full  parliament,  or  assembly  of 
the  people,  to  bestow  upon  him  the 
signiory  for  life.  [A.  D.  1342.]  The 
real  friends  of  their  country,  as  well  as 
the  oligarchy,  shuddered  at  this  measure. 
Throughout  all  the  vicissitudes  of  party, 


*  Villani,  1.  xi.,  c.  39  and  117. 


160 


E 


UROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


Florence  had  never  yet  lost  sight  of  re- 
publican institutions.  Not  that  she  had 
never  accommodated  herself  to  tempo- 
rary circumstances  by  naming  a  signior. 
Charles  of  Anjou  had  been  invested  with 
that  dignity  for  the  term  of  ten  years ; 
Robert,  king  of  Naples,  for  five ;  and  his 
son,  the  Duke  of  Calabria,  was  at  his 
death  signior  of  Florence.  These  prin- 
ces named  the  podesta,  if  not  the  priors ; 
and  were  certainly  pretty  absolute  in 
their  executive  powers,  though  bound  by 
oath  not  to  alter  the  statutes  of  the  city.* 
But  their  office  had  always  been  tempo- 
rary. Like  the  dictatorship  of  Rome,  it 
was  a  confessed,  unavoidable  evil ;  a  sus- 
pension, but  not  extinguishment  of  rights. 
Like  that,  too,  it  was  a  dangerous  prece- 
dent, through  which  crafty  ambition  and 
popular  rashness  might  ultimately  sub- 
vert the  republic.  If  Walter  de  Brienne 
had  possessed  the  subtle  prudence  of  a 
Matteo  Visconti,  or  a  Cane  della  Scala, 
there  appears  no  reason  to  suppose  that 
Florence  would  have  escaped  the  fate  of 
other  cities  ;  and  her  history  might  have 
become  as  useless  a  record  of  perfidy 
and  assassination  as  that  of  Mantua  or 
Verona.f 

But,  happily  for  Florence,  the  reign  of 
tyranny  was  very  short.  The  Duke  of 
Athens  had  neither  judgment  nor  activity 
for  so  difficult  a  station.  He  launched 
out  at  once  into  excesses,  which  it  would 
be  desirable  that  arbitrary  power  should 
always  commit  at  the  outset.  The  taxes 
were  considerably  increased  ;  4heir  pro- 
duce was  dissipated.  The  honour  of  the 
state  was  sacrificed  by  an  inglorious 
treaty  with  Pisa;  her  territory  was  di- 
minished by  some  towns  throwing  off 
their  dependance.  Severe  and  multiplied 
punishments  spread  terror  through  the 
city.  The  noble  families,  who  had  on 
the  duke's  election  destroyed  the  ordi- 
nances of  justice,  now  found  themselves 
exposed  to  the  more  partial  caprice  of  a 
despot.  He  filled  the  magistracies  with 
low  creatures  from  the  inferior  artificers  ; 
a  class  which  he  continued  to  flatter.! 
Ten  months  passed  in  this  manner,  when 
three  separate  conspiracies,  embracing 
most  of  the  nobility  and  of  the  great 
commoners,  were  planned  for  the  recov- 
ery of  freedom.  The  duke  was  protect- 
ed by  a  strong  body  of  hired  cavalry. 
Revolutions  in  an  Italian  city  were  gen- 
erally effected  by  surprise.  The  streets 
were  so  narrow  and  so  easily  secured  by 
barricades,  that  if  a  people  had  time  to 
stand  on  its  defence,  no  cavalry  was  of 


*  Villani,  1.  ix.,  c.  55,  60,  135,  328. 

t  Id.,  1.  xii.,  c.  1,  2,  3.  *  Id.,  c.  8. 


any  avail.  On  the  other  hand,  a  body  of 
lancers  in  plate-armour  might  dissipate 
any  number  of  a  disorderly  populace. 
Accordingly,  if  a  prince  or  usurper  would 
get  possession  by  surprise,  he,  as  it  was 
called,  rode  the  city ;  that  is,  galloped  with 
his  cavalry  along  the  streets,  so  as  to 
prevent  the  people  from  collecting  to 
erect  barricades.  This  expression  is 
very  usual  with  historians  of  the  four- 
teenth century.*  The  conspirators  at 
Florence  were  too  quick  for  the  Duke  of 
Athens.  The  city  was  barricaded  in 
every  direction ;  and,  after  a  contest  of 
some  duration,  he  consented  to  abdicate 
his  signiory. 

Thus  Florence  recovered  her  liberty. 
Her  constitutional  laws  now  seemed  to 
revive  of  themselves.  But  the  nobility, 
who  had  taken  a  very  active  part  in  the 
recent  liberation  of  their  country,  thought 
it  hard  to  be  still  placed  under  the  rigor- 
ous ordinances  of  justice.  Many  of  the 
richer  commoners  acquiesced  in  an  equi- 
table partition  of  magistracies,  which  was 
established  through  the  influence  of  the 
bishop.  But  the  populace  of  Florence, 
with  its  characteristic  forgetfulness  of 
benefits,  w  as  tenacious  of  those  prescript- 
ive ordinances.  The  nobles  too,  elated 
by  their  success,  began  again  to  strike 
and  injure  the  inferior  citizens.  A  new 
civil  war  in  the  city  streets  decided  their 
quarrel ;  after  a  desperate  resistance, 
many  of  the  principal  houses  were  pil- 
laged and  burnt;  and  the  perpetual  ex- 
clusion of  the  nobility  was  confirmed  by 
fresh  laws.  But  the  people,  now  sure 
of  their  triumph,  relaxed  a  little  upon  this 
occasion  the  ordinances  of  justice  ;  and, 
to  make  some  distinction  in  favour  of 
merit  or  innocence,  effaced  certain  fam- 
ilies from  the  list  of  nobility.  Five  hun- 
dred and  thirty  persons  were  thus  ele- 
vated, as  we  may  call  it,  to  the  rank  of 
commoners. f  As  it  was  beyond  the  com- 
petence of  the  republic  of  Florence  to 
change  a  man's  ancestors,  this  nominal 
alteration  left  all  the  real  advantages  of 
birth  as  they  wrere,  and  was  undoubtedly 
an  enhancement  of  dignity,  though  in 
appearance  a  very  singular  one:  Con- 


*  Villani,  1.  x.,  c.  81.  Castruccio  ....  corse 
la  citta  di  Pisa  due  volte. — Sisrnondi,  t.  v.,  p.  105. 

f  Villani,  1.  xii.,  c.  18-23.  Sismondi  says,  by  a 
momentary  oversight,  cinq  cent  trente  families,  t. 
v.,  p.  377.  There  were  but  thirty-seven  noble  fam- 
ilies at  Florence ;  as  M.  Sismondi  himself  informs 
us,  t.  iv.,  p.  66 ;  though  Villani  reckons  the  number 
of  individuals  at  1500.  Nobles,  or  grandi,  as  they 
are  more  strictly  called,  were  such  as  had  been 
inscribed,  or  rather  proscribed,  as  such  in  the  ordi- 
nances of  justice ;  at  least  I  do  not  know  what 
other  definition  there  was. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


161 


versely,  several  unpopular  commoners 
were  ennobled,  in  order  to  disfranchise 
them.  Nothing  was  more  usual,  in  sub- 
sequent times,  than  such  an  arbitrary- 
change  of  rank,  as  a  penalty  or  a  benefit. 
Those  nobles  who  were  rendered  ple- 
beian by  favour,  were  obliged  to  change 
their  name  and  arms.f  The  constitution 
now  underwent  some  change.  From  six 
the  priors  were  increased  to  eight ;  and 
instead  of  being  chosen  from  each  of  the 
greater  arts,  they  were  taken  from  the 
four  quarters  of  the  city,  the  lesser  arti- 
sans, as  I  conceive,  being  admissible. 
The  gonfaloniers  of  companies  were  re- 
duced to  sixteen.  And  these,  along  with 
the  signiory,  and  the  twelve  buonuomini, 
formed  the  college,  where  every  propo- 
sition was  discussed  before  it  could  be 
offered  to  the  councils  for  their  legislative 
sanction.  But  it  could  only  originate, 
strictly  speaking,  in  the  signiory,  that  is, 
the  gonfalonier  of  justice  and  eight 
priors,  the  rest  of  the  college  having 
merely  the  function  of  advice  and  assist- 
ance.J 

Several  years  elapsed  before  any  ma- 
terial disturbance  arose  at  Florence.  Her 
contemporary  historian  complains  in- 
deed that  mean  and  ignorant  persons 
obtained  the  office  of  prior,  and  ascribes 
some  errors  in  her  external  policy  to  this 
cause. $  Besides  the  natural  effects  of 
the  established  rotation,  a  particular  law, 
called  the  divieto,  tended  to  throw  the 
better  families  out  of  public  office.  By 
this  law,  two  of  the  same  name  could 
not  be  drawn  for  any  magistracy  :  which, 
as  the  ancient  families  were  extremely 
numerous,  rendered  it  difficult  for  their 
members  to  succeed;  especially  as  a 
ticket  once  drawn  was  not  replaced  in 
the  purse,  so  that  an  individual  liable  to 
the  divieto  was  excluded  until  the  next 
biennial  revolution. ||  This  created  dis- 
satisfaction among  the  leading  families. 
They  were  likewise  divided  by  a  new  fac- 
tion, entirely  founded,  as  far  as  appears, 
on  personal  animosity  between  two  prom- 
inent houses,  the  Albizi  and  the  Ricci. 
The  city  was  however  tranquil,  when,  in 
1357,  a  spring  was  set  in  motion,  which 


*  Messer  Antonio  di  Baldinaccio  degli  Adimari, 
tutto  che  fosse  de  piti  grandi  e  nobili,  per  grazia  era 
messo  tra  '1  popolo. — Villani,  1.  xii.,  c.  108. 

f  Ammirato,  p.  748.  There  were  several  ex- 
ceptions to  this  rule  in  later  times.  The  Pazzi 
were  made  popolani,  plebeians,  by  favour  of  Cosmo 
de'  Medici. — Machiavelli. 

t  Nardi,  Storia  di  Firenze,  p.  7,  edit.  1584. 
Villani,  loc.  cit. 

f)  Matteo  Villani,  in  Script.  Rer.  Italic.,  t.  xiv., 
p.  98-244. 

I!  Sismdndi,  t.  vi.,  p.  338. 


gave  quite  a  different  character  to  the 
domestic  history  of  Florence. 

At  the  time  when  the  Guelfs,  with  the 
assistance  of  Charles  of  Anjou,  acquired 
an  exclusive  domination  in  the  republic, 
the  estates  of  the  Ghibelins  were  confis- 
cated. One  third  of  these  confiscations 
was  allotted  to  the  state ;  another  went 
to  repair  the  losses  of  Guelf  citizens ;  but 
the  remainder  became  the  property  of  a 
new  corporate  society,  denominated  the 
Guelf  party  (parte  Guelfa)  with  a  regular 
internal  organization.  The  Guelf  party 
had  two  councils,  one  of  fourteen  and 
one  of  sixty  members ;  three,  or  after- 
ward four,  captains,  elected  by  scrutiny 
every  two  months,  a  treasury,  and  com- 
mon seal ;  a  little  republic  within  the  re- 
public of  Florence.  Their  primary  duty 
was  to  watch  over  the  Guelf  interest; 
and  for  this  purpose  they  had  a  particular 
officer  for  the  accusation  of  suspected 
Ghibelins.*  We  hear  not  much,  how- 
ever, of  the  Guelf  society  for  near  a 
century  after  their  establishment.  The 
Ghibelins  hardly  ventured  to  show  them- 
selves after  the  fall  of  the  White  Guelfs 
in  1304,  with  whom  they  had  been  con- 
nected, and  confiscation  had  almost  anni- 
hilated that  unfortunate  faction.  But,  as 
the  oligarchy  of  Guelf  families  lost  part 
of  its  influence  through  the  divieto  and 
system  of  lottery,  some  persons  of  Ghib- 
elin  descent  crept  into  public  offices ;  and 
this  was  exaggerated  by  the  zealots  of  an 
opposite  party,  as  if  the  fundamental  pol- 
icy of  the  city  was  put  into  danger. 

The  Guelf  society  had  begun,  as  early 
as  1346,  to  manifest  some  disquietude  at 
the  foreign  artisans,  who,  settling  at  Flo- 
rence, and  becoming  members  of  some 
of  the  trading  corporations,  pretended  to 
superior  offices.  They  procured  accord- 
ingly a  law,  excluding  from  public  trust 
and  magistracy  all  persons  not  being  na- 
tives of  the  city  or  its  territory.  Next 
year  they  advanced  a  step  farther;  and, 
with  the  view  to  prevent  disorder,  which 
seemed  to  threaten  the  city,  a  law  was 
passed,  dec-laring  every  one,  whose  an- 
cestors at  any  time  since  1300  had  been 
known  Ghibelins,  or  who  had  not  the 
reputation  of  sound  Guelf  principles,  in- 
capable of  being  drawn  or  elected  to  of- 
fices, f  It  is  manifest,  from  the  language 
of  the  historian  who  relates  these  cir- 
cumstances, and  whose  testimony  is  more 
remarkable  from  his  having  died  several 
ears  before  the  politics  of  the  Guelf  cor- 
Doration  more  decidedly  showed  them- 
selves, that  the  real  cause  of  their  jeal- 


*  G.  Villani,  1.  vii.,  c.  16. 
t  Ibid.,  1.  xii.,  c.  72  and  79. 


162 


Eu 


ROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


Olisy  was  not  the  increase  of  Ghibelinism, 
a  merely  plausible  pretext,  but  the  dem- 
ocratical  character  which  the  govern- 
ment had  assumed,  since  the  revolution 
of  1343 ;  which  raised  the  fourteen  infe- 
rior arts  to  the  level  of  those  wjbich  the 
great  merchants  of  Florence  exercised. 
In  the  Guelf  society,  the  ancient  nobles 
retained  a  considerable  influence.  The 
laws  of  exclusion  had  never  been  applied 
to  that  corporation.  Two  of  the  captains 
were  always  noble,  two  were  common- 
ers. The  people,  in  debarring  the  nobil- 
ity from  ordinary  privileges,  were  little 
aware  of  the  more  dangerous  channel 
which  had  been  left  open  to  their  ambi- 
tion. With  the  nobility  some  of  the  great 
commoners  acted  in  concert,  and  espe- 
cially the  family  and  faction  of  the  Albizi. 
The  introduction  of  obscure  persons  into 
office  still  continued,  and  some  measures 
more  vigorous  than  the  law  of  1347  seem- 
ed necessary  to  restore  the  influence  of 
their  aristocracy.  They  proposed,  and, 
notwithstanding  the  reluctance  of  the 
priors,  carried  by  violence,  both  in  the 
preliminary  deliberations  of  the  signiory, 
and  in  the  two  councils,  a  law  by  which 
every  person  accepting  an  office  who 
should  be  convicted  of  Ghibelinism  or  of 
Ghibelin  descent,  upon  testimony  of  pub- 
lic fame,  became  liable  to  punishment, 
capital  or  pecuniary,  at  the  discretion  of 
the  priors.  To  this  law  they  gave  a  re- 
trospective effect,  and  indeed  it  appears 
to  have  been  little  more  than  a  revival  of 
the  provisions  made  in  1347,  which  had 
probably  been  disregarded.  Many  citi- 
zens, who  had  been  magistrates  within  a 
few  years,  were  cast  in  heavy  fines  on 
this  indefinite  charge.  But  the  more  usu- 
al practice  was  to  warn  (ammonire)  men 
beforehand  against  undertaking  public 
trust.  If  they  neglected  this  hint,  they 
were  sure  to  be  treated  as  convicted 
Ghibelins.  Thus  a  very  numerous  class, 
called  Ammoniti,  was  formed  of  proscri- 
bed and  discontented  persons,  eager  to 
throw  off  the  intolerable  yoke  of  the 
Guelf  society.  For  the  imputation  of 
Ghibelin  connexions  was  generally  an 
unfounded  pretext  for  crushing  the  ene- 
mies of  the  governing  faction.*  Men  of 

*  Besides  the  effect  of  ancient  prejudice,  Ghibe- 
linism was  considered  at  Florence,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  as  immediately  connected  with  ty- 
rannical usurpation.  The  Guelf  party,  says  Mat- 
teo  Villani,  is  the  foundation  rock  of  liberty  in  Ita- 
ly ;  so  that,  if  any  Guelf  becomes  a  tyrant,  he  must 
of  necessity  turn  to  the  Ghibelin  side  ;  and  of  this 
there  have  been  many  instances,  p.  481.  So  Gio- 
vanni Villani  says  of  Passerino,  lord  of  Mantua, 
that  his  ancestors  had  been  Guelfs,  ma  per  essere 
«gnore  e  tiranno  si  fece  Ghibellino,  1.  *.,  c.  99. 


approved  Guelf  principles  and  origin  were 
every  day  warned  from  their  natural 
privileges  of  sharing  in  magistracy.  This 
spread  a  universal  alarm  through  the  city ; 
but  the  great  advantage  of  union  and  se- 
cret confederacy  rendered  the  Guelf  so- 
ciety, who  had  also  the  law  on  their  side, 
irresistible  by  their  opponents.  Mean- 
while the  public  honour  was  well  sup- 
ported abroad  ;  Florence  had  never  be- 
fore been  so  distinguished  as  during  the 
prevalence  of  this  oligarchy.* 

The  Guelf  society  had  governed  with 
more  or  less  absoluteness  for  near  twen- 
ty years,  when  the  republic  became  in- 
volved, through  the  perfidious  conduct 
of  the  papal  legate,  in  a  war  with  the 
Holy  See.  Though  the  Florentines  were 
by  no  means  superstitious,  this  hostility 
to  the  church  appeared  almost  an  ab- 
surdity to  determined  Guelfs,  and  shock- 
ed those  prejudices'  about  names  which 
make  up  the  politics  of  vulgar  minds. 
The  Guelf  society,  though  it  could  not 
openly  resist  the  popular  indignation 
against  Gregory  XL,  was  not  heartily  in- 
clined to  this  war.  Its  management  fell 
therefore  into  the  hands  of  eight  commis- 
sioners, some  of  them  not  well  affected 
to  the  society ;  whose  administration  was 
so  successful  and  popular  as  to  excite  the 
utmost  jealousy  in  the  Guelfs.  They  be- 
gan to  renew  their  warnings,  and  in  eight 
months  excluded  fourscore  citizens. f 

The  tyranny  of  a  court  may  endure  for 
ages  ;  but  that  of  a  faction  is  seldom  per- 
manent. In  June,  137B,  the  gonfalonier 
of  justice  was  Salvestro  de'  Medici,  a 
man  of  approved  patriotism,  whose  fam- 
ily had  been  so  notoriously  of  Guelf  prin- 
ciples that  it  was  impossible  to  warn  him 
from  office.  He  proposed  to  mitigate  the 
severity  of  the  existing1  law.  His  propo- 
sition did  not  succeed ;  but  its  rejection 
provoked  an  insurrection,  the  forerunner 
of  still  more  alarming  tumults.  The  pop- 
ulace of  Florence,  like  that  of  other  cit- 
ies, was  terrible  in  the  moment  of  sedi- 
tion ;  and  a  party  so  long  dreaded  shrunk 
before  ,the  physical  strength  of  the  multi- 
tude. Many  leaders  of  the  Guelf  society 
had  their  houses  destroyed,  and  some 
fled  from  the  city.  But  instead  of  annul- 
ling their  acts,  a  middle  course  was  adopt- 
ed by  the  committee  of  magistrates  who 
had  been  empowered  to  reform  the  state ; 
the  Ammoniti  were  suspended  three 


And  Matteo  Villani  of  the  Pepoli  at  Bologna ;  es- 
sendo  di  natura  Guelfi,  per  la  tirannia  erano  quasi 


alienati  della  parte,  p.  69. 

*  M.  Villani,  p.  581,  637,731. 
chiavelli.    Sismondi. 

f  Ammirato,  p.  709. 


Ammirato.    Ma- 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


168 


years  longer  from  office,  and  the  Guelf 
society  preserved  with  some  limitations. 
This  temporizing  course  did  not  satisfy 
either  the  Ammoniti  or  the  populace. 
The  greater  arts  were  generally  attached 
to  the  Guelf  society.  Between  them  and 
the  lesser  arts,  composed  of  retail  and 
mechanical  traders,  there  was  a  strong 
jealousy.  The  latter  were  adverse  to  the 
prevailing  oligarchy,  and  to  the  Guelf  so- 
ciety, by  whose  influence  it  was  main- 
tained. They  were  eager  to  make  Flo- 
rence a  democracy  in  fact  as  well  as  in 
name,  by  participating  in  the  executive 
government. 

But  every  political  institution  appears 
to  rest  on  too  confined  a  basis,  to  those 
whose  point  of  view  is  from  beneath  it. 
While  the  lesser  arts  were  murmuring  at 
the  exclusive  privileges  of  the  commer- 
cial aristocracy,  there  was  yet  an  inferior 
class  of  citizens,  who  thought  their  own 
claims  to  equal  privileges  irrefragable. 
The  arrangement  of  twenty-one  trading 
companies  had  still  left  several  kinds  of 
artisans  unincorporated,  and  consequent- 
ly unprivileged.  These  had  been  attach- 
ed to  the  art  with  which  their  craft  had 
most  connexion,  in  a  sort  of  dependant 
relation.  Thus,  to  the  company  of  dra- 
pers, the  most  wealthy  of  all  the  various 
occupations  instrumental  in  the  manufac- 
ture, as  wool-combers,  diers,  and  weav- 
ers, were  appendant.*  Besides  the  sense 
of  political  exclusion,  these  artisans  alle- 
ged, that  they  were  oppressed  by  their 
employers  of  the  art,  and  that  when  they 
complained  to  the  consul,  their  judge  in 
civil  matters,  no  redress  could  be  procu- 
red. A  still  lower  order  of  the  commu- 
nity was  the  mere  populace,  who  did  not 
practise  any  regular  trade,  or  who  only 
worked  for  daily  hire.  These  were  call- 
ed Ciompi,  a  corruption,  it  is  said,  of  the 
French  compere. 

"  Let  no  one,"  says  Machiavel  in  this 
place,  "  who  begins  an  innovation  in  a 
state,  expect  that  he  shall  stop  it  at  his 
pleasure,  or  regulate  it  according  to  his 
intention."  After  about  a  month  from 
the  first  sedition,  another  broke  out,  in 
which  the  ciompi,  or  lowest  populace, 
were  alone  concerned.  Through  the  sur- 
prise, or  cowardice,  or  disaffection  of  the 
superior  citizens,  this  was  suffered  to 
get  ahead,  and  for  three  days  the  city  was 
in  the  hand  of  a  tumultuous  rabble.  It 
was  vain  to  withstand  their  propositions, 
had  they  even  been  more  unreasonable 
than  they  were.  But  they  only  demand- 


*  Before  the  year  1340,  according  to  Villani's  cal- 
culation, the  woollen  trade  occupied  30,000  per- 
sons, 1.  xi.,  c.  93. 
L2 


ed  the  establishment  of  two  new  arts  for 
the  trades  hitherto  dependant,  and  one  for 
the  lower  people ;  and  that  three  of  the 
priors  should  be  chosen  from  the  greater 
arts,  three  from  the  fourteen  lesser,  and 
two  from  those  just  created.  Some  de- 
lay, however,  occurring  to  prevent  the 
sanction  of  these  innovations  by  tho 
councils,  a  new  fury  took  possession  of 
the  populace  ;  the  gates  of  the  palace  be- 
longing to  the  signiory  were  forced  open, 
the  priors  compelled  to  fly,  and  no  ap- 
pearance of  a  constitutional  magistracy 
remained  to  throw  the  veil  of  law  over  the 
excesses  of  anarchy.  The  republic  seem- 
ed to  rock  from  its  foundation,  and  the 
circumstance  to  which  historians  ascribe 
its  salvation  is  not  the  least  singular  in 
this  critical  epoch.  One  Michel  di  Lan- 
do,  a  wool-carder,  half  dressed  and  with- 
out shoes,  happened  to  hold  the  standard 
of  justice  wrested  from  the  proper  offi- 
cer when  the  populace  burst  into  the  pal- 
ace. Whether  he  was  previously  con- 
spicuous in  the  tumult  is  not  recorded; 
but  the  wild  capricious  mob,  who  had  de- 
stroyed what  they  had  no  conception  how 
to  rebuild,  suddenly  cried  out  that  Lando 
should  be  gonfalonier  or  signior,  and  re- 
form the  city  at  his  pleasure. 

A  choice,  arising  probably  from  wan- 
ton folly,  could  not  have  been  better 
made  by  wisdom.  Lando  was  a  man  of 
courage,  moderation,  and  integrity.  He 
gave  immediate  proofs  of  these  qualities 
by  causing  his  office  to  be  respected. 
The  eight  commissioners  of  the  war, 
who,  though  not  instigators  of  the  sedi- 
tion, were  well  pleased  to  see  the  Guelf 
party  so  entirely  prostrated,  now  fancied 
themselves  masters,  and  began  to  nomi- 
nate priors.  But  Lando  sent  a  message 
to  them  that  he  was  elected  by  the  peo- 
ple, and  that  he  could  dispense  with  their 
assistance.  He  then  proceeded  to  the 
choice  of  priors.  Three  were  taken 
from  the  greater  arts;  three  from  the 
lesser ;  and  three  from  the  two  new  arts 
and  the  lower  people.  This  eccentric 
college  lost  no  time  in  restoring  tranquil- 
lity, and  compelled  the  populace  by  threat 
of  punishment  to  return  to  their  occupa- 
tions. But  the  ciompi  were  not  disposed 
to  give  up  the  pleasures  of  anarchy  so 
readily.  They  were  dissatisfied  at  the 
small  share  allotted  to  them  in  the  new 
distribution  of  offices,  and  murmured  at 
their  gonfalonier  as  a  traitor  to  the  popu- 
lar cause.  Lando  was  aware  that  an  in- 
surrection was  projected ;  he  took  meas- 
ures with  the  most  respectable  citizens  ; 
the  insurgents,  when  they  showed  them- 
selves, were  quelled  by  force,  and  the 


164 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


gonfalonier  retired  from  office  with  an 
approbation  which  all  historians  of  Flo- 
rence have  agreed  to  perpetuate.  Part 
of  this  has  undoubtedly  been  founded  on 
a  consideration  of  the  mischief  which  it 
was  in  his  power  to  inflict.  The  ciompi, 
once  checked,  were  soon  defeated.  The 
next  gonfalonier  was,  like  Lando,  a  wool- 
comber  ;  but,  wanting  the  intrinsic  merit 
of  Lando,  his  mean  station  excited  uni- 
versal contempt.  None  of  the  arts  could 
endure  their  low  coadjutors;  a  short 
struggle  was  made  by  the  populace,  but 
they  were  entirely  overpowered  with 
considerable  slaughter,  and  the  govern- 
ment was  divided  between  the  seven 
greater  and  sixteen  lesser  arts  in  nearly 
equal  proportions. 

The  party  of  the  lesser  arts,  or  inferior 
tradesmen,  which  had  begun  this  confu- 
sion, were  left  winners  when  it  ceased. 
Three  men  of  distinguished  families,  who 
had  instigated  the  revolution,  became  the 
leaders  of  Florence ;  Benedetto  Alberti, 
Tomaso  Strozzi,  and  Georgio  Scali. 
Their  government  had  at  first  to  contend 
with  the  ciompi,  smarting  under  loss  and 
disappointment.  But  a  populace  which 
is  beneath  the  inferior  mechanics  may 
with  ordinary  prudence  be  kept  in  sub- 
jection by  a  government  that  has  a  well- 
organized  militia  at  its  command.  The 
Guelf  aristocracy  was  far  more  to  be 
dreaded.  Some  of  them  had  been  ban- 
ished, some  fined,  some  ennobled ;  the  usu- 
al consequences  of  revolution,  which  they 
had  too  often  practised  to  complain.  A 
more  iniquitous  proceeding  disgraces  the 
new  administration.  Under  pretence  of 
conspiracy,  the  chief  of  the  house  of  Al- 
bizi,  and  several  of  his  most  eminent 
associates,  were  thrown  into  prison.  So 
little  evidence  of  the  charge  appeared, 
that  the  podesta  refused  to  condemn 
them ;  but  the  people  were  clamorous 
for  blood,  and  half  with,  half  without  the 
forms  of  justice,  these  noble  citizens 
were  led  to  execution.  The  part  he  took 
in  this  murder  sullies  the  fame  of  Bene- 
detto Alberti,  who,  in  his  general  conduct, 
had  been  more  uniformly  influenced  by 
honest  principles  than  most  of  his  con- 
temporaries. Those  who  shared  with 
him  the  ascendency  in  the  existing  gov- 
ernment, Strozzi  and  Scali,  abused  their 
power  by  oppression  towards  their  ene- 
mies and  insolence  towards  all.  Their 
popularity  was  of  course  soon  at  an  end. 
Alberti,  a  sincere  lover  of  freedom,  sepa- 
rated himself  from  men  who  seemed  to 
emulate  the  arbitrary  government  they 
had  overthrown.  An  outrage  of  Scali, 
in  rescuing  a  criminal  from  justice, 


brought  the  discontent  to  a  crisis;  he 
was  arrested,  and  lost  his  head  on  the 
scaffold ;  while  Strozzi,  his  colleague, 
fled  from  the  city.  But  this  event  was 
instantly  followed  by  a  reaction,  which 
Alberti  perhaps  did  not  anticipate.  Armed 
men  filled  the  streets ;  the  cry  of  Live  the 
Guelfs  was  heard.  After  a  three  years 
depression,  the  aristocratical  party  re- 
gained its  ascendant.  They  did  not  re- 
vive the  severity  practised  towards  the 
Ammoniti ;  but  the  two  new  arts,  created 
for  the  small  trades,  were  abolished,  and 
the  lesser  arts  reduced  to  a  third  part,  in- 
stead of  something  more  than  one  half 
of  public  offices.  Several  persons  who 
had  favoured  the  plebeians  were  sent 
into  exile;  and  among  these  Michel  de 
Lando,  whose  great  services  in  subduing 
anarchy  ought  to  have  secured  the  pro- 
tection of  every  government.  Benedetto 
Alberti,  the  enemy  by  turns  of  every  fac- 
tion, because  every  faction  was  in  its  turn 
oppressive,  experienced  some  years  after- 
ward the  same  fate.  For  half  a  century 
after  this  time,  no  revolution  took  place 
at  Florence.  The  Guelf  aristocracy, 
strong  in  opulence  and  antiquity,  and  ren- 
dered prudent  by  experience,  under  the 
guidance  of  the  Albizi  family,  maintained 
a  preponderating  influence  without  much 
departing,  the  times  considered,  from 
moderation  and  respect  for  the  laws.* 

It  is  sufficiently  manifest,  from  this 
sketch  of  the  domestic  history  of  Flo- 
rence, how  far  that  famous  republic  was 
from  affording  a  perfect  security  for  civil 
rights  or  general  tranquillity.  They  who 
hate  the  name  of  free  constitutions  may 
exult  in  her  internal  dissensions,  as  in 
those  of  Athens  or  Rome.  But  the  calm 
philosopher  will  not  take  his  standard  of 
comparison  from  ideal  excellence,  nor 
even  from  that  practical  good  which  has 
been  reached  in  our  own  unequalled  con- 
stitution, and  in  some  of  the  republics  of 
modern  Europe.  The  men  and  the  in- 
stitutions of  the  fourteenth  century  are 
to  be  measured  by  their  contemporaries. 
Who  would  not  rather  have  been  a  citi- 
zen of  Florence  than  a  subject  of  the 
Visconti  ?  In  a  superficial  review  of  his- 
tory, we  are  sometimes  apt  to  exaggerate 

*  For  this  part  of  Florentine  history,  besides 
Ammirato,  Machiavel,  and  Sismondi,  I  have  read 
an  interesting  narrative  of  the  sedition  of  the  ci- 
ompi, by  Gino  Capponi,  in  the  eighteenth  volume  of 
Muratori's  collection.  It  has  an  air  of  liveliness 
and  trutfc  which  is  very  pleasing,  but  it  breaks  off 
rather  too  soon,  at  the  instant  of  Lando's  assuming 
the  office  of  banneret.  Another  contemporary 
writer,  Melchione  de  Stefani,  who  seems  to  have 
furnished  the  materials  of  the  three  historians 
above  mentioned,  has  not  fallen  in  my  way. 


PART  H.] 


ITALY. 


165 


the  vices  of  free  states,  and  to  lose  sight 
of  those  inherent  in  tyrannical  power. 
The  bold  censoriousness  of  republican 
historians,  and  the  cautious  servility  of 
writers  under  an  absolute  monarchy, 
conspire  to  mislead  us  as  to  the  relative 
prosperity  of  nations.  Acts  of  outrage 
and  tumultuous  excesses  in  a  free  state 
are  blazoned  in  minute  detail,  and  de- 
scend to  posterity ;  the  deeds  of  tyranny 
are  studiously  and  perpetually  suppressed. 
Even  those  historians  who  have  no  par- 
ticular motives  for  concealment  turn 
away  from  the  monotonous  and  disgust- 
ing crimes  of  tyrants.  "  Deeds  of  cruel- 
ty," it  is  well  observed  by  Matteo  Villani, 
after  relating  an  action  of  Bernabo  Vis- 
conti,  "  are  little  worthy  of  remembrance  ; 
yet  let  me  be  excused  for  having  recount- 
ed one  out  of  many,  as  an  example  of  the 
peril  to  which  men  are  exposed  under 
the  yoke  of  an  unbounded  tyranny."* 
The  reign  of  Bernabo  afforded  abundant 
instances  of  a  like  kind.  Second  only  to 
Eccelin  among  the  tyrants  of  Italy,  he 
rested  the  security  of  his  dominion  upon 
tortures  and  death,  and  his  laws  them- 
selves enact  the  protraction  of  capital 
punishment  through  forty  days  of  suffer- 
ing, f  His  nephew,  Giovanni  Maria,  is 
said,  with  a  madness  like  that  of  Nero  or 
Commodus,  to  have  coursed  the  streets 
of  Milan  by  night  with  bloodhounds, 
ready  to  chase  and  tear  any  unlucky  pas- 
senger.J  Nor  were  other  Italian  princi- 
palities free  from  similar  tyrants,  though 
none  perhaps  on  the  whole  so  odious  as 
the  Visconti.  The  private  history  of 
many  families,  such  for  instance  as  the 
Scala  and  the  Gonzaga,  is  but  a  series  of 
assassinations.  The  ordinary  vices  of 
mankind  assumed  a  teint  of  portentous 
guilt  in  the  palaces  of  Italian  princes. 
Their  revenge  was  fratricide,  and  their 
lust  was  incest. 

Though  fertile  and  populous,  the  prop- 
Acquisitions  er  district  of  Florence  was  by 
of  territory  no  means  extensive.  An  inde- 
e-  pendent  nobility  occupied  the 
Tuscan  Apennines  with  their  castles.  Of 
these  the  most  conspicuous  were  the 
counts  of  Guidi,  a  numerous  and  power- 
ful family,  who  possessed  a  material  in- 
fluence in  the  affairs  of  Florence  and  of 
all  Tuscany  till  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  and  some  of  whom  pre- 
served their  independence  much  longer. $ 

*  P.  434. 

t  Sismondi,  t.  vi.,  p.  316.  Corio,  1st.  di  Milano, 
p.  486. 

t  Corio,  p.  595. 

$  G.  Villani,  1.  v.,  c.  37,  41,  et  alibi.  The  last  of 
the  counts  Guidi,  having  unwisely  embarked  in  a 


To  the  south,  the  republics  of  Arezzo, 
Perugia,  and  Siena;  to  the  west,  those 
of  Volterra,  Pisa,  and  Lucca ;  Prato  and 
Pistoja  to  the  north,  limited  the  Floren- 
tine territory.  It  was  late  before  these 
boundaries  were  removed.  During  the 
usurpations  of  Uguccione  at  Pisa,  and  of 
Castruccio  at  Lucca,  the  republic  of  Flo- 
rence was  always  unsuccessful  in  the  field. 
After  the  death  of  Castruccio  she  began 
to  act  more  vigorously,  and  engaged  in 
several  confederacies  with  the  powers  of 
Lombardy,  especially  in  a  league  with 
Venice  against  Mastino  della  Scala.  But 
the  republic  made  no  acquisition  of  ter- 
ritory till  1351,  when  she  annexed  the 
small  city  of  Prato,  not  ten  miles  from 
her  walls.*  Pistoja,  though  still  nomi- 
nally independent,  received  a  Florentine 
garrison  about  the  same  time.  Several 
additions  were  made  to  the  district,  by  fair 
purchase  from  the  nobility  of  the  Apen- 
nines, and  a  few  by  main  force.  The 
territory  was  still  very  little  proportion- 
ed to  the  fame  and  power  of  Florence. 
The  latter  was  founded  upon  her  vast 
commercial  opulence.  Every  Italian 
state  employed  mercenary  troops,  and  the 
richest  was  of  course  the  most  powerful. 
In  the  war  against  Mastino  della  Scala, 
in  1336,  the  revenues  of  Florence  are 
reckoned  by  Villani  at  three  hundred 
thousand  florins  ;  which,  as  he  observes, 
is  more  than  the  King  of  Naples  or  of 
Aragon  possesses. f  The  expenditure 
went  at  that  time  very  much  beyond  the 
receipt,  and  was  defrayed  by  loans  from 
the  principal  mercantile  firms,  which 
were  secured  by  public  funds ;  the  earli- 
est instance,  I  believe,  of  that  financial 
resource.J  Her  population  was  computed 
at  ninety  thousand  souls.  Villani  reck- 
ons the  district  at  eighty  thousand  men, 
I  presume  those  only  of  military  age ; 
but  this  calculation  must  have  been  too 
large,  even  though  he  included,  as  we 


confederacy  against  Florence,  was  obliged  to  give 
up  his  ancient  patrimony  in  1440. 

*  M.  Villani,  p.  72.  This  was  rather  a  measure 
of  usurpation ;  but  the  republic  had  some  reason  to 
apprehend  that  Prato  might  fall  into  the  hands  of 
the  Visconti.  Their  conduct  towards  Pistoja  was 
influenced  by  the  same  motive ;  but  it  was  still  fur- 
ther removed  from  absolute  justice,  p.  91. 

t  G.  Villani,  1.  xi.,  c.  90-93.  These  chapters 
contain  a  very  full  and  interesting  statement  of  the 
revenues,  expenses,  population,  and  internal  con- 
dition of  Florence  at  that  time.  Part  of  them  is 
extracted  by  M.  Sismondi,  t.  v.,  p.  365.  The  gold 
florin  was  worth  about  ten  shillings  of  our  money. 
The  district  of  Florence  was  not  then  much  larger 
than  Middlesex.  At  present  the  revenues  of  the 
whole  dutchy  of  Tuscany  are  much  less  than 
150,OOOZ.  sterling ;  though  the  difference  in  the  value 
of  money  is  very  considerable. 

t  G.  Villani,  1.  xi.,  c.  49. 


166 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


may  presume,  the  city  in  his  estimate.* 
Tuscany,  though  well  cultivated  and 
flourishing,  does  not  contain  by  any  means 
so  great  a  number  of  inhabitants  in  that 
space  at  present. 

The  first  eminent  conquest  made  by 
piga  Florence  was  that  of  Pisa,  early  in 
the  fifteenth  century.  Pisa  had  been 
distinguished  as  a  commercial  city  ever 
since  the  age  of  the  Othos.  From 
her  ports,  and  those  of  Genoa,  the  ear- 
liest naval  armaments  of  the  western 
nations  were  fitted  out  against  the  Sara- 
cen corsairs  who  infested  the  Mediterra- 
nean coasts.  In  the  eleventh  century 
she  undertook,  and,  after  a  pretty  long 
struggle,  completed,  the  important,  or  at 
least  the  splendid  conquest  of  Sardinia; 
an  island  long  subject  to  a  Moorish  chief- 
tain. Several  noble  families  of  Pisa,  who 

*  C.  93.  Troviamo  diligentemente,  che  in  quest! 
tempi  avea  in  Firenze  circa  a  25  mila  uomini  da 
portare  arme  da  15  in  70  anni  —  Istamavasi  avere 
in  Firenze  da  90  mila  bocche  tra  uomini  e  femine  e 
fanciulli,  per  1'  avviso  del  pane  bisognava  al  contin- 
avo  alia  citta.  These  proportions  of  25,000  men 
between  fifteen  and  seventy,  and  of  90,000  souls, 
are  as  nearly  as  possible  consonant  to  modern  cal- 
culation, of  which  Villani  knew  nothing,  which 
confirms  his  accuracy ;  though  M.  Sismondi  asserts, 
p.  369,  that  the  city  contained  150,000  inhabitants, 
on  no  better  authority,  as  far  as  appears,  than  that 
of  Boccaccio,  who  says  that  100,000  perished  in  the 
great  plague  of  1348,  which  was  generally  suppo- 
sed to  destroy  two  out  of  three.  But  surely  two 
vague  suppositions  are  not  to  be  combined,  in  or- 
der to  overthrow  such  a  testimony  as  that  of  Vil- 
lani, who  seems  to  have  consulted  all  registers  and 
other  authentic  documents  in  his  reach. 

What  Villani  says  of  the  population  of  the  dis- 
trict may  lead  us  to  reckon  it,  perhaps,  at  about 
180,000  souls,  allowing  the  baptisms  to  be  one  in 
thirty  of  the  population.  Ragionavasi  in  questi 
tempi  avere  nel  contado  e  distretto  di  Firenze  de 
80  rniUi  uomini.  Troviamo  del  piovano,  che  bat- 
tezzava  i  fanciulli,  imperocheper  ogni  maschio,  che 
battezzava  in  San  Giovanni,  per  avere  il  novero, 
metea  una  fava  nera,  e  per  ogni  feminauna  bianca, 
trovo,  ch'  erano  1'anno  in  questi  tempi  dalle  5800 
in  sei  mila,  avanzando  le  piu  volte  il  sesso  mascu- 
lino  da  300  in  500  per  anno.  Baptisms  could  only 
be  performed  in  one  public  font,  at  Florence,  Pisa, 
and  some  other  cities.  The  building  that  contain- 
ed this  font  was  called  the  baptistery.  The  bap- 
tisteries of  Florence  and  Pisa  still  remain,  and  are 
well  known. — Du  Cange,  v.  Baptisterium.  But 
there  were  fifty-seven  parishes,  and  one  hundred 
and  ten  churches  within  the  city. — Villani,  ibid. 
Mr.  Roscoe  has  published  a  manuscript,  evidently 
written  after  the  taking  of  Pisa,  in  1406,  though,  as 
1  should  guess,  not  long  after  that  event,  contain- 
ing a  proposition  for  an  income  tax  of  ten  per  cent, 
throughout  the  Florentine  dominions.  Among  its 
other  calculations,  the  population  is  reckoned  at 
400,000 ;  assuming  that  to  be  the  proportion  to 
80,000  men  of  military  age,  though  certainly  be- 
yond the  mark.  It  is  singular  that  the  district  of 
Florence,  in  1343,  is  estimated  by  Villani  to  contain 
as  great  a  number,  before  Pisa,  Volterra,  or  even 
Prato  and  Pistoja  had  been  annexed  to  it. — Ros- 
ooe's  Life  of  Lorenzo,  Appendix,  No.  16. 


had  defrayed  the  chief  cost  of  this  expe- 
dition, shared  the  island  in  districts, 
which  they  held  in  fief  of  the  republic.* 
At  a  later  period  the  Balearic  isles  were 
subjected,  but  not  long  retained  by  Pisa. 
Her  naval  prowess  was  supported  by  her 
commerce.  A  writer  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury reproaches  her  with  the  Jews,  the 
Arabians,  and  other  "monsters  of  the 
sea,"  who  thronged  in  her  streets. f  The 
crusades  poured  fresh  wealth  into  the  lap 
of  the  maritime  Italian  cities.  In  some 
of  those  expeditions  a  great  portion  of 
the  armament  was  conveyed  by  sea  to 
Palestine,  and  freighted  the  vessels  of 
Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice.  When  the 
Christians  had  bought  with  their  blood 
the  seacoast  of  Syria,  these  republics 
procured  the  most  extensive  privileges 
in  the  new  states  that  were  formed  out  of 
their  slender  conquests,  and  became  the 
conduits  through  which  the  produce  of 
the  East  flowed  in  upon  the  ruder  natives 
of  Europe.  Pisa  maintained  a  large 
share  of  this  commerce,  as  well  as  of 
maritime  greatness,  till  near  the  end  of 
the  thirteenth  century.  In  1282,  we  are 
told  by  Villani,  she  was  in  great  power, 
possessing  Sardinia,  Corsica,  and  Elba ; 
from  whence  the  republic,  as  well  as  pri- 
vate persons,  derived  large  revenues  ; 
and  almost  ruled  the  sea  by  their  ships 
and  merchandises,  and  beyond  sea  were 
very  powerful  in  the  city  of  Acre,  and 
much  connected  with  the  principal  citi- 
zens of  Acre.J  The  prosperous  era  of 
the  Pisans  is  marked  by  their  public  edi- 
fices. She  was  the  first  Italian  city  that 
took  a  pride  in  architectural  magnificence. 
Her  cathedral  is  of  the  eleventh  century ; 
the  baptistery,  the  famous  inclined  tower, 
or  belfry,  the  arcades  that  surround  the 
Campo  Santo,  or  cemetery  of  Pisa,  are  of 
the  twelfth,  or  at  latest,  of  the  thirteenth.^ 
It  would  have  been  no  slight  anomaly 
in  the  annals  of  Italy,  or,  we  might  say, 
of  mankind,  if  two  neighbouring  cities, 
competitors  in  every  mercantile  occupa- 
tion and  every  naval  enterprise,  had  not 
been  perpetual  enemies  to  each  other. 
One  is  more  surprised,  if  the  fact  be  true, 
that  no  war  broke  out  between  Pisa  and 
Genoa  till  1119.||  From  this  time  at  least 


*  Sismondi,  t.  i.,  p.  345,  372. 
t  Qui  pergit  Pisas,  videt  illic  monstra  marina  ; 
Haec  urbs  Paganis,  Turchis,  Libycis  quoque, 

Parthis, 

Sordida ;  Chaldtei  sua  lustrant  rmenia  tetri. 
Donizo,  Vita  ComitisscB  Mathildis,  apud  Mu* 

ratori,  Dissert.  31. 
J  Villani,  l.vi.,  c.  83. 

§  Sismondi,  t.  iv.,  p.  178.    Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.,  p. 
06. 
H  Muratori,  ad  ann.  1119. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


167 


they  continually  recurred.  An  equality 
of  forces  and  of  courage  kept  the  conflict 
uncertain  for  the  greater  part  of  two  cen- 
turies. Their  battles  were  numerous, 
and  sometimes,  taken  separately,  deci- 
sive ;  but  the  public  spirit  and  resources 
of  each  city  were  called  out  by  defeat, 
and  we  generally  find  a  new  armament 
replace  the  losses  of  an  unsuccessful 
combat.  In  this  respect,  the  naval  con- 
test between  Pisa  and  Genoa,  though 
much  longer  protracted,  resembles  that  of 
Rome  and  Carthage  in  the  first  Punic  war. 
But  Pisa  was  reserved  for  her  ^Egades. 
In  one  fatal  battle,  off  the  little  isle  of 
Meloria,  in  1284,  her  whole  navy  was 
destroyed.  Several  unfortunate  and  ex- 
pensive armaments  had  almost  exhausted 
the  state  ;  and  this  was  the  last  effort,  by 
private  sacrifices,  to  equip  one  more  fleet. 
After  this  defeat  it  was  in  vain  to  con- 
tend for  empire.  Eleven  thousand  Pi- 
sans  languished  for  many  years  in  prison ; 
it  was  a  current  saying,  that  whoever 
would  see  Pisa,  should  seek  her  at  Ge- 
noa. A  treacherous  chief,  that  Count 
Ugolino,  whose  guilt  was  so  terribly 
avenged,  is  said  to  have  purposely  lost 
the  battle,  and  prevented  the  ransom  of 
the  captives,  to  secure  his  power ;  accu- 
sations that  obtain  easy  credit  with  an 
unsuccessful  people. 

From  the  epoch  of  the  battle  of  Melo- 
ria, Pisa  ceased  to  be  a  maritime  power. 
Forty  years  afterward  she  was  stripped 
of  her  ancient  colony,  the  Island  of  Sar- 
dinia. The  four  Pisan  families  who  Ijad 
been  invested  with  that  conquest  had 
been  apt  to  consider  it  as  their  absolute 
property  ;  their  appellation  of  judge 
seemed  to  indicate  deputed  power;  but 
they  sometimes  assumed  that  of  king; 
and  several  attempts  had  been  made  to 
establish  an  immediate  dependance  on 
the  empire,  or  even  on  the  pope.  A  new 
potentate  had  now  come  forward  on  the 
stage.  The  malecontent  feudataries  of 
Sardinia  made  overtures  to  the  King  of 
Aragon,  who  had  no  scruples  about  at- 
tacking the  indisputable  possession  of  a 
declining  republic.  Pisa  made  a  few  un- 
availing efforts  to  defend  Sardinia;  but 
the  nominal  superiority  was  hardly  worth 
a  contest,  and  she  surrendered  her  rights 
to  the  crown  of  Aragon.  Her  commerce 
now  dwindled  with  her  greatness.  Du- 
ring the  fourteenth  century,  Pisa  almost 
renounced  the  ocean,  and  directed  her 
main  attention  to  the  politics  of  Tusca- 
ny. Ghibelin  by  invariable  predilection, 
she  was  in  constant  opposition  to  the 
Guelf  cities  which  looked  up  to  Flo- 
rence. But  in  the  fourteenth  century  the 


names  of  freeman  and  Ghibelin  were  not 
easily  united ;  and  a  city  in  that  interest 
stood  insulated  between  the  republics  of 
an  opposite  faction  and  the  tyrants  of 
her  own.  Pisa  fell  several  times  under 
the  yoke  of  usurpers ;  she  was  included 
in  the  wide-spreading  acquisitions  of 
Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti ;  at  his  death 
one  of  his  family  seized  the  dominion, 
and  finally,  the  Florentines  purchased 
for  400,000  florins  a  rival  and  once  equal 
city.  The  Pisans  made  a  resistance 
more  according  to  what  they  had  been 
than  what  they  were. 

The  early  history  of  Genoa,  in  all  her 
foreign  relations,  is  involved  in  Genoa.— 
that  of  Pisa.  As  allies  against  Her  wars 
the  Saracens  of  Africa,  Spain,  and  the 
Mediterranean  islands,  as  co-rivals  in 
commerce  with  these  very  Saracens,  or 
with  the  Christians  of  the  East,  as  co-op- 
erators in  the  great  expeditions  under  the 
banner  of  the  cross,  or  as  engaged  in 
deadly  warfare  with  each  other,  the  two 
republics  stand  in  continual  parallel. 
From  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth 
century,  Genoa  was,  I  think,  the  more 
prominent  and  flourishing  of  the  two. 
She  had  conquered  the  Island  of  Corsica 
at  the  same  time  that  Pisa  reduced  Sar- 
dinia; and  her  acquisition,  though  less 
considerable,  was  longer  preserved.  Her 
territory  at  home,  the  ancient  Liguria, 
was  much  more  extensive,  and,  what 
was  most  important,  contained  a  greater 
range  of  seacoast  than  that  of  Pisa. 
But  the  commercial  and  maritime  pros- 
perity of  Genoa  may  be  dated  from  the 
recovery  of  Constantinople  by  the  Greeks 
in  1261.  Jealous  of  the  Venetians,  by 
whose  arms  the  Latin  emperors  had  been 
placed,  and  were  still  maintained  on  their 
throne,  the  Genoese  assisted  Paloeologus 
in  overturning  that  usurpation.  They 
obtained  in  consequence  the  suburb  of 
Pera  or  Galata  over  against  Constantino- 
ple as  an  exclusive  settlement,  where 
their  colony  was  ruled  by  a  magistrate 
sent  from  home,  and  frequently  defied 
the  Greek  capital  with  its  armed  galleys 
and  intrepid  seamen.  From  this  conve- 
nient station  Genoa  extended  her  con> 
merce  into  the  Black  Sea,  and  established 
her  principal  factory  at  CafTa,  in  the  Cri- 
mean peninsula.  This  commercial  mo- 
nopoly, for  such  she  endeavoured  to  ren- 
der it,  aggravated  the  animosity  of  Ven- 
ice. As  Pisa  retired  from  the  And  Venice, 
field  of  waters,  a  new  enemy 
appeared  upon  the  horizon  to  dispute  the 
maritime  dominion  of  Genoa.  Her  first 
war  with  Venice  was  in  1258.  The  sea- 
ond  was  not  till  after  the  victory  of  Me» 


168 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


loria  had  crushed  her  more  ancient  ene- 
my. It  broke  out  in  1293,  and  was  pros- 
ecuted with  determined  fury,  and  a  great 
display  of  naval  strength  on  both  sides. 
One  Genoese  armament,  as  we  are  as- 
sured by  an  historian,  consisted  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-five  galleys,  each  man- 
ned with  from  two  hundred  and  twenty 
to  three  hundred  sailors  ;*  a  force  aston- 
ishing to  those  who  know  the  slender  re- 
sources of  Italy  in  modern  times,  but 
which  is  rendered  credible  by  several 
analogous  facts  of  good  authority.  It 
was,  however,  beyond  any  other  exer- 
tion. The  usual  fleets  of  Genoa  and  Ven- 
ice were  of  seventy  to  ninety  galleys. 

Perhaps  the  naval  exploits  of  these 
two  republics  may  afford  a  more  inter- 
esting spectacle  to  some  minds  than  any 
other  part  of  Italian  history.  Compared 
with  military  transactions  of  the  same 
age,  they  are  more  sanguinary,  more 
brilliant,  and  exhibit  full  as  much  skill 
and  intrepidity.  But  maritime  warfare  is 
scanty  in  circumstances,  and  the  indefi- 
niteness  of  its  locality  prevents  it  from 
resting  in  the  memory.  And  though  the 
wars  of  Genoa  and  Venice  were  not 
always  so  unconnected  with  territorial 
politics  as  those  of  the  former  city  with 
Pisa,  yet,  from  the  alternation  of  success 
and  equality  of  forces,  they  did  not  often 
produce  any  decisive  effect.  One  mem- 
orable encounter  in  the  Sea  of  Marmora, 
where  the  Genoese  fought  and  conquered 
single-handed  against  the  Venetians,  the 
Catalans,  and  the  Greeks,  hardly  belongs 
to  Italian  history. f 

But  the  most  remarkable  war,  and  that 
War  of  productive  of  the  greatest  conse- 
Chioggia.  quences,  was  one  that  commen- 
ced in  1378,  after  several  acts  of  hostility 
in  the  Levant,  wherein  the  Venetians 
appear  to  have  been  the  principal  ag- 
gressors. Genoa  did  not  stand  alone  in 
this  war.  A  formidable  confederacy  was 
exerted  against  Venice,  who  had  given 
provocation  to  many  enemies.  Of  this 
Francis  Carrara,  signor  of  Padua,  and 
the  King  of  Hungary,  were  the  leaders. 
But  the  principal  struggle  was,  as  usual, 
upon  the  waves.  During  the  winter  of 
1378,  a  Genoese  fleet  kept  the  sea,  and 
ravaged  the  shores  of  Dalmatia.  The 
Venetian  armament  had  been  weakened 
by  an  epidemic  disease,  and  when  Vittor 
Pisani,  their  admiral,  gave  battle  to  the 
enemy,  he  was  compelled  to  fight  with  a 
hasty  conscription  of  landsmen  against 
the  best  sailors  in  the  world.  Entirely 
defeated,  and  taking  refuge  at  Venice 


with  only  seven  galleys,  Pisani  was  cast 
into  prison,  as  if  his  ill  fortune  had  been 
his  crime.  Meanwhile  the  Genoese  fleet, 
augmented  by  a  strong  re-enforcement, 
rode  before  the  long  natural  ramparts 
that  separate  the  lagunes  of  Venice  from 
the  Adriatic.  Six  passages  intersect  the 
islands  which  constitute  this  barrier,  be- 
sides the  broader  outlets  of  Brondolo  and 
Fossone,  through  which  the  waters  of 
the  Brenta  and  the  Adige  are  discharged. 
The  lagune  itself,  as  is  well  known,  con- 
sists of  extremely  shallow  water,  unnav- 
igable  for  any  vessel,  except  along  the 
course  of  artificial  and  intricate  passages. 
Notwithstanding  the  apparent  difficulties 
of  such  an  enterprise,  Pietro  Doria,  the 
Genoese  admiral,  determined  to  reduce 
the  city.  His  first  successes  gave  him 
reason  to  hope.  He  forced  the  passage, 
and  stormed  the  little  town  of  Chioggia,* 
built  upon  the  inside  of  the  isle  bearing 
that  name,  about  twenty-five  miles  south 
of  Venice.  Nearly  four  thousand  prison- 
ers fell  here  into  his  hands  :  an  augury, 
as  it  seemed,  of  a  more  splendid  triumph. 
In  the  consternation  this  misfortune  in- 
spired at  Venice,  the  first  impulse  was 
to  ask  for  peace.  The  ambassadors  car- 
ried with  them  seven  Genoese  prisoners, 
as  a  sort  of  peace-offering  to  the  admiral, 
and  were  empowered  to  make  large  and 
humiliating  concessions,  reserving  noth- 
ing but  the  liberty  of  Venice.  Francis 
Carrara  strongly  urged  his  allies  to  treat 
for  peace.  But  the  Genoese  were  stim- 
ulated by  long  hatred,  and  intoxicated  by 
this  unexpected  opportunity  of  revenge. 
Doria,  calling  the  ambassadors  into  coun- 
cil, thus  addressed  them  : — "  Ye  shall 
obtain  no  peace  from  us,  I  swear  to  you, 
nor  from  the  Lord  of  Padua,  till  first  we 
have  put  a  curb  in  the  mouths  of  those 
wild  horses  that  stand  upon  the  place  of 
St.  Mark.  When  they  are  bridled,  you 
shall  have  enough  of  peace.  Take  back 
with  you  your  Genoese  captives,  for  I 
am  coming  within  a  few  days  to  release 
both  them  and  their  companions  from 
your  prisons."  When  this  answer  was 
reported  to  the  senate,  they  prepared  to 
defend  themselves  with  the  characteris- 
tic firmness  of  their  government.  Every 
eye  was  turned  towards  a  great  man 
unjustly  punished,  their  admiral,  Vittor 
Pisani.  He  was  called  out  of  prison  to 
defend  his  country  amid  general  accla- 
mations ;  but,  equal  in  magnanimity  and 
simple  republican  patriotism  to  the  no- 
blest characters  of  antiquity,  Pisani  re- 


Muratori,  A.  D.  1295. 


*  Chioggia,  known  at  Venice  by  the  name  of 

Chioza,  according  to  the  usage  of  the  Venetian 

t  Gibbon,  c.  63.       dialect,  which  changes  the  g  into  z. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


169 


pressed  the  favouring  voices  of  the  mul- 
titude, and  bade  them  reserve  their  enthu- 
siasm for  St.  Mark,  the  symbol  and  war- 
cry  of  Venice.  Under  the  vigorous  com- 
mand of  Pisani,  the  canals  were  fortified 
or  occupied  by  large  vessels,  armed  with 
artillery ;  thirty-four  galleys  were  equip- 
ped ;  every  citizen  contributed  according 
to  his  power ;  in  the  entire  want  of  com- 
mercial resources  (for  Venice  had  not  a 
merchant-ship  during  this  war),  private 
plate  was  melted;  and  the  senate  held 
out  the  promise  of  ennobling  thirty  fami- 
lies, who  should  be  most  forward  in  this 
strife  of  patriotism. 

The  new  fleet  was  so  ill  provided  with 
seamen,  that  for  some  months  the  admi- 
ral employed  them  only  in  mano3uvring 
along  the  canals.  From  some  unaccounta- 
ble supineness,  or  more  probably  from  the 
insuperable  difficulties  of  the  undertaking, 
the  Genoese  made  no  assault  upon  the 
city.  They  had,  indeed,  fair  grounds  to 
hope  its  reduction  by  famine  or  despair. 
Every  access  to  the  continent  was  cut 
off  by  the  troops  of  Padua ;  and  the  King 
of  Hungary  had  mastered  almost  all  the 
Venetian  towns  in  Istria  and  along  the 
Dalmatian  coast.  The  Doge  Contarini, 
taking  the  chief  command,  appeared  at 
length  with  his  fleet  near  Chioggia,  before 
the  Genoese  were  aware.  They  were 
still  less  aware  of  his  secret  design.  He 
pushed  one  of  the  large  round  vessels, 
then  called  cocche,  into  the  narrow  pas- 
sage of  Chioggia,  which  connects  the 
lagune  with  the  sea,  and  mooring  her 
athwart  the  channel,  interrupted  that  com- 
munication. Attacked  with  fury  by  the 
enemy,  this  vessel  went  down  on  the  spot, 
and  the  doge  improved  his  advantage,  by 
sinking  loads  of  stones,  until  the  passage 
became  absolutely  unnavigable.  It  was 
still  possible  for  the  Genoese  fleet  to 
follow  the  principal  canal  of  the  lagune 
towards  Venice  and  the  northern  passa- 
ges, or  to  sail  out  of  it  by  the  harbour  of 
Brondolo ;  but  whether  from  confusion 
or  from  miscalculating  the  dangers  of 
their  position,  they  suffered  the  Vene- 
tians to  close  the  canal  upon  them  by  the 
same  means  they  had  used  at  Chioggia, 
and  even  to  place  their  fleet  in  the  en- 
trance of  Brondolo,  so  near  to  the  lagune 
that  the  Genoese  could  not  form  their 
ships  in  line  of  battle.  The  circumstan- 
ces of  the  two  combatants  were  thus  en- 
tirely changed.  But  the  Genoese  fleet, 
though  besieged  in  Chioggia,  was  im- 
pregnable, and  their  command  of  the 
land  secured  them  from  famine.  Ven- 
ice, notwithstanding  her  unexpected  suc- 
cess, was  still  very  far  from  secure ;  it 


was  difficult  for  the  doge  to  keep  his 
position  through  the  winter ;  and  if  the 
enemy  could  appear  in  open  sea,  the  risks 
of  combat  were  extremely  hazardous.  It 
is  said  that  the  senate  deliberated  upon 
transporting  the  seat  of  their  liberty  to 
Candia,  and  that  the  doge  had  announced 
his  intention  to  raise  the  siege  of  Chiog- 
gia, if  expected  succours  did  not  arrive  by 
the  first  of  January,  1380.  On  that  very 
day,  Carlo  Zeno,  an  admiral,  who,  igno- 
rant of  the  dangers  of  his  country,  had 
been  supporting  the  honour  of  her  flag  in 
the  Levant  and  on  the  coasts  of  Liguria, 
appeared  with  a  re-enforcement  of  eigh- 
teen galleys  and  a  store  of  provisions. 
From  that  moment  the  confidence  of 
Venice  revived.  The  fleet,  now  superior 
in  strength  to  the  enemy,  began  to  attack 
them  with  vivacity.  After  several  months 
of  obstinate  resistance,  the  Genoese, 
whom  their  republic  had  ineffectually 
attempted  to  relieve  by  a  fresh  arma- 
ment, blocked  up  in  the  town  of  Chiog- 
gia, and  pressed  by  hunger,  were  obliged 
to  surrender.  Nineteen  galleys  only  out 
of  forty-eight  were  in  good  condition ; 
and  the  crews  were  equally  diminished 
in  the  ten  months  of  their  occupation 
of  Chioggia.  The  pride  of  Genoa  was 
deemed  to  be  justly  humbled ;  and  even 
her  own  historian  confesses,  that  God 
would  not  suffer  so  noble  a  city  as  Venice 
to  become  the  spoil  of  a  conqueror.* 

Each  of  the  two  republics  had  suffi- 
cient reason  to  lament  their  mutual  pre- 
judices, and  the  selfish  cupidity  of  their 
merchants,  which  usurps  in  all  maritime 
countries  the  name  of  patriotism.  Though 
the  capture  of  Chioggia  did  not  terminate 
the  war,  both  parties  were  exhausted, 
and  willing  next  year  to  accept  the  me- 
diation of  the  Duke  of  Savoy.  By  the 
peace  of  Turin,  Venice  surrendered  most 
of  her  territorial  possessions  to  the  King 
of  Hungary.  That  prince,  and  Francis 
Carrara,  were  the  only  gainers.  Genoa 
obtained  the  Isle  of  Tenedos,  one  of  the 
original  subjects  of  dispute  ;  a  poor  in- 
demnity for  her  losses.  Though,  upon  a 
hasty  view,  the  result  of  this  war  appears 
more  unfavourable  to  Venice,  yet  in  fact 
it  is  the  epoch  of  the  decline  of  Genoa. 
From  this  time  she  never  commanded 
the  ocean  with  such  navies  as  before; 
her  commerce  gradually  went  into  de- 
cay ;  and  the  fifteenth  century,  the  most 

*  G.  Stella,  Annales  Genuenses ;  Gataro,  Isto- 
ria  Padovana.  Both  these  contemporary  works, 
of  which  the  latter  gives  the  best  relation,  are  in 
the  seventeenth  volume  of  Muratori's  collection. 
M.  Sismondi's  narrative  is  very  clear  and  spirited. 
—Hist,  des  Republ.  Ital.,  t.  vii.,  p.  205-232. 


170 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   III. 


splendid  in  the  annals  of  Venice,  is,  till 
recent  times,  the  most  ignominious  in 
those  of  Genoa.  But  this  was  partly 
owing  to  internal  dissensions,  by  which 
her  liberty",  as  well  as  glory,  was  for  a 
while  suspended. 

At  Genoa,  as  in  other  cities  of  Lom- 
Govem-  bardy,  the  principal  magistrates  of 
ment  of  the  republic  were  originally  styled 
Genoa.  consuiSi  A  chronicle,  drawn  up 
under  the  inspection  of  the  senate,  per- 
petuates the  names  of  these  early  magis- 
trates. It  appears  that  their  number  va- 
ried from  four  to  six,  annually  elected  by 
the  people  in  their  full  parliament.  These 
consuls  presided  over  the  republic,  and 
commanded  the  forces  by  land  and  sea ; 
while  another  class  of  magistrates,  bear- 
ing the  same  title,  were  annually  elected 
by  the  several  companies  into  which  the 
people  were  divided,  for  the  administra- 
tion of  civil  justice.*  This  was  the  re- 
gimen of  the  twelfth  century  ;  but  in  the 
next,  Genoa  fell  into  the  fashion  of  in- 
trusting the  executive  power  to  a  foreign 
podesta.  The  podesta  was  assisted  by  a 
council  of  eight,  chosen  by  the  eight  com- 
panies of  nobility.  This  institution,  if  in- 
deed it  were  any  thing  more  than  a  cus- 
tom or  usurpation,  originated  probably 
not  much  later  than  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century.  It  gave  not  only  an 
aristocratic,  but  almost  an  oligarchical 
character  to  the  constitution,  since  many 
of  the  nobility  were  not  members  of  these 
eight  societies.  Of  the  senate  or  coun- 
cils we  hardly  know  more  than  their  ex- 
istence ;  they  are  very  little  mentioned 
by  historians.  Every  thing  of  a  general 
nature,  every  thing  that  required  the  ex- 
pression of  public  will,  was  reserved  for 
the  entire  and  unrepresented  sovereignty 
of  the  people.  In  no  city  was  the  parlia- 
ment so  often  convened ;  for  war,  for 
peace,  for  alliance,  for  change  of  govern- 
ment.! These  very  dissonant  elements 
were  not  likely  to  harmonize.  The  peo- 
ple, sufficiently  accustomed  to  the  forms 
of  democracy  to  imbibe  its  spirit,  repi- 
ned at  the  practical  influence  which  was 
thrown  into  the  scale  of  the  nobles.  Nor 
did  some  of  the  latter  class  scruple  to 
enter  that  path  of  ambition,  which  leads 
to  power  by  flattery  of  the  populace. 
Two  or  three  times  within  the  thirteenth 
century,  a  highborn  demagogue  had  near- 
ly overturned  the  general  liberty,  like  the 
Torriani  at  Milan,  through  the  pretence 
of  defending  that  of  individuals.  J  Among 
the  nobility  themselves,  four  houses  were 
distinguished  beyond  all  the  rest;  the 


*  Sismondi,  t.  i.,  p.  353. 
f  Id.,  t.  iii.,  p.  319. 


Id.,  p.  324. 


Grimaldi,  the  Fieschi,  the  Doria,  the  Spi- 
nola ;  the  two  former  of  Guelf  politics, 
the  latter  adherents  of  the  empire.*  Per- 
haps their  equality  of  forces,  and  a  jeal- 
ousy which  even  the  families  of  the  same 
faction  entertained  of  each  other,  pre- 
vented any  one  from  usurping  the  signio- 
ry  at  Genoa.  Neither  the  Guelf  nor 
Ghibelin  party  obtaining  a  decisive  pre- 
ponderance, continual  revolutions  occur- 
red in  the  city.  The  most  celebrated  was 
the  expulsion  of  the  Ghibelins  under  the 
Doria  and  Spinola,  in  1318.  They  had 
recourse  to  the  Visconti  of  Milan,  and 
their  own  resources  were  not  unequal  to 
cope  with  their  country.  The  Guelfs 
thought  it  necessary  to  call  in  Robert, 
king  of  Naples,  always  ready  to  give  as- 
sistance as  the  price  of  dominion,  and 
conferred  upon  him  the  temporary  sover- 
eignty of  Genoa.  A  siege  of  several 
years  duration,  if  we  believe  an  historian 
of  that  age,  produced  as  many  remarka- 
ble exploits  as  that  of  Troy.  They  have 
not  proved  so  interesting  to  posterity. 
The  Ghibelins  continued  for  a  length  of 
time  excluded  from  the  city,  but  in  pos- 
session of  the  seaport  of  Savona,  whence 
they  traded  and  equipped  fleets,  as  a  rival 
republic,  and  even  entered  into  a  separate 
war  with  Venice. f  Experience  of  the 
uselessness  of  hostility,  and  the  loss  to 
which  they  exposed  their  common  coun- 
try, produced  a  reconciliation,  or  rather  a 
compromise,  in  1331,  when  the  Ghibelins 
returned  to  Genoa.  But  the  people  felt 
that  many  years  of  misfortune  had  been 
owing  to  the  private  enmities  of  four 
overbearing  families.  An  opportunity 
soon  offered  of  reducing  their  influence 
within  very  narrow  bounds. 

The  Ghibelin  faction  was  at  the  head, 
of  affairs  in  1339,  a  Doria  and  a  Eiectionof 
Spinola  being  its  leaders,  when  the  first 
the  discontent  of  a  large  fleet  in  Doge- 
want  of  pay  broke  out  in  open  insurrec- 
tion. Savona  and  the  neighbouring  towns 
took  arms  avowedly  against  the  aristo- 
cratical  tyranny ;  and  the  capital  was  it- 
self on  the  point  of  joining  the  insurgents. 
There  was,  by  the  Genoese  constitution, 
a  magistrate,  named  the  abbot  of  the 
people,  acting  as  a  kind  of  tribune  for 
their  protection  against  the  oppression 
of  the  nobility.  His  functions  are  not, 
however,  in  any  book  I  have  seen,  very 
clearly  defined.  This  office  had  been 
abolished  by  the  present  government,  and 
it  was  the  first  demand  of  the  malecon- 
tents  that  it  should  be  restored.  This 
was  acceded  to,  and  twenty  delegates 

*  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  328. 
f  Villani,  1.  ix.,  passim. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


171 


were  appointed  to  make  the  choice. 
While  they  delayed  and  the  populace  was 
grown  weary  of  waiting,  a  nameless  ar- 
tisan called  out  from  an  elevated  station 
that  he  could  direct  them  to  a  fit  person. 
When  the  people,  in  jest,  bade  him  speak 
on,  he  uttered  the  name  of  Simon  Boc- 
canegra.  This  was  a  man  of  noble  birth, 
and  well  esteemed,  who  was  then  present 
among  the  crowd.  The  word  was  sud- 
denly taken  up;  a  cry  was  heard  that 
Boccanegra  should  be  abbot ;  he  was  in- 
stantly brought  forward,  and  the  sword 
of  justice  forced  into  his  hand.  As  soon 
as  silence  could  be  obtained,  he  modestly 
thanked  them  for  their  favour,  but  decli- 
ned an  office  which  his  nobility  disquali- 
fied him  from  exercising.  At  this,  a  sin- 
gle voice  out  of  the  crowd  exclaimed 
Signior!  and  this  title  was  reverberated 
from  every  side.  Fearful  of  worse  con- 
sequences, the  actual  magistrates  urged 
him  to  comply  with  the  people,  and  ac- 
cept the  office  of  abbot.  But  Boccanegra, 
addressing  the  assembly,  declared  his 
readiness  to  become  their  abbot,  signior, 
or  whatever  they  would.  The  cry  of  sig- 
nior was  now  louder  than  before ;  while 
others  cried  out  let  him  be  duke.  The 
latter  title  was  received  with  greater  ap- 
probation ;  and  Boccanegra  was  conduct- 
ed to  the  palace,  the  first  duke,  or  doge 
of  Genoa.* 

Caprice  alone,  or  an  idea  of  more  pomp 
Subsequent  and  dignity,  led  the  populace, 
revolutions.  We  may  conjecture,  to  prefer 
this  title  to  that  of  signior;  but  it  produ- 
ced important  and  highly  beneficial  con- 
sequences. In  all  neighbouring  cities,  an 
arbitrary  government  had  been  already 
established  under  their  respective  signi- 
ors ;  the  name  was  associated  with  indef- 
inite power  :  while  that  of  doge  had  only 
been  taken  by  the  elective  and  very  lim- 
ited chief  magistrate  of  another  maritime 
republic.  Neither  Boccanegra  nor  his 
successors  ever  rendered  their  authority 
unlimited  or  hereditary.  The  constitu- 
tion of  Genoa,  from  an  oppressive  aris- 
tocracy, became  a  mixture  of  the  two 
other  forms,  with  an  exclusion  of  the 
nobles  from  power.  Those  four  great 
families  who  had  domineered  alternately 
for  almost  a  century,  lost  their  influence 
at  home  after  the  revolution  of  1339. 
Yet,  what  is  remarkable  enough,  they 
were  still  selected  in  preference  for  the 
highest  of  trusts;  their  names  are  still 
identified  with  the  glory  of  Genoa ;  her 
fleets  hardly  sailed  but  under  a  Doria,  a 
Spinola,  or  a  Grimaldi ;  such  confidence 


*  G.  Stella,  Annal.  Genuenses.  in  Script.  Rer, 
Ital.,  t.  xvii.,  p.  1072 


could  the  republic  bestow  upon  their  pa- 
triotism, or  that  of  those  whom  they  com- 
manded. Meanwhile -two  or  three  new 
families,  a  plebeian  oligarchy,  filled  their 
place  in  domestic  honours ;  the  Adorni, 
the  Fregosi,  the  Montalti,  contended  for 
the  ascendant.  From  their  competition 
ensued  revolutions  too  numerous  almost 
for  a  separate  history ;  in  four  years,  from 
1390  to  1394,  the  doge  was  ten  times  chan- 
ged ;  swept  away  or  brought  back  in  the 
fluctuations  of  popular  tumult.  Antoni- 
otto  Adorno,  four  times  doge  of  Genoa, 
had  sought  the  friendship  of  Gian  Galeaz- 
zo  Visconti ;  but  that  crafty  tyrant  medi- 
tated the  subjugation  of  the  republic,  and 
played  her  factions  against  one  another  to 
render  her  fall  secure.  Adorno  perceiv- 
ed that  there  was  no  hope  for  ultimate  in- 
dependence, but  by  making  a  temporary 
sacrifice  of  it.  His  own  power,  ambi- 
tious as  he  had  been,  he  voluntarily  re- 
signed ;  and  placed  the  republic  under  the 
protection  or  signiory  of  the  King  of 
France.  Terms  were  stipulated  very 
favourable  to  her  liberties;  but  with  a 
French  garrison  once  received  into  the 
city,  they  were  not  always  sure  of  ob- 
servance. * 

While  Genoa  lost  even  her  political  in- 
dependence, Venice  became  more  . 
conspicuous  and  powerful  than  be- 
fore. That  famous  republic  deduces  its 
original,  and  even  its  liberty,  from  an  era 
beyond  the  commencement  of  the  middle 
ages.  The  Venetians  boast  of  a  perpet- 
ual emancipation  from  the  yoke  of  bar- 
barians. From  that  ignominious  servi- 
tude some  natives,  or,  as  their  historians 
will  have  it,  nobles  of  Aquileja  and 
neighbouring  towns,f  fled  to  the  small 
cluster  of  islands  that  rise  amid  the 
shoals  at  the  mouth  of  the  Brenta.  Here 
they  built  the  town  of  Rivoalto,  the  mod- 
ern Venice,  in  421  ;  but  their  chief  settle- 
ment was,  till  the  beginning  of  the  ninth 
century,  at  Malamocco.  A  living  writer 
has,  in  a  passage  of  remarkable  eloqueilce, 
described  the  sovereign  republic,  immove- 
able  upon  the  bosom  of  the  waters,  from 
which  her  palaces  emerge,  contemplating 
the  successive  tides  of  continental  inva- 
sion, the  rise  and  fall  of  empires,  the 
change  of  dynasties,  the  whole  moving 
scene  of  human  revolution;  till,  in  her 
own  turn,  the  last  surviving  witness  of 
antiquity,  the  common  link  between  two 
periods  of  civilization,  she  has  submitted 
to  the  destroying  hand  of  time.J  Some 


*  Sismondi,  t.  yii.,  p.  237,  367. 
t  Ebbe  principio,  says  Sanuto  haughtily,  non  da 
pastori,  come  ebbe  Roma,  ma  da  potenti,  e  nobili. 
Sismondi,  t.  i.,  p.  309. 

<* 


172 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


part  of  this  renown  must,  on  a  cold- 
blooded scrutiny,  be  detracted  from  Ven- 
ice. Her  independence  was,  at  the  best, 
the  fruit  of  her  obscurity.  Neglected 
Her  depend-  uP°n  their  islands,  a  people  of 
anceouthe  fishermen  might  without  mo- 
GireCk  em  lestation  elect  their  own'  magis- 
trates ;  a  very  equivocal  proof 
of  sovereignty  in  cities  much  more  con- 
siderable than  Venice.  But  both  the 
western  and  the  eastern  empire  alter- 
nately pretended  to  exercise  dominion 
over  her ;  she  was  conquered  by  Pepin, 
son  of  Charlemagne,  and  restored  by  him, 
as  the  Chronicles  say,  to  the  Greek  em- 
peror Nicephorus.  There  fe  every  ap- 
pearance that  the  Venetians  had  always 
considered  themselves  as  subject,  in  a 
large  sense,  not  exclusive  of  their  muni- 
cipal self-government,  to  the  eastern  em- 
pire.* And  this  connexion  was  not  bro- 
ken, in  the  early  part,  at  least,  of  the 
tenth  century.  But,  for  every  essential 
purpose,  Venice  might  long  before  be 
deemed  an  independent  state.  Her  doge 
was  not  confirmed  at  Constantinople; 
she  paid  no  tribute,  and  lent  no  assistance 
in  war.  Her  own  navies,  in  the  ninth 
century,  encountered  the  Normans,  the 
Saracens,  and  the  Sclavonians  in  the 
Adriatic  Sea.  Upon  the  coast  of  Dalma- 
tia  were  several  Greek  cities,  which  the 
empire  had  ceased  to  protect ;  and  which, 
like  Venice  itself,  became  republics  for 
want  of  a  master.  Ragusa  was  one  of 
these,  and,  more  fortunate  than  the  rest, 
conquest  of  survived  as  an  independent  city 
Daimatia.  till  our  own  age.  [A.  D.  997.] 
In  return  for  the  assistance  of  Venice, 
these  little  seaports  put  themselves  under 
her  government;  the  Sclavonian  pirates 
were  repressed ;  and  after  acquiring, 
partly  by  consent,  partly  by  arms,  a  large 
tract  of  maritime  territory,  the  doge  took 


*  Nicephorus  stipulates  with  Charlemagne  for 
his  faithful  city  of  Venice,  Quae  in  devotione  impe- 
ril illibatse  steterant. — Danduli  Chronicon,  in  Mu- 
ratori,  Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xii.,  p.  156.  In  the 
tenth  century,  Constantino  Porphyrogenitus,  in  his 
book  De  Administratione  Imperil,  claims  the  Ve- 
netians as  his  subjects,  though  he  admits  that  they 
had,  for  peace'  sake,  paid  tribute  to  Pepin  and  his 
successors  as  kings  of  Italy,  p.  71.  I  have  never 
seen  the  famous  Squittinio  della  liberta  Veneta, 
which  gave  the  republic  so  much  offence  in  the 
seventeenth  century ;  but  a  very  strong  case  is 
made  out  against  their  early  independence  in  Gi- 
annone's  history,  t.  ii.,  p.  283,  edit.  Haia,  1753. 
Muratori  informs  us,  that  so  late  as  1084,  the  doge 
obtained  the  title  of  Imperialis  Protosevastos  from 
the  court  of  Constantinople  ;  a  title  which  he  con- 
tinued always  to  use.— (Annali  d'ltalia,  ad  ann.) 
But  I  should  lay  no  stress  on  this  circumstance. 
The  Greek,  like  the  German  emperors  in  modern 
times,  had  a  mint  of  specious  titles,  which  passed 
for  ready  money  over  Christendom. 


the  title  of  Duke  of  Daimatia,  which  is  said 
by  Dandolo  to  have  been  confirmed  at 
Constantinople.  Three  or  four  centu- 
ries, however,  elapsed,  before  the  repub- 
lic became  secure  of  these  conquests, 
which  were  frequently  wrested  from  her 
by  rebellions  of  the  inhabitants,  or  by 
her  powerful  neighbour,  the  King  of  Hun- 
gary. 

A  more  important  source  of  Venetian 
greatness  was  commerce.  In  Heracqui- 
the  darkest  and  most  barbarous  sitions  in 
period,  before  Genoa  or  even  theLevant- 
Pisa  had  entered  into  mercantile  pursuits, 
Venice  carried  on  an  extensive  traffic 
both  with  the  Greek  and  Saracen  regions 
of  the  Levant.  The  crusades  enriched 
and  aggrandized  Venice  more,  perhaps, 
than  any  other  city.  Her  splendour 
may,  however,  be  dated  from  the  taking 
of  Constantinople  by  the  Latins  in  1204. 
In  this  famous  enterprise,  which  diverted 
a  great  armament  destined  for  the  recov- 
ery of  Jerusalem,  the  French  and  Vene- 
tian nations  were  alone  engaged;  but 
the  former  only  as  private  adventurers, 
the  latter  with  the  whole  strength  of 
their  republic  under  its  doge,  Henry 
Dandolo.  Three  eighths  of  the  city  of 
Constantinople,  and  an  equal  proportion 
of  the  provinces,  were  allotted  to  them 
in  the  partition  of  the  spoil,  and  the  doge 
took  the  singular,  but  accurate  title,  duke 
of  three  eighths  of  the  Roman  empire. 
Their  share  was  increased  by  purchases 
from  less  opulent  crusaders,  especially 
one  of  much  importance,  the  Island  of 
Candia,  which  they  retained  till  the  mid- 
dle of  the  seventeenth  century.  These 
foreign  acquisitions  were  generally  grant- 
ed out  in  fief  to  private  Venetian  nobles 
under  the  supremacy  of  the  republic.* 
It  was  thus  that  the  Ionian  islands,  to 
adopt  the  vocabulary  of  our  day,  came 
under  the  dominion  of  Venice,  and  guar- 
antied that  sovereignty  which  she  now 
began  to  affect  over  the  Adriatic.  Those 
of  the  Archipelago  were  lost  in  the  six- 
teenth century.  This  political  greatness 
was  sustained  by  an  increasing  com- 
merce. No  Christian  state  preserved  so 
considerable  an  intercourse  with  the 
Mahometans.  While  Genoa  kept  the 
keys  of  the  Black  Sea  by  her  colonies  of 
Pera  and  Caffa,  Venice  directed  her  ves- 
sels to  Acre  and  Alexandria.  These 
connexions,  as  is  the  natural  effect  of 
trade,  deadened  the  sense  of  religious  an- 
tipathy ;  and  the  Venetians  were  some- 
times charged  with  obstructing  all  efforts 
towards  a  new  crusade,  or  even  any  par- 


*  Sismondi,  t.  ii.,  p.  431. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY 


173 


tial   attacks  upon   the   Mahometan  na- 
tions. 

The  earliest  form  of  government  at 
Venetian  Venice,  as  we  collect  from  an 
government,  epistle  of  Cassiodorus  in  the 
sixth  century,  was  by  twelve  annual  trib- 
unes. Perhaps  the  union  of  the  differ- 
ent islanders  was  merely  federative. 
However,  in  697,  they  resolved  to  elect 
a  chief  magistrate  by  name  of  duke,  or, 
in  their  dialect,  Doge  of  Venice.  No 
councils  appear  to  have  limited  his  pow- 
er, or  represented  the  national  will.  The 
doge  was  general  and  judge ;  he  was 
sometimes  permitted  to  associate  his  son 
with  him,  and  thus  to  prepare  the  road 
for  hereditary  power ;  his  government 
had  all  the  prerogatives,  and,  as  far  as  in 
such  a  state  of  manners  was  possible, 
the  pomp  of  a  monarchy.  But  he  acted 
in  important  matters  with  the  concur- 
rence of  a  general  assembly,  though  from 
the  want  of  positive  restraints,  his  exec- 
utive government  might  be  considered  as 
nearly  absolute.  Time,  however,  de- 
monstrated to  the  Venetians  the  imper- 
fections of  such  a  constitution.  Limita- 
tions were  accordingly  imposed  on  the 
doge  in  1032  ;  he  was  prohibited  from  as- 
sociating a  son  in  the  government,  and 
obliged  to  act  with  the  consent  of  two 
elected  counsellors,  and,  on  important 
occasions,  to  call  in  some  of  the  principal 
citizens.  No  other  change  appears  to 
have  taken  place  till  1172;  long  after 
every  other  Italian  city  had  provided  for 
its  liberty  by  constitutional  laws,  more 
or  less  successful,  but  always  manifest- 
ing a  good  deal  of  contrivance  and  com- 
plication. Venice  was,  however,  dissat- 
isfied with  her  existing  institutions.  Gen- 
eral assemblies  were  found,  in  practice, 
inconvenient  and  unsatisfactory.  Yet 
some  adequate  safeguard  against  a  ma- 
gistrate of  indefinite  powers  was  requi- 
red by  freemen.  A  representative  coun- 
cil, as  in  other  republics,  justly  appeared 
the  best  innovation  that  could  be  intro- 
duced.* 

The  great  council  of  Venice,  as  estab- 
lished in  1172,  was  to  consist  of  four 
hundred  and  eighty  citizens,  equally 
taken  from  the  six  districts  of  the  city, 
and  annually  renewed.  But  the  election 


*  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  287.  As  I  have  never  met 
with  the  Storia  civile  Veneta,  by  Vettor  Sandi,  in 
nine  vols.  4to,  or  even  Laugier's  History  of  Venice, 
my  reliance  has  chiefly  been  placed  on  M.  Sismondi, 
who  has  made  use  of  Sandi,  the  latest  and  probably 
most  accurate  historian.  To  avoid  frequent  refer- 
ence, the  principal  passages  in  Sismondi  relative 
to  the  domestic  revolutions  of  Venice  are,  t.  i.,  p. 
323  ;  t.  iii.,  p.  287-300;  t.  iv.,  p.  349-370. 


was  not  made  immediately  by  the  people. 
Two  electors,  called  tribunes,  from  each  of 
the  six  districts,  appointed  the  members 
of  the  council  by  separate  nomination. 
These  tribunes,  at  first,  were  themselves 
chosen  by  the  people ;  so  that  the  inter- 
vention of  this  electoral  body  did  not  ap- 
parently trespass  upon  the  democratical 
character  of  the  constitution.  But  the 
great  council,  principally  composed  of 
men  of  high  birth,  and  invested  by  the 
law  with  the  appointment  of  the  doge  and 
of  all  the  councils  of  magistracy,  seem, 
early  in  the  thirteenth  century,  to  have 
assumed  the  right  of  naming  their  own 
constituents.  Besides  appointing  the 
tribunes,  they  took  upon  themselves  an- 
other privilege ;  that  of  confirming  or  re- 
jecting their  successors  before  they  re- 
signed their  functions.  These,  usurpa- 
tions rendered  the  annual  election  almost 
nugatory ;  the  same  members  were  usu- 
ally renewed,  and,  though  the  dignity  of 
counsellor  was  not  yet  hereditary,  it  re- 
mained, upon  the  whole,  in  the  same  fam- 
ilies. In  this  transitional  state  the  Vene- 
tian government  continued  during  the 
thirteenth  century ;  the  people  actually 
debarred  of  power,  but  an  hereditary 
aristocracy  not  completely  or  legally 
confirmed.  The  right  of  electing,  or 
rather  of  re-electing,  the  great  council, 
was  transferred  in  1297  from  the  tribunes, 
whose  office  was  abolished,  to  the  coun- 
cil of  forty ;  they  balloted  upon  the  names 
of  the  members  who  already  sat ;  and 
whoever  obtained  twelve  favouring  balls 
out  of  forty  retained  his  place.  The  va- 
cancies occasioned  by  rejection  or  death 
were  filled  up  by  a  supplemental  list, 
formed  by  three  electors  nominated  in 
the  great  council.  But  they  were  ex- 
pressly prohibited,  by  laws  of  1298  and 
1300,  from  inserting  the  name  of  any  one 
whose  paternal  ancestors  had  not  enjoy- 
ed the  same  honour.  Thus  an  exclusive 
hereditary  aristocracy  was  finally  estab- 
lished. And  the  personal  rights  of  noble 
descent  were  rendered  complete  in  1319, 
by  the  abolition  of  all  elective  forms.  By 
the  constitution  of  Venice,  as  it  was  then 
settled,  every  descendant  of  a  member  of 
the  great  council,  on  attaining  twenty- 
five  years  of  age,  entered  as  of  right  into 
that  body,  which  of  course  became  un- 
limited in  its  numbers.* 


•  These  gradual  changes  between  1297  and  1319 
were  first  made  known  by  Sandi,  from  whom  M. 
Sismondi  has  introduced  the  facts  into  his  own  his- 
tory. I  notice  this  because  all  former  writers,  both 
ancient  and  modern,  fix  the  complete  and  final  es- 
tablishment of  the  Venetian  aristocracy  in  1297. 
Twenty-five  years  complete  was  the  statutable 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   Ilf. 


But  an  assembly  so  numerous  as  the 
great  council,  even  before  it  was  thus 
thrown  open  to  all  the  nobility,  could 
never  have  conducted  the  public  affairs 
with  that  secrecy  and  steadiness  which 
were  characteristic  of  Venice  ;  and  with- 
out an  intermediary  power  between  the 
doge  and  the  patrician  multitude,  the  con- 
stitution would  have  gained  nothing  in 
stability  to  compensate  for  the  loss  of 
popular  freedom.  The  great  council  had 
proceeded,  very  soon  after  its  institution, 
to  limit  the  ducal  prerogatives.  That 
of  exercising  criminal  justice,  a  trust  of 
vast  importance,  was  transferred,  in  1179, 
to  a  council  of  forty  members,  annually 
chosen.  The  executive  government  it- 
self was  thought  too  considerable  for  the 
doge  without  some  material  limitations. 
Instead  of  naming  his  own  assistants  or 
pregadi,  he  was  only  to  preside  in  a  coun- 
cil of  sixty  members,  to  whom  the  care 
of  the  state  in  all  domestic  and  foreign 
relations,  and  the  previous  deliberation 
upon  proposals  submitted  to  the  great 
council,  was  confided.  This  council  of 
pregadi,  generally  called  in  later  times 
the  senate,  was  enlarged  in  the  fourteenth 
century  by  sixty  additional  members; 
and  as  a  great  part  of  the  magistrates  had 
also  seats  in  it,  the  whole  number  amount- 
ed to  between  two  and  three  hundred. 
Though  the  legislative  power,  properly 
speaking,  remained  with  the  great  coun- 
cil, the  senate  used  to  impose  taxes,  and 
had  the  exclusive  right  of  making  peace 
and  war.  It  was  annually  renewed,  like 
almost  all  other  councils  at  Venice,  by 
the  great  council.  But  since  even  this 
body  was  top  numerous  for  the  prelimi- 
nary discussion  of  business,  six  counsel- 
lors, forming,  along  with  the  doge,  the 
signiory,  or  visible  representative  of  the 
republic,  were  empowered  to  despatch 
orders,  to  correspond  with  ambassadors, 
to  treat  with  foreign  states,  to  convoke 
and  preside  in  the  councils,  and  perform 
other  duties  of  an  administration.  In 
part  of  these  they  were  obliged  to  act 
with  the  concurrence  of  what  was  term- 
ed the  college,  comprising,  besides  them- 
selves, certain  select  counsellors  from 
different  constituted  authorities.* 

age,  at  which  every  Venetian  noble  had  a  right  to 
take  his  seat  in  the  great  council.  But  the  names 
of  those  who  had  passed  the  age  of  twenty  were 
annually  put  into  an  urn,  and  one  fifth  drawn  out 
by  lot,  who  were  thereupon  admitted.  On  an  aver- 
age, therefore,  the  age  of  admission  was  about 
twenty-three. — Jannotus  de  Rep.  Venet.  Contare- 
ni.  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye. 

*  The  college  of  Savj  consisted  of  sixteen  per- 
sons ;  and  it  possessed  the  initiative  in  all  public 
measures  that  required  the  assent  of  the  senate. 


It  might  be  imagined  that  a  dignity 
so  shorn  of  its  lustre  as  that  of  doge, 
would  not  excite  an  overweening  ambi- 
tion. But  the  Venetians  were  still  jeal- 
ous of  extinguished  power;  and  while 
their  constitution  was  yet  immature,  the 
great  council  planned  new  methods  of 
restricting  their  chief  magistrate.  An 
oath  was  taken  by  the  doge  on  his  elec- 
tion, so  comprehensive  as  to  embrace  ev- 
ery possible  check  upon  undue  influence. 
He  was  bound  not  to  correspond  with 
foreign  states,  or  to  open  their  letters, 
except  in  the  presence  of  the  signiory ; 
to  acquire  no  property  beyond  the  Vene- 
tian dominions,  and  to  resign  what  he 
might  already  possess ;  to  interpose,  di- 
rectly or  indirectly,  in  no  judicial  process, 
and  not  to  permit  any  citizen  to  use  to- 
kens of  subjection  in  saluting  him.  As  a 
further  security,  they  devised  a  remark- 
ably complicated  mode  of  supplying  the 
vacancy  of  his  office.  Election  by  open 
suffrage  is  always  liable  to  tumult  or  cor- 
ruption ;  nor  does  the  method  of  secret 
ballot,  while  it  prevents  the  one,  afford 
in  practice  any  adequate  security  against 
the  other.  Election  by  lot  incurs  the 
risk  of  placing  incapable  persons  in  situ- 
ations of  arduous  trust.  The  Venetian 
scheme  was  intended  to  combine  the  two 
modes  without  their  evils,  by  leaving  the 
absolute  choice  of  their  doge  to  electors 
taken  by  lot.  It  was  presumed  that, 
among  a  competent  number  of  persons, 
though  taken  promiscuously,  good  sense 
and  right  principles  would  gain  such  an 
ascendency  as  to  prevent  any  flagrantly 
improper  nomination,  if  undue  influence 
could  be  excluded.  For  this  purpose, 
the  ballot  was  rendered  exceedingly  com- 
plicated, that  no  possible  ingenuity  or 
stratagem  might  ascertain  the  electoral 
body  before  the  last  moment.  A  single 
lottery,  if  fairly  conducted,  is  certainly 
sufficient  for  this  end.  At  Venice,  as 
many  balls  as  there  were  members  of 
the  great  council  present  were  placed  in 
an  urn.  Thirty  of  these  were  gilt.  The 
holders  of  gilt  balls  were  reduced  by  a 
second  ballot  to  nine.  The  nine  elected 
forty,  whom  lot  reduced  to  twelve.  The 
twelve  chose  twenty-five  by  separate  nom- 
ination.* The  twenty-five  were  reduced 
by  lot  to  nine ;  and  each  of  the  nine  chose 


For  no  single  senator,  much  less  any  noble  of  the 
great  council,  could  propose  any  thing  for  debate. 
The  signiory  had  the  same  privilege.  Thus  the 
virtual  powers,  even  of  the  senate,  were  far  more 
limited  than  they  appear  at  first  sight ;  and  no  pos- 
sibility remained  of  innovation  in  the  fundamental 
principles  of  the  constitution. 

*  Amelot  de  la  Houssaye  asserts  this  :  but,  ac- 
cording to  Contareni,  the  method  was  by  ballot. 


PART  II.} 


ITALY. 


175 


five.  These  forty-five  were  reduced  to 
eleven,  as  before  ;  the  eleven  elected  for- 
ty-one, who  were  the  ultimate  voters  for 
a  doge.  This  intricacy  appears  useless, 
and  consequently  absurd ;  but  the  origi- 
nal principle  of  a  Venetian  election  (for 
something  of  the  same  kind  was  applied 
to  all  their  councils  and  magistrates)  may 
not  always  be  unworthy  of  imitation.  In 
one  of  our  best  modern  statutes,  that  for 
regulating  the  trials  of  contested  elections, 
we  have  seen  this  mixture  of  chance  and 
selection  very  happily  introduced. 

An  hereditary  prince  could  never  have 
remained  quiet  in  such  trammels  as  were 
imposed  upon  the  Doge  of  Venice.  But 
early  prejudice  accustoms  men  to  con- 
sider restraint,  even  upon  themselves,  as 
advantageous  ;  and  the  limitations  of  du- 
cal power  appeared  to  every  Venetian  as 
fundamental  as  the  great  laws  of  the 
English  constitution  do  to  ourselves. 
Many  doges  of  Venice,  especially  in  the 
middle  ages,  were  considerable  men  ;  but 
they  were  content  with  the  functions  as- 
signed to  them,  which,  if  they  could  avoid 
the  tantalizing  comparison  of  sovereign 
princes,  were  enough  for  the  ambition  of 
republicans.  For  life  the  chief  magis- 
trates of  their  country,  her  noble  citizens 
for  ever,  they  might  thank  her  in  their 
own  name  for  what  she  gave,  and  in  that 
of  their  posterity  for  what  she  withheld. 
Once  only  a  doge  of  Venice  was  tempted 
to  betray  the  freedom  of  the  republic. 
[A.  D.  1355.]  Marin  Falieri,  a  man  far  ad- 
vanced in  life,  engaged,  from  some  petty 
resentment,  in  a  wild  intrigue  to  overturn 
the  government.  The  conspiracy  was 
soon  discovered,  and  the  doge  avowed  his 
guilt.  An  aristocracy  so  firm  and  so  se- 
vere did  not  hesitate  to  order  his  execu- 
tion in  the  ducal  palace. 

For  some  years  after  what  was  called 
the  closing  of  the  great  council  of  the 
law  of  1296,  which  excluded  all  but  the 
families  actually  in  possession,  a  good 
deal  of  discontent  showed  itself  among 
the  commonalty.  Several  commotions 
took  place  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  with  the  object  of 
restoring  a  more  popular  regimen.  Upon 
the  suppression  of  the  last,  in  1310,  the 
aristocracy  sacrificed  their  own  individual 
freedom  along  with  that  of  the  people, 
to  the  preservation  of  an  imaginary  priv- 
ilege. They  established  the  famous  coun- 
cil of  ten,  that  most  remarkable  part  of 
the  Venetian  constitution.  This  council, 
it  should  be  observed,  consisted  in  fact 
of  seventeen ;  comprising  the  signiory,  or 
the  doge  and  his  six  counsellors,  as  well 
as  the  ten  properly  so  called.  The  coun- 


cil of  ten  had  by  usage,  if  not  by  right,  a 
controlling  and  dictatorial  power  over  the 
senate,  and  other  magistrates ;  rescinding 
their  decisions,  and  treating  separately 
with  foreign  princes.  Their  vast  influ- 
ence strengthened  the  executive  govern- 
ment, of  which  they  formed  a  part,  and 
gave  a  vigour  to  its  movements,  which 
the  jealousy  of  the  councils  would  possi- 
bly have  impeded.  But  they  are  chiefly 
known  as  an  arbitrary  and  inquisitorial 
tribunal,  the  standing  tyranny  of  Venice. 
Excluding  the  old  council  of  forty,  a  reg- 
ular court  of  criminal  judicature,  not  only 
from  the  investigation  of  treasonable 
charges,  but  of  several  other  crimes  of 
magnitude,  they  inquired,  they  judged, 
they  punished,  according  to  what  they 
called  reason  of  state.  The  public  eye 
never  penetrated  the  mystery  of  their 
proceedings ;  the  accused  was  sometimes 
not  heard,  never  confronted  with  witnes- 
ses ;  the  condemnation  was  secret  as  the 
inquiry,  the  punishment  undivulged  like 
both.*  The  terrible  and  odious  machinery 
of  a  police,  the  insidious  spy,  the  sti- 
pendiary informer,  unknown  to  the  care- 
lessness of  feudal  governments,  found 
their  natural  soil  in  the  republic  of  Venice, 
Tumultuous  assemblies  were  scarcely- 
possible  in  so  peculiar  a  city ;  and  pri- 
vate conspiracies  never  failed  to  be  de- 
tected by  the  vigilance  of  the  council  of 
ten.  Compared  with  the  Tuscan  repub- 
lics, the  tranquillity  of  Venice  is  truly 
striking.  The  names  of  Guelf  and  Ghib- 
elin  hardly  raised  any  emotion  in  her 
streets,  though  the  government  was  con- 
sidered in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century  as  rather  inclined  towards  the 
latter  party.f  But  the  wildest  excesses 
of  faction  are  less  dishonouring  than  the 
stillness  and  moral  degradation  of  servi- 
tude.J 


*  Ilium  etiam  morem  observant,  ne  reum,  cum 
de  eo  judicium  laturi  sunt,  in  collegium  admittant, 
neque  cognitorem,  aut  oratorem  quempiam,  qui 
ejus  causam  agat. — Contareni  de  Rep.  Venet. 

t  Villani  several  times  speaks  of  the  Venetians 
as  regular  Ghibelins,  1.  ix.,  c.  2 ;  1.  x.,  c.  89,  &c. 
But  this  is  put  much  too  strongly :  though  their 
government  may  have  had  a  slight  bias  towards  that 
faction,  they  were  in  reality  neutral,  and  far  enough 
removed  from  any  domestic  feuds  upon  that  score, 

t  By  the  modern  law  of  Venice,  a  nobleman 
could  not  engage  in  trade  without  derogating  from 
his  rank  ;  but  I  am  not  aware  whether  so  absurd  a 
restriction  existed  in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries.  I  do  not  find  this  peculiarly  observed 
by  Jannotti  and  Contareni,  the  oldest  writers  on 
the  Venetian  government.  It  is  noticed  by  Amelot 
de  la  Houssaye,  who  tells  us  also,  that  the  nobility 
evaded  the  law  by  secret  partnership  with  the  priv- 
ileged merchants,  or  cittadini,  who  formed  a  sep- 
arate class  at  Venice.  This  was  the  custom  u> 
modern  times.  But  I  hava-.  never  understood  the 


i 


176 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Ill, 


It  was  a  very  common  theme  with 
political  writers,  till  about  the  beginning 
of  the  last  century,  when  Venice  fell  al- 
most into  oblivion,  to  descant  upon  the 
wisdom  of  this  government.  And  indeed, 
if  the  preservation  of  ancient  institutions 
be,  as  some  appear  to  consider  it,  not  a 
means,  but  an  end,  and  an  end  for  which 
the  rights  of  man  and  laws  of  God  may 
at  any  time  be  set  aside,  we  must  ac- 
knowledge that  it  was  a  wisely  con- 
structed system.  Formed  to  compress 
the  two  opposite  forces  from  which  re- 
sistance might  be  expected,  it  kept  both 
the  doge  and  the  people  in  perfect  sub- 
ordination. Even  the  coalition  of  an  ex- 
ecutive magistrate  with  the  multitude,  so 
fatal  to  most  aristocracies,  never  endan- 
gered that  of  Venice.  It  is  most  remark- 
able, that  a  part  of  the  constitution  which 
destroyed  every  man's  security,  and  in- 
curred general  hatred,  was  still  maintain- 
ed by  a  sense  of  its  necessity.  The 
council  of  ten,  annually  renewed,  might 
annually  have  been  annihilated.  The 
great  council  had  only  to  withhold  their 
suffrages  from  the  new  candidates,  and 
the  tyranny  expired  of  itself.  This  was 
several  times  attempted  (I  speak  now 
of  .more  modern  ages) ;  but  the  nobles, 
though  detesting  the  council  of  ten,  never 
steadily  persevered  in  refusing  to  re-elect 
it.  It  was,  in  fact,  become  essential  to 
Venice.  So  great  were  the  vices  of  her 
constitution,  that  she  could  not  endure 
their  remedies.  If  the  council  of  ten  had 
been  abolished  at  any  time  since  the  fif- 
teenth century,  if  the  removal  of  that 
jealous  despotism  had  given  scope  to  the 
corruption  of  a  poor  and  debased  aristoc- 
racy, to  the  license  of  a  people  unworthy 
of  freedom,  the  republic  would  have  soon 
lost  her  territorial  possessions,  if  not  her 
own  independence.  If  indeed  it  be  true, 
as  reported,  that  during  the  last  hundred 
years  this  formidable  tribunal  had  sensi- 
bly relaxed  its  vigilance,  if  the  Venetian 
government  had  become  less  tyrannical 
through  sloth,  or  decline  of  national 
spirit,  our  conjecture  will  have  acquired 
the  confirmation  of  experience.  Expe- 
rience has  recently  shown  that  a  worse 
calamity  than  domestic  tyranny  might 
befall  the  queen  of  the  Adriatic.  In  the 
place  of  St.  Mark,  among  the  monuments 
of  extinguished  greatness,  a  traveller  may 

principle  or  common  sense  of  such  a  restriction, 
especially  combined  with  that  other  fundamental 
law,  which  disqualified  a  Venetian  nobleman  from 
possessing  a  landed  estate  on  the  terra  firma  of  the 
republic.  The  latter,  however,  did  not  extend,  as  I 
have  been  informed,  to  Dalmatia  or  the  Ionian 
islands. 


regret  to  think  that  an  insolent  German 
soldiery  has  replaced  even  the  senators  of 
Venice.  Her  ancient  liberty,  her  bright 
and  romantic  career  of  glory  in  countries 
so  dear  to  the  imagination,  her  magnani- 
mous defence  in  the  war  of  Chioggia,  a 
few  thinly-scattered  names  of  illustrious 
men,  will  rise  upon  his  mind,  and  mingle 
with  his  indignation  at  the  treachery 
which  robbed  her  of  her  independence. 
But  if  he  has  learned  the  true  attributes 
of  wisdom  in  civil  policy,  he  will  not 
easily  prostitute  that  word  to  a  constitu- 
tion formed  without  reference  to  property 
or  to  population,  that  vested  sovereign 
power  partly  in  a  body  of  empoverished 
nobles,  partly  in  an  overruling  despotism ; 
or  to  a  practical  system  of  government 
that  made  vice  the  ally  of  tyranny,  and 
sought  impunity  for  its  own  assassina- 
tions by  encouraging  dissoluteness  of 
private  life.  Perhaps,  too,  the  wisdom 
so  often  imputed  to  the  senate  in  its  for- 
eign policy  has  been  greatly  exagger- 
ated. The  balance  of  power  established 
in  Europe,  and,  above  all,  in  Italy,  main- 
tained for  the  two  last  centuries  states 
of  small  intrinsic  resources,  without  any 
efforts  of  their  own.  In  the  ultimate 
crisis,  at  least,  of  Venetian  liberty,  that 
solemn  mockery  of  statesmanship  was 
exhibited  to  contempt ;  too  blind  to  avert 
danger,  too  cowardly  to  withstand  it,  the 
most  ancient  government  of  Europe  made 
not  an  instant's  resistance ;  the  peasants 
of  Underwald  died  upon  their  mountains  ; 
the  nobles  of  Venice  clung  only  to  their 
lives.* 

Until  almost  the  middle  of  the  four- 


*  See  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xii.,  p.  379, 
an  account  of  a  book,  which  is  perhaps  little 
known,  though  interesting  to  the  history  of  our 
own  age :  a  collection  of  documents  illustrating 
the  fall  of  the  republic  of  Venice.  The  article  is 
well  written,  and,  I  presume,  contains  a  faithful 
account  of  the  work ;  the  author  of  which,  Sig- 
nor  Barzoni,  is  respected  as  a  patriotic  writer  in 
Italy. 

Every  one  who  has  been  at  Venice  must  have 
been  struck  with  the  magnificent  tombs  of  the 
doges,  most  of  them  in  the  church  of  S.  Giovanni 
e  Paolo,  in  which  the  republic  seems  to  identify 
herself  with  her  chief  magistrate,  and  to  make  the 
decorations  and  inscriptions  on  his  monument  a 
record  of  her  own  wealth  and  glory.  In  the  church 
of  the  Scalzi,  on  a  single  square  stone  in  the  pave- 
ment, a  very  different  epitaph  from  that  of  Lore- 
dano  or  Foscari  may  be  read,  MANINI  CINERES. 
These  two  words  mark  the  place  of  interment  of 
Manini,  the  last  doge,  whose  own  pusillanimity,  or 
that  of  those  around  him,  joined  to  the  calamity  of 
the  times,  caused  him  to  survive  his  own  dignity 
and  the  liberties  of  Venice.  To  my  feelings  this 
inscription  was  more  striking  than  the  famous 
Locus  Marini  Falieri,  pro  criminibus  decapitati,  upon 
a  vacant  canvass  among  the  pictures  of  the  dogea 
in  the  hall  of  the  Great  Council. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


177 


Territorial  teeiith  century,  Venice  had  been 
acquisitions  content  without  any  territorial 
of  Venice,  possessions  in  Italy ;  unless  we 
reckon  a  very  narrow  strip  of  seacoast, 
bordering  on  her  lagunes,  called  the  Do- 
gato.  Neutral  in  the  great  contests  be- 
tween the  church  and  the  empire,  be- 
tween the  free  cities  and  their  sovereigns, 
she  was  respected  by  both  parties,  while 
neither  ventured  to  claim  her  as  an  ally. 
But  the  rapid  progress  of  Mastino  della 
Scala,  lord  of  Verona,  with  some  partic- 
ular injuries,  led  the  senate  to  form  a 
league  with  Florence  against  him.  Vil- 
lani  mentions  it  as  a  singular  honour  for 
his  country  to  have  become  the  confed- 
erate of  the  Venetians,  "  who,  for  their 
great  excellence  and  power,  had  never 
allied  themselves  with  any  state  or  prince, 
except  at  their  ancient  conquest  of  Con- 
stantinople and  Romania."*  The  result 
of  this  combination  was  to  annex  the  dis- 
trict of  Treviso  to  the  Venetian  domin- 
ions. But  they  made  no  further  conquests 
in  that  age.  On  the  contrary,  they  lost 
Treviso  in  the  unfortunate  war  of  Chiog- 
gia,  and  did  not  regain  it  till  1389.  Nor 
did  they  seriously  attempt  to  withstand 
the  progress  of  Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti ; 
who,  after  overthrowing  the  family  of 
Scala,  stretched  almost  to  the  Adriatic, 
and  altogether  subverted  for  a  time  the 
balance  of  power  in  Lombardy. 

But  upon  the  death  of  this  prince  in 
„  „<•  T  «m    1404,  a  remarkable  crisis  took 

rnaifi  01  l-*om-        ,  .         ,  —-.      ,     f» 

bardy  at  the  place  in  that  country.  He  left 
beginning  of  two  sons,  Giovannf  Maria  and 
century.en  Filippo  Maria,  botli  young,  and 
under  the  care  of  a  mother 
who  was  little  fitted  for  her  situation. 
Through  her  misconduct,  and  the  selfish 
ambition  of  some  military  leaders,  who 
had  commanded  Gian  Galeazzo's  merce- 
naries, that  extensive  dominion  was  soon 
broken  into  fragments.  Bergamo,  Como, 
Lodi,  Cremona,  and  other  cities  revolt- 
ed, submitting  themselves  in  general  to 
the  families  of  their  former  princes,  the 
earlier  race  of  usurpers,  who  had  for 
nearly  a  century  been  crushed  by  the 
Visconti.  A  Guelf  faction  revived,  after 
the  name  had  long  been  proscribed  in 
Lombardy.  Francesco  de  Carrara,  lord 
of  Padua,  availed  himself  of  this  revolu- 
tion to  get  possession  of  Verona,  and 
seemed  likely  to  unite  all  the  cities  be- 
yond the  Adige.  No  family  was  so  odi- 
ous to  the  Venetians  as  that  of  Carrara. 
Though  they  had  seemed  indifferent  to 
the  more  real  danger  in  Gian  Galeazzo's 
lifetime,  they  took  up  arms  against  this 


M 


L.  xi.,  c.  49. 


inferior  enemy.  Both  Padua  and  Verona 
were  reduced,  and  the  Duke  of  Milan  ce- 
ding Vicenza,  the  republic  of  Venice  came 
suddenly  into  the  possession  of  an  exten- 
sive territory.  Francesco  de  Carrara, 
who  had  surrendered  in  his  capital,  was 
put  to  death  in  prison  at  Venice  ;  a  cruel- 
ty perfectly  characteristic  of  that  govern- 
ment, and  which  would  hardly  have  been 
avowedly  perpetrated,  even  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  by  any  other  state  in  Eu- 
rope. 

Notwithstanding  the  deranged  condi- 
tion of  the  Milanese,  no  further  attempts 
were  made  by  the  senate  of  Venice  for 
twenty  years.  They  had  not  yet  acqui- 
red that  decided  love  of  war  and  con- 
quest, which  soon  began  to  influence 
them  against  all  the  rules  of  their  ancient 
policy.  There  were  still  left  some  wary 
statesmen  of  the  old  school  to  check  am- 
bitious designs.  Sanuto  has  preserved 
an  interesting  account  of  the  wealth  and 
commerce  of  Venice  in  those  days.  This 
is  thrown  into  the  mouth,  of  the  Doge 
Mocenigo,  whom  he  represents  as  dis- 
suading his  country,  with  his  dying  words, 
from  undertaking  a  war  against  Milan. 
"  Through  peace  our  city  has  every  year," 
he  said,  "  ten  millions  of  ducats  employ- 
ed as  mercantile  capital  in  different  parts 
of  the  world ;  the  annual  profit  of  our  tra- 
ders upon  this  sum  amounts  to  four  mill- 
ions. Our  housing  is  valued  at  7,000,000 
ducats;  its  annual  rental  at  500,000. 
Three  thousand  merchant  ships  carry  on 
our  trade ;  forty-three  galleys,  and  three 
hundred  smaller  vessels,  manned  by 
19,000  sailors,  secure  our  naval  power. 
Our  mint  has  coined  1,000,000  ducats  with- 
in the  year.  From  the  Milanese  dominions 
alone  we  draw  1,000,000  ducats  in  coin, 
and  the  value  of  900,000  more  in  cloths  ; 
our  profit  upon  this  traffic  may  be  reckon- 
ed at  600,000  ducats.  Proceeding  a"s  you 
have  done  to  acquire  this  wealth,  you  will 
become  masters  of  all  the  gold  in  Chris- 
tendom ;  but  war,  and  especially  unjust 
war,  will  lead  infallibly  to  ruin.  Already 
you  have  spent  900,000  ducats  in  the  ac- 
quisition of  Verona  and  Padua  ;  yet  the 
expense  of  protecting  these  places  ab- 
sorbs all  the  revenue  which  they  yield. 
You  have  many  among  you,  men  of  prob- 
ity and  experience ;  choose  one  of  these 
to  succeed  me ;  but  beware  of  Francesco 
Foscari.  If  he  is  doge,  you  will  soon 
have  war,  and  war  will  bring  poverty  and 
loss  of  honour."*  Mocenigo  died,  and 


*  Sanuto,  Vite  di  Duchi  di  Venezia,  in  Script. 
Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xxii.,  p.  958.  Mocenigo's  harangue  is 
very  long  in  Sanuto :  I  have  endeavoured  to  pre- 
serve the  substance. 


178 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


Foscari  became  doge  :  the  prophecies  of 
the  former  were  neglected ;  and  it  cannot 
wholly  be  affirmed  that  they  were  fulfill- 
ed. Yet  Venice  is  described  by  a  writer 
thirty  years  later,  as  somewhat  impaired 
in  opulence  by  her  long  warfare  with  the 
dukes  of  Milan. 

The  latter  had  recovered  a  great  part 
Wars  of  of  their  dominions  as  rapidly  as 
Milan  and  they  had  lost  them.  Giovanni 
Venice.  jy[arja)  the  elder  brother,  a  mon- 
ster of  guilt  even  among  the  Visconti, 
having  been  assassinated,  Filippo  Maria 
assumed  the  government  of  Milan  and 
Pavia,  almost  his  only  possessions.  But, 
though  weak  and  unwarlike  himself,  he 
had  the  good  fortune  to  employ  Carmag- 
nola, one  of  the  greatest  generals  of  that 
military  age.  Most  of  the  revolted  cities 
were  tired  of  their  new  masters,  and  their 
inclinations  conspiring  with  Carmagno- 
la's  eminent  talents  and  activity,  the 
house  of  Visconti  reassumed  its  former 
ascendency  from  the  Sessia  to  the  Adige. 
Its  fortunes  might  have  been  still  more 
prosperous,  if  Filippo  Maria  had  not 
rashly,  as  well  as  ungratefully,  offended 
Carmagnola.  That  great  captain  retired 
to  Venice,  and  inflamed  a  disposition  to- 
wards war  which  the  Florentines  and 
the  Duke  of  Savoy  had  already  excited. 
The  Venetians  had  previously  gained 
some  important  advantages  in  another 
quarter,  by  reducing  the  country  of  Fri- 
uli,  with  part  of  Istria,  which  had  for 
many  centuries  depended  on  the  tempo- 
ral authority  of  a  neighbouring  prelate, 
the  patriarch  of  Aquileia.  They  entered 
into  this  new  alliance.  No  undertaking 
of  the  republic  had  been  more  successful. 
Carmagnola  led  on  their  armies,  and  in 
about  two  years  [A.  D.  1426]  Venice 
acquired  Brescia  and  Bergamo,  and  ex- 
tended her  boundary  to  the  river  Adda, 
which  she  was  destined  never  to  pass. 

Such  conquests  could  only  be  made, 
Change  in  by  a  city  so  peculiarly  mari- 
tne  military  time  as  Venice,  through  the 

eystem.         help  Qf  mercenary  troops.      But 

in  employing  them  she  merely  con- 
formed to  a  fashion,  which  states  to 
whom  it  was  less  indispensable  had  long 
since  established.  A  great  revolution 
had  taken  place  in  the  system  of  milita- 
ry service  through  most  parts  of  Europe, 
but  especially  in  Italy.  During  the 
twelfth  and  thirteenth  centuries,  wheth- 
er the  Italian  cities  were  engaged  in 
their  contest  with  the  emperors,  or  in 
less  arduous  and  general  hostilities  among 
each  other,  they  seem  to  have  poured 
out  almost  their  whole  population,  as  an 
armed  and  loosely  organized  militia.  A 


single  city,  with  its  adjacent  district, 
sometimes  brought  twenty  or  thirty  thou- 
sand men  into  the  field.  Every  man, 
according  to  the  trade  he  practised,  or 
quarter  of  the  city  wherein  he  dwelt, 
knew  his  own  banner,  and  the  captain  he 
was  to  obey.*  In  battle,  the  carroccio 
formed  one  common  rallying-point,  the 
pivot  of  every  movement.  This  was  a 
chariot,  or  rather  wagon,  painted  with 
vermilion,  and  bearing  the  city  standard 
elevated  upon  it.  That  of  Milan  required 
four  pair  of  oxen  to  drag  it  forward. f 
To  defend  this  sacred  emblem  of  his 
country,  which  Muratori  compares  to  the 
ark  of  the  covenant  among  the  Jews, 
was  the  constant  object,  that,  giving  a 
sort  of  concentration  and  uniformity  to 
the  army,  supplied  in  some  degree  the 
want  of  more  regular  tactics.  This  mi- 
litia was  of  course  principally  composed 
of  infantry.  At  the  famous  battle  of  the 
Arbi,  in  1260,  the  Guelf  Florentines  had 
thirty  thousand  foot  and  three  thousand 
horse  ;|  and  the  usual  proportion  was 
five,  six,  or  ten,  to  one.  Gentlemen, 
however,  were  always  mounted;  and 
the  superiority  of  a  heavy  cavalry  must 
have  been  prodigiously  great  over  an  un- 
disciplined and  ill-armed  populace.  In 
the  thirteenth  and  following  centuries , 
armies  seem  to  have  been  considered  as 
formidable,  nearly  in  proportion  to  the 
number  of  men-at-arms,  or  lancers.  A 
charge  of  cavalry  was  irresistible ;  bat- 
tles were  continually  won  by  inferior 
numbers,  and  vast  slaughter  was  made 
among  the  fugitives.^ 

As  the  comparative  inefficiency  of  foot- 
soldiers  became  evident,  a  greater  pro- 
portion of  cavalry  was  employed,  and 
armies,  though  better  equipped  and  dis- 
ciplined, were  less  numerous.  This  we 
find  in  the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth 
century.  The  main  point  for  a  state  at 
war  was  to  obtain  a  sufficient  Employment 
force  of  men-at-arms.  As  few  of  foreign 
Italian  cities  could  muster  a  tro°P8- 
large  body  of  cavalry  from  their  own 
population,  the  obvious  resource  was 


*  Muratori,  Antiq.  Ital.,  Diss.  26.  Denina, 
Rivoluzioni  d'ltalia,  1.  xii.,  c.  4. 

f  The  carroccio  was  invented  by  Eribert,.  a  cel- 
ebrated archbishop  of  Milan,  about  1039. — Annali 
di  Murat.,  Ajjtiq.  Ital.,  Diss.  26.  The  carroccio  of 
Milan  was  taken  by  Frederick  II.,  in  1237,  and 
sent  to  Roftie.  Parma  and  Cremona  lost  their 
carroccios  t<J  each  other,  and  exchanged  them 
some  years  afterward  with  great  exultation.  In 
the  fourteenth  century  this  custom  had  gone  into 
disuse. — Id  ibid.  Denina,  1.  xii.,  c.  4. 

J  Villanj,  1.  vi.,  c.  79. 

$  Sismondi,  t.  iii.,  p.  263,  &c.,  has  some  judi- 
cious observations  on  this  subject. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


170 


to  hire  mercenary  troops.  This  had 
been  practised  in  some  instances  much 
earlier.  The  city  of  Genoa  took  the 
Count  of  Savoy  into  pay  with  two  hun- 
dred horse  in  1225.*  Florence  retained 
five  hundred  French  lances  in  1282.f 
But  it  became  much  more  general  in  the 
fourteenth  century,  chiefly  after  the  ex- 
pedition of  the  Emperor  Henry  VII.,  in 
1310.  Many  German  soldiers  of  fortune, 
remaining  in  Italy  upon  this  occasion, 
engaged  in  the  service  of  Milan,  Flor- 
ence, or  some  other  state.  The  subse- 
quent expeditions  of  Louis  of  Bavaria  in 
1326,  and  of  John,  king  of  Bohemia,  in 
1331,  brought  a  fresh  accession  of  adven- 
turers from  the  same  country.  Others 
again  came  from  France,  and  some  from 
Hungary.  All  preferred  to  continue  in 
the  richest  country  and  finest  climate  of 
Europe,  where  their  services  were  anx- 
iously solicited  and  abundantly  repaid. 
An  unfortunate  prejudice  in  favour  of 
strangers  prevailed  among  the  Italians  of 
that  age.  They  ceded  to  them,  one 
knows  not  why,  certainly  without  having 
been  vanquished,  the  palm  of  military 
skill  and  valour.  The  word  Transalpine 
(Oltramontani)  is  frequently  applied  to 
hired  cavalry  by  the  two  Villani,  as  an 
epithet  of  excellence. 

The  experience  of  every  fresh  cam- 
paign now  told  more  and  more  against 
the  ordinary  militia.  It  has  been  usual 
for  modern  writers  to  lament  the  degen- 
eracy of  martial  spirit  among  the  Italians 
of  that  age.  But  the  contest  was  too  un- 
equal between  an  absolutely  invulnerable 
body  of  cuirassiers,  and  an  infantry  of 
peasants  or  citizens.  The  bravest  men 
have  little  appetite  for  receiving  wounds 
and  death  without  the  hope  of  inflicting 
any  in  return.  The  parochial  militia  of 
France  had  proved  equally  unserviceable ; 
though,  as  the  life  of  a  French  peasant 
was  of  much  less  account  in  the  eyes  of 
his  government  than  that  of  an  Italian  cit- 
izen, they  were  still  led  forward  like  sheep 
to  the  slaughter,  against  the  disciplined 
forces  of  Edward  III.  The  cavalry  had 

*  Muratori,  Dissert.  26. 

t  Ammirato,  Istoria  Fiorent.,  p.  159 ;  the  same 
was  done  in  1279,  p.  200.  A  lance,  in  the  technical 
language  of  those  ages,  included  the  lighter  caval- 
ry attached  to  the  man-at-arms,  as  well  as  himself. 
In  France,  the  full  complement  of  a  lance  (lance 
fournie)  was  five  or  six  horses ;  thus  the  1500 
lances,  who  composed  the  original  companies  of 
ordonnance  raised  by  Charles  VII.,  amounted  to 
nine  thousand  cavalry.  But  in  Italy,  the  number 
was  smaller.  We  read  frequently  of  barbuti, 
which  are  defined,  lanze  de  due  cavalli. — Corio,  p. 
437.  Lances  of  three  horses  were  introduced 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century.— Id , 
p.  466. 

MS 


about  this  time  laid  aside  the  hauberk,  or 
coat  of  mail,  their  ancient  distinction 
from  the  unprotected  populace ;  which, 
though  incapable  of  being  cut  through  by 
the  sabre,  afforded  no  defence  against  the 
pointed  sword  introduced  in  the  thirteenth 
century,*  nor  repelled  the  impulse  of  a 
lance,  or  the  crushing  blow  of  a  battle- 
axe.  Plate  armour  was  substituted  in  its 
place  ;  and  the  man-at-arms,  cased  in  en- 
tire steel,  the  several  pieces  firmly  rivet- 
ed, and  proof  against  every  stroke,  his 
charger  protected  on  the  face,  chest,  and 
shoulders,  or,  as  it  was  called,  barded 
with  plates  of  steel,  fought  with  a  secu- 
rity of  success  against  enemies  infe- 
rior perhaps  only  in  these  adventitious 
sources  of  courage  to  himself. f 

Nor  was  the  new  system  of  conduct- 
ing hostilities  less  inconvenient  citizens  ex- 
to  the  citizens  than  the  tactics  cuse.d  fron* 
of  a  battle.  Instead  of  rapid  and servlce- 
predatory  invasions,  terminated  instantly 
by  a  single  action,  and  not  extending 
more  than  a  few  days'  march  from  the 
soldier's  home,  the  more  skilful  combina- 
tions usual  in  the  fourteenth  century  fre- 
quently protracted  an  indecisive  contest 
for  a  whole  summer-!  As  wealth  and 
civilization  made  evident  the  advantages 
of  agricultural  and  mercantile  industry, 
this  loss  of  productive  labour  could  no 
longer  be  endured.  Azzo  Visconti,  who 
died  in  1339,  dispensed  with  the  personal 
service  of  his  Milanese  subjects.  "  An- 
other of  his  laws,"  says  Galvaneo  Fiam- 
ma,  "  was,  that  the  people  should  not  go 
to  war,  but  remain  at  home  for  their  own 
business.  For  they  had  hitherto  been 
kept  with  much  danger  and  expense  ev- 
ery year,  and  especially  in  time  of  har- 
vest and  vintage,  when  princes  are  wont 
to  go  to  war,  in  besieging  cities,  and  in- 
curred numberless  losses,  and  chiefly  on 
account  of  the  long  time  that  they  were 
so  detained. "§  This  law  of  Azzo  Vis- 
conti, taken  separately,  might  be  ascribed 
to  the  usual  policy  of  an  absolute  govern- 


*  Muratori,  ad  ann.  1226. 

t  The  earliest  plate  armour,  engraved  In  Montfau- 
con's  Monumens  de  la  Monarchic  Franchise,  t.  ii., 
is  of  the  reign  of  Philip  the  Long,  about  1315 ;  but 
it  does  not  appear  generally  till  that  of  Philip  of 
Valois,  or  even  later.  Before  the  complete  harness 
of  steel  was  adopted,  plated  caps  were  sometimes 
worn  on  the  knees  and  elbows,  and  even  greaves 
on  the  legs.  This  is  represented  in  a  statue  of 
Charles  I.,  king  of  Naples,  who  died  in  1285.  Pos- 
sibly the  statue  may  not  be  quite  so  ancient. — 
Montfaucon,  passim.  Daniel,  Hist,  de  la  Milice 
Franqoise,  p.  395. 

J  This  tedious  warfare  <z  la  Fabius  is  called  by 
Villani  guerra  guereggiata,  1.  viii.,  c.  49  ;  at  least 
I  can  annex  no  other  meaning  to  the  expression. 

$  Muratori,  Antiquit.  Ital.,  Dissert.  26. 


180 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  HI. 


ment.  But  we  find  a  similar  innovation 
not  long  afterward  at  Florence.  In  the 
war  carried  on  by  that  republic  against 
Giovanni  Visconti,  in  1351,  the  younger 
Villani  informs  us  that  "  the  useless  and 
mischievous  personal  service  of  the  in- 
habitants of  the  district  was  commuted 
into  a  money,  payment."*  This  change 
indeed  was  necessarily  accompanied  by 
a  vast  increase  of  taxation.  The  Italian 
states,  republics  as  well  as  principalities, 
levied  very  heavy  contributions.  Masti- 
no  della  Scala  had  a  revenue  of  700,000 
florins  ;  more,  says  John  Villani,  than  the 
king  of  any  European  country,  except 
France,  possesses.!  Yet  this  arose  from 
only  nine  cities  of  Lombardy.  Consid- 
ered with  reference  to  economy,  almost 
any  taxes  must  be  a  cheap  commutation 
for  personal  service.  But  economy  may 
be  regarded  too  exclusively,  and  can  nev- 
er counterbalance  that  degradation  of  a 
national  character  which  proceeds  from 
intrusting  the  public  defence  to  foreign- 
ers. 

It  could  hardly  be  expected  that  sti- 
companies  pendiary  troops,  chiefly  compo- 
of  adven-  sed  of  Germans,  would  conduct 
themselves  without  insolence 
and  contempt  of  the  effeminacy  which 
courted  their  services.  Indifferent  to  the 
cause  they  supported,  the  highest  pay 
and  the  richest  plunder  were  their  con- 
stant motives.  As  Italy  was  generally 
the  theatre  of  war  in  some  of  her  numer- 
ous states,  a  soldier  of  fortune,  with  his 
lance  and  charger  for  his  inheritance, 
passed  from  one  service  to  another  with- 
out regret  and  without  discredit.  But  if 
peace  happened  to  be  pretty  universal,  he 
might  be  thrown  out  of  his  only  occupa- 
tion, and  reduced  to  a  very  inferior  con- 
dition in  a  cquntry  of  which  he  was  not 
a  native.  It  naturally  occurred  to  men 
of  their  feelings,  that  if  money  and  hon- 
our could  only  be  had  while  they  retain- 
ed their  arms,  it  was  their  own  fault  if 
they  ever  relinquished  them.  Upon  this 
principle  they  first  acted  in  1343,  when 
the  republic  of  Pisa  disbanded  a  large 
body  of  German  cavalry  which  had  been 
employed  in  a  war  with  Florence.^  A 

*  Matt.  Villani,  p.  135. 

t  L.  xi.,  c.  45.  I  cannot  imagine  why  M.  Sis- 
mondi  asserts,  t.  iv.,  p.  432,  that  the  lords  of  cities 
in  Lombardy  did  not  venture  to  augment  the  taxes 
imposed  while  they  had  been  free.  Complaints 
of  heavy  taxation  are  certainly  often  made  against 
the  Visconti  and  other  tyrants  in  the  fourteenth 
century. 

J  Sismondi,  t.  v.,  p.  380.  The  dangerous  aspect 
which  these  German  mercenaries  might  assume, 
had  appeared  four  years  before,  when  Lodrisio,  one 
of  the  Visconti,  having  quarrelled  with  the  Lord  of 


partisan,  whom  the  Italians  call  the  Duke 
Guarnieri,  engaged  these  dissatisfied  mer- 
cenaries to  remain  united  under  his  com- 
mand. His  plan  was  to  levy  contribu- 
tions on  all  countries  which  he  entered 
with  his  company,  without  aiming  at  any 
conquests.  No  Italian  army,  he  well 
knew,  could  be  raised  to  oppose  him ; 
and  he  trusted  that  other  mercenaries 
would  not  be  ready  to  fight  against  men 
who  had  devised  a  scheme  so  advantage- 
ous to  the  profession.  This  was  the  first 
of  the  companies  of  adventure,  which 
continued  for  many  years  to  be  the 
scourge  and  disgrace  of  Italy.  Guarnie- 
ri, after  some  time,  withdrew  his  troops, 
saturated  with  plunder,  into  Germany  ; 
but  he  served  in  the  invasion  of  Naples 
by  Louis,  king  of  Hungary,  in  1348,  and, 
forming  a  new  company,  ravaged  the  ec- 
clesiastical state.  A  still  more  formida- 
ble band  of  disciplined  robbers  appeared 
in  1353,  under  the  command  of  Fra  Mo- 
ri ale,  and  afterward  of  Conrad  Lando. 
This  was  denominated  the  Great  Com- 
pany, and  consisted  of  several  thousand 
regular  troops,  besides  a  multitude  of 
half-armed  ruffians,  who  assisted  as  spies, 
pioneers,  and  plunderers.  The  rich  cit- 
ies of  Tuscany  and  Romagna  paid  large 
sums,  that  the  great  company,  which  was 
perpetually  in  motion,  might  not  march 
through  their  territory.  Florence  alone 
magnanimously  resolved  not  to  offer  this 
ignominious  tribute.  Upon  two  occa- 
sions, once  in  1358,  and  still  more  con- 
spicuously the  next  year,  she  refused 
either  to  give  a  passage  to  the  company 
or  to  redeem  herself  by  money  ;  and  in 
each  instance  the  German  robbers  were 
compelled  to  retire.  At  this  time  they 
consisted  of  five  thousand  cuirassiers,  and 
their  whole  body  was  not  less  than  twen- 
ty thousand  men ;  a  terrible  proof  of  the 
evils  which  an  erroneous  system  had  en- 
tailed upon  Italy.  Nor  were  they  re- 
pulsed on  this  occasion  by  the  actual  ex- 
ertions of  Florence.  The  courage  of 
that  republic  was  in  her  councils,  not  in 
her  arms  ;  the  resistance  made  to  Lan- 
do's  demand  was  a  burst  of  national  feel- 
ing, and  rather  against  the  advice  of  the 
leading  Florentines  ;*  but  the  army  em- 
ployed was  entirely  composed  of  merce- 
nary troops,  and  probably,  for  the  greater 
part,  of  foreigners. 


Milan,  led  a  large  body  of  troops  who  had  just  been 
disbanded  against  the  city.  After  some  desperate 
battles,  the  mercenaries  were  defeated,  and  Lodri- 
sio taken,  t.  v.,  p.  278.  In  this  instance,  however, 
they  acted  for  another  ;  Guarnieri  was  the  first  who 
taught  them  to  preserve  the  impartiality  of  general 
robbers. 

*  Matt.  Villani,  p.  537. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


181 


None  of  the  foreign  partisans,  who  en- 
sir  John       tered  into  the  service  of  Italian 
Hawkwood.  states,  acquired  such  renown  in 
that  career  as  an  Englishman,  whom  con- 
temporary writers   call  Aucud  or  Agu- 
tus,  but   to  whom  we   may  restore  his 
national  appellation  of  Sir  John  Hawk- 
wood.     This  very  eminent  man  had  serv 
ed  in  the  war  of  Edward  III.,  and  obtain- 
ed his  knighthood  from  that  sovereign, 
though  originally,  if  we  may  trust  com- 
mon fame,  bred  to  the  trade  of  a  tailor. 
After  the  peace  of  Bretigni,  France  was 
ravaged  by  the  disbanded  troops,  whose 
devastations  Edward  was  accused,  per- 
haps unjustly,  of  secretly  instigating.     A 
large  body  of  these,  under  the  name  of 
the   White    Company,   passed  into   the 
service  of  the    Marquis   of   Montferrat. 
They  were    some  time    afterward  em- 
ployed by  the  Pisans  against  Florence ; 
and,  during  this  latter  war,  Hawkwood 
appears  as  their  commander.     For  thir- 
ty years    he    was    continually   engaged 
in  the  service  of  the  Yisconti,  of  the 
pope,  or  of  the  Florentines,  to  whom  he 
devoted  himself  for  the  latter  part  of  his 
life,  with  more   fidelity  and   steadiness 
than  he  had  shown  in  his  first  campaigns. 
The   republic   testified  her  gratitude  by 
a   public  funeral,  and  by  a  monument, 
which,  I  believe,  is  still  extant. 

The  name  of  Sir  John  Hawkwood  is 
Want  of  mil-  worthy  to  be  remembered,  as 
itary  science  that  of  the  first  distinguished 
time1"6  his  commander  who  had  appear- 
ed in  Europe  since  the  de- 
struction of  the  Roman  empire.  It  would 
be  absurd  to  suppose  that  any  of  the  con- 
stituent elements  of  military  genius  which 
nature  furnishes  to  energetic  characters 
were  wanting  to  the  leaders  of  a  barbari- 
an or  feudal  army ;  untroubled  perspica- 
city in  confusion,  firm  decision,  rapid  ex- 
ecution, providence  against  attack,  fertil- 
ity of  resource,  and  stratagem.  These 
are  in  quality  as  much  required  from  the 
chief  of  an  Indian  tribe  as  from  the  ac- 
complished commander.  But  \ve  do  not 
find  them  in  any  instance  so  consumma- 
ted by  habitual  skill  as  to  challenge  the 
name  of  generalship.  No  one  at  least 
occurs  to  me  previously  to  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  to  whom  history 
lias  unequivocally  assigned  that  character. 
It  is  very  rarely  that  we  find  even  the  order 
of  battle  specially  noticed.  The  monks, 
indeed,  our  only  chroniclers,  were  poor 
judges  of  martial  excellence  ;  yet,  as  war 
is  the  main  topic  of  all  annals,  we  could 
hardly  remain  ignorant  of  any  distin- 
guished skill  in  its  operations.  This 
neglect  of  military  science  certainly  did 


not  proceed  from  any  predilection  for  the 
arts  of  peace.  It  arose  out  of  the  gener- 
al manners  of  society,  and  out  of  the  na- 
ture and  composition  of  armies  in  the 
middle  ages.  The  insubordinate  spirit  of 
feudal  tenants,  and  the  emulous  equality 
of  chivalry,  were  alike  hostile  to  that  gra- 
dation of  rank,  that  punctual  observance 
of  irksome  duties,  that  prompt  obedience 
to  a  supreme  command,  through  which  a 
single  soul  is  infused  into  the  active  mass, 
and  the  rays  of  individual  merit  converge 
to  the  head  of  the  general. 

In  the  fourteenth  century  we  begin  to 
perceive  something  of  a  more  scientific 
character   in  military  proceedings,  and 
historians  for  the  first  time  discover  that 
success  does   not  entirely  depend  upon 
intrepidity  and  physical  prowess.     The 
victory  of  Muhldorf  over  the  Austrian 
princes,  in  1322,  that  decided  a  civil  war 
in  the  empire,  is  ascribed  to  the  ability 
of  the  Bavarian  commander.*     Many  dis- 
inguished  officers  were  formed   in  the 
school  of  Edward  III.     Yet  their  excel- 
lences were  perhaps  rather  those  of  ac- 
tive partisans  than  of  experienced  gener- 
als.    Their  successes  are  still  due  rather 
o  daring  enthusiasm  than  to  wary  and 
calculating  combination.     Like  inexpert 
chess-players,  they  surprise  us  by  happy 
sallies  against  rule,  or  display  their  tai- 
nts  in  rescuing  themselves   from  the 
consequence   of    their    own    mistakes. 
Thus  the  admirable  arrangements  of  the 
Black  Prince  at  Poitiers  hardly  redeem 
he  temerity  which  placed  him  in  a  situ- 
ation where  the  egregious  folly  of  his 
adversary  alone   could    have  permitted 
rim  to  triumph.      Hawkwood  therefore 
appears  to  me  the  first  real  general  of 
modern  times ;  the  earliest  master,  how- 
ever imperfect,  in  the  science  of  Turenne 
and   Wellington.     Every   contemporary 
Italian  historian  speaks  with  admiration 
of  his  skilful  tactics  in  .battle,  his  strata- 
gems, his  well-conducted  retreats.  Praise 
of  this  description,  as  I  have  observed,  is 
hardly  bestowed,  certainly  not  so  contin- 
ually, on  any  former  captain. 

Hawkwood  was  not  only  the  greatest, 
but  the  last  of  the  foreign  con-  schooi0f 
dottieri,or  captains  of  mercena-  Italian  gen- 
ry  bands.     While  he  was  yet  erals- 
living,  a  new  military  school  had  been 
formed  in  Italy,  which  not  only  superse- 
ded, but  eclipsed  all  the  strangers.     This 
important  reform  was  ascribed  to  Alberic 
di  Barbiano,  lord  of  some  petty  territories 

*  Struviu-s,  Corpus  Historise  German.,  p.  585 
Schwepperman,  the  Bavarian  general,  is  called 
by  a  contemporary  writer,  clams  militari  scientia 
vir. 


182 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


near  Bologna.  He  formed  a  company 
altogether  of  Italians  about  the  year  1379. 
It  is  not  to  be  supposed  that  natives  of 
Italy  had  before  been  absolutely  excluded 
from  service.  We  find  several  Italians, 
such  as  the  Malatesta  family,  lords  of 
Rimini,  and  the  Rossi  of  Parma,  com- 
manding the  armies  of  Florence  much 
earlier.  But  this  was  the  first  trading 
company,  if  I  may  borrow  the  analogy, 
the  first,  regular  body  of  Italian  mercena- 
ries, attached  only  to  their  commander, 
without  any  consideration  of  party,  like 
the  Germans  and  English  of  Lando  and 
Hawkwood.  Alberic  di  Barbiano,  though 
himself  no  doubt  a  man  of  military  tal- 
ents, is  principally  distinguished  by  the 
school  of  great  generals  which  the  com- 
pany of  St.  George  under  his  command 
produced,  and  which  may  be  deduced,  by 
regular  succession,  to  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury. The  first  in  order  of  time,  and 
immediate  contemporaries  of  Barbiano, 
were  Jacopo  Verme,  Facino  Cane,  and 
Ottobon  Terzo.  Among  an  intelligent 
and  educated  people,  little  inclined  to 
servile  imitation,  the  military  art  made 
great  progress.  The  most  eminent  con- 
dottieri being  divided,  in  general,  between 
belligerants,  each  of  them  had  his  genius 
excited  and  kept  in  tension  by  that  of  a 
rival  in  glory.  Every  resource  of  science 
as  well  as  experience,  every  improve- 
ment in  tactical  arrangements  and  the 
use  of  arms,  was  required  to  obtain  an 
advantage  over  such  equal  enemies.  In 
the  first  year  of  the  fifteenth  century,  the 
Italians  brought  their  newly-acquired  su- 
periority to  a  test.  The  Emperor  Rob- 
ert, in  alliance  with  Florence,  invaded 
Gian  Galeazzo's  dominions  with  a  con- 
siderable army.  From  old  reputation, 
which  so  frequently  survives  the  intrinsic 
qualities  upon  which  it  was  founded, 
an  impression  appears  to  have  been  ex- 
cited in  Italy  that  the  native  troops  were 
still  unequal  to  meet  the  charge  of  Ger- 
man cuirassiers.  The  Duke  of  Milan 
gave  orders  to  his  general,  Jacopo  Verme, 
to  avoid  a  combat.  But  that  able  leader 
was  aware  of  a  great  relative  change  in 
the  two  armies.  The  Germans  had  neg- 
lected to  improve  their  discipline;  their 
arms  were  less  easily  wielded,  their 
horses  less  obedient  to  the  bit.  A  single 
skirmish  was  enough  to  open  their  eyes  ; 
they  found  themselves  decidedly  inferior; 
and,  having  engaged  in  the  war  with  the 
expectation  of  easy  success,  were  readily 
disheartened.*  This  victory,  or  rather 
this  decisive  proof  that  victory  might  be 

*  Sismondi,  t.  vii.,  p.  439. 


achieved,  set  Italy  at  rest  for  almost  a 
century  from  any  apprehensions  on  the 
side  of  her  ancient  masters. 

Whatever  evils  might  be  derived,  and 
they  were  not  trifling,  from  the  employ- 
ment of  foreign  or  native  mercenaries,  it 
was  impossible  to  discontinue  the  system 
without  general  consent ;  and  too  many 
states  found  their  own  advantage  in  it 
for  such  an  agreement.  The  condottieri 
were  indeed  all  notorious  for  contempt  of 
engagements.  Their  rapacity  was  equal 
to  their  bad  faith.  Besides  an  enormous 
pay,  for  every  private  cuirassier  received 
much  more  in  value  than  a  subaltern  of- 
ficer at  present,  they  exacted  gratifica- 
tions for  every  success.*  But  every  thing 
was  endured  by  ambitious  governments 
who  wanted  their  aid.  Florence  and 
Venice  were  the  two  states  which  owed 
most  to  the  companies  of  adventure.  The 
one  loved  war  without  its  perils ;  the 
other  could  never  have  obtained  an  inch 
of  territory  with  a  population  of  sailors. 
But  they  were  both  almost  inexhaustibly 
rich  by  commercial  industry  ;  and,  as  the 
surest  paymasters,  were  best  served  by 
those  they  employed.  The  Visconti  might 
perhaps  have  extended  their  conquest 
over  Lombardy  with  the  militia  of  Milan , 
but  without  a  Jacopo  del  Verme  or  a  Car- 
magnola,  the  banner  of  St.  Mark  would 
never  have  floated  at  Verona  and  Ber- 
gamo. 

The  Italian  armies  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury have  been  remarked  for  one  Defensive 
striking   peculiarity.      War  has  arms  of 
never  been  conducted  at  so  little  that  age< 
personal  hazard  to  the  soldier.    Combats 
frequently  occur  in  the  annals  of  that  age, 
wherein   success,  though   warmly   con- 
tested, cost  very  few  lives  even  to  the 
vanquished.!    This  innocence  of  blood, 


*  Paga  doppia,  e  mese  compiuto,  of  which  we 
frequently  read,  sometimes  granted  improvidently, 
and  more  often  demanded  unreasonably.  The  first 
speaks  for  itself;  the  second  was  the  reckoning  a 
month's  service  as  completed  when  it  was  begun, 
in  calculating  their  pay. — Matt.  Villani,  p.  62.  Sis- 
mondi, t.  v.,  p.  412. 

Gian  Galeazzo  Visconti  promised  constant  half- 
pay  to  the  condottieri  whom  he  disbanded  in  1396. 
This  perhaps  is  the  first  instance  of  half-pay.— Sis- 
mondi, t.  vii.,  p.  397. 

t  Instances  of  this  are  very  frequent.  Thus,  at 
the  action  of  Zagonara,  in  1423,  but  three  persons, 
according  to  Machiavel,  lost  their  lives,  and  those 
by  suffocation  in  the  mud. — 1st.  Fiorent.,  1.  iv.  At 
that  of  Molinella,  in  1467,  he  says  that  no  one  was 
killed,  1.  vii.  Ammirato  reproves  him  for  this,  as 
all  the  authors  of  the  time  represent  it  to  have  been 
sanguinary  (t.  ii.,  p.  102),  and  insinuates  that  Ma- 
chiavel ridicules  the  inoffensiveness  of  those  armies 
more  than  it  deserves,  schernendo,  come  egli  suol 
far,  quella  milizia.  Certainly  some  few  battles  of 
the  fifteenth  century  were  not  only  obstinately  con. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


which  some  historians  turn  into  ridicule 
was  no  doubt  owing  in  a  great  degree  t 
the  rapacity  of  the  companies  of  adven 
ture,  who,  in  expectation  of  enrichin 
themselves  by  the  ransom  of  prisoners 
were  anxious  to  save  their  lives.     Muc 
of  the  humanity  of  modern  warfare  wa 
originally  due  to  this  motive.     But  it  wa 
rendered  more  practicable  by  the  natur 
of  their  arms.     For  once,  and  for  one 
only  in  the  history  of  mankind,  the  art  o 
defence  had  outstripped  that  of  destruc 
tion.     In  a  charge  of  lancers  many  feL 
unhorsed  by  the  shock,  and  might  be  suf 
focated  or  bruised  to  death  by  the  pres 
sure  of  their  own  armour ;  but  the  lance 
point  could  not  penetrate  the  breastplate 
the  sword  fell  harmless  upon  the  helmet 
the  conqueror,  in  the  first  impulse  of  pas 
sion,  could  not  assail  any  vital  part  of  a 
prostrate  but  not  exposed  enemy.     Stil 
less  was  to  be  dreaded  from  the  archers 
or  crossbowmen,  who  composed  a  larg 
part  of  the  infantry.    The  bow,  indeed,  as 
drawn  by  an  English  foot-soldier,  was  the 
most  formidable  of  arms  before  the  in 
vention   of  gunpowder.      That   ancien 
weapon,  though   not   perhaps   commor 
among  the  Northern  nations,  nor  for  sev- 
eral centuries  after  their  settlement,  was 
occasionally  in  use  before  the  crusades 
William  employed  archers  in  the  battle 
of  Hastings.*     Intercourse  with  the  east 
its  natural  soil,  during  the  twelfth  anc 
thirteenth  ages,  rendered  the  bow  better 
known.     But  the  Europeans  improved  on 
the  eastern  method  of  confining  its  use 
to  cavalry.      By  employing  infantry  as 
archers,  they  gained  increased  size,  more 
steady  position,  and  surer  aim  for  the 
bow.     Much,  however,  depended  on  the 
strength  and  skill  of  the  archer.     It  was 
a  peculiarly  English  weapon,  and  none 


tested,  but  attended  with  considerable  loss. — Sis- 
mondi,  t.  x.,  p,  126,  137.  But,  in  general,  the 
slaughter  must  appear  very  trifling.  Ammirato 
himself  says,  that  in  an  action  between  the  Neapol- 
itan and  papal  troops  in  1486,  which  lasted  all  day, 
not  only  no  one  was  killed,  but  it  is  not  -recorded 
that  any  one  was  wounded. — Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de' 
Medici,  vol.  ii.,  p.  37.  Guicciardini's  general  testi- 
mony to  the  character  of  these  combats  is  unequiv- 
ocal. He  speaks  of  the  battle  of  Fornova,  between 
"the  confederates  of  Lombardy  and  the  army  of 
Charles  VIII.  returning  from  Naples  in  1495,  as 
very  remarkable  on  account  of  the  slaughter,  which 
amounted  on  the  Italian  side  to  3000  men  :  perche 
fa  la  prima,  che  da  lunghissimo  tempo  in  qua  si 
combattesse  con  uccisione  e  con  sangue  in  Italia, 
perche  innanzi  a  questa  morivano  pochissimi  uomi- 
ni  in  un  fatto  d'arme,  1.  ii.,  p.  175. 

*  Pedites  in  fronte  locavit,  sagittis  armatos  et 
balistis,  item  pedites  in  ordine  secundo  firmiores 
et  Ipricatos,  ultimo  turmas  equitum. — Gul.  Pictavi- 
ensis  (in  Du  Chesne),  p.  201.  Several  archers  are 
represented  in  the  tapestry  of  Bayeux. 


of  the  other  principal  nations  adopted  it 
so  generally  or  so  successfully.  The 
crossbow,  which  brought  the  strong  and 
weak  to  a  level,  was  more  in  favour  upon 
the  continent.  This  instrument  is  said 
by  some  writers  to  have  been  introduced 
after  the  first  crusade,  in  the  reign  of 
Louis  the  Fat.*  But,  if  we  may  trust 
William  of  Poitou,  it  was  employed,  as 
well  as  the  long  bow,  at  the  battle  of 
Hastings.  Several  of  the  popes  prohib- 
ited it  as  a  treacherous  weapon ;  and  the 
restriction  was  so  far  regarded  that,  in 
the  time  of  Philip  Augustus,  its  use  is 
said  to  have  been  unknown  in  France. f 
By  degrees  it  became  more  general ;  and 
crossbowmen  were  considered  as  a  very 
necessary  part  of  a  well-organized  army. 
But  both  the  arrow  and  the  quarrel  glan- 
ced away  from  plate-armour,  such  as  it 
became  in  the  fifteenth  century,  imper- 
vious in  every  point,  except  when  the 
visor  was  raised  from  the  face,  or  some 
part  of  the  body  accidentally  exposed. 
The  horse  indeed  was  less  completely 
protected. 

Many  disadvantages  attended  the  secu- 
rity against  wounds  for  which  this  ar- 
mour had  been  devised.  The  enormous 
weight  exhausted  the  force  and  crippled 
the  limbs.  It  rendered  the  heat  of  a 
southern  climate  insupportable.  In  some 
circumstances  it  increased  the  danger  of 
death,  as  in  the  passage  of  a  river  or 
morass.  It  was  impossible  to  compel  an 
nemy  to  fight,  because  the  least  in- 
trenehment  or  natural  obstacle  could  stop 
uch  unwieldy  assailants.  The  troops 
might  be  kept  in  constant  alarm  at  night, 
and  either  compelled  to  sleep  underarms, 
or  run  the  risk  of  being  surprised  before 
hey  could  rivet  their  plates  of  steel. | 
Veither  the  Italians,  however,  nor  the 
Transalpines,  would  surrender  a  mode 
f  defence  which  they  ought  to  have 
deemed  inglorious.  But,  in  order  to  ob- 
riate  some  of  its  military  inconveniences, 
is  well  as  to  give  a  concentration  in  at- 
ack,  which  lancers  impetuously  charging 
n  a  single  line,  according  to  the  practice 
t  least  of  France  in  the  middle  ages, 
id  not  preserve,  it  became  usual  custom  of 
or  the  cavalry  to  dismount,  and  cavalry  dis- 
eaving  their  horses  at  some  dis-  mounting- 
ance,  to  combat  on  foot  with  the  lance, 
'his  practice,  which  must  have  been 
ingularly  embarrassing  with  tne  plate- 
rmour  of  the  fifteenth  century,  was  in- 
roduced  before  it  became  so  ponderous. 


*  Le  Grand,  Vie  privee  des  Franqais,  t.  i..  p.  349. 
t  Du  Cange,  v.  Balista.    Muratori,  Diss.  26,  t. 
p.  462.  (Ital.) 
t  Sismondi,  t.  ix.,  p.  158. 


184 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IIL 


It  is  mentioned  by  historians  of  the 
twelfth  century  both  as  a  German  and 
an  English  custom.*  We  find  it  in  the 
wars  of  Edward  III.  Hawkwood,  the 
disciple  of  that  school,  introduced  it  into 
Italy.f  And  it  was  practised  by  the  Eng- 
lish in  their  second  wars  with  France, 
especially  at  the  battles  of  Crevant  and 
Verneuil.J 

Meanwhile,  a  discovery  accidentally 
made,  perhaps  in  some  remote  age  and 
distant  region,  and  whose  importance 
was  but  slowly  perceived  by  Europe, 
had  prepared  the  way  not  only  for  a 
change  in  her  military  system,  but  for 

Invention  of  political  effects  Still  more  ex- 
gunpowder,  tensive.  If  we  consider  gun- 
powder as  an  instrument  of  human  de- 
struction, incalculably  more  powerful 
than  any  that  skill  had  devised  or  acci- 1 
dent  presented  before,  acquiring,  as  ex- 
perience shows  us,  a  more  sanguinary  ' 
dominion  in  every  succeeding  age,  and 
borrowing  all  the  progressive  resources 
of  science  and  civilization  for  the  exter- 
mination of  mankind,  we  shall  be  appall- 
ed at  the  future  prospects  of  the  species, 
and  feel  perhaps  in  no  other  instance  so 
much  difficulty  in  reconciling  the  myste- 
rious dispensation  with  the  benevolent 
order  of  Providence.  As  the  great  se- 
curity for  established  governments,  the 
surest  preservation  against  popular  tu- 
mult, it  assumes  a  more  equivocal  char- 
acter, depending  upon  the  solution  of 
a  doubtful  problem,  whether  the  sum 
of  general  happiness  has  lost  more  in 
the  last  three  centuries  through  arbi- 
trary power,  than  it  has  gained  through 
regular  police  and  suppression  of  dis- 
order. 

There  seems  little  reason  to  doubt  that 
gunpowder  was  introduced  through  the 
means  of  the  Saracens  into  Europe.  Its 
use  in  engines  of  war,  though  they  may 
seem  to  have  been  rather  like  our  fire- 
works than  artillery,  is  mentioned  by  an 
Arabic  writer  in  the  Escurial  collection 

*  The  Emperor  Conrad's  cavalry  in  the  second 
crusade  are  said  by  William  of  Tyre  to  have  dis- 
mounted on  one  occasion,  and  fought  on  foot,  de 
equis  descendentes,  et  facti  pedites  ;  sicut  mos  est 
Teutonicis  in  summis  necessitatibus  bellica  tractare 
negotia,  1.  xvii.,  c.  4.  And  the  same  was  done  by 
the  English  in  their  engagement  with  the  Scotch 
near  North  Allerton,  commonly  called  the  battle  of 
the  Standard,  in  1138.— Twysden,  Decem  Script., 
p.  342. 

t  Sismondi,  t.  vi.,  p.  429.  Azarius,  in  Script. 
Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xvi.  Matt.  Villani. 

t  Monstrelet,  t.  ii.,  fol.  7,  14,  76.  Villaret,  t. 
xvii.,  p.  89.  It  was  a  Burgundian  as  well  as  Eng- 
lish fashion.  Entre  les  Bourguignons,  says  Co- 
mines,  lors  estoient  les  plus  honorez  ceux  que 
descendoient  avec  les  archers,  1.  i.,  c.  3. 


about  the  year  L249.*  It  was  known  not 
long  afterward  to  our  philosopher,  Roger 
Bacon,  though  he  concealed  in  some  de- 
gree the  secret  of  its  composition.  In 
the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
cannon,  or  rather  mortars,  were  invented, 
and  the  applicability  of  gunpowder  to 
purposes  of  war  was  understood.  Ed- 
ward III.  employed  some  pieces  of  artil- 
lery with  considerable  effect  at  Crecy.f 
But  its  use  was  still  not  very  frequent ; 
a  circumstance  which  will  surprise  us 
less,  when  we  consider  the  unscientific 
construction  of  artillery;  the  slowness 
with  which  it  coul^,  be  loaded ;  its  stone 
balls  of  uncertain  aim  and  imperfect 
force,  being  commonly  fired  at  a  consid- 
erable elevation ;  and  especially  the  diffi- 
culty of  removing  it  from  place  to  place 
during  an  action.  In  sieges,  and  in  naval 
engagements,  as  for  example  in  the  war 
of  Chioggia,  it  was  more  frequently  em- 
ployed.^ Gradually,  however,  the  new 

*  Casiri,  Bibl.  Arab.  Hispan.,  t.  ii.,  p.  7,  thus 
renders  the  original  description  of  certain  missiles 
used  by  the  Moors.  Serpunt,  susurrantque  scorpi- 
ones  circumligati  ac  pulvere  nitrato  incensi,  unde 
explosi  fulgurant  ac  incendunt.  Jam  videre  erat 
manganum  excussum  veluti  nubem  per  aera  ex- 
tend! ac  tonitrus  instar  horrendum  edere  fragorem, 
ignemque  undequaque  vomens,  omnia  dirumpere, 
incendere,  in  cineres  redigere.  The  Arabic  pas- 
sage is  at  the  bottom  of  the  page ;  and  one  would 
be  glad  to  know  whether  -pulvis  nitratus  is  a  fair 
translation.  But  I  think  there  can  on  the  whole  be 
no  doubt  that  gunpowder  is  meant.  Another  Ara- 
bian writer  seems  to  describe  the  use  of  cannon  in 
the  years  1312  and  1323. — Id.  ibid.  And  the  chron- 
icle of  Alphonso  XL,  king  of  Castile,  distinctly 
mentions  them  at  the  siege  of  Algeziras  in  1342. 
But,  before  this,  they  were  sufficiently  known  in 
France.  Gunpowder  and  cannon  are  both  men- 
tioned in  registers  of  accounts  under  1338  (Du 
Cange,  Bombarda),  and  in  another  document  of 
1345. — Hist,  du  Languedoc,  t.  iv.,  p.  204.  But  the 
strongest  evidence  is  a  passage  of  Petrarch,  writ- 
ten before  1344,  and  quoted  in  Muratori,  Antich. 
Ital.,  Dissert.  26,  p.  456,  where  he  speaks  of  the 
art,  nuper  rara,  nunc  communis. 

t  G.  Villani,  1.  xii.,  c.  67.  Gibbon  has  thrown 
out  a  sort  of  objection  to  the  certainty  of  this  fact, 
on  account  of  Froissart's  silence.  But  the  posi- 
tive testimony  of  Villani,  who  died  within  two  years 
afterward,  and  had  manifestly  obtained  much  in- 
formation as  to  the  great  events  passing  in  France, 
cannot  be  rejected.  He  ascribes  a  material  effect 
to  the  cannon  of  Edward,  colpi  delle  bombarde, 
which  I  suspect,  from  his  strong  expressions,  had 
not  been  employed  before,  except  against  stone 
walls.  It  seemed,  he  says,  as  if  God  thundered 
con  grande  uccisione  di  genti,  e  sfondamento  di 
cavalli. 

}  Gattaro,  1st.  Padovana,  in  Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t. 
xvii.,  p.  360.  Several  proofs  of  the  employment 
of  artillery  in  French  sieges  during  the  reign  of 
Charles  V.  occur  in  Villaret.  See  the  word  Artil- 
lerie  in  the  index. 

Gian  Galeazzo  had,  according  to  Coria,  thirty- 
four  pieces  of  cannon,  small  and  great,  in  the  Mila- 
nese army,  about  1397. 


PART  II.] 

artifice 
French 


ITALY. 


of   evil    gained    ground.     The 
made    the    principal    improve- 


185 


ments.  They  cast  their  cannon  smaller, 
placed  them  on  lighter  carriages,  and 
used  balls  of  iron.*  They  invented  port- 
able arms  for  a  single  soldier,  which, 
though  clumsy  in  comparison  with  their 
present  state,  gave  an  augury  of  a  pro- 
digious revolution  in  the  military  art. 
John,  duke  of  Burgundy,  in  1411,  had 
4000  hand-cannons,  as  they  were  called, 
in  his  army.f  They  are  found  under 
different  names,  and  modifications  of 
form,  for  which  I  refer  the  reader  to  pro- 
fessed writers  on  tactics,  in  most  of  the 
wars  that  historians  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury record,  but  less  in  Italy  than  beyond 
the  Alps.  The  Milanese,  in  1449,  are 
said  to  have  armed  their  militia  with 
20,000  muskets,  which  struck  terror  into 
the  old  generals.  ;£  But  these  muskets, 
supported  on  a  rest,  and  charged  with 
great  delay,  did  less  execution  than  our 
sanguinary  science  would  require ;  and, 
uncombined  with  the  admirable  invention 
of  the  bayonet,  could  not  in  any  degree 
resist  a  charge  of  cavalry.  The  pike  had 
a  greater  tendency  to  subvert  the  military 
system  of  the  middle  ages,  and  to  de- 
monstrate the  efficiency  of  disciplined 
infantry.  Two  free  nations  had  already 
discomfited,  by  the  help  of  such  infantry, 
those  arrogant  knights  on  whom  the  fate 
of  battles  had  depended  ;  the  Bohemians, 
instructed  in  the  art  of  war  by  their  great 
master,  John  Zisca  ;  and  the  Swiss,  who, 
after  winning  their  independence,  inch  by 
inch,  from  the  house  of  Austria,  had  lately 
established  their  renown  by  a  splendid 
victory  over  Charles  of  Burgundy.  Louis 
XL  took  a  body  of  mercenaries  from  the 
United  Cantons  into  pay.  Maximilian  had 
recourse  to  the  same  assistance. $  And 
though  the  importance  of  infantry  was 
not  perhaps  decidedly  established  till  the 
Milanese  wars  of  Louis  XII.  and  Francis 
I.  in  the  sixteenth  century,  yet  the  last 
years  of  the  middle  ages,  according  to 


*  Guicciardini,  1.  i.,  p.  75,  has  a  remarkable  pas- 
sage on  the  superiority  of  the  French  over  the  Ital- 
ian artillery,  in  consequence  of  these  improve- 
ments. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xiii.,  p.  176,  310. 

t  Sisrnondi,  t.  ix.,  p.  341.  He  says  that  it  re- 
quired a  quarter  of  an  hour  to  charge  and  fire  a 
musket.  I  must  confess  that  I  very  much  doubt 
the  fact  of  so  many  muskets  having  been  collected. 
In  1432,  that  arm  was  seen  for  the  first  time  in 
Tuscany. — Muratori,  Dissert.  26,  p.  457. 

i)  See  Guicciardini's  character  of  the  Swiss 
troops,  p.  192.  The  French,  he  says,  had  no  native 
infantry ;  il  regno  di  Francia  era  debolissimo  di 
fanteria  propria,  the  nobility  monopolizing  all  war- 
like occupations.— Ibid. 


our  division,  indicated  the  commence- 
ment of  that  military  revolution  in  the 
general  employment  of  pikemen  and 
musketeers. 

Soon  after  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  to  return  from  this  di-  Rivalry  of 
gression,  two  illustrious  cap-  srorzaand 
tains,  educated  under  Alberic  di  Braccio- 
Barbiano,  turned  upon  themselves  the 
eyes  of  Italy.  These  were  Braccio  di 
Montone,  a  noble  Perugian,  and  Sforza 
Attendolo,  originally  a  peasant  in  the  vil- 
lage of  Cotignuola.  Nearly  equal  in  rep- 
utation, unless  perhaps  Braccio  may  be 
reckoned  the  more  consummate  general, 
they  were  divided  by  a  long  rivalry, 
which  descended  to  the  next  generation, 
and  involved  all  the  distinguished  leaders 
of  Italy.  The  distractions  of  Naples,  and 
the  anarchy  of  the  ecclesiastical  state, 
gave  scope  not  only  to  their  military,  but 
political  ambition.  Sforza  was  invested 
with  extensive  fiefs  in  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  and  with  the  office  of  Great  Con- 
stable. Braccio  aimed  at  independent 
acquisitions,  and  formed  a  sort  of  princi- 
pality around  Perugia.  This,  however, 
was  entirely  dissipated  at  his  death. 
When  Sforza  and  Braccio  were  no  more, 
their  respective  parties  were  headed  by 
the  son  of  the  former,  Francesco  Francesco 
Sforza,  and  by  Nicolas  Piccini-  Sforza- 
no,  who  for  more  than  twenty  years 
fought,  with  few  exceptions,  under  oppo- 
site banners.  Piccinino  was  constantly 
in  the  service  of  Milan.  Sforza,  whose 
political  talents  fully  equalled  his  milita- 
ry skill,  never  lost  sight  of  the  splendid 
prospects  that  opened  to  his  ambition. 
From  Eugenius  IV.  he  obtained  the 
March  of  Ancona,  as  a  fief  of  the  Roman 
see.  Thus  rendered  more  independent 
than  the  ordinary  condottieri,  he  mingled 
as  a  sovereign  prince  in  the  politics  of  It- 
aly. He  was  generally  in  alliance  with 
Venice  and  Florence,  thro  wing  his  weight 
into  their  scale  to  preserve  the  balance  of 
power  against  Milan  and  Naples.  But 
his  ultimate  designs  rested  upon  Milan. 
Filippo  Maria,  duke  of  that  city,  the  last 
of  his  family,  had  only  a  natural  daugh- 
ter, whose  hand  he  sometimes  offered  and 
sometimes  withheld  from  Sforza.  Even 
after  he  had  consented  to  their  union,  his 
suspicious  temper  was  incapable  of  ad- 
mitting SUCh  a  SOll-in-law  into  He  acquires 

confidence,  and  he  joined  in  a  thedmchy 
confederacy  with  the  pope  and  of  Mllan- 
King  of  Naples   to  strip   Sforza  of  the 
March.     At  the  death  of  Filippo  Maria, 
in  1447,  that  general  had  nothing  left  but 
his  glory,  and  a  very  disputable  claim  to 
the  Milanese  succession.    This,  howev- 


166 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


cr,  was  set  aside  by  the  citizens,  who  re- 
vived their  republican  government.  A 
republic  in  that  part  of  Lombardy  might, 
with  the  help  of  Venice  and  Florence, 
have  withstood  any  domestic  or  foreign 
usurpation.  But  Venice  was  hostile,  and 
Florence  indifferent.  Sforza  became  the 
general  of  this  new  state,  aware  that  such 
would  be  the  probable  means  of  becom- 
ing its  master.  No  politician  of  that  age 
scrupled  any  breach  of  faith  for  his  in- 
terest. Nothing,  says  Machiavel,  was 
thought  shameful  but  to  fail.  Sforza 
with  his  army  deserted  to  the  Venetians  ; 
and  the  republic  of  Milan,  being  both  in- 
capable of  defending  itself,  and  distracted 
by  civil  dissensions,  soon  fell  a  prey  to 
his  ambition.  In  1450  he  was  proclaim- 
ed duke,  rather  by  right  of  election  or  of 
conquest  than  in  virtue  of  his  marriage 
with  Bianca,  whose  sex,  as  well  as  illegit- 
imacy, seemed  to  preclude  her  from  in- 
heriting. 

I  have  not  alluded  for  some  time  to  the 
Affairs  of  domestic  history  of  a  kingdom, 
Naples,     which  bore  a  considerable  part 
during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centu- 
ries in  the  general  combinations  of  Ital- 
ian policy,  not  wishing  to  interrupt  the 
reader's  attention  by  too  frequent  tran- 
sitions.    We  must  return  again  to  a  more 
remote  age  in  order  to  take  up  the  histo- 
ry of  Naples.     [A.  D.  1272.]  Charles  of 
Anjou,  after  the  deaths  of  Manfred  and 
Conradin  had  left  him  without  a  compet- 
itor, might  be  ranked  in  the  first  class  of 
European   sovereigns.     Master  of  Pro- 
vence and  Naples,  and  at  the  head  of  the 
Guelf  faction  in  Italy,   he  had  already 
prepared  a   formidable   attack    on    the 
Greek  empire,  when  a  memorable  revo- 
lution in   Sicily  brought  humiliation  on 
Rebellion  of  his  latter  years.     John  of  Pro- 
Sicily  from  cida,  a  Neapolitan,  whose  patri- 
An^oa*  °f   mony  nad  been  confiscated  for 
his  adherence  to  the  party  of 
Manfred,  retained,  during  long  years  of 
exile,  an  implacable  resentment  against 
the  house  of  Anjou.    From  the  dominions 
of  Peter  III.,  king  of  Aragon,  who  had 
bestowed  estates  upon  him  in  Valencia,  he 
kept  his  eye  continually  fixed  on  Naples 
and  Sicily.     The  former  held  out  no  fa- 
vourable prospects  ;  the  Ghibelin  party 
had  been  entirely  subdued,  and  the  prin- 
cipal barons  were  of  French  extraction 
or  inclinations.     But  the  island  was  in  a 
very   different   state.      Unused   to   any 
strong  government,  it  was  now  treated  as 
a  conquered  country.     A  large  party  01 
French  soldiers  garrisoned  the  fortified 
towns,   and  the   systematic   oppression 
was  aggravated  by  those  insults   upon 


[CHAP.  III. 


women,  which  have  always  been  charac- 
teristic of  that  people,  and  are  most  in- 
olerable  to  an  Italian  temperament. 
John  of  Procida,  travelling  in  disguise 
hrough  the  island,  animated  the  barons 
with  a  hope  of  deliverance.  In  like  dis- 
guise he  repaired  to  the  pope,  Nicolas 
II., who  was  jealous  of  the  new  Neapol- 
tan  destiny,  and  obtained  his  sanction  to 
,he  projected  insurrection ;  to  the  court 
of  Constantinople,  from  which  he  readi- 
y  obtained  money ;  and  to  the  King  of 
Aragon,  who  employed  that  money  in 
fitting  out  an  armament,  that  hovered 
upon  the  coast  of  Africa,  under  pretext 
of  attacking  the  Moors.  It  is,  however, 
difficult  at  this  time  to  distinguish  the 
effects  of  preconcerted  conspiracy  from 
hose  of  casual  resentment.  Before  the 
ntrigues  so  skilfully  conducted  had  taken 
effect,  yet  after  they  were  ripe  for  de- 
velopment, an  outrage,  committed  upon 
lady  at  Palermo  during  a  procession  on 
the  vigil  of  Easter,  provoked  the  people 
;o  that  terrible  massacre  of  all  the  French 
n  their  island,  which  has  obtained  Sicilian 
he  name  of  Sicilian  Vespers.  [A.  vespers 
D.  1283.]  Unpremeditated  as  such  an  eb- 
ullition of  popular  fury  must  appear,  it 
ell  in,  by  the  happiest  coincidence,  with 
he  previous  conspiracy.  The  King  of 
Aragon's  fleet  was  at  hand  ;  the  Sicilians 
soon  called  in  his  assistance ;  he  sailed 
to  Palermo,  and  accepted  the  crown. 
John  of  Procida  is  a  remarkable  witness 
to  a  truth  which  the  pride  of  governments 
will  seldom  permit  them  to  acknowledge ; 
that  an  individual,  obscure  and  apparent- 
ly insignificant,  may  sometimes,  by  per- 
severance and  energy,  shake  the  founda- 
tions of  established  states;  while  the 
perfect  concealment  of  his  intrigues 
proves  also,  against  a  popular  maxim, 
that  a  political  secret  may  be  preserved 
by  a  number  of  persons  during  a  consid- 
erable length  of  time.* 


*  Giannone,  though  he  has  well  described  the 
schemes  of  John  of  Procida,  yet,  as  is  too  often  his 
custom,  or  rather  that  of  Costanzo,  whom  he  im- 
plicitly follows,  drops  or  slides  over  leading  facts  ; 
and  thus,  omitting  entirely,  or  misrepresenting  the 
circumstances  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers,  treats  the 
whole  insurrection  as  the  result  of  a  deliberate  con- 
spiracy. On  the  other  hand,  Nicolas  Specialis,  a 
contemporary  writer,  in  the  seventh  volume  of 
Muratori's  collection,  represents  the  Sicilian  Ves- 
pers as  proceeding  entirely  from  the  casual  outrage 
in  the  streets  of  Palermo.  The  thought  of  calling 
in  Peter,  he  asserts,  did  not  occur  to  the  Sicilians 
till  Charles  had  actually  commenced  the  siege  of 
Messina.  But  this  is  equally  removed  from  the 
truth.  Gibbon  has  made  more  errors  than  are  usu- 
al with  so  accurate  an  historian  in  his  account  of 
this  revolution,  such  as  calling  Constance,  the 
queen  of  Peter,  sister  instead  of  daughter  of  Manfred. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


187 


The  long  war  that  ensued  upon  this  rev- 
°luti°n  involved  or  interested 
the  greater  part  of  civilized  Eu- 
rope.  Philip  III.  of  France  ad- 

hered  to  his  uncle>  and  the  KinS 

of  Aragon  was  compelled  to 
fight  for  Sicily  within  his  native  domin- 
ions. This  indeed  was  the  more  vulnera- 
ble point  of  attack.  Upon  the  sea  he  was 
lord  of  the  ascendant.  His  Catalans,  the 
most  intrepid  of  Mediterranean  sailors, 
were  led  to  victory  by  a  Calabrian  refu- 
gee, Roger  di  Loria,  the  most  illustrious 
and  successful  admiral  whom  Europe 
produced  till  the  age  of  Blake  and  De 
Ruyter.  In  one  of  Loria's  battles,  the 
eldest  son  of  the  King  of  Naples  was 
made  prisoner,  and  the  first  years  of  his 
own  reign  were  spent  in  confinement. 
But  notwithstanding  these  advantages,  it 
was  found  impracticable  for  Aragon  to 
contend  against  the  arms  of  France,  and 
latterly  of  Castile,  sustained  by  the  roll- 
ing thunders  of  the  Vatican.  Peter  III. 
had  bequeathed  Sicily  to  his  second  son 
James  ;  Alfonso,  the  eldest,  king  of  Ara- 
gon, could  not  fairly  be  expected  to  ruin 
his  inheritance  for  his  brother's  cause ; 
nor  were  the  barons  of  that  free  country 
disposed  to  carry  on  a  war  without  na- 
tional objects.  He  made  peace  accord- 
ingly in  1295,  and  engaged  to  withdraw 
all  his  subjects  from  the  Sicilian  service. 
Upon  his  own  death,  which  followed  very 
soon,  James  succeeded  to  the  kingdom 
of  Aragon,  and  ratified  the  renunciation 
of  Sicily.  But  the  natives  of  that  island 
had  received  too  deeply  the  spirit  of  in- 
dependence to  be  thus  assigned  over  by 
the  letter  of  a  treaty.  After  solemnly 
abjuring,  by  their  ambassadors,  their  alle- 
giance to  the  King  of  Aragon,  they  placed 
the  crown  upon  the  head  of  his  brother 
Frederick.  They  maintained  the  war 
against  Charles  II.  of  Naples,  against 
James  of  Aragon,  their  former  king,  who 
had  bound  himself  to  enforce  their  sub- 
mission, and  even  against  the  great  Ro- 
ger di  Loria,  who,  upon  some  discontent 
with  Frederick,  deserted  their  banner, 
and  entered  into  the  Neapolitan  service. 
Peace  was  at  length  made  in  1300,  upon 
condition  that  Frederick  should  retain  du- 
ring his  life  the  kingdom,  which  was  af- 
terward to  revert  to  the  crown  of  Naples ; 
a  condition  not  likely  to  be  fulfilled. 

Upon  the  death  of  Charles  II.,  king  of 
Naples,  in  1305,  a  question  arose  as  to 
the  succession.  His  eldest  son,  Charles 
Martel,  had  been  called  by  maternal  inher- 
itance to  the  throne  of  Hungary,  and  had 

A  good  narrative  of  the  Sicilian  Vespers  may  be 
found  in  Velly's  History  of  France,  t.  vi. 


left  at  his  decease  a  son,  Carobert,  the 
reigning  sovereign  of  that  country.  Ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  representative  suc- 
cession, which  were  at  this  time  tolerably 
settled  in  private  inheritance,  the  crown 
of  Naples  ought  to  have  regularly  devolv- 
ed upon  that  prince.  But  it  was  contest- 
ed by  his  uncle  Robert,  the  eld-  Robert,  king 
est  living  son  of  Charles  II.,  of  Naples, 
and  the  cause  was  pleaded  by  civilians 
before  Pope  Clement  V.  at  Avignon,  the 
feudal  superior  of  the  Neapolitan  king- 
dom. Reasons  of  public  utility,  rather 
than  of  legal  analogy,  seem  to  have  pre- 
vailed in  the  decision  which  was  made  in 
favour  of  Robert.*  The  course  of  his 
reign  evinced  the  wisdom  of  this  deter- 
mination. Robert,  a  wise  and  active, 
though  not  personally  a  martial  prince, 
maintained  the  ascendency  of  the  Guelf 
faction,  and  the  papal  influence  connect- 
ed with  it,  against  the  formidable  combi- 
nation of  Ghibelin  usurpers  in  Lombardy, 
and  the  two  emperors  Henry  VII.  and 
Louis  of  Bavaria.  No  male  issue  survi- 
ved Robert,  whose  crown  descended  to 
his  grand-daughter  Joanna.  She  had 
been  espoused,  while  a  child,  to  her  cou- 
sin Andrew,  son  of  Carobert,  king  of 
Hungary,  who  was  educated  with  her  in 
the  court  of  Naples.  Auspiciously  con- 
trived as  this  union  might  seem  to  silence 
a  subsisting  claim  upon  the  kingdom,  it 
proved  eventually  the  source  of  civil  war 
and  calamity  for  a  hundred  and  fifty  years. 
Andrew's  manners  were  barbarous,  more 
worthy  of  his  native  country  than  of  that 
polished  court  wherein  he  had  been  bred. 
He  gave  himself  up  to  the  society  of  Hun- 
garians, who  taught  him  to  believe  that  a 
matrimonial  crown  and  derivative  royalty 
were  derogatory  to  a  prince  who  claimed 
by  a  paramount  hereditary  right.  [A.  D. 
1343.]  In  fact,  he  was  pressing  the  court 
of  Avignon  to  permit  his  own  corona- 
tion, which  would  have  placed  in  a  very 
hazardous  condition  the  rights  of  the 
queen,  with  whom  he  was  living  on  ill 
terms,  when  one  night  he  was  Joanna 
seized,  strangled,  and  thrown  Murder  of 

OUt    Of  a  Window.      Public    ru-   her  husband 
,,         ,  /•  •      Andrew. 

mour,  in  the  absence  of  notori- 
ous proof,  imputed  the  guilt  of  this  mys- 
terious assassination  to  Joanna.  Wheth- 
er historians  are  authorized  to  assume 
her  participation  in  it  so  confidently  as 
they  have  generally  done,  may  perhaps 
be  doubted  ;  though  I  cannot  venture  pos- 
itively to  rescind  their  sentence.  The 
circumstances  of  Andrew's  death  were 


*  Giannone,  1.  xxii.  Summonte,  t.  ii.,  p.  370 
Some  of  the  civilians  of  that  age,  however,  appro 
ved  the  decision. 


188 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


undoubtedly  pregnant  with  strong  suspi- 
cion.* Louis,  king  of  Hungary,  his  broth- 
er, a  just  and  stern  prince,  invaded  Na- 
ples, partly  as  an  avenger,  partly  as  a 
conqueror.  The  queen,  and  her  second 
husband,  Louis  of  Tarento,  fled  to  Pro- 
vence, where  her  acquittal,  after  a  sol- 
emn, if  not  an  impartial,  investigation, 
was  pronounced  by  Clement  VI.  Louis 
meanwhile  found  it  more  difficult  to  re- 
tain than  to  acquire  the  kingdom  of  Na- 
ples; his  own  dominion  required  his 
presence;  and  Joanna  soon  recovered 
her  crown.  She  reigned  for  thirty  years 
more  without  the  attack  of  any  enemy, 
but  not  intermeddling,  like  her  progeni- 
tors, in  the  general  concerns  of  Italy. 
Childless  by  four  husbands,  the  succes- 
sion of  Joanna  began  to  excite  ambitious 
speculations.  Of  all  the  male  descend- 
ants of  Charles  I.,  none  remained  but  the 
King  of  Hungary,  and  Charles,  duke  of 
Durazzo,  who  had  married  the  queen's 
niece,  and  was  regarded  by  her  as  the 
presumptive  heir  to  the  crown.  But,  of- 
fended by  her  marriage  with  Otho  of 
Brunswick,  he  procured  the  assistance  of 
an  Hungarian  army  to  invade  the  king- 
dom, and,  getting  the  queen  into  his  pow- 
er, took  possession  of  the  throne.  In 
this  enterprise  he  was  seconded  by  Ur- 
ban VI.,  against  whom  Joanna  had  unfor- 
tunately declared  in  the  great  schism  of 


*  The  Chronicle  of  Dominic  di  Gravina  (Script. 
Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xii.)  seems  to  be  our  best  testimony 
for  the  circumstances  connected  with  Andrew's 
death  ;  and,  after  reading  his  narrative  more  than 
once,  I  find  myself  undecided  as  to  this  perplexed 
and  mysterious  story.  Gravina's  opinion,  it  should 
be  observed,  is  extremely  hostile  to  the  qneen. 
Nevertheless,  there  are  not  wanting  presumptions, 
that  Charles,  first  duke  of  Durazzo,  who  had  mar- 
ried his  sister,  was  concerned  in  the  murder  of  An- 
drew, for  which  in  fact  he  was  afterward  put  to 
death  by  the  King  of  Hungary.  But,  if  the  Duke 
of  Durazzo  was  guilty,  it  is  unlikely  that  Joanna 
should  be  so  too ;  because  she  was  on  very  bad 
terms  with  him,  and  indeed  the  chief  proofs  against 
her  are  founded  on  the  investigation  which  Duraz- 
zo himself  professed  to  institute.  Confessions  ob- 
tained through  torture  are  as  little  credible  in  his- 
tory as  they  ought  to  be  in  judicature  ;  even  if  we 
could  be  positively  sure,  which  is  not  the  case  in 
this  instance,  that  such  confessions  were  ever 
made.  However,  I  do  not  pretend  to  acquit  Joan- 
na, but  merely  to  notice  the  uncertainty  that  rests 
over  her  story,  on  account  of  the  positiveness  with 
which  all  historians,  except  those  of  Naples  and 
the  Abb6  de  Sade,  whose  vindication  (Vie  de  Pe- 
trarque,  t.  ii.,  notes)  does  her  more  harm  than  good, 
have  assumed  the  murder  of  Andrew  to  have  been 
her  own  act,  as  if  she  had  ordered  his  execution  in 
open  day. 

Those  who  believe  in  the  innocence  of  Mary, 
queen  of  Scots,  may,  besides  the  obvious  resem- 
blance in  their  stories,  which  has  been  often  no- 
ticed, find  a  more  particular  parallel  between  this 
Duke  of  Durazzo  and  the  Earl  of  Murray. 


the  church.  She  was  smothered  with  a 
pillow,  in  prison,  by  the  order  of  Charles. 
[A.  D.  1378.]  The  name  of  Joan  of  Na- 
ples has  suffered  by  the  lax  repetition  of 
calumnies.  Whatever  share  she  may 
have  had  in  her  husband's  death,  and  cer- 
tainly under  circumstances  of  extenua- 
tion, her  subsequent  life  was  not  open  to 
any  flagrant  reproach.  The  charge  of 
dissolute  manners,  so  frequently  made, 
is  not  warranted  by  any  specific  proof  or 
contemporary  testimony. 

In  the  extremity  of  Joanna's  distress, 
she  had  sought  assistance  from  a  House  of 
qtiarter  too  remote  to  afford  it  in  Anjou. 
time  for  her  relief.  She  adopted  Louis, 
duke  of  Anjou,  eldest  uncle  of  the  young 
king  of  France,  Charles  VI.,  as  her  heir 
in  the  kingdom  of  Naples  and  county  of 
Provence.  This  bequest  took  effect 
without  difficulty  in  the  latter  country. 
Naples  was  entirely  in  the  possession  of 
Charles  of  Durazzo.  Louis,  however, 
entered  Italy  with  a  very  large  army, 
consisting  at  least  of  30,000  cavalry,  and, 
according  to  some  writers,  more  than 
double  that  number.*  He  was  joined  by 
many  Neapolitan  barons  attached  to  the 
late  queen.  But,  by  a  fate  not  unusual  in 
so  imperfect  a  state  of  military  science, 
this  armament  produced  no  adequate  ef- 
fect, and  mouldered  away  through  dis- 
ease and  want  of  provisions.  Louis  him- 
self dying  not  long  afterward,  the  gov- 
ernment of  Charles  III.  appeared  secure, 
and  he  was  tempted  to  accept  an  offer 
of  the  crown  of  Hungary.  This  enter- 
prise, equally  unjust  and  injudicious,  ter- 
minated in  his  assassination.  Ladislaus, 
his  son,  a  child  ten  years  old,  succeeded 
to  the  throne  of  Naples,  under  the  guar- 
dianship of  his  mother  Margaret ;  whose 
exactions  of  money  producing  discontent, 
the  party  which  had  supported  the  late 
Duke  of  Anjou  became  powerful  enough 
to  call  in  his  son.  Louis  II.,  as  he  was 
called,  reigned  at  Naples,  and  possessed 
most  part  of  the  kingdom  for  several 
years ;  the  young  king  Ladislaus,  who 
retained  some  of  the  northern  provinces, 
fixing  his  residence  at  Gaeta.  If  Louis 
had  prosecuted  the  war  with  activity,  it 
seems  probable  that  he  would  have  sub- 
dued his  adversary.  But  his  character 
was  not  very  energetic ;  and  Ladislaus, 
as  he  advanced  to  manhood,  displaying 
much  superior  qualities,  gained  ground 
by  degrees,  till  the  Angevin  barons,  per- 
ceiving the  turn  of  the  tide,  came  over  to 
his  banner,  and  he  recovered  his  whole 
dominions. 

*  Muratori.    Summonte.    Costanzo. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


180 


The  kingdom  of  Naples,  at  the  close 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  was 
aus'  still  altogether  a  feudal  gov- 
ernment. This  had  been  introduced  by 
the  first  Norman  kings,  and  the  system 
had  rather  been  strengthened  than  im- 
paired under  the  Angevin  line.  The 
princes  of  the  blood,  who  were  at  one 
time  numerous,  obtained  extensive  do- 
mains by  way  of  appanage.  The  prin- 
cipality of  Tarento  was  a  large  portion 
of  the  kingdom.*  The  rest  was  occu- 
pied by  some  great  families,  whose 
strength,  as  well  as  pride,  was  shown  in 
the  number  of  men-at-arms  whom  they 
could  muster  under  their  banner.  At  the 
coronation  of  Louis  II.,  in  1390,  the  San- 
severini  appeared  with  1800  cavalry  com- 
pletely equipped. f  This  illustrious  house, 
which  had  filled  all  the  high  offices  of 
state,  and  changed  kings  at  its  pleasure, 
was  crushed  by  Ladislaus,  whose  bold 
and  unrelenting  spirit  well  fitted  him  to 
bruise  the  heads  of  the  aristocratic 
hydra.  After  thoroughly  establishing 
his  government  at  home,  this  ambitious 
monarch  directed  his  powerful  resources 
towards  foreign  conquests.  The  eccle- 
siastical territories  had  never  been  se- 
cure from  rebellion  or  usurpation;  but 
legitimate  sovereigns  had  hitherto  re- 
spected the  patrimony  of  the  head  of  the 
church.  It  was  reserved  for  Ladislaus, 
a  feudal  vassal  of  the  Holy  See,  to  seize 
upon  Rome  itself  as  his  spoil.  For  sev- 
eral years,  while  the  disordered  state  of 
the  church,  in  consequence  of  the  schism 
and  the  means  taken  to  extinguish  it, 
gave  him  an  opportunity,  the  King  of 
Naples  occupied  great  part  of  the  papal 
territories.  He  was  disposed  to  have 
carried  his  arms  farther  north,  and  at» 
tacked  the  republic  of  Florence,  if  not 
the  states  of  Lombardy,  when  his  death 
relieved  Italy  from  the  danger  of  this 
new  tyranny. 

An  elder  sister,   Joanna  II.,  reigned 
,   at  Naples  after  Ladislaus.     Un- 

Joannall.    -,       .,  F  ,      ...  - 

der  this  queen,  destitute  of  cour- 
age and  understanding,  and  the  slave  of 
appetites  which  her  age  rendered  doubly 
disgraceful,  the  kingdom  relapsed  into 
that  state  of  anarchy  from  which  its  late 
sovereign  had  rescued  it.  I  shall  only 

*  It  comprehended  the  provinces  now  called 
Terra  d'Otranto  and  Terra  di  Bari,  besides  part 
of  those  adjoining. — Summonte,  Istoria  di  Napoli, 
t.  iii.,  p.  537.  Orsini,  prince  of  Tarento,  who  died 
in  1463,  had  4000  troops  in  arms,  and  the  value  of 
1,000,000  florins  in  moveables. — Sismondi,  t.  x., 
p.  151. 

t  Summonte,  t.  iii.,  p.  517,  Giannone,  1.  xxiv., 
c.4. 


refer  the  reader  to  more  enlarged  histo- 
ries for  the  first  years  of  Joanna's  reign. 
In  1421  the  two  most  powerful  individ- 
uals were  Sforza  Attendolo,  great  con- 
stable, and  Sir  Gianni  Caraccioli,  the 
queen's  minion,  who  governed  the  pal- 
ace with  unlimited  sway.  Sfprza,  aware 
that  the  favourite  was  contriving  his  ruin, 
and  remembering  the  prison  in  which  he 
had  lain  more  than  once  since  the  acces- 
sion of  Joanna,  determined  to  anticipate 
his  enemies  by  calling  a  pretender  to 
the  crown,  another  Louis  of  Anjou,  third 
in  descent  of  that  unsuccessful  dynasty. 
The  Angevin  party,  though  proscribed 
and  oppressed,  was  not  extinct ;  and  the 
populace  of  Naples,  in  particular,  had 
always  been  on  that  side.  Caraccioli's 
influence  and  the  queen's  dishonourable 
weakness  rendered  the  nobility  disaffect- 
ed. Louis  III.  therefore  had  no  remote 
prospect  of  success.  But  Caraccioli  was 
more  prudent  than  favourites,  selected 
from  such  motives,  have  usually  proved. 
Joanna  was  old  and  childless  ;  the  rever- 
sion to  her  dominions  was  a  valuable 
object  to  any  prince  in  Europe.  None 
was  so  competent  to  assist  her,  Adoption  or 
or  so  likely  to  be  influenced  by  Aiionso  of 
the  hope  of  succession,  as  A}-  Aras°n- 
fonso,  king  of  Aragon  and  Sicily.  That 
island,  after  the  reign  of  its  de-  Affairs  of 
iiverer,  Frederick  I.,  had  unfor-  Sicily- 
tunately  devolved  upon  weak  or  infant 
princes.  One  great  family,  the  Chiara- 
monti,  had  possessed  itself  of  half  Sicily  ; 
not  by  a  feudal  title,  as  in  other  king- 
doms, but  as  a  kind  of  counter-sovereign- 
ty, in  opposition  to  the  crown,  though 
affecting  rather  to  bear  arms  against  the 
advisers  of  their  kings  than  against  them- 
selves. The  marriage  of  Maria,  queen 
of  Sicily,  with  Martin,  son  of  the  King 
of  Aragon,  put  an  end  to  the  national 
independence  of  her  country.  Dying 
without  issue,  she  left  the  crown  to  her 
husband.  This  was  consonant  perhaps 
to  the  received  law  of  some  European 
kingdoms.  But,  upon  the  death  of  Mar- 
tin, in  1409,  his  father,  also  named  Mar- 
tin, king  of  Aragon,  took  possession,  as 
heir  to  his  son,  without  any  election  by 
the  Sicilian  parliament.  The  Chiara- 
monti  had  been  destroyed  by  the  younger 
Martin,  and  no  party  remained  to  make 
opposition.  Thus  was  Sicily  united  to 
the  crown  of  Aragon.  Alfonso,  who 
now  enjoyed  those  two  crowns,  gladly 
embraced  the  proposals  of  the  Queen  of 
Naples.  They  were  founded  indeed  on 
the  most  substantial  basis,  mutual  inter- 
est. She  adopted  Alfonso  as  her  son 
and  successor,  while  he  bound  himself 


190 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   HI. 


to  employ  his  forces  in  delivering  a  king- 
dom that  was  to  become  his  own.  Louis 
of  Anjou,  though  acknowledged  in  sever- 
al provinces,  was  chiefly  to  depend  upon 
the  army  of  Sforza ;  and  an  army  of  Ital- 
ian mercenaries  could  only  be  kept  by 
means  which  he  was  not  able  to  apply. 
The  King  of  Aragon,  therefore,  had  far 
the  better  prospects  in  the  war,  when 
one  of  the  many  revolutions  of  this 
reign  defeated  his  immediate  expecta- 
tions. Whether  it  was  that  Alfonso's  no- 
ble and  affable  nature  afforded  a  contrast 
which  Joanna  was  afraid  of  exhibiting  to 
the  people,  or  that  he  had  really  formed  a 
plan  to  anticipate  his  succession  to  the 
throne,  she  became  more  and  more  dis- 
trustful of  her  adopted  son ;  till,  an  open 
rupture  having  taken  place,  she  entered 
into  a  treaty  with  her  hereditary  competi- 
tor, Louis  of  Anjou,  and,  revoking  the 

adoption  of  Alfonso,  substituted 
tionTn°fa-  tne  French  prince  in  his  room, 
vourof  The  King  of  Aragon  was  dis- 
AnUou°f  appointed  by  this  unforeseen 

stroke,  which,  uniting  the  Ange- 
vin faction  with  that  of  the  reigning  fami- 
ly, made  it  impracticable  for  him  to  main- 
tain his  ground  for  any  length  of  time  in 
the  kingdom.  Joanna  reigned  for  more 
than  ten  years  without  experiencing  any 
inquietude  from  the  pacific  spirit  of  Louis, 
who,  content  with  his  reversionary  hopes, 
lived  as  a  sort  of  exile  in  Calabria.* 
Upon  his  death,  the  queen,  who  did  not 
long  survive  him,  settled  the  kingdom  on 
his  brother  Regnier.  The  Neapolitans 
were  generally  disposed  to  execute  this 
bequest.  But  Regnier  was  unluckily  at 
that  time  a  prisoner  to  the  Duke  of  Bur- 
gundy; and  though  his  wife  maintained 
the  cause  with  great  spirit,  it  was  diffi- 
cult for  her,  or  even  for  himself,  to  con- 


*  Joanna's  great  favourite,  Caraccioli,  fell  a  vic- 
tim some  time  before  his  mistress's  death  to  an  in- 
trigue of  the  palace  ;  the  Dutchess  of  Sessia,  a  new 
favourite,  having  prevailed  on  the  feeble  old  queen 
to  permit  him  to  be  assassinated.  About  this  time 
Alfonso  had  every  reason  to  hope  for  the  renewal 
of  the  settlement  in  his  favour.  Caraccioli  had 
himself  opened  a  negotiation  with  the  King  of  Ar- 
agon ;  and,  after  his  death,  the  Dutchess  of  Sessia 
embarked  in  the  same  cause.  Joan  even  revoked 
secretly  the  adoption  of  the  Duke  of  Anjou.  This 
circumstance  might  appear  doubtful ;  but  the  his- 
torian to  whom  I  refer  has  published  the  act  of 
revocation  itself,  which  bears  date  April  llth,  1433. 
Zurita  (Anales  de  Aragon,  t.  iv.,  p.  217)  admits 
that  no  other  writer,  either  contemporary  or  sub- 
sequent, has  mentioned  any  part  of  the  transaction, 
which  must  have  been  kept  very  secret ;  but  his 
authority  is  so  respectable,  that  I  thought  it  worth 
notice,  however  uninteresting  these  remote  in- 
trigues may  appear  to  most  readers.  Joanna  soon 
changed  her  mind  again,  and  took  no  overt  steps 
in  favour  of  Alfonso 


tend  against  the  King  of  Aragon,  who 
immediately  laid  claim  to  the  kingdom. 
After  a  contest  of  several  years,  Reg- 
nier, having  experienced  the  treacherous 
and  selfish  abandonment  of  his  friends, 
yielded  the  game  to  his  adversary ;  and 
Alfonso  founded  the  Aragonese  line  of 
sovereigns  at  Naples,  deriving  preten- 
sions more  splendid  than  just  from  Man- 
fred, from  the  house  of  Swabia,  and  from 
Roger  Guiscard.* 

In  the  first  year  of  Alfonso's  Neapoli- 
tan war,  he  was  defeated  and  Alfonso, 
taken  prisoner  by  a  fleet  of  the  king  of' 
Genoese,  who,  as  constant  ene-  NaPles- 
mies  of  the  Catalans  in  all  the  naval  war- 
fare of  the  Mediterranean,  had  willingly 
lent  their  aid  to  the  Angevin  party.  Ge- 
noa was  at  this  time  subject  to  Filippo 
Maria,  duke  of  Milan ;  and  her  royal 
captive  was  transmitted  to  his  court. 
But  here  the  brilliant  graces  of  Alfonso's 
character  won  over  his  conqueror,  who 
had  no  reason  to  consider  the  war  as  his 
own  concern.  The  king  persuaded  him, 
on  the  contrary,  that  a  strict  alliance 
with  an  Aragonese  dynasty  in  Naples 
against  the  pretensions  of  any  French 
claimant,  would  be  the  true  policy  and 
best  security  of  Milan.  That  city,  which 
he  had  entered  as  a  prisoner,  he  left  as  a 
friend  and  ally.  From  this  time  Filippo 
Maria  Visconti  and  Alfonso  were  firmly 
united  in  their  Italian  politics,  and  formed 
one  weight  of  the  balance,  which  the  re- 
publics of  Venice  and  Florence  kept  in 
equipoise.  After  the  succession  of  Sfor- 
za to  the  dutchy  of  Milan,  the  Hisconr.ex- 
same  alliance  was  generally  pre-  ion  with 
served.  Sforza  had  still  more  Milan> 
powerful  reasons  than  his  predecessor 
for  excluding  the  French  from  Italy,  his 
own  title  being  contested  by  the  Duke  of 
Orleans,  who  derived  a  claim  from  his 
mother  Valentine,  a  daughter  of  Gian 
Galeazzo  Visconti.  But  the  two  re- 
publics were  no  longer  disposed  towards 
war.  Florence  had  spent  a  great  deal 
without  any  advantage  in  her  contest 
with  Filippo  Maria  ;f  and  the  new  Duke 


*  According  to  a  treaty  between  Frederick  III., 
king  of  Sicily,  and  Joanna  I.,  of  Naples,'  in  1363, 
the  former  monarch  was  to  assume  the  title  of 
King  ofTrinacria,  leaving  the  original  style  to  the 
Neapolitan  line.  But  neither  he,  nor  his  succes- 
sors in  the  island,  ever  complied  with  this  condi- 
tion, or  entitled  themselves  otherwise  than  kings 
of  Sicily  ultra  Pharum,  in  contradistinction  to  the 
other  kingdom,  which  they  denominated,  Sicily 
citriSi  Pharum.  Alfonso  of  Aragon,  when  he  uni- 
ted both  these,  was  the  first  who  took  the  title, 
King  of  the  two  Sicilies,  which  his  successors  have 
retained  ever  since. — Giannone,  t.  iii.,  p.  234. 

t  The  war  ending  with  the  peace  of  Ferrara, 


PART  II  ] 


ITALY. 


101 


of  Milan  had  been  the  constant  personal 
friend  of  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  who  alto- 
gether influenced  that  republic.  At  Ven- 
ice, indeed,  he  had  been  regarded  with 
very  different  sentiments ;  the  senate 
had  prolonged  their  war  against  Milan 
with  redoubled  animosity  after  his  eleva- 
tion, deeming  him  a  not  less  ambitious 
and  more  formidable  neighbour  than  the 
Visconti.  But  they  were  deceived  in  the 
character  of  Sforza.  Conscious  that  he 
had  reached  an  eminence  beyond  his 
early  hopes,  he  had  no  care  but  to  secure 
for  his  family  the  possession  of  Milan, 
without  disturbing  the  balance  of  Lom- 
bardy.  No  one  better  knew  than  Sforza 
the  faithless  temper  and  destructive  pol- 
itics of  the  condottieri,  whose  interest 
was  placed  in  the  oscillations  of  intermi- 
nable war,  and  whose  defection  might 
shake  the  stability  of  any  government. 
Without  peace  it  was  impossible  to  break 
that  ruinous  system,  and  accustom  states 
to  rely  upon  their  natural  resources. 
Venice  had  little  reason  to  expect  further 
conquests  in  Lombardy  :  and  if  her  am- 
bition had  inspired  the  hope  of  them,  she 
was  summoned  by  a  stronger  call,  that 
of  self-preservation,  to  defend  her  nu- 
merous and  dispersed  possessions  in  the 
Levant,  against  the  arms  of  Mahomet  II. 
All  Italy  indeed  felt  the  peril  that  im- 
Quadrupie  pended  from  that  side  :  and  these 
league  of  various  motions  occasioned  a 
quadruple  league  in  1455,  be- 
tween the  King  of  Naples,  the  Duke 
of  Milan,  and  the  two  republics,  for  the 
preservation  of  peace  in  Italy.  One  ob- 
ject of  this  alliance,  and  the  prevailing 
object  with  Alfonso,  was  the  implied 
guarantee  of  his  succession  in  the  king- 
dom of  Naples  to  his  illegitimate  son, 
Ferdinand.  He  had  no  lawful  issue; 
and  there  seemed  no  reason  why  an  ac- 
quisition of  his  own  valour  should  pass 
against  his  will  to  collateral  heirs.  The 
pope,  as  feudal  superior  of  the  kingdom, 
and  the  Neapolitan  parliament,  the  sole 
competent  tribunal,  confirmed  the  inherit- 
ance of  Ferdinand.*  Whatever  may  be 
thought  of  the  claims  subsisting  in  the 
house  of  Anjou,  there  can  be  no  question 
that  the  reigning  family  of  Aragon  were 
legitimately  excluded  from  that  throne, 
though  force  and  treachery  enabled  them 
ultimately  to  obtain  it. 

Alfonso,  surnamed  the  Magnanimous, 
Character  was  by  far  the  most  accomplish- 
of  Alfonso.  ed  sovereign  whom  the  fifteenth 
century  produced.  The  virtues  of  chiv- 


in  1428,  is  said  to  have  cost  the  republic  of  Flor- 
ence 3,500,000  florins.— Ammirato,  p.  1043. 
*  Giannone,  1.  xxvi.,  c.  2. 


airy  were  combined  in  him  with  the  pat- 
ronage of  letters,  and  with  more  than 
their  patronage,  a  real  enthusiasm  for 
learning,  seldom  found  in  a  king,  and 
especially  in  one  so  active  and  ambi- 
tious.* This  devotion  to  literature  was, 
among  the  Italians  of  that  age,  almost  as 
sure  a  passport  to  general  admiration  as 
his  more  chivalrous  perfection.  Magnif- 
icence in  architecture,  and  the  pageantry 
of  a  splendid  court,  gave  fresh  lustre  to 
his  reign.  The  Neapolitans  perceived 
with  grateful  pride  that  he  lived  almost 
entirely  among  them,  in  preference  to  his 
patrimonial  kingdom;  and  forgave  the 
heavy  taxes,  which  faults  nearly  allied  to 
his  virtues,  profuseness  and  ambition, 
compelled  him  to  impose. f  But  they  re- 
marked a  very  different  character  in  his 
son.  Ferdinand  was  as  dark  and  F  ,. 
vindictive  as  his  father  was  af-  ' 
fable  and  generous.  The  barons,  who 
had  many  opportunities  of  ascertaining 
his  disposition,  began,  immediately  upon 
Alfonso's  death,  to  cabal  against  his  suc- 
cession, turning  their  eyes  first  to  the  le- 
gitimate branch  of  the  family  [A.  D. 
1461],  and,  on  finding  that  prospect  not 
favourable,  to  John,  titular  duke  of  Cala- 
bria, son  of  Regnier  of  Anjou,  who  survi- 
ved to  protest  against  the  revolution  that 
had  dethroned  him.  John  was  easily 
prevailed  upon  to  undertake  an  invasion 
of  Naples.  Notwithstanding  the  treaty 
concluded  in  1455,  Florence  assisted  him 
with  money,  and  Venice  at  least  with  her 
wishes ;  but  Sforza  remained  unshaken 
in  that  alliance  with  Ferdinand,  which  his 
clear-sighted  policy  discerned  to  be  the 
best  safeguard  for  his  own  dynasty.  A 
large  proportion  of  the  Neapolitan  nobil- 
ity, including  Orsini,  prince  of  Tarento, 
the  most  powerful  vassal  of  the  crown, 
raised  the  banner  of  Anjou,  which  was 
sustained  also  by  the  youngest  Piccinino, 
the  last  of  the  great  condottieri,  under 
whose  command  the  veterans  of  former 
warfare  rejoiced  to  serve.  But  John  un- 
derwent the  fate  that  had  always  attend- 
ed his  family  in  their  long  competition 
for  that  throne.  After  some  brilliant  suc- 
cesses, his  want  of  resources,  aggravated 
by  the  defection  of  Genoa,  on  whose  an- 
cient enmity  to  the  house  of  Aragon  he 
had  relied,  was  perceived  by  the  barons 
of  his  party,  who,  according  to  the  prac- 
tice of  their  ancestors,  returned  one  by 


*  A  story  is  told,  true  or  false,  that  his  delight  in 
hearing  Quintus  Curtius  read,  without  any  other 
medicine,  cured  the  king  of  an  illness.  See  other 
proofs  of  his  love  of  letters  in  Tiraboschi,  t.  vt. 
p.  40. 

t  Giannone,  1.  xxvi. 


192 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


one  to  the  allegiance  of  Ferdinand.     [A. 
D.  1464.] 

The  peace  of  Italy  was  little  disturbed, 
except  by  a  few  domestic  revolutions,  for 
state  or  several  years  after  this  Neapol- 
itaiy  in  the  itan  war.  *  Even  the  most  short- 
ofthefif-1  sighted  politicians  were  some- 
teenthcen-  times  withdrawn  from  selfish 
tury.  objects  by  the  appalling  prog- 
ress of  the  Turks,  though  there  was  not 
energy  enough  in  their  councils  to  form 
any  concerted  plans  for  their  own  secu- 
rity. Venice  maintained  a  long,  but  ulti- 
mately an  unsuccessful  contest  with  Ma- 
homet II.  for  her  maritime  acquisitions 
in  Greece  and  Albania ;  and  it  was  not 


*  The  following  distribution  of  a  tax  of  458,000 
florins,  imposed,  or  rather  proposed,  in  1464,  to  de- 
fray the  expense  of  a  general  war  against  the 
Turks,  will  give  a  notion  of  the  relative  wealth  and 
resources  of  the  Italian  powers ;  but  it  is  probable 
that  the  pope  rated  himself  above  his  fair  contin- 
gent. He  was  to  pay  100,000  florins  ;  the  Vene- 
tians 100,000  ;  Ferdinand  of  Naples  80,000 ;  the 
Duke  of  Milan  70,000;  Florence  50,000  ;  the  Duke 
of  Modena  20,000 ;  Siena  15,000 ;  the  Marquis  of 
Mantua  10,000;  Lucca  8000;  the  Marquis  of  Mont- 
i'errat  5000.— Sismondi,  t.  x.,  p.  229.  A  similar  as- 
sessment occurs,  p.  307,  where  the  proportions  are 
not  quite  the  same. 

Perhaps  it  may  be  worth  while  to  extract  an 
estimate  of  the  force  of  all  Christian  powers,  writ- 
ten about  1454,  from  Sanuto's  Lives  of  the  Doges 
of  Venice,  p.  963.  Some  parts,  however,  appear 
very  questionable.  The  King  of  France,  it  is  said, 
can  raise  30,000  men-at-arms ;  but  for  any  foreign 
enterprise,  only  15,000.  The  King  of  England  can 
do  the  same.  These  powers  are  exactly  equal ; 
otherwise  one  of  the  two  would  be  destroyed. '  The 
King  of  Scotland,  "  ch'e  signore  di  grandi  paesi  e 
popoli  con  grande  poverta,"  can  raise  10,000  men- 
at-arms  :  The  King  of  Norway  the  same :  The 
King  of  Spain  (Castile)  30,000  :  The  King  of  Por- 
tugal 6000  :  The  Duke  of  Savoy  8000  :  The  Duke 
of  Milan  10,000.  The  republic  of  Venice  can  pay 
from  her  revenues  10,000 :  That  of  Florence  4000 ; 
The  pope  6000.  The  emperor  and  empire  can 
raise  60,000 :  The  King  of  Hungary  80,000  (not 
men-at-arms,  certainly). 

The  King  of  France,  in  1414,  had  2,000,000  du- 
cats of  revenue ;  but  now  only  half.  The  King  of 
England  had  then  as  much;  now  only  700,000. 
The  King  of  Spain's  revenue  also  is  reduced  by 
the  wars  from  3,000,000  to  800,000.  The  Duke  of 
Burgundy  had  3,000,000 ;  now  900,000.  The  Duke 
of  Milan  has  sunk  from  1,000,000  to  500,000  ;  Ven- 
ice from  1,100,000,  which  she  possessed  in  1423, 
to  800,000  :  Florence  from  400,000  to  200,000. 

These  statistical  calculations  are  chiefly  remark- 
able, as  they  manifest  that  comprehensive  spirit  of 
treating  all  the  powers  of  Europe  as  parts  of  a  com- 
mon system,  which  began  to  actuate  the  Italians 
of  the  fifteenth  century.  Of  these  enlarged  views 
of  policy  the  writings  of  JEneas  Sylvius  afford  an 
eminent  instance.  Besides  the  more  general  and 
insensible  causes,  the  increase  of  navigation  and 
revival  of  literature,  this  may  be  ascribed  to  the 
continual  danger  from  the  progress  of  the  Ottoman 
arms,  which  led  the  politicians  of  that  part  of  Eu- 
rope most  exposed  to  them  into  more  extensive 
views  as  to  the  resources  and  dispositions  of  Chris- 
tian states. 


till  after  his  death  relieved  Italy  from  its 
immediate  terror  that  the  ambitious  re- 
public endeavoured  to  extend  its  terri- 
tories by  encroaching  on  the  house  of 
Este.  [A.  D.  1482.]  Nor  had  Milan 
shown  much  disposition  towards  ag- 
grandizement. Francesco  Sforza  had 
been  succeeded,  such  is  the  condition  of 
despotic  governments,  by  his  son  Galeaz- 
zo,  a  tyrant  more  execrable  than  the 
worst  of  the  Visconti.  His  extreme  cru- 
elties, and  the  insolence  of  a  debauch- 
ery that  gloried  in  the  public  dishonour 
of  families,  excited  a  few  daring  spirits  to 
assassinate  him.  [A.  D.  1476.]  The  Mi- 
lanese profited  by  a  tyrannicide,  the  per- 
petrators of  which  they  had  not  courage 
or  gratitude  to  protect.  The  regency  of 
Bonne  of  Savoy,  mother  of  the  infant 
duke,  Gian  Galeazzo,  deserved  the  praise 
of  wisdom  and  moderation.  [A.  D.  1480.] 
But  it  was  overthrown  in  a  few  years  by 
Ludovico  Sforza,  surnamed  the  Moor,  her 
husband's  brother;  who,  while  he  pro- 
claimed his  nephew's  majority,  and  affect- 
ed to  treat  him  as  a  sovereign,  hardly  dis- 
guised in  his  conduct  towards  foreign 
states  that  he  had  usurped  for  himself 
the  sole  direction  of  government. 

The  annals  of  one  of  the  few  surviving 
republics,  that  of  Genoa,  present  Affairs  of 
to  us,  during  the  fifteenth  as  well  Genoa  in 
as  the  preceding  century,  an  un-  that  a&e« 
ceasing  series  of  revolutions,  the  shortest 
enumeration  of  which  would  occupy  sev- 
eral pages.  Torn  by  the  factions  of 
Adorni  and  Fregosi,  equal  and  eternal  ri- 
vals, to  whom  the  old  patrician  families 
of  Doria  and  Fieschi  were  content  to  be- 
come secondary,  sometimes  sinking  from 
weariness  of  civil  tumult  into  the  grasp 
of  Milan  or  France,  and  again,  from  im- 
patience of  foreign  subjection,  starting 
back  from  servitude  to  anarchy,  the  Ge- 
noa of  those  ages  exhibits  a  singular  con- 
trast to  the  calm  and  regular  aristocracy 
of  the  last  three  centuries.  The  latest 
revolution  within  the  compass  of  this 
work  was  in  1488,  when  the  Duke  of  Mi- 
lan became  sovereign,  an  Adorno  holding 
the  office  of  doge  as  his  lieutenant. 

Florence,  the  most  illustrious  and  for- 
tunate of  Italian  republics,  was  and  of  Flo- 
now  rapidly  descending  from  rence- 
her  rank  among  free  commonwealths, 
though  surrounded  with  more  than  usual 
lustre  in  the  eyes  of  Europe.  We  must 
take  up  the  story  of  that  city  from  the 
revolution  of  1382,  which  restored  the 
ancient  Guelf  aristocracy,  or  party  of  the 
Albizi,  to  the  ascendency  of  which  a 
popular  insurrection  had  stripped  them. 
Fifty  years  elapsed  during  which  this 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


party  retained  the  government  in  its  own 
hands  with  few  attempts  at  disturbance. 
Their  principal  adversaries  had  been  ex- 
iled, according  to  the  invariable  and  per- 
haps necessary  custom   of  a  republic; 
the  populace  and  inferior  artisans  were 
dispirited  by  their  ill  success.     Compared 
with  the  leaders  of  other  factions,  Maso 
degP  Albizi  and  Nicola  di  Uzzano,  who 
succeeded  him  in  the  management  of  hi 
party,  were  attached  to  a  constitutional 
liberty.     Yet  so   difficult   is   it   for  any 
government,  which  does  not  rest  on  a 
broad  basis  of  public  consent,  to  avoid 
injustice,  that  they  twice  deemed  it  ne- 
cessary to  violate  the  ancient  constitu- 
tion.    In  1393,  after  a  partial  movement 
in  behalf  of  the  vanquished  faction,  they 
assembled  a  parliament,  and  established 
what  was  technically  called  at  Florence 
a  Balia.*     This  was  a  temporary  delega- 
tion of  sovereignty  to  a  number,  gener- 
ally a  considerable  number,  of  citizens, 
who,  during  the  period  of  their  dictator- 
ship, named  the  magistrates,  instead  of 
drawing  them  by  lot,  and  banished  sus- 
pected individuals.     A  precedent  so  dan- 
gerous was  eventually  fatal  to  themselves, 
and  to  the  freedom  of  their  country.     Be- 
sides this   temporary  balia,  the   regular 
scrutinies  periodically  made  in  order  to 
replenish  the  bags,   out   of  which  the 
names  of  all  magistrates  were  drwan  by 
lot,  according  to  the  constitution  estab- 
lished in  1328,  were  so  managed  as  to  ex- 
clude'all  persons  disaffected  to  the  domi- 
nant faction.     But,  for  still  greater  secu- 
rity, a  council  of  two  hundred  was  form- 
ed^ in  1411,  out  of  those  alone  who  had 
enjoyed  some  of  the  higher  offices  with- 
in the  last  thirty  years,  the  period  of  the 
aristocratical  ascendency,  through  which 
every  proposition  was  to  pass  before  it 
could  be  submitted  to  the  two  legislative 
councils.!     These  precautions  indicate  a 
government  conscious  of  public  enmity ; 
and  if  the  Albizi  had  continued  to  sway 
the  republic  of  Florence,  their  jealousy 
of  the  people  would  have  suggested  still 
more    innovations,   till  the  constitution 
had  acquired,  in  legal  form  as  well  as 
substance,  an    absolutely    aristocratical 
character. 

But,  while  crushing  with  deliberate  se- 
verity their  avowed  adversaries,  the  ru- 
ling party  had  left  one  family,  whose 
Rise  of  the  prudence  gave  no  reasonable 
Medici.  excuse  for  persecuting  them; 
and  whose  popularity,  as  well  as  wealth, 
rendered  the  experiment  hazardous.  The 
Medici  were  among  the  most  considera- 


Ammirato,  p.  840. 

N 


t  Id.,  p.  961. 


193 

ble   of   the  new,   or  plebeian  nobility. 
From  the  first  years  of  the   fourteenth 
century,   their    name    not    very    unfre- 
quently  occurs  in  the  domestic  and  mili- 
tary annals  of  Florence.*     Salvestro  de' 
Medici,  who  had  been  partially  implicated 
in  the  democratical  revolution  that  lasted 
from  1378  to  1382,  escaped  proscription 
on  the  revival  of  the  Guelf  party,  though 
some  of  his  family  were  afterward  ban- 
ished.    Throughout  the  long  depression 
of  the  popular  faction,  the  house  of  Med- 
ici was  always  regarded  as  their  conso- 
lation and  their  hope.     That  house  was 
now  represented  by   Giovanni,f  whose 
immense  wealth,  honourably  acquired  by 
commercial  dealings,  which  had  already 
rendered  the  name  celebrated  in  Europe, 
was  expended  with  liberality  and  mag- 
nificence.    Of  a  mild  temper,  and  averse 
to  cabals,  Giovanni  de'  Medici  did  not  at- 
tempt to  set  up  a  party,  and  contented 
himself  with  repressing  some  fresh  en- 
croachments on  the  popular  part  of  the 
constitution,  which  the  Albizi  were  dis- 
posed to  make.J    They,  in  their  turn, 
freely  admitted  him  to  that  share  in  pub- 
lic councils   to   which  he  was  entitled 
by  his  eminence  and  virtues;   a  proof 
that   the   spirit   of  their  administration 
was  not  illiberally  exclusive.     But  on  the 
death  of  Giovanni,  his  son   Cosmo   de' 
Medici,  inheriting  his  father's  riches  and 
estimation,  with  more  talents  and  more 
ambition,  thought  it  time  to  avail  himself 
of  the  popularity  belonging  to  his  name. 
By  extensive  connexions^vith  the  most 
eminent  men  in  Italy,  especially  with 
Sforza,  he  came  to  be  considered  as  the 
first  citizen  of  Florence.     The  oligarchy 
were  more  than  ever  unpopular.     Their 
administration,  since    1382,   had   indeed 
been   in   general   eminently  successful; 
the  acquisition  of  Pisa,  and  of  other  Tus- 
can cities,  had  aggrandized  the  republic, 
while  from  the  port  of  Leghorn  her  ships 
had  begun  to  trade  with  Alexandria,  and 
sometimes  to  contend  with  the  Genoese. 


*  The  Medici  are  enumerated  by  Villani  among 
he  chiefs  of  the  Black  faction  in  1304, 1.  viii.,  c. 
71.  One  of  that  family  was  beheaded  by  order  of 
the  Duke  of  Athens  in  1343,  1.  xii.,  c.  2.  It  is  sin- 
gular that  Mr.  Roscoe  should  refer  their  first  ap- 
jearance  in  history,  as  he  seems  to  do,  to  the  siege 
of  Scarperi,  in  1351. 

t  Giovanni  was  not  nearly  related  to  Salvestro 
de'  Medici.  Their  families  are  said  per  lungo  trat- 
,o  allontanarsi. — Ammirato,  p.  992.  Nevertheless, 
his  being  drawn  gonfalonier,  in  1421 ,  created  a  great 
sensation  in  the  city,  and  prepared  the  way  to  the 
subsequent  revolution. — Ibid.  Machiavelli,  1.  iv. 

t  Machiavelli,  Istoria  Fiorent.,  1.  iv. 

4  The  Florentines  sent  their  first  merchant  ship 
,o  Alexandria  in  1422,  with  great  and  anxious 
lopee.  Prayers  were  ordered  lor  the  success  of 


194 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


But  an  unprosperous  war  with  Lucca  di- 
minished a  reputation  which  was  never 
sustained  by  public  affection.  Cosmo 
and  his  friends  aggravated  the  errors  of 
the  government,  which,  having  lost  its 
wise  and  temperate  leader,  Nicola  di 
Uzzano,  had  fallen  into  the  rasher  hands 
of  Rinaldo  degl'  Albizi.  He  incurred  the 
blame  of  being  the  first  aggressor  in  a 
struggle  which  had  become  inevitable. 
[A.  D.  1433.]  Cosmo  was  arrested  by 
command  of  a  gonfalonier  devoted  to 
the  Albizi,  and  condemned  to  banish- 
ment. But  the  oligarchy  had  done  too 
much  or  too  little.  The  city  was  full  of 
his  friends  ;  the  honours  conferred  upon 
him  in  his  exile  attested  the  sentiments 
of  Italy.  Next  year  he  was  recalled  in 
triumph  to  Florence,  and  the  Albizi  were 
completely  overthrown. 

It  is  vain  to  expect,  that  a  victorious 
faction  will  scruple  to  retaliate  upon  its 
enemies  a  still  greater  measure  of  injus- 
tice than  it  experienced  at  their  hands. 
The  vanquished  have  no  rights  in  the 
eyes  of  a  conqueror.  The  sword  of  re- 
turning exiles,  flushed  by  victory,  and  in- 
censed by  suffering,  falls  successively 
upon  their  enemies,  upon  those  whom 
they  suspect  of  being  enemies,  upon 
those  who  may  hereafter  become  such. 
The  Albizi  had  in  general  respected  the 
legal  forms  of  their  free  republic,  which 
good  citizens,  and  perhaps  themselves, 
might  hope  one  day  to  see  more  effect- 
ive. The  Medici  made  all  their  govern- 
ment conducive  to  hereditary  monarchy. 
A  multitude  of  noble  citizens  were  driv- 
en from  their  country ;  some  were  even 
put  to  death.  A  balia  was  appointed  for 
ten  years,  to  exclude  all  the  Albizi  from 
magistracy,  and  for  the  sake  of  this  secu- 
rity to  the  ruling  faction,  to  supersede 
the  legitimate  institutions  of  the  republic. 
After  the  expiration  of  this  period,  the 
dictatorial  power  was  renewed  on  pre- 
tence of  fresh  danger,  and  this  was  re- 
peated six  times  in  twenty-one  years.* 
In  1455  the  constitutional  mode  of  draw- 


the  republic  by  sea ;  and  an  embassy  despatched 
with  presents  to  conciliate  the  sultan  of  Babylon, 
that  is,  of  Grand  Cairo.— Ammirato,  p.  997.  Flo- 
rence had  never  before  been  so  wealthy.  The 
circulating  money  was  reckoned  (perhaps  extrava- 
gantly) at  4,000,000  florins.  The  manufactures  of 
gilk  and  cloth  of  gold  had  never  flourished  so  much. 
Architecture  revived  under  Brunelleschi ;  litera- 
ture under  Leonard  Aretin  and  Filelfo,  p.  977. 
There  is  some  truth  in  M.  Sismondi's  remark, 
that  the  Medici  have  derived  part  of  their  glory 
from  their  predecessors  in  government,  whom 
they  subverted,  and  whom  they  have  rendered  ob- 
scure. But  the  Milanese  war,  breaking  out  in 
1423  tended  a  good  deal  to  empoverish  the  city. 
*  Machiavelli,  1.  v.  Ammirato. 


ing  magistrates  was  permitted  to  revive, 
against  the  wishes  of  some  of  the  leading 
party.  They  had  good  reason  to  be  jeal- 
ous of  a  liberty  which  was  incompatible 
with  their  usurpation.  The  gonfaloniers, 
drawn  at  random  from  among  respecta- 
ble citizens,  began  to  act  with  an  inde- 
pendence to  which  the  new  oligarchy 
was  little  accustomed.  Cosmo,  indeed, 
the  acknowledged  chief  of  the  party,  per- 
ceiving that  some  who  had  acted  in  insub- 
ordination to  him  were  looking  forward 
to  the  opportunity  of  becoming  them- 
selves its  leaders,  was  not  unwilling  to 
throw  upon  them  the  unpopularity  attach- 
ed to  a  usurpation  by  which  he  had  main- 
tained his  influence.  Without  his  appa- 
rent participation,  though  not  against  his 
will,  the  free  constitution  was  again  sus- 
pended by  a  balia  appointed  for  the  nomin- 
ation of  magistrates ;  and  the  regular  draw- 
ing of  names  by  lot  was  never,  I  believe, 
restored.*  Cosmo  died  at  an  advanced 
age  in  1464.  His  son,  Piero  de'  Medici, 
though  not  deficient  either  in  virtues  or 
abilities,  seemed  too  infirm  in  health  for  the 
administration  of  public  affairs.  At  least 
he  could  only  be  chosen  by  a  sort  of  he- 
reditary title,  which  the  party  above  men- 
tioned, some  from  patriotic,  more  from 
selfish  motives,  were  reluctant  to  admit. 
A  strong  opposition  was  raised  to  the 
family  pretensions  of  the  Medici.  Like 
all  Florentine  factions,  it  trusted  to  vio- 
lence ;  and  the  chance  of  arms  was  not 
in  its  favour.  There  is  little  to  regret  in 
the  downfall  of  that  oligarchy,  which 
had  all  the  disregard  of  popular  rights, 
without  the  generous  virtues  of  the  Me- 
dici, f  From  this  revolution  in  1466,  when 
some  of  the  most  considerable  citizens 
were  banished,  we  may  date  an  acknowl- 
edged supremacy  in  the  house  of  Medici, 
the  chief  of  which  nominated  the  regular 
magistrates,  and  drew  to  himself  the 
whole  conduct  of  the  republic. 

The  two  sons  of  Piero,  Lorenzo  and 
Julian,  especially  the  former,  Lorenzo  de 
though  young  at  their  father's  Medici. 
death  [A.  D.  1469],  assumed,  by  the  re- 
quest of  their  friends,  the  reins  of  gov- 
ernment. It  was  impossible  that,  among 
a  people  who  had  so  many  recollections 
to  attach  to  the  name  of  liberty,  among 
so  many  citizens  whom  their  ancient 
constitution  invited  to  public  trust,  the 
control  of  a  single  family  should  excite 
no  dissatisfaction ;  and  perhaps  their  want 

*  Ammirato,  t.  ii.,  p.  82-87. 

t  Ammirato,  p.  93.  Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de'  Me- 
dici, ch.  2.  Machiavelli.  Sismondi.  The  two 
latter  are  perpetual  references  in  this  part  of  histo- 
ry, where  no  other  is  made. 


PART  II.] 


ITALY. 


195 


of  any  positive  authority  heightened  the 
appearance  of  usurpation  in  their  influ- 
ence. But,  if  the  people's  wish  to  resign 
their  freedom  gives  a  title  to  accept  the 
government  of  a  country,  the  Medici 
were  no  usurpers.  That  family  never 
lost  the  affections  of  the  populace.  The 
cry  of  Palle,  Palle  (their  armorial  distinc- 
tion), would  at  any  time  rouse  the  Flor- 
entines to  defend  the  chosen  patrons  of 
the  republic.  If  their  substantial  influ- 
ence could  before  be  questioned,  the  con- 
spiracy of  the  Pazzi,  wherein  Julian  per- 
ished, excited  an  enthusiasm  for  the  sur- 
viving brother  that  never  ceased  during 
his  life.  Nor  was  this  any  thing  unnatu- 
ral, or  any  severe  reproach  to  Florence. 
All  around,  in  Lombardy  and  Romagna, 
the  lamp  of  liberty  had  long  since  been 
extinguished  in  blood.  The  freedom  of 
Siena  and  Genoa  was  dearly  purchased 
by  revolutionary  proscriptions;  that  of 
Venice  was  only  a  name.  The  republic 
which  had  preserved  longest,  and  with 
greatest  purity,  that  vestal  fire,  had  at 
least  no  relative  degradation  to  fear  in 
surrendering  herself  to  Lorenzo  de'  Me- 
dici. I  need  not  in  this  place  expatiate 
upon  what  the  name  instantly  suggests, 
the  patronage  of  science  and  art,  and  the 
constellation  of  scholars  and  poets,  of 
architects  and  painters,  whose  reflected 
beams  cast  their  radiance  around  his 
head.  His  political  reputation,  though 
far  less  durable,  was  in  his  own  age  as 
conspicuous  as  that  which  he  acquired  in 
the  history  of  letters.  Equally  active  and 
sagacious,  he  held  his  way  through  the 
varying  combinations  of  Italian  policy, 
always  with  credit,  and  generally  with 
success.  Florence,  if  not  enriched,  was 
upon  the  whole  aggrandized  during  his 
administration,  which  was  exposed  to 
some  severe  storms  from  the  unscrupu- 
lous adversaries,  Sixtus  IV.  and  Ferdi- 
nand of  Naples,  whom  he  was  compelled 
to  resist.  As  a  patriot,  indeed,  we  never 
can  bestow  upon  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  the 
meed  of  disinterested  virtue.  He  com- 
pleted that  subversion  of  the  Florentine 
republic  which  his  two  immediate  ances- 
tors had  so  well  prepared.  The  two 
councils,  her  regular  legislature,  he  su- 
perseded by  a  permanent  senate  of  sev- 
enty persons  ;*  while  the  gonfalonier  and 


*  Ammirato,  p.  145.  Machiavel  says,  1.  viii.,  that 
this  was  done  ristringere  il  governo,  e  che  le  de- 
liberazioni  important!  si  riducessero  in  minore  nu- 
mero.  Mr.  Roscoe,  vol.  ii.,  p.  53,  is  puzzled  how 
to  explain  this  decided  breach  of  the  people's  rights 
by  his  hero.  But  though  it  rather  appears  from 
Ammirato's  expressions  that  the  two  councils  were 
now  abolished,  yet  from  M.  Sismondi,  t.  xi.,  p.  186, 
who  quotes  an  author  I  have  not  seen,  and  from 
N2 


priors,  become  a  mockery  and  pageant  to 
keep  up  the  illusion  of  liberty,  were  taught 
that,  in  exercising  a  legitimate  authority 
without  the  sanction  of  their  prince,  a 
name  now  first  heard  at  Florence,  they  in- 
curred the  risk  of  punishment  for  their  au- 
dacity.* Even  the  total  dilapidation  of  his 
commercial  wealth  was  repaired  at  the 
cost  of  the  state ;  and  the  republic  dis- 

fracefully  screened  the  bankruptcy  of  the 
ledici  by  her  own.f  But,  compared  with 
the  statesmen  of  his  age,  we  can  re- 
proach Lorenzo  with  no  heinous  crime. 
He  had  many  enemies ;  his  descendants 
had  many  more ;  but  no  unequivocal 
charge  of  treachery  or  assassination  has 
been  substantiated  against  his  memory. 
By  the  side  of  Galeazzo  or  Ludovico 
Sforza,  of  Ferdinand  or  his  son  Alfonso 
of  Naples,  of  the  pope  Sixtus  IV.,  he 
shines  with  unspotted  lustre.  [A.  D. 
1492.]  So  much  was  Lorenzo  esteemed 
by  his  contemporaries,  that  his  premature 
death  has  frequently  been  considered  as 


Nardi,  p.  7, 1  should  infer  that  they  still  formally 
subsisted. 

*  Cambi,  a  gonfalonier  of  justice,  had,  in  concert 
with  the  priors,  admonished  some  public  officers 
for  a  breach  of  duty.  Fu  giudicato  questo  atto 
molto  superbo,  says  Ammirato,  che  senza  partici- 
pazione  di  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  principe  del  gover- 
no, fosse  seguito,  che  in  Pisa  in  quel  tempo  si  ri- 
trovava,  p.  184.  The  gonfalonier  was  fined  for  ex- 
ecuting his  constitutional  functions.  This  was  a 
downright  confession  that  the  republic  was  at  an 
end ;  and  all  it  provokes  M.  Sismondi  to  say  is 
not  too  much,  t.  xi.,  p.  349. 

f  Since  the  Medici  took  on  themselves  the  char* 
acter  of  princes,  they  had  forgotten  how  to  be  mer- 
chants. But,  imprudently  enough,  they  had  not 
discontinued  their  commerce,  which  was  of  course 
mismanaged  by  agents,  whom  they  did  not  overlook, 
The  consequence  was  the  complete  dilapidation 
of  their  vast  fortune.  The  public  revenues  had 
been  for  some  years  applied  to  make  up  its  defi- 
ciencies. But  from  the  measures  adopted  by  the 
republic,  if  we  may  still  use  that  name,  she  should 
appear  td  have  considered  herself,  rather  than  Lo* 
renzo,  as  the  debtor.  The  interest  of  the  public 
debt  was  diminished  one  half.  Many  charitable  foun* 
dations  were  suppressed.  The  circulating  specie 
was  taken  at  one  fifth  below  its  nominal  value  in 
payment  of  taxes,  while  the  government  continued 
to  issue  it  at  its  former  rate.  Thus  was  Lorenzo  re- 
imbursed a  part  of  his  loss  at  the  expense  of  all  his 
fellow-citizens. — Sismondi,  t.  xi.,  p.  347.  It  is 
slightly  alluded  to  by  Machiavel. 

The  vast  expenditure  of  the  Medici  for  the  sake 
of  political  influence  would  of  itself  have  absorbed 
all  their  profits.  Cosmo  is  said  by  Guicciardini  to 
have  spent  400,000  ducats  in  building  churches, 
monasteries,  and  other  public  works,  1.  i.,  p.  91. 
The  expenses  of  the  family  between  1434  and  1471 
in  buildings,  charities,  and  taxes  alone,  amounted 
to  663.755  florins ;  equal  in  value,  according  to  Sis- 
mondi, to  32,000,000  francs  at  present.— Hist,  des 
Republ.,  t.  x.,p.  173.  They  seem  to  have  advan- 
ced moneys  imprudently,  through  their  agents,  to 
Edward  1  V.,  who  was  not  the  best  of  debtors. — 
Comines,  Mem.  de  Charles  VIII.,  1.  vu  ,  c,  6. 


196 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  III. 


the  cause  of  those  unhappy  revolutions 
that  speedily  ensued,  and  which  his  fore- 
sight would",  it  was  imagined,  have  been 
able  to  prevent ;  an  opinion  which,  wheth- 
er founded  in  probability  or  otherwise, 
attests  the  common  sentiment  about  his 
character. 

If  indeed  Lorenzo  de'  Medici  could  not 
Pretensions  of  nave  changed  the  destinies  of 
France  upon  Italy,  however  premature  his 
Naples.  death  may  appear,  if  we  con- 
sider the  ordinary  duration  of  human  ex- 
istence, it  must  be  admitted,  that  for  his 
own  welfare,  perhaps  for  his  glory,  he 
had  lived  out  the  full  measure  of  his 
time.  An  age  of  new  and  uncommon 
revolutions  was  about  to  arise,  among 
the  earliest  of  which  the  temporary  down- 
fall of  his  family  was  to  be  reckoned. 
The  long-contested  succession  of  Naples 
was  again  to  involve  Italy  in  war.  The 
ambition  of  strangers  was  once  more  to 
desolate  her  plains.  Ferdinand,  king  of 
Naples,  had  reigned  for  thirty  years  after 
the  discomfiture  of  his  competitor  with 
success  and  ability ;  but  with  a  degree  of 
ill  faith  as  well  as  tyranny  towards  his 
subjects  that  rendered  his  government 
deservedly  odious.  His  son  Alfonso, 
whose  succession  seemed  now  near  at 
hand,  was  still  more  marked  by  these 
vices  than  himself.*  Meanwhile,  the 
pretensions  of  the  house  of  Anjou  had 
legally  descended,  after  the  death  of  old 
Regnier,  to  Regnier,  duke  of  Lorraine, 
his  grandson  by  a  daughter ;  whose  mar- 
riage into  the  house  of  Lorraine  had, 
however,  so  displeased  her  father,  that 
he  bequeathed  his  Neapolitan  title,  along 
with  his  real  patrimony,  the  county  of 
Provence,  to  a  count  of  Maine  ;  by  whose 
testament  they  became  vested  in  the 
crown  of  France.  Louis  XL,  while  he 
took  possession  of  Provence,  gave  him- 
self no  trouble  about  Naples.  But  Charles 
VIII.,  inheriting  his  father's  ambition 
without  that  cool  sagacity  which  restrain- 
ed it  in  general  from  impracticable  at- 
tempts, and  far  better  circumstanced  at 
home  than  Louis  had  ever  been,  was 
ripe  for  an  expedition  to  vindicate  his 
pretensions  upon  Naples,  or  even  for 
more  extensive  projects.  It  was  now 
two  centuries  since  the  kings  of  France 
had  aimed,  by  intervals,  at  conquests  in 
Italy.  Philip  the  Fair  and  his  succes- 
sors were  anxious  to  keep  up  a  connex- 
ion with  the  Guelf  party,  and  to  be  con- 


*  Comines,  who  speaks  sufficiently  ill  of  the 
father,  sums  up  the  son's  character  very  concisely : 
Nul  homme  n'a  este  plus  cruel  que  lui,  ne  plus 
mauvais,  ne  plus  vicieux  et  plus  infect,  ne  plus 
gourmand  que  lui,  I.  vii.,  c.  13. 


sidered  its  natural  heads,  as  the  German 
emperors  were  of  the  Ghibelins.  The  long 
English  wars  changed  all  views  of  the 
court  of  France  to  self-defence.  But,  in 
the  fifteenth  century,  its  plans  of  aggran- 
dizement beyond  the  Alps  began  to  re- 
vive. Several  times,  as  I  have  mention- 
ed, the  republic  of  Genoa  put  itself  under 
the  dominion  of  France.  The  dukes  of 
Savoy,  possessing  most  part  of  Pied- 
mont, and  masters  of  the  mountain-pass- 
es, were,  by  birth,  intermarriage,  and 
habitual  policy,  completely  dedicated  to 
the  French  interests.*  In  the  former  wars 
of  Ferdinand  against  the  house  of  Anjou, 
Pope  Pius  II.,  a  very  enlightened  states- 
man, foresaw  the  danger  of  Italy  from 
the  prevailing  influence  of  France,  and 
deprecated  the  introduction  of  her  ar- 
mies, f  But  at  that  time  the  central  parts 
of  Lombardy  were  held  by  a  man  equally 
renowned  as  a  soldier  and  a  politician, 
Francesco  Sforza.  Conscious  that  a 
claim  upon  his  own  dominions  subsisted 
in  the  house  of  Orleans,  he  maintained  a 
strict  alliance  with  the  Aragonese  dynas- 
ty at  Naples,  as  having  a  common  interest 
against  France.  But  after  his  death  the 
connexion  between  Milan  and  Naples 
came  to  be  weakened.  In  the  new  sys- 
tem of  alliances,  Milan  and  Florence, 
sometimes  including  Venice,  were  com- 
bined against  Ferdinand  and  Sixtus  IV., 
an  unprincipled  and  restless  pontiff.  Lu- 
dovico  Sforza,  who  had  usurped  the 
guardianship  of  his  nephew,  the  Duke 
of  Milan,  found,  as  that  young  man  ad- 
vanced to  maturity,  that  one  crime  requir- 
ed to  be  completed  by  another.  To 


*  Denina,  Storia  dell'  Italia  Occidentale,  t.  ii., 
passim.  Louis  XI.  treated  Savoy  as  a  fief  of 
France;  interfering  in  all  its  affairs,  and  even 
taking  on  himself  the  regency  after  the  death  of 
Philibert  I.,  under  pretence  of  preventing  disor- 
ders, p.  185.  The  Marquis  of  Saluzzo,  who  pos- 
sessed considerable  territories  in  the  south  of  Pied- 
mont, had  done  homage  to  France  ever  since  1353 
(p.  40),  though  to  the  injury  of  his  real  superior, 
the  Duke  of  Savoy.  This  gave  France  another 
pretext  for  interference  in  Italy,  p.  187. 

f  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  in  a  conference  with  Pius 
II.  at  Florence,  having  expressed  his  surprise 
that  the  pope  should  support  Ferdinand-:  Pontifex 
haud  ferendum  fuisse  ait,  regem  a  se  constituturn, 
armis  ejici,  neque  id  Italiae  libertati  conducere; 
Gallos,  si  regnum  obtinuissent,  Senas  haud  dubie 
subacturos;  Florentines  adversus  lilia  nihil  actu- 
ros;  Borsium  Mutinae  ducem  Gallis  galliorem 
videri ;  Flaminiae  regulos  ad  Francos  inclinare ; 
Genuam  Francis  subesse,  et  civitatem  Astensem ; 
si  pontifex  Romanus  aliquando  Francorum  amicus 
assumatur,  nihil  reliqui  in  Italia  remanere  quod 
non  transeat  in  Gallorum  nomen  ;  tueri  se  Itaham, 
dum  Ferdinandum  tueretur. — Commentar.  Pii  Se- 
cundi,  1.  iv.,  p.  96.  Spondanus,  who  led  me  to  this 
passage,  is  very  angry  ;  but  the  year  1494  proved 
Pius  II.  to  be  a  wary  statesman. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


197 


depose  and  murder  his  ward  was  how- 
ever a  scheme  that  prudence,  though  not 
conscience,  bade  him  hesitate  to  execute. 
He  had  rendered  Ferdinand  of  Naples, 
and  Piero  de'  Medici,  Lorenzo's  heir,  his 
decided  enemies.  A  revolution  at  Milan 
would  be  the  probable  result  of  his  con- 
tinuing in  usurpation.  [A.  D.  1439.]  In 
these  circumstances,  Ludovico  Sforza 
excited  the  King  of  France  to  undertake 
the  conquest  of  Naples.* 

So  long  as  the  three  great  nations  of 
Europe  were  unable  to  put  forth  their 
natural  strength  through  internal  separa- 
tion or  foreign  war,  the  Italians  had  so 
little  to  dread  for  their  independence, 
that  their  policy  was  altogether  directed 
to  regulating  the  domestic  balance  of 
power  among  themselves.  In  the  latter 
part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a  more  en- 
larged view  of  Europe  would  have  mani- 
fested the  necessity  of  reconciling  petty 
animosities,  and  sacrificing  petty  ambi- 
tion, in  order  to  preserve  the  nationality 
of  their  governments ;  not  by  attempting 
to  melt  down  Lombards  and  Neapolitans, 
principalities  and  republics,  into  a  single 
monarchy,  but  by  the  more  just  and  ra- 
tional scheme  of  a  common  federation. 
The  politicians  of  Italy  were  abundantly 
competent,  as  far  as  cool  and  clear  un- 


derstandings could  render  them,  to  per- 
ceive the  interests  of  their  country.  But 
it  is  the  will  of  Providence,  that  the  high- 
est and  surest  wisdom,  even  in  matters 
of  policy,  should  never  be  unconnected 
with  virtue.  In  relieving  himself  from  an 
immediate  danger,  Ludovico  Sforza  over- 
looked the  consideration  that  the  pre- 
sumptive heir  of  the  King  of  France 
claimed  by  an  ancient  title  that  principal- 
ity of  Milan,  which  he  was  compassing 
by  usurpation  and  murder.  But  neither 
Milan  nor  Naples  was  free  from  other 
claimants  than  France,  nor  was  she  re- 
served to  enjoy  unmolested  the  spoil  of 
Italy.  A  louder  and  a  louder  strain  of 
warlike  dissonance  will  be  heard  from 
the  banks  of  the  Danube,  and  from  the 
Mediterranean  gulf.  The  dark  and  wily 
Ferdinand,  the  rash  and  lively  Maximil- 
ian, are  preparing  to  hasten  into  the  lists ; 
the  schemes  of  ambition  are  assuming 
a  more  comprehensive  aspect;  and  the 
controversy  of  Neapolitan  succession 
is  to  expand  into  the  long  rivalry  be- 
tween the  houses  of  France  and  Austria. 
But  here,  while  Italy  is  still  untouched, 
and  before  as  yet  the  first  lances  of 
France  gleam  along  the  defiles  of  the 
Alps,  we  close  the  history  of  the  Middle 
Ages. 


CHAPTER  IV. 

THE  HISTORY  OF  SPAIN  TO  THE  CONQUEST  OF  GRANADA. 


Kingdom  of  the  Visigoths. — Conquest  of  Spain  by 
the  Moors. — Gradual  Revival  of  the  Spanish 
Nation. — Kingdoms  of  Leon,  Aragon,  Navarre, 
and  Castile,  successively  formed. — Chartered 
Towns  of  Castile. — Military  Orders.— Conquest 
of  Ferdinand  III.  and  James  of  Aragon. — Causes 
of  the  delay  in  expelling  the  Moors. — History  of 
Castile  continued. —Character  of  the  government. 
— Peter  the  Cruel. — House  of  Trastamare. — 
John  II.— Henry  IV.— Constitution  of  Castile.— 
National  Assemblies  or  Cortes. — Their  constitu- 
ent parts. — Right  of  Taxation. — Legislation. — 
Privy  Council  of  Castile. — Laws  for  the  protec- 
tion of  Liberty.— Imperfections  of  the  Constitu- 
tion.— Aragon. — Its  history  in  the  fourteenth  and 
fifteenth  centuries. — Disputed  succession. — Con- 
stitution of  Aragon.— Free  spirit  of  its  Aristoc- 
racy.— Privilege  of  Union. — Powers  of  the  Jus- 
tiza. — Legal  Securities. — Illustrations. — Other 
Constitutional  Laws. — Valencia  and  Catalonia. 
— Union  of  two  Crowns  by  the  Marriage  of  Fer- 
dinand and  Isabella. — Conquest  of  Granada. 

THE  history  of  Spain  during  the  mid- 
dle  ages  ought  to  commence  with  the 

*  Guicciardini,  1.  i. 


dynasty  of  the  Visigoths ;  a  na-  Kingdom  of 
tion  among  the  first  that  assault-  Visigoths  in 
ed  and  overthrew  the  Roman  Spam- 
Empire,  and  whose  establishment  prece- 
ded by  nearly  half  a  century  the  invasion 
of  Clovis.  Vanquished  by  that  conquer- 
or in  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  the  Gothic 
monarchs  lost  their  extensive  dominions 
in  Gaul,  and  transferred  their  residence 
from  Toulouse  to  Toledo.  But  I  hold 
the  annals  of  barbarians  so  unworthy  of 
remembrance,  that  I  will  not  detain  the 
reader  by  naming  one  sovereign  of  that 
obscure  race.  The  Merovingian  kings  of 
France  were  perhaps  as  deeply  stained 
by  atrocious  crimes,  but  their  history, 
slightly  as  I  have  noticed  it,  is  the  neces- 
sary foundation  of  that  of  Charlemagne, 
and  illustrates  the  feudal  system  and 
constitutional  antiquities  of  France.  If 
those  of  Castile  had  been  equally  inter- 
esting to  the  historical  student,  I  should 
have  taken  the  same  pains  to  trace  their 


108 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


original  in  the  Gothic  monarchy.  For 
that  is  at  least  as  much  the  primary 
source  of  the  old  Castilian  constitution, 
as  the  Anglo-Saxon  polity  of  our  own. 
It  may,  however,  suffice  to  mention,  that 
it  differed  in  several  respects  from  that 
of  the  Franks  during  the  same  period. 
The  crown  was  less  hereditary,  or  at 
least  the  regular  succession  was  more 
frequently  disturbed.  The  prelates  had  a 
still  more  commanding  influence  in  tem- 
poral government.  The  distinction  of 
Romans  and  barbarians  was  less  marked, 
the  laws  more  uniform,  and  approaching 
nearly  to  the  imperial  code.  The  power 
of  the  sovereign  was  perhaps  more  lim- 
ited by  an  aristocratical  council  than  in 
France,  but  it  never  yielded  to  the  dan- 
gerous influence  of  mayors  of  the  palace. 
Civil  wars  and  disputed  successions  were 
very  frequent,  but  the  integrity  of  the 
kingdom  was  not  violated  by  the  custom 
of  partition. 

Spain,  after  remaining  for  nearly  three 
Conquest  centuries  in  the  possession  of  the 
by  the      Visigoths,  fell  under  the  yoke  of 
Saracens.  the  Saracens  in  712.     The  fer- 
vid and  irresistible  enthusiasm  which  dis- 
tinguished the   youthful  period  of  Ma- 
hometanism,  might  sufficiently  account 
for  this  conquest ;  even  if  we  could  not 
assign   additional   causes, — the  factions 
which  divided  the  Goths,  the  resentment 
of  disappointed  pretenders  to  the  throne, 
the  provocations  of  Count  Julian,  and  the 
temerity  that  risked  the  fate  of  an  em- 
pire on  the  chances  of  a  single  battle. 
It  is  more  surprising,  that  a  remnant  of 
this  ancient  monarchy  should  not  only 
have  preserved  its  national  liberty  and 
name   in  the   northern  mountains,    but 
waged  for  some  centuries  a  successful, 
and  generally  an  offensive  warfare  against 
the  conquerors,  till  the  balance  was  com- 
pletely  turned  in    its   favour,   and   the 
Moors  were  compelled  to  maintain  almost 
as  obstinate  and  protracted  a  contest  for 
a  small  portion  of  the  peninsula.     But  the 
Arabian  monarchs  of  Cordova  found  in 
their  success  and  imagined  security  a  pre- 
text for  indolence ;  even  in  the  cultivation 
of  science,  and  contemplation  of  the  mag- 
nificent  architecture   of    their  mosques 
and  palaces,  they  forgot  their  poor  but 
daring  enemies  in  the  Asturias;   while, 
according  to  the  nature  of  despotism,  the 
fruits  of  wisdom  or  bravery  in  one  gen- 
eration were  lost  in  the  follies  and  ef- 
feminacy of  the  next.     Their  kingdom 
was  dismembered  by  successful  rebels, 
who  formed  the  states  of  Toledo,  Hues- 
ca,  Saragosa,  and  others  less  eminent; 
and  these,  in  their  own  mutual  contests, 


lot  only  relaxed  their  natural  enmity  to- 
wards the  Christian  princes,  but  some- 
;imes  sought  their  alliance.* 

The  last  attack,  which  seemed  to  en- 
danger the  reviving  monarchy  of  Kingdom 
Spain,  was  that  of  Almanzor,  the  of  Leon- 
llustrious  vizier  of  Haccham  II.,  towards 
;he  end  of  the  tenth  century,  wherein  the 
city  of  Leon,  and  even  the  shrine  of  Com- 
Dostella,  were  burnt  to  the  ground.  For 
some  ages  before  this  transient  reflux, 

radual  encroachments  had  been  made 
upon  the  Saracens;  and  the  kingdom, 
originally  styled  of  Oviedo,  the  seat  of 
which  was  removed  to  Leon  in  914,  had 
extended  its  boundary  to  the  Duero,  and 
even  to  the  mountainous  chain  of  the 

uadarrama.  The  province  of  old  Cas- 
tile, thus  denominated,  as  is  generally 
supposed,  from  the  castles  erected,  while 
t  remained  a  march  or  frontier  against 
he  Moors,  was  governed  by  hereditary 
counts,  elected  originally  by  the  provin- 
cial aristocracy,  and  virtually  independ- 
ent, it  seems  probable,  of  the  kings  of 
Leon,  though  commonly  serving  them  in 
war,  as  brethren  of  the  same  faith  and 
nation.! 

While  the  kings  of  Leon  were  thus  occu- 
)ied  in  recovering  the  western  provinces, 
another  race  of  Christian  princes  grew  up 
silently  under  the  shadow  of  the  Pyrene- 
an  mountains.  Nothing  can  be  Kingdoms  of 
more  obscure  than  the  begin-  Navarre  and 
lings  of  those  little  states,  Arag°n- 
which  were  formed  in  Navarre  and  the 
country  of  Soprarbe.  They  might  per- 
laps  be  almost  contemporaneous  with  the 
Moorish  conquests.  On  both  sides  of  the 
Pyrenees  dwelt  an  aboriginal  people ;  the 
ast  to  undergo  the  yoke,  and  who  had  nev- 
er acquired  the  language,  of  Rome.  We 
know  little  of  these  intrepid  mountain- 
eers in  the  dark  period  which  elapsed 
under  the  Gothic  and  Frank  dynasties, 
till  we  find  them  cutting  off  the  rear- 
guard of  Charlemagne  in  Roncesvalles, 


*•  Cardonne,  Hist,  de  1'Afrique  et  de  1'Espagne. 

f  According  to  Roderic  of  Toledo,  one  of  the 
earliest  Spanish  historians,  though  not  older  than 
the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  nobles 
of  Castile,  in  the  reign  of  Froila,  about  the  year 
924,  sibi  et  posteris  providerunt,  et  duos  milites  non 
de  potentioribus,  sed  de  prudentioribus  elegerunt, 
quod  et  judices  statuerunt,  ut  dissensiones  patriae 
et  querelantium  causae  suo  judicio  sopirentur,  1.  v., 
c.  1.  Several  other  passages  in  the  same  writer 
prove  that  the  counts  of  Castile  were  nearly  inde- 
pendent of  Leon,  at  least  from  the  time  of  Ferdi- 
nand Gonsalvo  about  the  middle  of  the  tenth  centu- 
ry. Ex  quo  iste  suscepit  suaa  patriae  comitatum, 
cessaverunt  reges  Asturiarum  insolescere  in  Cas- 
tellam,  et  a  flumine  Pisorica  nihilamplius  vindicfe- 
runt,  1.  v.,  c.  2.  Marina,  in  his  Ensayo  Historico 
Critico,  is  disposed  to  controvert  this  fact. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


199 


and  maintaining  at  least  their  independ 
ence,  though  seldom,  like  the  kings  oi 
Asturias,  waging  offensive  war  agains 
the  Saracens.  The  town  of  Jaca,  situa 
ted  among  long  narrow  valleys  that  in 
tersect  the  southern  ridges  of  the  Pyre 
nees,  was  the  capital  of  a  little  free  state 
which  afterward  expanded  into  the  mon- 
archy of  Aragon.*  A  territory  rather 
more  extensive  belonged  to  Navarre,  the 
kings  of  which  fixed  their  seat  at  Pam- 
pelona.  Biscay  seems  to  have  been  di- 
vided between  this  kingdom  and  that  of 
Leon.  The  connexion  of  Aragon  or  So- 
prarbe  and  Navarre  was  very  intimate, 
and  they  were  often  united  under  a  single 
chief. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  eleventh  centu- 
Kingdomof  ry,  Sancho  the  Great,  king  of 
Castile.  Navarre  and  Aragon,  was  ena- 
bled to  render  his  second  son,  Ferdinand, 
count,  or,  as  he  'assumed  the  title,  King 
of  Castile.  This  effectually  dismember- 
ed that  province  from  the  kingdom  of 
Leon ;  but  their  union  soon  became  more 
complete  than  ever,  though  with  a  re- 
versed supremacy.  Bermudo  III. ,  king  of 
Leon,  fell  in  a  battle  with  the  new  king 
of  Castile,  who  had  married  his  sister; 
and  Ferdinand,  in  her  right  or  in  that  of 
conquest,  became  master  of  the  united 
monarchy.  This  cessation  of  hostilities 
between  the  Christian  states  enabled 
them  to  direct  a  more  unremitting  ener- 
gy against  their  ancient  enemies,  who 
were  now  sensibly  weakened  by  the  va- 
rious causes  of  decline  to  which  I  have 
already  alluded.  During  the  eleventh 
century,  the  Spaniards  were  almost  al- 
ways superior  in  the  field;  the  towns, 


*  The  Fueros,  or  written  laws  of  Jaca,  were 
perhaps  more  ancient  than  any  local  customary  in 
Europe.  Alfonso  III.  confirms  them  by  name  of  the 
ancient  usages  of  Jaca.  They  prescribe  the  de- 
scent of  lands  and  moveables,  as  well  as  the  elec- 
tion of  municipal  magistrates.  The  following  law, 
which  enjoins  the  rising  in  arms  on  a  sudden  emer- 
gency, illustrates,  with  a  sort  of  romantic  wildness, 
the  manners  of  a  pastoral  but  warlike  people,  and 
reminds  us  of  a  well-known  passage  in  the  Lady  of 
the  Lake,  De  appellitis  ita  statuimus.  Cum  hom- 
ines de  villis,  vel  qui  stant  in  montanis  cum  suis 
ganatis  [gregibus],  audierint  appellitum;  omnes 
capiant  arma,  et  dunissis  ganatis,  et  omnibus  aliis 
BUis  faziendis  [negotiis]  sequantur  appellitum.  Et 
si  illi  qui  fuerint  magis  remoti,  invenerint  in  villa 
magis  proxima  appellito  [deest  aliquid?]  omnes 
qui  nondum  fuerint  egressi  tune  villam  illam,  quae 
tardius  secuta  est  appellitum,  pecent  [solvant] 
unam  baccam  [vaccam]  ;  et  unusquisque  homo  ex 
illis  qui  tardius  secutus  est  appellitum,  et  quem 
magis  remoti  praecesserint,  pecet  tres  solidos,  quo- 
modo  nobis  videbitur,  partiendos.  Tamen  in  Jaca 
et  in  aliis  villis,  sint  aliqui  nominati  et  certi,  quos 
elegerint  consules,  qui  remaneant  ad  villas  custo- 
diendas  et  defendendas.— Biancae  Commentaria  in 
Schotti  Hispania  Illustrata,  p.  595. 


which  they  began  by  pillaging,  they  gradu- 
ally possessed ;  their  valour  was  height- 
ened by  the  customs  of  chivalry,  and 
inspired  by  the  example  of  the  Cid";  and, 
before  the  end  of  this  age,  Alonso  VI.  re- 
covered the  ancient  metropolis  of  the  mon- 
archy, the  city  of  Toledo.  This  capture  of 
was  the  severest  blow  which  the  Toledo, 
Moors  had  endured,  and  an  unequivocal 
symptom  of  that  change  in  their  relative 
strength  which,  from  being  so  gradual, 
was  the  more  irretrievable.  Calamities 
scarcely  inferior  fell  upon  them  in  a  dif- 
ferent quarter.  The  kings  of  Aragon  (a 
title  belonging  originally  to  a  little  dis- 
trict upon  the  river  of  that  name)  had 
been  cooped  up  almost  in  the  mountains 
by  the  small  Moorish  states  north  of  the 
Ebro,  especially  that  of  Huesca.  About 
the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century,  they 
began  to  attack  their  neighbours  with 
success ;  the  Moors  lost  one  town  after 
another,  till,  in  1118,  exposed  and  weak- 
ened by  the  reduction  of  all  these  places, 
the  city  of  Saragosa,  in  which  a  And  Sara- 
line  of  Mahometan  princes  had  «osa- 
flourished  for  several  ages,  became  the 
prize  of  Alfonso  I.,  and  the  capital  of  his 
kingdom.  The  southern  parts  of  what 
is  now  the  province  of  Aragon  were  suc- 
cessively reduced  during  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury ;  while  all  new  Castile  and  Estre- 
madura  became  annexed  in  the  same 
gradual  manner  to  the  dominion  of  the 
descendants  of  Alfonso  VI. 

Although  the  feudal  system  cannot 
be  said  to  have  obtained  in  the  M0deofset. 
kingdoms  of  Leon  and  Castile,  tiing  the 
their  peculiar  situation  gave  the  »«w  con- 
aristocracy  a  great  deal  of  the  ql 
same  power  and  independence  which 
resulted  in  France  and  Germany  from 
that  institution.  The  territory  succes- 
sively recovered  from  the  Moors,  like 
waste  lands  reclaimed,  could  have  no 
proprietor  but  the  conquerors ;  and  the 
prospect  of  such  acquisitions  was  a  con- 
stant incitement  to  the  nobility  of  Spain, 
especially  to  those  who  had  settled  them- 
selves on  the  Castilian  frontier.  In  their 
new  conquests,  they  built  towns  and 
nvited  Christian  settlers,  the  Saracen 
nhabitants  being  commonly  expelled, 
or  voluntarily  retreating  to  the  safer 
Drovinces  of  the  south.  Thus  Burgos  was 
settled  by  a  count  of  Castile  about  880 ;  an- 
other fixed  his  seat  at  Osma;  a  third 
at  Sepulveda;  a  fourth  at  Salamanca. 
These  cities  were  not  free  from  inces- 
sant peril  o/  a  sudden  attack  till  the  union 
of  the  two  kingdoms  under  Ferdinand  I., 
and,  consequently,  the  necessity  of  keep- 
ng  in  exercise  a  numerous  and  armed 


200 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


population  gave  a  character  of  personal 
freedom  and  privilege  to  the  inferior 
classes,  which  they  hardly  possessed  at 
so  early  a  period  in  any  other  monarchy. 
Villanage  seems  never  to  have  been 
established  in  the  Hispano-Gothic  king- 
doms Leon  and  Castile  ;  though  I  confess 
it  was  far  from  being  unknown  in  that 
of  Aragon,  which  had  formed  its  institu- 
tions on  a  feudal  pattern.  Since  nothing 
makes  us  forget  the  arbitrary  distinctions 
of  rank  so  much  as  participation  in  any 
common  calamity,  every  man  who  had 
escaped  the.  great  shipwreck  of  liberty 
and  religion  in  the  mountains  of  Asturi- 
as  was  invested  with  a  personal  dignity, 
which  gave  him  value  in  his  own  eyes 
and  those  of  his  country.  It  is  probably 
this  sentiment,  transmitted  to  posterity, 
and  gradually  fixing  the  national  charac- 
ter, that  has  produced  the  elevation  of 
manner  remarked  by  travellers  in  the 
Castilian  peasant.  But  while  these  ac- 
quisitions of  the  nobility  promoted  the 
grand  object  of  winning  back  the  penin- 
sula from  its  invaders,  they  by  no  means 
invigorated  the  government,  or  tended  to 
domestic  tranquillity. 

A  more  interesting  method  of  securing 
chartered  tne  public  defence  was  by  the 
towns  or  institution  of  chartered  towns 
communities.  or  communities.  These  were 
established  at  an  earlier  period  than  in 
France  and  England,  and  were  in  some 
degree  of  a  peculiar  description.  Instead 
of  purchasing  their  immunities,  and  al- 
most their  personal  freedom,  at  the  hands 
of  a  master,  the  burgesses  of  Castilian 
towns  were  invested  with  civil  rights  and 
extensive  property  on  the  more  liberal 
condition  of  protecting  their  country. 
The  earliest  instance  of  the  erection  of  a 
community  is  in  1020,  when  Alfonso  V., 
in  the  cortes  at  Leon,  established  the  priv- 
ileges of  that  city  with  a  regular  code  of 
laws,  by  which  its  magistrates  should 
be  governed.  The  citizens  of  Carrion, 
Llanes,  and  other  towns,  were  incorpo- 
rated by  the  same  prince.  Sancho  the 
Great  gave  a  similar  constitution  to  Nax- 
ara.  Sepulveda  had  its  code  of  laws  in 
1076  from  Alfonso  VI. ;  in  the  same  reign 
Logrono  and  Sahagun  acquired  their  priv- 
ileges, and  Salamanca  not  long  after- 
ward. The  fuero,  or  original  charter  of 
a  Spanish  community,  was  properly  a 
compact,  by  which  the  king  or  lord 
granted  a  town  and  adjacent  district  to 
the  burgesses,  with  various  privileges, 
and  especially  that  of  choosing  magis- 
trates and  a  common  council,  who  were 
bound  to  conform  themselves  to  the  laws 
prescribed  by  the  founder.  These  laws, 


civil  as  well  as  criminal,  though  essen- 
tially derived  from  the  ancient  code  of 
the  Visigoths,  which  continued  to  be  the 
common  law  of  Castile  till  the  fourteenth 
or  fifteenth  century,  varied  from  each 
other  in  particular  usages,  which  had 
probably  grown  up  and  been  established 
in  these  districts  before  their  legal  con- 
firmation. The  territory  held  by  char- 
tered towns  was  frequently  very  exten- 
sive, far  beyond  any  comparison  with 
corporations  in  our  own  country  or  in 
France  ;  including  the  estates  of  private 
landholders,  subject  to  the  jurisdiction 
and  control  of  the  municipality,  as  well 
as  its  inalienable  demesnes,  allotted  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  magistrates  and 
other  public  expenses.  In  every  town 
the  king  appointed  a  governor  to  receive 
the  usual  tributes,  and  watch  over  the 
police  and  the  fortified  places  within  the 
district ;  but  the  administration  of  justice 
was  exclusively  reserved  to  the  inhabi- 
tants and  their  elected  judges.  Even  the 
executive  power  of  the  royal  officer  was 
regarded  with  jealousy ;  he  was  forbid- 
den to  use  violence  towards  any  one 
without  legal  process  ;  and,  by  the  fuero 
of  Logrono,  if  he  attempted  to  enter  for- 
cibly into  a  private  house,  he  might  be 
killed  with  impunity.  These  democrat- 
ical  customs  were  altered  in  the  four- 
teenth century  by  Alfonso  XL,  who 
vested  the  municipal  administration  in  a 
small  number  of  jurats  or  regidors.  A 
pretext  for  this  was  found  in  some  disor- 
ders to  which  popular  elections  had  led ; 
but  the  real  motive,  of  course,  must  have 
been  to  secure  a  greater  influence  for  the 
crown,  as  in  similar  innovations  of  some 
English  kings. 

In  recompense  for  such  liberal  conces- 
sions, the  incorporated  towns  were  bound 
to  certain  money  payments  and  to  mili- 
tary service.  This  was  absolutely  due 
from  every  inhabitant,  without  dispensa- 
tion or  substitution,  unless  in  case  of  in- 
firmity. The  royal  governor  and  the  ma- 
gistrates, as  in  the  simple  times  of  prim- 
itive Rome,  raised  and  commanded  the 
militia ;  who,  in  a  service  always  short, 
and  for  the  most  part  necessary,  pre- 
served that  delightful  consciousness  of 
freedom,  under  the  standard  of  their  fel- 
low-citizens and  chosen  leaders,  which 
no  mere  soldier  can  enjoy.  Every  man 
of  a  certain  property  was  bound  to  serve 
on  horseback,  and  was  exempted  in  re- 
turn from  the  payment  of  taxes.  This 
produced  a  distinction  between  the  cdbal- 
leros,  or  noble  class,  and  the  pecheros,  or 
payers  of  tribute.  But  the  distinction 
appears  to  have  been  founded  only  upon 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


201 


wealth,  as  in  the  Roman  equites,  and  not 
upon  hereditary  rank,  though  it  most 
likely  prepared  the  way  for  the  latter. 
The  horses  of  these  caballeros  could  not 
be  seized  for  debt ;  in  some  cases  they 
were  exclusively  eligible  to  magistracy ; 
and  their  honour  was  protected  by  laws 
which  rendered  it  highly  penal  to  insult 
or  molest  them.  But  the  civil  rights  of 
rich  and  poor  in  courts  of  justice  were  as 
equal  as  in  England.* 

The  progress  of  the  Christian  arms  in 
Military  Spain  may  in  part  be  ascribed  to 
orders,  another  remarkable  feature  in  the 
constitution  of  that  country,  the  military 
orders.  These  had  already  been  tried 
with  signal  effect  in  Palestine ;  and  the 
similar  circumstances  of  Spain  easily  led 
to  an  adoption  of  the  same  policy.  In  a 
very  few  years  after  the  first  institution 
of  the  Knights  Templars,  they  were  en- 
dowed with  great  estates,  or  rather  dis- 
tricts, won  from  the  Moors,  on  condition 
of  defending  their  own  and  the  national 
territory.  These  lay  chiefly  in  the  parts 
of  Aragon  beyond  the  Ebro,  the  conquest 
of  which  was  then  recent  and  insecure.! 
So  extraordinary  was  the  respect  for  this 
order,  and  that  of  St.  John,  and  so  power- 
ful the  conviction  that  the  hope  of  Chris- 
tendom rested  upon  their  valour,  that  Al- 
fonso the  First,  king  of  Aragon,  dying 
childless,  bequeathed  to  them  his  whole 
kingdom  ;  an  example  of  liberality,  says 
Mariana,  to  surprise  future  times,  and  dis- 
please his  own. J  The  states  of  Aragon 
annulled,  as  may  be  supposed,  this  strange 
testament ;  but  the  successor  of  Alfonso 
was  obliged  to  pacify  the  ambitious 
knights  by  immense  concessions  of  mo- 
ney and  territory ;  stipulating  even  not  to 
make  peace  with  the  Moors  against  their 
will.§  In  imitation  of  these -great  mili- 
tary orders,  common  to  all  Christendom, 
there  arose  three  Spanish  institutions  of 
a  similar  kind,  the  orders  of  Calatrava, 
Santiago,  and  Alcantara.  The  first  of 
these  was  established  in  1158;  the  sec- 
ond and  most  famous  had  its  charter 
from  the  pope  in  1175,  though  it  seems 
to  have  existed  previously;  the  third 

*  I  am  indebted  for  this  account  of  municipal 
towns  in  Castile  to  a  book  published  at  Madrid  in 
1808,  immediately  after  the  revolution,  by  the 
Doctor  Marina,  a  canon  of  the  church  of  St.  Isidor, 
entitled,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico  sobre  la  antigua 
legislacion  y  principales  cuerpos  legales  de  los  rey- 
nps  de  Lyon  y  Castilla,  especialment  sobre  el  co- 
digode  D.  Alonso  el  Sabio,  conocido  con  el  nombre 
de  las  Siete  Partidas.  This  work  is  perhaps  not 
easily  to  be  procured  in  England :  but  an  article  in 
the  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  XLIIL,  will  convey  a 
sufficient  notion  of  its  contents. 

t  Mariana,  Hist.  Hispan.,  1.  x.,  c.  10. 

t  L.  x.,  c.  15.  $  L.  x.,c.  18. 


branched  off  from  that  of  Calatrava  at  a 
subsequent  time.*  These  were  military 
colleges,  having  their  walled  towns  in 
different  parts  of  Castile,  and  governed 
by  an  elective  grand  master,  whose  influ- 
ence in  the  state  was  at  least  equal  to 
that  of  any  of  the  nobility.  In  the  civil 
dissensions  of  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries,  the  chiefs  of  these  incorpo- 
rated knights  were  often  very  prominent. 
The  kingdoms  of  Leon  and  Castile 
were  unwisely  divided  anew  by  Final  union 
Alfonso  VII.,  between  his  sons  of  Leon  and 
Sancho  and  Ferdinand,  and  this  Castlle- 
produced  not  only  a  separation,  but  a  re- 
vival of  the  ancient  jealousy,  with  fre- 
quent wars,  for  near  a  century.  At 
length,  in  1238,  Ferdinand  III.,  king  of 
Castile,  reunited  for  ever  the  two  branches 
of  the  Gothic  monarchy.  He  employed 
their  joint  strength  against  the  Moors, 
whose  dominion,  though  it  still  embraced 
the  finest  provinces  of  the  peninsula,  was 
sinking  by  internal  weakness,  and  had 
never  recovered  a  tremendous  defeat  at 
Banos  di  Toloso,  a  few  miles  from  Bay- 
len,  in  1210.J  Ferdinand,  bursting  into 
Andalusia,  took  its  great  capi-  conquest  of 
tal,  the  city  of  Cordova  [A.  D.  Andalusia, 
1236],  not  less  ennobled  by  the  cultivation 
of  Arabian  science,  and  by  the  names  of 
Avicenna  and  Averrpes,  than  by  the 
splendid  works  of  a  rich  and  munificent 
dynasty.;}:  In  a  few  years  more,  Seville 
was  added  to  his  conquests,  and  the 
Moors  lost  their  favourite  regions  on 
the  banks  of  the  Guadalquivir.  And  Valencia. 
James  I.  of  Aragon,  the  victories  of 
whose  long  reign  gave  him  the  surname 
of  Conqueror,  reduced  the  city  and  king- 
dom of  Valencia,  the  Balearic  Isles,  and 
the  kingdom  of  Murcia ;  but  the  last  was 


*  L.  xi.,  c.  6,  13  ;  1.  xii.,  c.  3. 

t  A  letter  of  Alfonso  IX.,  who  gained  this  victory, 
to  Pope  Innocent  III.,  puts  the  loss  of  the  Moors 
at  180,000  men.  The  Arabian  historians,  though 
without  specifying  numbers,  seem  to  confirm  this 
immense  slaughter,  which  nevertheless  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  conceive  before  the  invention  of  gunpow- 
der, or  indeed  since. — Cardonne,  t.  il,  p.  327. 

t  If  we  can  rely  on  a  Moorish  author,  quoted  by 
Cardonne  (t.  i.,  p.  337),  the  city  of  Cordova  con- 
tained, I  know  not  exactly  in  what  century, 
200,000  houses,  600  mosques,  and  900  public  baths. 
There  were  12,000  towns  and  villages  on  the  banks 
of  the  Guadalquivir.  The  mines  of  gold  and  silver 
were  very  productive.  And  the  revenues  of  the 
khalifs  of  Cordova  are  said  to  have  amounted  to 
130,000,000  of  French  money ;  besides  large  con- 
tributions that,  according  to  the  practice  of  orien- 
tal governments,  were  paid  in  the  fruits  of  the 
earth.  Other  proofs  of  the  extraordinary  opulence 
and  splendour  of  this  monarchy  are  dispersed  in 
Cardonne's  work,  from  which  they  have  been 
chiefly  borrowed  by  later  writers.  The  splendid 
engravings  in  Murphy's  Moorish  antiquities  of 
Spain  illustrate  this  subject. 


202 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


annexed,  according  to   compact,  to  the 
crown  of  Castile. 

It  could  hardly  have  been  expected 
Expulsion  of  about  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
the  Moors  teenth  century,  when  the  splen- 
long  delayed.  did  conquests  of  Ferdinand  and 
James  had  planted  the  Christian  banner 
on  the  three  principal  Moorish  cities,  that 
two  hundred  and  fifty  years  were  yet  to 
elapse  before  the  rescue  of  Spain  from 
their  yoke  should  be  completed.  Ambi- 
tion, religious  zeal,  national  enmity,  could 
not  be  supposed  to  pause  in  a  career 
which  now  seemed  to  be  obstructed  by 
such  moderate  difficulties;  but  we  find, 
on  the  contrary,  the  exertions  of  the 
Spaniards  begin  from  this  time  to  relax, 
and  their  acquisitions  of  territory  to  be- 
come more  slow.  One  of  the  causes, 
undoubtedly,  that  produced  this  unex- 
pected protraction  of  the  contest,  was 
the  superior  means  of  resistance  which 
the  Moors  found  in  retreating.  Their 
population,  spread  originally  over  the 
whole  of  Spain,  was  now  condensed,  and, 
if  I  may  so  say,  become  no  further  com- 
pressible, in  a  single  province.  It  had 
been  mingled,  in  the  northern  and  central 
parts,  with  the  Mozarabic  Christians, 
their  subjects  and  tributaries,  not  perhaps 
treated  with  much  injustice,  yet  naturally 
and  irremediably  their  enemies.  Toledo 
and  Saragosa,  when  they  fell  under  a 
Christian  sovereign,  were  full  of  these 
inferior  Christians,  whose  long  inter- 
course with  their  masters  has  infused  the 
tones  and  dialect  of  Arabia  into  the  lan- 
guage of  Castile.*  But  in  the  twelfth 
century,  the  Moors,  exasperated  by  de- 
feat, and  jealous  of  secret  disaffection, 
began  to  persecute  their  Christian  sub- 
jects, till  they  renounced  or  fled  for  their 
religion;  so  that,  in  the  southern  prov- 
inces, scarcely  any  professors  of  Chris- 
tianity were  left  at  the  time  of  Ferdi- 
nand's invasion.  An  equally  severe  pol- 
icy was  adopted  on  the  other  side.  The 
Moors  had  been  permitted  to  dwell  in  Sa- 
ragosa, as  the  Christians  had  dwelt  be- 
fore, subjects,  not  slaves ;  but,  on  the  cap- 
ture of  Seville,  they  were  entirely  ex- 
pelled, and  new  settlers  invited  from 
every  part  of  Spain.  The  strong  fortified 
towns  of  Andalusia,  such  as  Gibraltar, 
Algeziras,  Tariffa,  maintained  also  a  more 
formidable  resistance  than  had  been  ex- 
perienced in  Castile;  they  cost  tedious 
sieges,  were  sometimes  recovered  by  the 
enemy,  and  were  always  liable  to  his  at- 
tacks. But  the  great  protection  of  the 
Spanish  Mahometans  was  found  in  the 

*  Mariana,  1.  xi.,  c.  1.    Gibbon,  c.  51. 


alliance  and  ready  aid  of  their  kindred 
beyond  the  Straits.  Accustomed  to  hear 
of  the  African  Moors  only  as  pirates,  we 
cannot  easily  conceive  the  powerful  dy- 
nasties, the  warlike  chiefs,  the  vast  ar- 
mies, which  for  seven  or  eight  centuries 
illustrate  the  annals  of  that  people.  Their 
assistance  was  always  afforded  to  the 
true  believers  in  Spain,  though  their  am- 
bition was  generally  dreaded  by  those 
who  stood  in  need  of  their  valour.* 

Probably,  however,  the  kings  of  Gra- 
nada were  most  indebted  to  the  indolence 
which  gradually  became  characteristic  of 
their  enemies.  By  the  cession  of  Murcia 
to  Castile,  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  shut 
itself  out  from  the  possibility  of  extend- 
ing those  conquests  which  had  ennobled 
her  earlier  sovereigns ;  and  their  succes- 
sors, not  less  ambitious  and  enterprising, 
diverted  their  attention  towards  objects 
beyond  the  peninsula.  The  Castilian, 
patient  and  undesponding  in  bad  success, 
loses  his  energy  as  the  pressure  becomes 
less  heavy,  and  puts  no  ordinary  evil  in 
comparison  with  the  exertions  by  which 
it  must  be  removed.  The  greater  part 
of  his  country  freed  by  his  arms,  he  was 
content  to  leave  the  enemy  in  a  single 
province,  rather  than  undergo  the  labour 
of  making  his  triumph  complete. 

[A.  D.  1252.]  If  a  similar  spirit  of 
insubordination  had  not  been  AlfonsoX 
found  compatible  in  earlier  ages 
with  the  aggrandizement  of  the  Castilian 
monarchy,  we  might  ascribe  its  want  of 
splendid  successes  against  the  Moors  to 
the  continued  rebellions  which  disturbed 
that  government  for  more  than  a  century 
after  the  death  of  Ferdinand  III.  His 
son,  Alfonso  X.,  might  justly  acquire  the 
surname  of  Wise  for  his  general  profi- 
ciency in  learning,  and  especially  in  as- 
tronomical science  ;  if  these  attainments 
deserved  praise  in  a  king,  who  was  inca- 
pable of  preserving  his  subjects  in  their 
duty.  As  a  legislator,  Alfonso,  by  his 
ode  of  the  Siete  Partidas,  sacrificed  the 
ecclesiastical  rights  of  his  crown  to  the 
usurpation  of  Rome  ;f  and  his  philosophy 
sunk  below  the  level  of  ordinary  pru- 
dence, when  he  permitted  the  phantom 
of  an  imperial  crown  in  Germany  'to  se- 
duce his  hopes  for  almost  twenty  years. 
For  the  sake  of  such  an  illusion  he  would 
ven  have  withdrawn  himself  from  Cas- 
tile, if  the  states  had  not  remonstrated 
against  an  expedition  that  would  proba- 
bly have  cost  him  the  kingdom.  In  the 
Latter  years  of  his  turbulent-  reign,  Al- 


*  Cardonne,  t.  ii.  and  iii.,  passim. 

f  Marina,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico,  p,  372,  &c. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


fonso  had  to  contend  against  his  son. 
The  right  of  representation  was  hitherto 
unknown  in  Castile,  which  had  borrowed 
little  from  the  customs  of  feudal  nations. 
By  the  received  law  of  succession,  the 
nearer  was  always  preferred  to  the  more 
remote,  the  son  to  the  grandson.     Al- 
fonso X.   had   established  the  different 
maxim  of  representation  by  his  code  of 
the    Siete    Partidas,    the    authority,  of 
which,  however,  was  not  universally  ac- 
knowledged.    The  question  soon  came 
to  an  issue,  on  the  death  of  his  elder  son 
Ferdinand,   leaving  two   male  children. 
Sancho,  their  uncle,  asserted  his  claim, 
founded  upon  the  ancient  Castilian  right 
of  succession ;  and  this,  chiefly  no  doubt 
through  fear  of  arms,  though  it  did  not 
want  plausible  arguments,  was  ratified  by 
an  assembly  of  the  cortes,  and  secured, 
notwithstanding   the   king's   reluctance, 
by  the  courage  of  Sancho.     But  the  de- 
scendants of  Ferdinand,  generally  called 
the  infants  of  La  Cerda,  by  the  protection 
of  France,  to  whose  royal  family  they 
were  closely  allied,  and  of  Aragon,  always 
prompt  to  interfere  in  the  disputes  of  a 
rival   people,  continued  to  assert  their 
pretensions  for  more  than  half  a  century, 
and,  though  they  were  not  very  success- 
ful, did  not  fail  to  aggravate  the  troubles 
of  their  country. 

The  annals  of  Sancho  IV.  and  his 
Civil  dis-  two  immediate  successors,  Fer- 
turhances  dinand  IV.  and  Alfonso  XL,  pre- 
ofCastiie.  sent  a  series  of  unhappy  and 
dishonourable  civil  dissensions  with  too 
Sancho  iv.  much  rapidity  to  be  remem- 

1284.  bered  or  even  understood.  Al- 
iv  1295  though  the  Castilian  nobility 
Alfonso  xi.  had  no  pretence  to  the  original 

312<  independence  of  the  French 
peers,  or  to  the  liberties  of  feudal  tenure, 
they  assumed  the  same  privilege  of  re- 
belling upon  any  provocation  from  their 
sovereign.  When  such  occurred,  they 
seem  to  have  been  permitted,  by  legal 
custom,  to  renounce  their  allegiance  by 
a  solemn  instrument,  which  exempted 
them  from  the  penalties  of  treason.*  A 
very  few  families  composed  an  oligarchy, 
the  worst  and  most  ruinous  condition  of 
political  society,  alternately  the  favourites 
and  ministers  of  the  prince,  or  in  arms 
against  him.  If  unable  to  protect  them- 
selves in  their  walled  towns,  and  by  the 
aid  of  their  faction,  these  Christian  pa- 
triots retired  to  Aragon  or  Granada,  and 
excited  a  hostile  power  against  their 
country  and  perhaps  their  religion.  Noth- 
injf  is  more  common  in  the  Castilian  his- 


Mariana,  1.  xiii.,  c.  11. 


tory  than  instances  of  such  defection. 
Mariana  remarks  coolly  of  the  family  of 
Castro,  that  they  were  much  in  the  habit 
of  revolting  to  the  Moors.*  This  house 
and  that  of  Lara  were  at  one  time  the 
great  rivals  for  power;  but  from  the 
time  of  Alfonso  X.  the  former  seems  to 
have  declined,  and  the  sole  family  that 
came  in  competition  with  the  Laras  du- 
ring the  tempestuous  period  that  followed 
was  that  of  Haro,  which  possessed  the 
lordship  of  Biscay  by  an  hereditary  title. 
The  evils  of  a  weak  government  were 
aggravated  by  the  unfortunate  circum- 
stances in  which  Ferdinand  IV.  and  Al- 
fonso XI.  ascended  the  throne;  both 
minors,  with  a  disputed  regency,  and  the 
interval  too  short  to  give  ambitious  spir- 
its leisure  to  subside.  There  is,  indeed, 
some  apology  for  the  conduct  of  the 
Laras  and  Haros  in  the  character  of  their 
sovereigns,  who  had  but  one  favourite 
method  of  avenging  a  dissembled  inju- 
ry, or  anticipating  a  suspected  treason. 
Sancho  IV.  assassinates  Don  Lope  Haro 
in  his  palace  at  Valladolid.  Alfonso  XI. 
invites  to  court  the  infant  Don  Juan,  his 
first  cousin,  and  commits  a  similar  vio- 
lence. Such  crimes  may  be  found  in 
the  history  of  other  countries,  but  they 
were  nowhere  so  usual  as  in  Spain, 
which  was  far  behind  France,  England, 
and  even  Germany,  in  civilization. 

[A.  D.  1350.]  But  whatever  violence 
and  arbitrary  spirit  might  be  im-  Peter  tn« 
puted  to  Sancho  and  Alfonso,  Cruel- 
was  forgotten  in  the  unexampled  tyranny 
of  Peter  the  Cruel.  A  suspicion  is  fre- 
quently intimated  by  Mariana,  which 
seems  in  more  modern  times  to  have 
gained  credit,  that  party  malevolence  has 
at  least  grossly  exaggerated  the  enormi- 
ties of  this  prince,  f  It  is  difficult,  how- 


*  Alvarus  Castrius  patria  aliquanto  antea,  uti 
moris  erat,  renunciata.— Castria  gens  per  haec 
ternpora  ad  Mauros  saepe  defecisse  visa  est,  1.  xii., 
c.  12.  See  also  chapters  17  and  19. 

•f  There  is  in  general  room  enough  for  skepti- 
cism as  to  the  characters  of  men  who  are  only 
known  to  us  through  their  enemies.  History  is 
full  of  calumnies,  and  of  calumnies  that  can  never 
be  effaced.  Butt  really  see  no  ground  for  thinking 
charitably  of  Peter  the  Cruel.— Froissart,  part  i., 
c.  230,  and  Matteo  Villani  (in  Script.  Rerum 
Italic.,  t.  xiv.,  p.  43),  the  latter  of  whom  died  be- 
fore the  rebellion  of  Henry  of  Trastamare,  speak 
of  him  much  in  the  same  terms  as  the  Spanish 
historians.  And  why  should  Ayala  be  doubted, 
when  he  gives  a  long  list  of  murders  committed  in 
the  face  of  day,  within  the  recollection  of  many 
persons  living  when  he  wrote  ?  There  may  be  a 
question  whether  Richard  III.  smothered  his  neph- 
ews in  the  tower ;  but  nobody  can  dispute  that 
Henry  VIII.  cut  off  Anna  Bullen's  head. 

The  passage  from  Matteo  Villani  above  men- 
tioned is  as  follows :— Comincio  aspramente  a  so 


204 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


ever,  to  believe  that  a  number  of  atro- 
cious acts,  unconnected  with  each  other, 
and  generally  notorious  enough  in  their 
circumstances,  have  been  ascribed  to  any 
innocent  man.  The  history  of  his  reign, 
chiefly  derived,  it  is  admitted,  from  the 
pen  of  an  inveterate  enemy,  Lope  de 
Ayala,  charges  him  with  the  murder  of 
his  wife,  Blanche  of  Bourbon,  most  of  his 
brothers  and  sisters,  with  Eleanor  Gus- 
man  their  mother,  many  Castilian  nobles, 
and  multitudes  of  the  commonalty;  be- 
sides continual  outrages  of  licentious- 
ness, and  especially  a  pretended  mar- 
riage with  a  noble  lady  of  the  Castrian 
family.  At  length  a  rebellion  was  head- 
ed by  his  illegitimate  brother,  Henry, 
count  of  Trastamare,  with  the  assistance 
of  Aragon  and  Portugal.  This,  however, 
would  probably  have  failed  of  dethroning 
Peter,  a  resolute  prince,  and  certainly 
not  destitute  of  many  faithful  supporters, 
if  Henry  had  not  invoked  the  more  pow- 
erful succour  of  Bertrand  du  Guesclin, 
and  the  companies  of  adventure,  who, 
after  the  pacification  between  France  and 
England,  had  lost  the  occupation  of  war, 
and  retained  only  that  of  plunder.  With 
mercenaries  so  disciplined  it  was  in  vain 
for  Peter  to  contend;  but,  abandoning 
Spain  for  a  moment,  he  had  recourse 
to  a  more  powerful  weapon  from  the 
same  armory.  Edward  the  Black  Prince, 
then  resident  at  Bourdeaux,  was  induced, 
by  the  promise  of  Biscay,  to  enter  Spain 
as  the  ally  of  Castile  [A.  D.  1367] ;  and 
at  the  great  battle  of  Navarette  he  con- 
tinued lord  of  the  ascendant  over  those 
who  had  so  often  already  been  foiled  by 
his  prowess.  Du  Guesclin  was  made 
prisoner,  Henry  fled  to  Aragon,  and  Peter 
remounted  the  throne.  But  a  second 
revolution  was  at  hand  :  the  Black  Prince, 
whom  he  had  ungratefully  offended,  with- 
drew into  Guienne ;  and  he  lost  his  king- 
dom and  life  in  a  second  short  contest 
with  his  brother. 

A  more  fortunate  period  began  with 
House  of  ^e  accession  of  Henry.  His 
Trastamare.  own  reign  was  hardly  disturbed 
Hei368L  ky  any  rebellion;  and  though 
John  i. '  his  successors,  John  I.  and 

1379.  Henry  III.,  were  not  altogether 
so  unmolested,  especially  the 
latter,  who  ascended  the  throne 
in  his  minority ;  yet  the  troubles  of  their 
time  were  slight  in  comparison  with  those 
formerly  excited  by  the  houses  of  Lara 

far  ubbidire,  perch&  temendo  de'  suoi  baroni,  trovo 
tnodo  di  far  infamare  1'uno  1'altro,  e  prendendo  ca- 

g'one,  gli  comincio  ad  uccidere  con  le  sue  mani. 
in  brieve  tempo  ne  fece  morire  25,  e  tre  suoi 
fratelli  fece  morire,  &c. 


Henry  III 
1390. 


and  Haro,  both  of  which  were  now  hap- 
pily extinct.  Though  Henry  II. 's  illegit- 
imacy left  him  no  title  but  popular  choice, 
his  queen  was  sole  representative  of  the 
Cerdas,  the  offspring,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned above,  of  SanchoIV.'s  elder  broth- 
er, and  by  the  extinction  of  the  younger 
branch,  unquestioned  heiress  of  the  royal 
line.  Some  years  afterward,  by  the 
marriage  of  Henry  III.  with  Catharine, 
daughter  of  John  of  Gaunt  and  of  Con- 
stance, an  illegitimate  child  of  Peter  the 
Cruel,  her  pretensions,  such  as  they  were, 
became  merged  in  the  crown. 

[A.  D.  1406.]  No  kingdom  could  be 
worse  prepared  to  meet  the  disorders  of 
a  minority  than  Castile,  and  in  none  did 
the  circumstance  so  frequently  recur. 
John  II.  was  but  fourteen  months  old  at 
his  accession ;  and,  but  for  the  disinter- 
estedness of  his  uncle  Ferdinand,  the  no- 
bility would  have  been  inclined  to  avert 
the  danger  by  placing  that  prince  upon 
the  throne.  In  this  instance,  however, 
Castile  suffered  less  from  faction  during 
the  infancy  of  her  sovereign  than  in  his 
maturity.  The  queen  dowager,  at  first 
jointly  with  Ferdinand,  and  solely  after 
his  accession  to  the  crown  of  Aragon, 
administered  the  government  with  credit. 
Fifty  years  had  elapsed  at  her  death,  in 
1418,  since  the  elevation  of  the  house  of 
Trastamare,  who  had  entitled  themselves 
to  public  affection  by  conforming  them- 
selves more  strictly  than  their  predeces- 
sors to  the  constitutional  laws  cf  Castile, 
which  were  never  so  well  established  as 
during  this  period.  In  external  affairs 
their  reigns  were  not  what  is  considered 
as  glorious.  [A.  D.  1385.]  They  were 
generally  at  peace  with  Aragon  and  Gra- 
nada, but  one  memorable  defeat  by  the 
Portuguese  at  Aljubarrota  disgraces  the 
annals  of  John  I.,  whose  cause  was  as 
unjust  as  his  arms  were  unsuccessful. 
This  comparatively  golden  period  ceases 
at  the  majority  of  John  II.  His  reign 
was  filled  up  by  a  series  of  conspiracies 
and  civil  wars,  headed  by  his  cousins, 
John  and  Henry,  the  infants  of  Aragon, 
who  enjoyed  very  extensive  territories  in 
Castile  by  the  testament  of  their  father 
Ferdinand.  Their  brother,  the  King  of 
Aragon,  frequently  lent  the  assistance  of 
his  arms.  John  himself,  the  elder  of  these 
two  princes,  by  marriage  with  the  heiress 
of  the  kingdom  of  Navarre,  stood  in  a 
double  relation  to  Castile,  as  a  neighbour- 
ing sovereign,  and  as  a  member  of  the 
native  oligarchy.  These  con-  Power  an(i 
spiracies  were  all  ostensibly  di-  fail  of  AI- 
reeled  against  the  favourite  of  ™™Ae 
John  II.,  Alvaro  de  Luna,  who 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


retained  for  five-and-thirty  years  an  abso- 
lute control  over  his  feeble  master.  The 
adverse  faction  naturally  ascribed  to  this 
powerful  minister  every  criminal  inten- 
tion and  all  public  mischiefs.  He  was 
certainly  not  more  scrupulous  than  the 
generality  of  statesmen,  and  appears  to 
have  been  rapacious  in  accumulating 
wealth.  But  there  was  an  energy  and 
courage  about  Alvaro  de  Luna  which  dis- 
tinguish him  from  the  cowardly  syco- 
phants who  usually  rise  by  the  favour  of 
weak  princes ;  and  Castile  probably  would 
not  have  been  happier  under  the  admin- 
istration of  his  enemies.  His  fate  is 
among  the  memorable  lessons  of  history. 
After  a  life  of  troubles  endured  for  the 
sake  of  this  favourite,  sometimes  a  fugi- 
tive, sometimes  a  prisoner,  his  son  head- 
ing rebellions  against  him,  John  II.  sud- 
denly yielded  to  an  intrigue  of  the  palace, 
and  adopted  sentiments  of  dislike  towards 
the  man  he  had  so  long  beloved.  No 
substantial  charge  appears  to  have  been 
brought  against  Alvaro  de  Luna,  except 
that  general  malversation  which  it  was 
too  late  for  the  king  to  object  to  him. 
The  real  cause  of  John's  change  of  af- 
fection was,  most  probably,  the  insupport- 
able restraint  which  the  weak  are  apt  to 
find  in  that  spell  of  a  commanding  un- 
derstanding which  they  dare  not  break  ; 
the  torment  of  living  subject  to  the  as- 
cendant of  an  inferior,  which  has  produ- 
ced so  many  examples  of  fickleness  in 
sovereigns.  That  of  John  II.  is  not  the 
least  conspicuous.  Alvaro  de  Luna  was 
brought  to  a  summary  trial  and  behead- 
ed ;  his  estates  were  confiscated.  He 
met  his  death  with  the  intrepidity  of 
Strafford,  to  whom  he  seems  to  have 
borne  some  resemblance  in  character. 

John  II.  did  not  long  survive  his  min- 
Henrviv  ister'  dyim?  in  14^4,  after  a  reign 
'  that  may  be  considered  as  inglo- 
rious, compared  with  any  except  that  of 
his  successor.  If  the  father  was  not  re- 
spected, the  son  fell  completely  into  con- 
tempt. He  had  been  governed  by  Pa- 
checo,  marquis  of  Villena,  as  implicitly  as 
John  by  Alvaro  de  Luna.  This  influence 
lasted  for  some  time  afterward.  But  the 
king  inclining  to  transfer  his  confidence 
to  the  queen,  Joanna  of  Portugal,  and  to 
one  Bertrand  de  Gueva,  upon  whom  com- 
mon fame  had  fixed  as  her  paramour,  a 
powerful  confederacy  of  disaffected  no- 
bles was  formed  against  the  royal  author- 
ity. In  what  degree  Henry  IV.'s  gov- 
ernment had  been  improvident  or  oppres- 
sive towards  the  people,  it  is  hard  to  de- 
termine. The  chiefs  of  that  rebellion, 
Carillo,  archbishop  of  Toledo,  the  Admi- 


ral of  Castile,  a  veteran  leader  of  faction, 
and  the  Marquis  of  Villena,  so  lately  the 
king's  favourite,  were  undoubtedly  actua- 
ted only  by  selfish  ambition  and  revenge. 
[A.  D.  1465.]  They  deposed  Henry  in  an 
assembly  of  their  faction  at  Avila,  with  a 
sort  of  theatrical  pageantry  which  has 
often  been  described.  But  modern  his- 
torians, struck  by  the  appearance  of  judi- 
cial solemnity  in  this  proceeding,  are 
sometimes  apt  to  speak  of  it  as  a  nation- 
al act ;  while,  on  the  contrary,  it  seems 
to  have  been  reprobated  by  the  majority 
of  the  Castilians  as  an  audacious  outrage 
upon  a  sovereign,  who,  with  many  de- 
fects, had  not  been  guilty  of  any  exces- 
sive tyranny.  The  confederates  set  up 
Alfonso,  the  king's  brother,  and  a  civil 
war  of  some  duration  ensued,  in  which 
they  had  the  support  of  Aragon.  The 
Queen  of  Castile  had  at  this  time  borne  a 
daughter,  whom  the  enemies  of  Henry 
IV.,  and  indeed  no  small  part  of  his  ad- 
herents, were  determined  to  treat  as  spu- 
rious. Accordingly,  after  the  death  of 
Alfonso,  his  sister  Isabel  was  considered 
as  heiress  of  the  kingdom.  She  might 
have  aspired,  with  the  assistance  of  the 
confederates,  to  its  immediate  possession; 
but,  avoiding  the  odium  of  a  contest  with 
her  brother,  Isabel  agreed  to  a  treaty,  by 
which  the  succession  was  absolutely  set- 
tled upon  her.  [A.  D.  1469.]  This  ar- 
rangement was  not  long  afterward  fol- 
lowed by  the  union  of  that  princess  with 
Ferdinand,  son  of  the  King  of  Aragon. 
This  marriage  was  by  no  means  accept- 
able to  a  part  of  the  Castilian  oligarchy, 
who  had  preferred  a  connexion  with  Por- 
tugal. And  as  Henry  had  never  lost 
sight  of  the  interests  of  one  whom  he 
considered,  or  pretended  to  consider,  as 
his  daughter,  he  took  the  first  opportuni- 
ty of  revoking  his  forced  disposition  of 
the  crown,  and  restoring  the  direct  line 
of  succession  in  favour  of  the  Princess 
Joanna.  Upon  his  death,  in  1474,  the 
right  was  to  be  decided  by  arms.  Joan- 
na had  on  her  side  the  common  presump- 
tions of  law,  the  testamentary  disposition 
of  the  late  king,  the  support  of  Alfonso, 
king  of  Portugal,  to  whom  she  was  be- 
trothed, and  of  several  considerable  lead- 
ers among  the  nobility,  as  the  young 
Marquis  of  Villena,  the  family  of  Mendo- 
za,  and  the  Archbishop  of  Toledo,  who, 
charging  Ferdinand  with  ingratitude,  had 
quitted  a  party  which  he  had  above  all 
men  contributed  to  strengthen.  For  Isa- 
bella were  the  general  belief  of  Joanna's 
illegitimacy,  the  assistance  of  Aragon, 
the  adherence  of  a  majority  both  among 
the  nobles  and  people,  and,  more  than  all, 


206 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    IV. 


secession 

ofthe 
crown. 


the  reputation  of  ability  which  both  she 
and  her  husband  had  deservedly  acquired. 
The  scale,  however,  was  pretty  equally 
balanced,  till  the  King  of  Portugal  having 
been  defeated  at  Toro,  in  1476,  Joanna's 
party  discovered  their  inability  to  prose- 
cute the  war  by  themselves,  and  succes- 
sively made  their  submission  to  Ferdi- 
nand and  Isabella. 

The  Castilians  always  considered 
Constitu-  themselves  as  subject  to  a  legal 
tion  of  and  limited  monarchy.  For  sev- 

eral  a£6S    tn6   crown  was  elect' 

ive,  as  in  most  nations  of  Ger- 
man  origin,  within  the  limits  of 
one  royal  family.*  In  general,  of  course, 
the  public  choice  fell  upon  the  nearest 
heir  ;  and  it  became  a  prevailing  usage 
to  elect  a  son  during  the  lifetime  of  his 
father;  till,  about  the  eleventh  century, 
a  right  of  hereditary  succession  was 
clearly  established.  But  the  form  of 
recognising  the  heir-apparent's  title  in 
an  assembly  of  the  cortes  has  subsisted 
until  our  own  time.f 

In  the  original  Gothic  monarchy  of 
National  Spain,  civil  as  well  as  ecclesias- 
counciis.  tjcaj  affairs  were  decided  in  na- 
tional councils,  the  acts  of  many  of  which 
are  still  extant,  and  have  been  published 
in  ecclesiastical  collections.  To  these 
assemblies  the  dukes  and  other  provincial 
governors,  and  in  general  the  principal 
individuals  of  the  realm,  were  summoned 
along  with  spiritual  persons.  This  double 
aristocracy  of  church  and  state  continued 
to  form  the  great  council  of  advice  and 
consent  in  the  first  ages  of  the  new  king- 
doms of  Leon  and  Castile.  The  prelates 
and  nobility,  or  rather  some  of  the  more 
distinguished  nobility,  appear  to  have 
concurred  in  all  general  measures  of  le- 
gislation, as  we  infer  from  the  preamble 
of  their  statutes.  It  would  be  against 
analogy,  as  well  as  without  evidence,  to 
suppose  that  any  representation  of  the 
commons  had  been  formed  in  the  earlier 

*  Defuncto  in  pace  principe,  primates  totius  reg- 
ni  una  cum  sacerdotibus  successorem  regni  con- 
cilio  communi  constituant.  —  Concil.  Toletan.  IV., 
c.  75,  apud  Marina,  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p. 
2.  This  important  work,  by  the  author  of  the  En- 
sayo  Historico-Critico,  quoted  above,  contains  an 
ample  digest  of  the  parliamentary  law  of  Castile, 
drawn  from  original,  and,  in  a  great  degree,  un- 
published records.  I  have  been  favoured  with  the 
use  of  a  copy,  from  which  I  am  the  more  disposed 
to  make  extracts,  as  the  book  is  likely,  through  its 
liberal  principles,  to  become  almost  as  scarce  in 
Spain  as  in  England.  Marina's  former  work  (the 
Ensayo  Hist.  Grit.)  furnishes  a  series  of  testimo- 
nies (c.  66)  to  the  elective  character  of  the  monar- 
chy from  Pelayo  downwards  to  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. 

t  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  7. 


period  of  the  monarchy.  In  the  pream- 
ble of  laws  passed  in  1020,  and  at  several 
subsequent  times  during  that  and  the  en- 
suing century,  we  find  only  the  bishops 
and  magnats  recited  as  pres-  Admission 
ent.  According  to  the  General  of  deputies 
Chronicle  of  Spain,  deputies  fr 
from  the  Castilian  towns  formed  a  part 
of  cortes  in  1169 ;  a  date  not  to  be  reject- 
ed as  incompatible  with  their  absence  in 
1178.  However,  in  1188,  the  first  year 
of  the  reign  of  Alfonso  IX.,  they  are  ex- 
pressly mentioned;  and  from  that  era 
were  constant  and  necessary  parts  of 
those  general  assemblies.*  It  has  been 
seen  already  that  the  corporate  towns, 
or  districts  of  Castile,  had  early  acquired 
considerable  importance;  arising  less 
from  commercial  wealth,  to  which  the 
towns  of  other  kingdoms  were  indebted 
for  their  liberties,  than  from  their  utility 
in  keeping  up  a  military  organization 
among  the  people.  To  this  they  prob- 
ably owe  their  early  reception  into  the 
cortes  as  integrant  portions  of  the  legis- 
lature, since  we  do  not  read  that  taxes 
were  frequently  demanded  till  the  extrav- 
agance of  later  kings,  and  their  aliena- 
tion of  the  domain,  compelled  them  to 
have  recourse  to  the  national  represent- 
atives. 

Every  chief  town  of  a  concejo  or  cor- 
poration ought,  perhaps,  by  the  constitu- 
tion of  Castile,  to  have  received  its  regu- 
lar writ  for  the  election  of  deputies  to 
cortes. f  But  there  does  not  appear  to 
have  been,  in  the  best  times,  any  uniform 
practice  in  this  respect.  At  the  cortes 
of  Burgos,  in  1315,  we  find  one  hun- 
dred and  ninety-two  representatives  from 
more  than  ninety  towns ;  at  those  of 
Madrid,  in  1391,  one  hundred  and  twenty- 
six  were  sent  from  fifty  towns ;  and  the 
latter  list  contains  names  of  several  pla- 
ces which  do  not  appear  in  the  former.J 
No  deputies  were  present  from  the  king- 
dom of  Leon  in  the  cortes  of  Alcala  in 
1348,  where,  among  many  important  en- 
actments, the  code  of  the  Siete  Partidas 
first  obtained  a  legislative  recognition.  § 


*  Ensayo  Hist.  Grit.,  p.  77.  Teoria  de  las  Cor- 
tes, t.  i.,  p.  66.  Marina  seems  to  have  somewhat 
changed  nis  opinion  since  the  publication  of  the 
former  work,  where  he  inclines  to  assert,  that  the 
commons  were  from  the  earliest  times  admitted 
into  the  legislature.  In  1188,  the  first  year  of  the 
reign  of  Alfonso  IX.,  we  find  positive  mention  of 
la  muchedumbre  de  las  cibdades  e  embiados  de 
cada  cibdat. 

f  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  p.  139. 

J  Idem,  p.  148.  Geddes  gives  a  list  of  one  hun- 
dred and  twenty-seven  deputies  from  forty-eight 
towns  to  the  cortes  at  Madrid  in  1390.— -Miscella- 
neous Tracts,  vol.  iii. 

§  Idem,  p.  154. 


CHAP.  IV. j 


6PAIN 


207 


We  find,  in  short,  a  good  deal  more  irreg 
ularity  than  during  the  same  period  in 
England,  where  the  number  of  electing 
boroughs  varied  pretty  considerably  at 
every  parliament.  Yet  the  cortes  of 
Castile  did  not  cease  to  be  a  numerous 
body  and  a  fair  representation  of  the  peo- 
ple till  the  reign  of  John  II.  The  first 
princes  of  the  house  of  Trastamare  had 
acted  in  all  points  with  the  advice  of  their 
cortes.  But  John  II.,  and  still  more  his 
son,  Henry  IV.,  being  conscious  of  their 
own  unpopularity,  did  not  venture  to  meet 
a  full  assembly  of  the  nation.  Their 
writs  were  directed  only  to  certain 
towns  ;  an  abuse  for  which  the  looseness 
of  preceding  usage  had  given  a  pretence.* 
It  must  be  owned  that  the  people  bore  it 
in  general  very  patiently.  Many  of  the 
corporate  towns,  empoverished  by  civil 
warfare  and  other  causes,  were  glad  to 
save  the  cost  of  defraying  their  deputies' 
expenses.  Thus,  by  the  year  1480,  only 
seventeen  cities  had  retained  privilege  of 
representation.  A  vote  was  afterward 
added  for  Granada,  and  three  more  in 
later  times  for  Palencia,  and  the  prov- 
inces of  Estremadura  and  Galicia.f  It 
might  have  been  easy,  perhaps,  to  redress 
this  grievance,  while  the  exclusion  was 
yet  fresh  and  recent.  But  the  privileged 
towns,  with  a  mean  and  preposterous 
selfishness,  although  their  zeal  for  liberty 
was  at  its  height,  could  not  endure  the 
only  means  of  effectually  securing  it,  by  a 
restoration  of  elective  franchises  to  their 
fellow-citizens.  The  cortes  of  1506  as- 
sert, with  one  of  those  bold  falsifications 
upon  which  a  popular  body  sometimes 
ventures,  that  "  it  is  established  by  some 
laws  and  by  immemorial  usage  that  eigh- 
teen cities  of  these  kingdoms  have  the 
right  of  sending  deputies  to  cortes,  and 
no  more  ;"  remonstrating  against  the  at- 
tempts made  by  some  other  towns  to  ob- 


*  Sepades  (says  John  II.  in  1442),  que  en  el 
ayuntamiento  que  yo  fice  en  la  noble  villa  de  Val- 

ladolid los  procuradores  de  ciertas  cibdades 

e  villas  de  mis  reynos  que  por  mi  mandado  fueron 
llamados.  This  language  is  repeated  as  to  subse- 
quent meetings,  p.  156. 

t  The  cities  which  retain  their  representation  in 
cortes,  if  the  present  tense  may  still  be  used  even 
for  these  ghosts  of  ancient  liberty  in  Spain,  are 
Burgos,  Toledo  (there  was  a  constant  dispute  for 
precedence  between  these  two),  Leon,  Granada, 
Cordova,  Murcia,  Jaen,  Zamora,  Toro,  Soria,  Val- 
ladolid,  Salamanca,  Segovia,  Avila,  Madrid,  Gua- 
dalaxara,  and  Cuenca.  The  representatives  of 
these  were  supposed  to  vote  not  only  for  their  im- 
mediate constituents,  but  for  other  adjacent  towns. 
Thus  Toro  voted  for  Palencia  and  the  kingdom  of 
Galicia  before  they  obtained  separate  votes  ;  Sala- 
manca for  most  of  Estremadura ;  Guadalaxara 
for  Siguenza  and  four  hundred  other  towns.— Teo- 
ria  de  las  Cortes,  p.  160,  268. 


tain  the  same  privilege,  which  they  re- 
quest may  not  be  conceded.  This  re- 
monstrance is  repeated  in  1512.* 

From  the  reign  of  Alfonso  XL,  who 
restrained  the  government  of  corporations 
to  an  oligarchy  of  magistrates,  the  right 
of  electing  members  of  cortes  was  con- 
fined to  the  ruling  body,  the  bailiffs  or 
regidores,  whose  number  seldom  ex- 
ceeded twenty-four,  and  whose  succes- 
sion was  kept  up  by  close  election 
among  themselves.!  The  people,  there- 
fore, had  no  direct  share  in  the  choice  of 
representatives.  Experience  proved,  as 
several  instances  in  these  pages  will 
show,  that  even  upon  this  narrow  basis 
the  deputies  of  Castile  were  not  deficient 
in  zeal  for  their  country  and  its  liberties. 
But  it  must  be  confessed  that  a  small 
body  of  electors  is  always  liable  to  cor- 
rupt influence  and  to  intimidation.  John 
II.  and  Henry  IV.  often  invaded  the  free- 
dom of  election  ;  the  latter  even  named 
some  of  the  deputies.!  Several  energet- 
ic remonstrances  were  made  in  cortes 
against  this  flagrant  grievance.  Laws 
were  enacted,  and  other  precautions  de- 
vised, to  secure  the  due  return  of  depu- 
ties. In  the  sixteenth  century,  the  evil 
of  course  was  aggravated.  Charles  and 
Philip  corrupted  the  members  by  bri- 
bery.§  Even  in  1573  the  cortes  are  bold 
enough  to  complain,  that  creatures  of 
government  were  sent  thither,  "  who  are 
always  held  for  suspected  by  the  other 
deputies,  and  cause  disagreement  among 
them."|| 

There  seems  to  be  a  considerable  ob- 
scurity about   the   constitution 
of  the  cortes,  so  far  as  relates 


to  the  two  higher  estates,  the  rai  nobility 
spiritual  and  temporal  nobil-  incortes- 
ity.  It  is  admitted,  that  down  to  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  and 
especially  before  the  introduction  of 
representatives  from  the  commons,  they 
were  summoned  in  considerable  num- 
bers. But  the  writer  to  whom  I  must 
almost  exclusively  refer  for  the  consti- 
tutional history  of  Castile  contends,  that, 
from  the  reign  of  Sancho  IV,,  they  took 
much  less  share,  and  retained  much  less 
influence,  in  the  deliberations  of  cortes.  ^f 
There  is  a  remarkable  protest  of  the 
Archbishop  of  Toledo  in  1295  against  the 
acts  done  in  cortes,  because  neither  he 
nor  the  other  prelates  had  been  admitted 
to  their  discussions,  nor  given  any  con- 
sent to  their  resolutions,  although  such 


*  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  p.  161. 
f  Idem,  p.  86,  197.  .  $  Idem,  p.  199. 

$  Idem,  p.  213.  |]  Idem,  p.  202. 

*K  Idem,  p.  67. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


consent  was  falsely  recited  in  the  laws 
enacted  therein.*  This  protestation  is 
at  least  a  testimony  to  the  constitutional 
rights  of  the  prelacy,  which  indeed  all 
the  early  history  of  Castile,  as  well  as 
the  analogy  of  other  governments,  con- 
spires to  demonstrate.  In  the  fourteenth 
and  fifteenth  centuries,  however,  they 
were  more  and  more  excluded.  None 
of  the  prelates  were  summoned  to  the 
cortes  of  1299  and  1301 ;  none  either  of 
the  prelates  or  nobles  to  those  of  1370 
and  1373,  of  1480  and  1505.  In  all  the 
latter  cases,  indeed,  such  members  of 
both  orders  as  happened  to  be  present  in 
the  court  attended  the  cortes  ;  a  fact 
which  seems  to  be  established  by  the 
language  of  the  statutes. f  Other  instan- 
ces of  a  similar  kind  may  be  adduced. 
Nevertheless,  the  more  usual  expression 
in  the  preamble  of  laws  reciting  those 
summoned  to,  and  present  at,  the  cortes, 
though  subject  to  considerable  variation, 
seems  to  imply  that  all  the  three  estates 
were,  at  least  nominally  and  according  to 
legitimate  forms,  constituent  members 
of  the  national  assembly.  And  a  chron- 
icle mentions,  under  the  year  1406,  the 
nobility  and  clergy  as  deliberating  separ- 
ately, and  with  some  difference  of  judg- 
ment, from  the  deputies  of  the  com- 
mons.:{:  A  theory,  indeed,  which  should 

*  Protestamos  que  desde  aquf  venimos  non  fue- 
mos  llamados  a  consejo,  ni  a  los  tratados  sobre 
los  fechos  del  reyno,  ni  sobre  las  otras  cosas  que 
hi  fueren  tractadas  et  fechas,  et  sennaladamente 
sobre  los  fechos  de  los  concejos  de  las  hormanda- 
des,  et  de  las  peticiones  que  fueron  fechas  de  su 
parte,  et  sobre  los  otorgamentos  que  les  ficieron,  et 
sobre  los  previlegios  que  por  esta  nazon  les  fueron 
otorgados ;  mas  ante  fuemos  ende  apartados  et  es- 
trannados  et  secados  expresarnente  nos  et  los  otros 
perlados  et  ricos  homes  et  los  fijosdalgo ;  et  non 
fue  hi  cosa  fecha  con  nuestro  consejo.  Qtrosi  pro- 
testarnos  por  razon  de  aquello  que  dice  en  los  pre- 
vilegios que  les  otorgaron,  que  fueren  los  perlados 
llamados,  et  que  eran  otorgados  de  consentimiento 
et  de  voluntad  dellos,  que  non  fuemos  hi  presentes 
ni  llamados  nin  fue  fecho  con  nuestra  voluntad,  nin 
consentiemos,  nin  consentimos  en  ellos,  &c.,p.  72. 

t  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  p.  74. 

j  T.  ii.,  p.  234.  Marina  is  influenced  by  a  preju- 
dice in  favour  of  the  abortive  Spanish  constitution 
of  1812,  which  excluded  the  temporal  and  spirit- 
ual aristocracy  from  a  place  in  the  legislature,  to 
imagine  a  similar  form  of  government  in  ancient 
times.  But  his  own  work  furnishes  abundant  rea- 
sons, if  I  am  not  mistaken,  to  modify  this  opinion 
very  essentially.  A  few  out  of  many  instances  may 
be  adduced  from  the  enacting  words  of  statutes, 
which  we  consider  in  England  as  good  evidences 
to  establish  a  constitutional  theory.  Sepades  que 
yo  hobei  mio  acuerdo  e  mio  consejo  con  mios  her- 
manos  e  los  arzobispos,  e  los  opisbos,  e  con  los  ri- 
cos homes  de  Castella,  e  de  Leon,  e  con  homes 
buenos  de  las  villas  de  Castella,  e  de  Leon,  que 
fueron  conmigo  en  Valladolit,  sobre  muchas  cosas, 
&c.  (Alfonso  X.  in  1258.)  Mandamos  enviar  lla- 
mar  por  cartas  del  rei  e  uuestras  a  los  infantes  e 


exclude  the  great  territorial  aristocracy 
from  their  place  in  cortes,  would  expose 
the  dignity  and  legislative  rights  of  that 
body  to  unfavourable  inferences.  But  it 
is  manifest,  that  the  king  exercised  very 
freely  a  prerogative  of  calling  or  omitting 
persons  of  both  the  higher  orders  at  his 
discretion.  The  bishops  were  numerous, 
and  many  of  their  sees  not  rich ;  while 
the  same  objections  of  inconvenience 
applied  perhaps  to  the  ricos  hombres,  but 
far  more  forcibly  to  the  lower  nobility, 
the  hijosdalgo  or  caballeros.  Castile 
never  adopted  the  institution  of  deputies 
from  this  order,  as  in  the  States  General 
of  France  and  some  other  countries ; 
much  less  that  liberal  system  of  landed 
representation,  which  forms  one  of  the 
most  admirable  peculiarities  in  our  own 
constitution.  It  will  be  seen  hereafter, 
that  spiritual,  and  even  temporal  peers, 
were  summoned  by  our  kings  with  much 
irregularity  ;  and  the  disordered  state  of 
Castile  through  almost  every  reign  was 
likely  to  prevent  the  establishment  of 
any  fixed  usage  in  this  and  most  other 
points. 

The  primary  and  most  essential  char- 
acteristic of  a  limited  monarchy  Right  of 
is,  that  money  can  only  be  levied  taxation, 
upon  the  people  through  the  consent  of 
their  representatives.  This  principle  was 
thoroughly  established  in  Castile  ;  and  the 
statutes  which  enforce  it,  the  remon- 
strances which  protest  against  its  viola- 
tion, bear  a  lively  analogy  to  correspond- 


perlados  e  ricos  homes  e  infanzones  e  caballeros  e 
homes  buenos  de  las  cibdades  e  de  las  villas  de 
los  reynos  de  Castilia  et  de  Toledo  e  de  Leon  e  de 
las  Estramaduras,  e  de  Gallicia  e  de  las  Asturias  e 
del  Andalusia.  (Writ  of  summons  to  cortes  of 
Burgos  in  1315.)  Con  acuerdo  de  los  perlados  e  de 
los  ricos  homes  e  procuradores  de  las  cibdades  e 
villas  e  logares  de  los  nuestros  reynos.  (Ordinan- 
ces of  Toro  in  1371).  Estando  hi  con  el  el  infante 
Don  Ferrando,  &c.,  e  otros  perlados  e  condes  e  ri- 
cos homes  e  otros  del  consejo  del  senor  rei,  e 
otros  caballeros  e  escuderos,  e  los  procuradores  de 
las  cibdades  e  villas  e  logares  de  sus  reynos.  (Cortes 
of  1391.)  Los  tres  estados  que  de  ben  venir  a  las 
cortes  e  ayuntamientos  segunt  se  debe  facer  &  es  de 
buena  costumbre  antigua  (Cortes  of  1393.)  This 
last  passage  is  apparently  conclusive  to  prove,  that 
three  estates,  the  superior  clergy,  the  nobility,  and 
the  commons,  were  essential  members  of  the  Le- 
gislature in  Castile,  as  they  were  in  France  and 
England ;  and  one  is  astonished  to  read  in  Marina 
that  no  faltaron  a  ninguna  de  las  formalidades  de 
derecho  los  monarcas  quo  no  tuvieron  por  oportu- 
no  llamar  a  cortes  para  semejantes  actos  ni  al  clero 
ni  a  la  nobleza  ni  a  las  personas  singulares  de  uno 
y  otro  estado,  t.  i.,  p.  69.  That  great  citizen,  Jovel- 
lanos,  appears  to  have  had  much  wiser  notions  of 
the  ancient  government  of  his  country,  as  well  as 
of  the  sort  of  reformation  which  she  wanted,  as 
we  may  infer  from  passages  in  his  Memoria  &  sus 
compatriotas,  Coruna,  1811,  quoted  by  Marina  for 
the  purpose  of  censure. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


ing  circumstances  in  the  history  of  ou 
constitution.  The  lands  of  the  nobility 
and  clergy  were,  I  believe,  always  ex 
empted  from  direct  taxation ;  an  immu- 
nity which  perhaps  rendered  the  attend- 
ance of  the  members  of  those  estates  in 
the  cortes  less  regular.  The  corporate 
districts  or  concejos,  which,  as  I  have  ob- 
served already,  differed  from  the  commu- 
nities of  France  and  England  by  possess- 
ing a  large  extent  of  territory,  subordinate 
to  the  principal  town,  were  bound  by  their 
charter  to  a  stipulated  annual  payment, 
the  price  of  their  franchises,  called  mo- 
neda  forera.*  Beyond  this  sum  nothing 
could  be  demanded  without  the  consent 
of  the  cortes.  Alfonso  VIII.,  in  1177,  ap- 
plied for  a  subsidy  towards  carrying  on 
the  siege  of  Cuenca.  Demands  of  money 
do  not  however  seem  to  have  been  very 
usual  before  the  prodigal  reign  of  Alfonso 
X.  That  prince  and  his  immediate  succes- 
sors were  not  much  inclined  to  respect 
the  rights  of  their  subjects  ;  but  they  en- 
countered a  steady  and  insuperable  re- 
sistance. Ferdinand  IV.,  in  1307,  prom- 
ises to  raise  no  money  beyond  his  legal 
and  customary  dues.  A  more  explicit 
law  was  enacted  by  Alfonso  XL  in  1328, 
who  bound  himself  not  to  exact  from  his 
people,  or  cause  them  to  pay  any  tax, 
either  partial  or  general,  not  hitherto  es- 
tablished by  law,  without  the  previous 
grant  of  all  the  deputies  convened  to  the 
cortes. f  This  abolition  of  illegal  impo- 
sitions was  several  times  confirmed  by 
the  same  prince.  The  cortes,  in  1393, 
having  made  a  grant  to  Henry  HI.,  an- 
nexed this  condition,  that  "  since  they 
had  granted  him  enough  for  his  present 
necessities,  and  even  to  lay  up  a  part  for 
a  future  exigency,  he  should  swear  be- 
fore one  of  the  archbishops  not  to  take  or 
demand  any  money,  service,  or  loan,  or 
any  thing  else  of  the  cities  and  towns, 
nor  of  individuals  belonging  to  them,  on 
any  pretence  of  necessity,  until  the  three 
estates  of  the  kingdom  should  first  be  duly 
summoned  and  assembled  in  cortes  ac- 
cording to  ancient  usage.  And  if  any 
such  letters  requiring  money  have  been 
written,  that  they  shall  be  obeyed,  and  not 


*  Marina,  Ensayo  Hist.  Crit.,  cap.  158.  Teoria 
de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  387.  This  is  expressed 
in  one  of  their  fueros,  or  charters :  Liberi  et 
ingenui  semper  maneatis,  reddendo  mini  et  suc- 
cessoribus  meis  in  unoquoque  anno  in  die  Pente- 
costes  de  unaquaque  domo  12  denarios  ;  et,  nisi 
cum  bona  voluntate  vestra  feceritis,  nullum  alium 
servitium  faciatis. 

t  De  los  con  echar  nin  mandar  pagar  pecho  de- 
saforado  ninguno,  especial  nin  general,  en  toda  mi 
tierra,  sin  ser  llamados  primeramente  a  cortes,  e 
otorgado  por  todos  los  procuradores  que  hi  ve- 
nieren.,p.  388. 
O 


complied  with."*  His  son,  John  II.,  hav- 
ing violated  this  constitutional  privilege 
on  the  allegation  of  a  pressing  necessity, 
the  cortes,  in  1420,  presented  a  long  re- 
monstrance, couched,  in  very  respectful, 
but  equally  firm  language,  wherein  they 
assert,  "  the  good  custom  founded  in  rea- 
son and  in  justice,  that  the  cities  and 
towns  of  your  kingdoms  shall  not  be  com- 
pelled to  pay  taxes,  or  requisitions,  or  oth- 
er new  tribute,  unless  your  highness  order 
it  by  advice  and  with  the  grant  of  the 
said  cities  and  towns,  and  of  their  depu- 
ties for  them."  And  they  express  their 
apprehension  lest  this  right  should  be  in- 
fringed, because,  as  they  say,  "  there  re- 
mains no  other  privilege  or  liberty  which 
can  be  profitable  to  subjects  if  this  be 
shaken."!  The  king  gave  them  as  full 
satisfaction  as  they  desired,  that  his  en- 
croachment should  not  be  drawn  into 
precedent.  Some  fresh  abuses,  during 
the  unfortunate  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  pro- 
duced another  declaration  in  equally  ex- 
plicit language  ;  forming  part  of  the  sen- 
tence awarded  by  the  arbitrators  to  whom 
the  differences  between  the  king  and  his 
people  had  been  referred  at  Medina  del 
Campo  in  1465.  J  The  Catholic  kings,  as 
they  are  eminently  called,  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella,  never  violated  this  part  of  the 
constitution;  nor  did  even  Charles  I.,  al- 
though sometimes  refused  money  by  the 
cortes,  attempt  to  exact  it  without  their 
consent.^  In  the  Recopilacion,  or  code 
of  Castilian  law,  published  by  Philip  II., 


Obedecidas  e  non  cumplidas.  This  expression 
occurs  frequently  in  provisions  made  against  illegal 
acts  of  the  crown  ;  and  is  characteristic  of  the  sin- 
gular respect  with  which  the  Spaniards  always 
thought  it  right  to  treat  their  sovereign,  while  they 
were  resisting  the  abuses  of  his  authority. 

t  La  buena  costumbre  e  possession  fundada  en 
razon  e  en  justicia  que  las  cibdades  e  villas  de 
vuestros  reinos  tenian  de  no  ser  mandado  coger 
monedas  e  pedidos  nin  otro  tribute  nuevo  alguno 
en  los  vuestros  reinos  sin  que  la  vuestra  senoria  lo 
aga  e  ordenede  consejo  e  con  otorgamiento  de  las 
cibdades  e  villas  de  los  vuestros  reinos  &  de  sus 
procuradores  en  su  nombre  *  *  *  *  *  no  queda 
otro  previlegio  ni  libertad  de  que  los  subditos  pue- 
dan  gozar  ni  aprovechar  quebrantado  el  sobre 
dicho,  t.  iii.,  p.  30. 

J  Declaramos  e  ordenamos,  que  el  dicho  senor 
rei  nin  los  otros  reyes  que  despues  del  fueren  non 
echan  nin  repartan  nin  pidan  pedidos  nin  monedas 
en  sus  reynos,  salvo  por  gran  necessidad,  e  seyendo 
primero  accordado  con  los  perlados  e  grandes  de 
sus  reynos,  econ  los  otros  que  a  la  sazon  residieren 
en  su  consejo,  e  seyendo  para  ello  llamados  los 
rocuradores  de  las  cibdades  e  villas  de  sus  reynos, 
tue  para  las  tales  cosas  se  suelen  e  acostumbran 
lamar  e  seyendo  per  los  dichos  procuradores  otor- 
gado el  dicho  pedimento  e  monedas,  t.  ii.,  p.  391. 

<5»  Marina  has  published  two  letters  from  Charles 
;o  the  city  of  Toledo,  in  1542  and  1548,  requesting 
hem  to  instruct  their  deputies  to  consent  t,o  a  fur- 
her  grant  of  money,  Which  they  had  wfue'ed  to  do 


210 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


LCHAP.  IV, 


we  read  a  positive  declaration  against  ar- 
bitrary imposition  of  taxes,  which  re- 
mained unaltered  on  the  face  of  the  stat- 
ute-book till  the  present  age.*  The  law 
was  indeed  frequently  broken  by  Philip 
II.  ;  but  the  cortes,  who  retained  through- 
out the  sixteenth  century  a  degree  of 
steadiness  and  courage  truly  admirable, 
when  we  consider  their  political  weak- 
ness, did  not  cease  to  remonstrate  with 
that  suspicious  tyrant,  and  recorded  their 
unavailing  appeal  to  the  law  of  Alfonso 
XL,  "  so  ancient  and  just,  and  which  so 
long  time  has  been  used  and  observed."! 
The  free  assent  of  the  people  by  their 
control  of  representatives  to  grants  of 
cortes  over  money  was  by  no  means  a 
expenditure.  mere  matter  of  form.  It  was 
connected  with  other  essential  rights,  in- 
dispensable to  its  effectual  exercise ; 
those  of  examining  public  accounts  and 
checking  the  expenditure.  The  cortes, 
in  the  best  times  at  least,  were  careful  to 
grant  no  money  until  they  were  assured 
that  what  had  been  already  levied  on 
their  constituents  had  been  properly  em- 
ployed.! They  refused  a  subsidy  in  1390, 
because  they  had  already  given  so  much, 
and  "  not  knowing  how  so  great  a  sum 
had  been  expended,  it  would  be  a  great 
dishonour  and  mischief  to  promise  any 
more."  In  1406  they  stood  out  a  long 
time,  and  at  length  gave  only  half  of 
what  was  demanded. §  Charles  I.  at- 
tempted to  obtain  money,  in  1527,  from 
the  nobility  as  well  as  commons.  But 
the  former  protested,  that  "  their  obliga- 
tion was  to  follow  the  king  in  war, 
wherefore  to  contribute  money  was  to- 


•without  leave  of  their  constituents. — Teoria  de  las 
Cortes,  t.  iii.,  p.  180,  187. 

*  Idem,  t.  ii.,  p.  393. 

t  En  las  cortes  de  ano  de  70  y  en  las  de  76  pedi- 
mos  a  v.  m.  fuese  servide  de  no  poner  nuevos  im- 
puestos,  rentas,  pechos,  ni  derechos  ni  otros  tribu- 
tes particulares  ni  generates  sin  junta  del  reyno  en 
cortes,  como  esta  dispuerto  por  lei  del  senor  rei  Don 
Alonso  y  se  signified  a  v.  m.  el  dano  grande  que 
con  las  nuevas  rentas  habia  rescibido  el  reino,  su- 
plicando  a  v.m.  fuese  servido  de  mandarle  aliviar  y 
descargar,  y  que  en  10-  de  adelante  se  les  hiciesse 
merced  deguardar  las  dichas  leyes  reales  y  que  no 
se  impusiessen  nuevas  rentas  sin  su  asistencia ; 
piles  podria  v.  m.  estar  satisfecho  de  que  el  reino 
sirve  en  las  cosas  necessarias  con  toda  lealtad  y 
hasta  ahora  no  se  ha  proveido  lo  susodicho,'  y  el 
reino  por  la  obligacion  que  tiene  a  pedir  a  v.  m. 
guarde  la  dicha  lei,  y  que  no  solamente  han  cessado 
Fas  necessidades  de  los  subditos  y  naturales  de 
v.  m.  pero  antes  crecen  de  cada  dia  :  vuelve  a  stt- 
plicar  a  v.  m.  sea  servido  concederle  lo  susodicho, 
y  que  las  nuevas  rentas,  pechos  y  derechos  se 
quiten,  y  que  de  aquf  adelante  se  guarde  la  dicha 
lei  del  senor  rei  don  Alonso,  como  tan  antigua  y 
justa  y  que  tanto  tiempo  se  us6  y  guard6,  p.  395. 
This  petition  was  in  1579. 

t  Marina,  t.  ii.,  p.  404, 406.         $  Ibid.,  p.  409. 


tally  against  their  privilege,  and  for  that 
reason  they  could  not  acquiesce  in  his 
majesty's  request."*  The  commons  also 
refused  upon  this  occasion.  In  1538,  on 
a  similar  proposition,  the  superior  and 
lower  nobility  (los  grandes  y  caballeros) 
"begged  with  all  humility  that  they 
might  never  hear  any  more  of  that  mat- 
ter."! 

The  contributions  granted  by  cortes 
were  assessed  and  collected  by  respect- 
able individuals  (hombres  buenos)  of  the 
several  towns  and, villages. J  This  repar- 
tition, as  the  French  call  it,  of  direct  tax- 
es, is  a  matter  of  the  highest  importance 
in  those  countries  where  they  are  impo- 
sed by  means  of  a  gross  assessment  on  a 
district.  The  produce  was  paid  to  the 
royal  council.  It  could  not  be  applied  to 
any  other  purpose  than  that  to  which  the 
tax  had  been  appropriated.  Thus  the 
cortes  of  Segovia,  in  1407,  granted  a  sub- 
sidy for  the  war  against  Granada,  on  con- 
dition "  that  it  should  not  be  laid  out  on 
any  other  service  except  this  war ;"  which 
they  requested  the  queen  and  Ferdinand, 
both  regents  in  John  II. 's  minority,  to 
confirm  by  oath.  Part,  however,  of  the 
money  remained  unexpended  ;  Ferdinand 
wished  to  apply  it  to  his  own  object  of 
procuring  the  crown  of  Aragon ;  but  the 
queen  first  obtained  not  only  a  release 
from  her  oath  by  the  pope,  but  the  con- 
sent of  the  cortes.  They  continued  ta 
insist  upon  this  appropriation,  though  in- 
effectually, under  the  reign  of  Charles  I.<^ 

The  cortes  did  not  consider  it  beyond 
the  line  of  their  duty,  notwithstanding  the 
respectful  manner  in  which  they  always 
addressed  the  sovereign,  to  remonstrate 
against  profuse  expenditure  even  in  his 
own  household.  They  told  Alfonso  X., 
in  1258,  in  the  homely  style  of  that  age, 
that  they  thought  it  fitting  that  the  king 
and  his  wife  should  eat  at  the  rate  of  a 
hundred  and  fifty  maravedis  a  day,  and  no 
more  ;  and  that  the  king  should  order  his 
attendants  to  eat  more  moderately  than 
they  did.  ||  They  remonstrated  more  for- 
cibly against  the  prodigality  of  John  II. 
Even  in  1559,  they  spoke  with  an  un- 
daunted Castilian  spirit  to  Philip  II. ; 
"  Sir,  the  expenses  of  your  royal  estab- 
lishment and  household  are  much  increas- 
ed j  and  we  conceive  it  would  much  re- 
dound to  the  good  of  these  kingdomsr 
that  your  majesty  should  direct  them  to 


*  Pero  que  contribuir  a  la  guerra  con  ciertas 
sumas  era  totalmente  opuesto  a  sus  previlegios,  & 
asi  que  no  podrian  acomodarse  a  lo  que  s.  m.  de 
seaba,  p.  411. 

t  Marina,  t.  ii.,  p.  411.  t  Ibid.,  p.  398. 

$  Ibid.,  p.  412.  |l  Ibid.,  p.  417. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


211 


be  lowered,  both  as  a  relief  to  your  wants, 
and  that  all  the  great  men  and  other  sub- 
jects of  your  majesty  may  take  example 
therefrom,  to  restrain  the  great  disorder 
and  excess  they  commit  in  that  respect."* 

The  forms  of  a  Castilian  cortes  were 
Forms  of  analogous  to  those  of  an  English 
the  cortes.  parliament  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. They  were  summoned  by  a  writ 
almost  exactly  coincident  in  expression 
with  that  in  use  among  us.f  The  session 
was  opened  by  a  speech  from  the  chan- 
cellor or  other  chief  officer  of  the  court. 
The  deputies  were  invited  to  consider 
certain  special  business,  and  commonly 
to  grant  money.  J  After  the  principal  af- 
fairs were  despatched,  they  conferred  to- 
gether, and  having  examined  the  instruc- 
tions of  their  respective  constituents, 
drew  up  a  schedule  of  petitions.  These 
were  duly  answered  one  by  one,  and  from 
the  petition  and  answer,  if  favourable, 
laws  were  afterward  drawn  up,  where  the 
matter  required  a  new  law,  or  promises 
of  redress  were  given,  if  the  petition  re- 
lated to  an  abuse  or  grievance.  In  the 
struggling  condition  of  Spanish  liberty 
under  Charles  I.,  the  crown  began  to  neg- 
lect answering  the  petitions  of  cortes,  or 
to  use  unsatisfactory  generalities  of  ex- 
pression. This  gave  rise  to  many  remon- 
strances. The  deputies  insisted,  in  1523, 
on  having  answers  before  they  granted 
money.  They  repeated  the  same  conten- 
tion in  1525,  and  obtained  a  general  law, 
inserted  in  the  Recopilacion,  enacting 
that  the  king  should  answer  all  their  pe- 
titions before  he  dissolved  the  assembly.^ 
This,  however,  was  disregarded  as  before ; 
but  the  cortes,  whose  intrepid  honesty, 
under  Philip  II.  so  often  attracts  our  ad- 
miration, continued,  as  late  as  1586,  to 
appeal  to  the  written  statute,  and  lament 
its  violation.  || 

According  to  the  ancient  fundamental 
Right  of  constitution  of  Castile,  the  king 
cones  m  did  not  legislate  for  his  subjects 
a>  without  their  consent.  The  code 
of  the  Visigoths,  called  in  Spain  the  Fuero 
Jusgo,  was  enacted  in  public  councils,  as 
were  also  the  laws  of  the  early  kings  of 
Leon,TT  which  appears  by  the  reciting 

*  Senhor,  los  gastos  de  vuestro  real  estado  y 
mesa  son  muy  crescidos,  y  entendemos  que  con- 
vernia  mucho  al  bien  de  estos  reinos  que  v.  m.  los 
mandasse  moderar  asf  para  algun  remedio  de  sus 
necessidades  como  para  que  de  v.  m.  tomen  egem- 

8lo  totos  los  grandes  y  caballeros  y  otros  subditos 
e  v.  m.  en  la  gran  desorden  y  excesses  que  hacen 
en  las  cosas  sobredichas. — Marina,  p.  437. 
t  Ibid.,  t.  i.,  p.  175  ;  t.  iii.,  p.  103. 
t  Ibid.,  p.  278.  t)  Ibid.,  p.  301. 

I!  Ibid.,  p.  288-304. 

f  Ibid.,  t.  ii.,  p.  202.    The  acts  of  the  cortes 
O  2 


words  of  their  preambles.  This  consent 
was  originally  given  only  by  the  higher 
estates,  who  might  be  considered,  in  a 
large  sense,  as  representing  the  nation, 
though  not  chosen  by  it;  but  from  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century,  by  the  elect- 
ed deputies  of  the  commons  in  cortes. 
The  laws  of  Alfonso  X.,  in  1258,  those  of 
the  same  prince  in  1274,  and  many  oth- 
ers in  subsequent  times,  are  declared  to 
be  made  with  the  consent  (con  acuerdo) 
of  the  several  orders  of  the  kingdom. 
More  commonly,  indeed,  the  preamble  of 
Castilian  statutes  only  recites  their  ad- 
vice (consejo) ;  but  I  do  not  know  that  any 
stress  is  to  be  laid  on  this  circumstance. 
The  laws  of  the  Siete  Partidas,  com- 
piled by  Alfonso  X.,  did  not  obtain  any 
direct  sanction  till  the  famous  cortes  of 
Alcala,  in  1348,  when  they  were  confirm- 
ed along  with  several  others,  forming  al- 
together the  basis  of  the  statute  law  of 
Spain.*  Whether  they  were  in  fact  re- 
ceived before  that  time,  has  been  a  mat- 
ter controverted  among  Spanish  antiqua- 
ries ;  and  upon  the  question  of  their  legal 
validity  at  the  time  of  their  promulgation, 
depends  an  important  point  in  Castilian 
history,  the  disputed  right  of  succession 
between  Sancho  IV.  and  the  infants  of  La 
Cerda;  the  former  claiming  under  the  an- 
cient customary  law,  the  latter  under  the 
new  dispositions  of  the  Siete  Partidas. 
If  the  king  could  not  legally  change  the 
established  laws  without  consent  of  his 
cortes,  as  seems  most  probable,  the  right 
of  representative  succession  did  not  ex- 
ist in  favour  of  his  grandchildren,  and 
Sancho  IV.  cannot  be  considered  as  an 
usurper. 

It  appears  upon  the  whole  to  have  been 
a  constitutional  principle,  that  laws  could 
neither  be  made  nor  annulled  except  in 
cortes.  In  1506,  this  is  claimed  by  the 
deputies  as  an  established  right.f  John 


of  Leon  hi  1020  run  thus :  omnes  pontifices  et  ab- 
bates  et  optimates  regni  Hispaniae  jussu  ipsius  re- 
gis  talia  decretadecrevimusquae  firmiter  teneantur 
futuris  temporibus.  So  those  of  Salamanca  in 
1178  :  Ego  rex  Fernandus  inter  caetera  quae  cum 
episcopis  et  abbatibus  regni  nostri  et  quamplurimis 
aliis  religiosis,  cum  cornitibus  terrarum  et  principi- 
bus  et  rectonbus  provincianim,  toto  posse  tenenda 
statuimus  apud  Salamancam. 

*  Ensayo  Hist.  Crit.,  p.  353.  Teoriade  las  Cor- 
tes,  t.  ii.,  p.  77.  Marina  seems  to  have  changed  his 
opinion  between  the  publication  of  these  two  works, 
in  the  former  of  which  he  contends  for  the  previous 
authority  of  the  Siete  Partidas,  and  in  favour  of 
the  infants  of  La  Cerda. 

t  Los  reyes  establicieron  que  cuando  habiessen 
de  hacer  leyes,  para  que  fuessen  provechosas  a 
sus  reynos  y  cada  provincias  fuesen  proveidas,  se 
llamasen  cortes  y  procuradores  que  entendiesen  en 
ellas  y  por  esto  se  establecio  lei  que  nose  biciesen 


212 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


the  First  had  long  before  admitted,  that 
what  was  done  by  cortes  and  general  as- 
semblies could  not  be  undone  by  letters 
missive,  but  by  such  cortes  and  assem- 
blies alone.*  For  the  kings  of  Castile 
had  adopted  the  English  practice,  of  dis- 
pensing with  statutes  by  a  non  obstante 
clause  in  their  grants.  But  the  cortes 
remonstrated  more  steadily  against  this 
abuse  than  our  own  parliament,  who  suf- 
fered it  to  remain  in  a  certain  degree  till 
the  revolution.  It  was  several  times  en- 
acted upon  their  petition,  especially  by 
an  explicit  statute  of  Henry  II.,  that 
grants  and  letters  patent  dispensing  with 
statutes  should  not  be  obeyed. f  Never- 
theless John  II.,  trusting  to  force  or  the 
servility  of  the  judges,  had  the  assurance 
to  dispense  explicitly  with  this  very  law.J 
The  cortes  of  Valladolid,  in  1442,  obtain- 
ed fresh  promises  and  enactments  against 
such  an  abuse.  Philip  I.  and  Charles  I. 
began  to  legislate  without  asking  the 
consent  of  cortes  ;  this  grew  much  worse 
under  Philip  II.,  and  reached  its  height 
under  his  successors,  who  entirely  abol- 
ished all  constitutional  privileges. §  In 
1555,  we  find  a  petition  that  laws  made 
in  cortes  should  be  revoked  nowhere  else. 
The  reply  was  such  as  became  that  age : 
"  To  this  we  answer,  that  we  shall  do 
what  best  suits  our  government."  But 
even  in  1619,  and  still  afterward,  the  pa- 
triot representatives  of  Castile  contin- 
ued to  lift  an  unavailing  voice  against  il- 
legal ordinances,  though  in  the  form  of 
very  humble  petition ;  perhaps  the  latest 
testimonies  to  the  expiring  liberties  of 
their  country.  ||  The  denial  of  exclusive 
legislative  authority  to  the  crown  must, 
however,  be  understood  to  admit  the  le- 
gality of  particular  ordinances,  designed 
to  strengthen  the  king's  executive  gov- 
ernment, ^f  These,  no  doubt,  like  the  roy- 
al proclamations  in  England,  extended 
sometimes  very  far,  and  subjected  the 
people  to  a  sort  of  arbitrary  coercion 
much  beyond  what  our  enlightened  no- 
tions of  freedom  would  consider  as  rec- 
oncileable  to  it.  But  in  the  middle  ages, 
such  temporary  commands  and  prohibi- 
tions were  not  reckoned  strictly  legisla- 

ni  renovasen  leyes  sino  en  cortes. — Teoria  de  las 
Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  218. 

*  Lo  que  es  fecho  por  cortes  e  por  ayuntamien- 
tos  que  non  se  pueda  disfacer  por  las  tales  cartas, 
salvo  por  ayuntamientos  6  cortes,  p.  215. 

t  Idem,  p.  215.        J  Idem,  p.  216  ;  t.  iii.,  p.  40. 

$  Idem,  t.  ii.,  p.  218. 

||  Ha  suplicado  el  reino  a  v.  m.  no  se  promulguen 
nuevas  leyes,  ni  en  todo  ni  en  parte  las  antiguas  se 
alteren  sin  que  sea  por  cortes  . . . .  y  por  ser  de  tan- 
ta  importancia  vuelve  el  reino  a  suplicarlo  humil- 
mente  av.  m.,  p.  220. 

^  Idem,  p.  207. 


tive,  and  passed,  perhaps  rightly,  for  in- 
evitable consequences  of  a  scanty  code, 
and  short  sessions  of  the  national  council. 

The  kings  were  obliged  to  swear  to  the 
observance  of  laws  enacted  in  cortes,  be- 
sides their  general  coronation  oath  to 
keep  the  laws  and  preserve  the  liberties 
of  their  people.  Of  this  we  find  several 
instances  from  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century ;  and  the  practice  contin- 
ued till  the  time  of  John  II.,  who,  in  1433, 
on  being  requested  to  swear  to  the  laws 
then  enacted,  answered,  that  he  intended 
to  maintain  them,  and  consequently  no 
oath  was  necessary ;  an  evasion,  in  which 
the  cortes  seem  unaccountably  to  have 
acquiesced.*  The  guardians  of  Alfonso 
XL  not  only  swore  to  observe  all  that 
had  been  agreed  on  at  Burgos  in  1315, 
but  consented  that,  if  any  one  of  them 
did  not  keep  his  oath,  the  people  should 
no  longer  be  obliged  to  regard  or  obey 
him  as  regent. f 

It  was  customary  to  assemble  the  cor- 
tes of  Castile  for  many  purposes,  Other 
besides  those  of  granting  money  rights 
and  concurring  in  legislation.  They  J^rtlehse 
were  summoned  in  every  reign  to 
acknowledge  and  confirm  the  succession 
of  the  heir  apparent ;  and,  upon  his  acces- 
sion, to  swear  allegiance.;};  These  acts 
were  however  little  more  than  formal, 
and  accordingly  have  been  preserved  for 
the  sake  of  parade,  after  all  the  real  dig- 
nity of  the  cortes  was  annihilated.  In  the 
fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries,  they 
claimed  and  exercised  far  more  ample 
powers  than  our  own  parliament  ever 
enjoyed.  They  assumed  the  right,  when 
questions  of  regency  occurred,  to  limit 
the  prerogative,  as  well  as  to  designate 
the  persons  who  were  to  use  it.$  And 
the  frequent  minorities  of  Castilian  kings, 
which  were  unfavourable  enough  to  tran- 
quillity and  subordination,  served  to  con- 
firm these  parliamentary  privileges.  The 
cortes  were  usually  consulted  upon  all 
material  business.  A  law  of  Alfonso  XL , 
in  1328,  printed  in  the  Recopilacion,  or 
code  published  by  Philip  II.,  declares, 
"  Since,  in  the  arduous  affairs  of  our  king- 
dom, the  counsel  of  our  natural  subjects 
is  necessary,  especially  of  the  deputies 
from  our  cities  and  towns,  therefore  we 
ordain  and  command  that  on  such  great 
occasions  the  cortes  shall  be  assembled, 
and  counsel  shall  be  taken  of  the  three 
estates  of  our  kingdoms,  as  the  kings  our 
forefathers  have  been  used  to  do."||  A 
cortes  of  John  II.,  in  1419,  claimed  this 


*  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  i.,  p.  306. 

f  Id.,  t.  iii.,  p.  62.      J  Id.,  t.  i.,  p.  33  ;  t.ii.,  p.  24. 

^  Id.,  p.  230.  ||Id.,  t.i.,  p.  31. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


213 


right  of  being  consulted  in  all  matters  of 
importance,  with  a  warm  remonstrance 
against  the  alleged  violation  of  so  whole- 
some a  law  by  the  reigning  prince  ;  who 
answered  that,  in  weighty  matters,  he  had 
acted,  and  would  continue  to  act,  in  con- 
formity to  it.*  What  should  be  intended 
by  great  and  weighty  affairs,  might  be 
not  at  all  agreed  upon  by  the  two  parties  ; 
to  each  of  whose  interpretations  these 
words  gave  pretty  full  scope.  However, 
the  current  usage  of  the  monarchy  cer- 
tainly permitted  much  authority  in  public 
deliberations  to  the  cortes.  Among  other 
instances,  which  indeed  will  continually 
be  found  in  the  common  civil  histories, 
the  cortes  of  Orcano,in  1469,  remonstrate 
with  Henry  IV.  for  allying  himself  with 
England  rather  than  France,  and  give,  as 
the  first  reason  of  complaint,  that,  "  ac- 
cording to  the  laws  of  your  kingdom, 
when  the  kings  have  any  thing  of  great 
importance  in  hand,  they  ought  not  to 
undertake  it  without  advice  and  knowl- 
edge of  the  chief  towns  and  cities  of  your 
kingdom."!  This  privilege  of  general 
interference  was  asserted,  like  other  an- 
cient rights,  under  Charles,  whom  they 
strongly  urged,  in  1548,  not  to  permit  his 
son  Philip  to  depart  out  of  the  realm. J 
It  is  hardly  necessary  to  observe,  that  in 
such  times  they  had  little  chance  of  be- 
ing regarded. 

The  kings  of  Leon  and  Castile  acted, 
Council  of  during  the  interval  of  the  cortes, 
Castile,  ^y  ^e  advice  of  a  smaller  coun- 
cil, answering,  as  it  seems,  almost  ex- 
actly to  the  king's  ordinary  council  in 
England.  In  early  ages,  before  the  in- 
troduction  of  the  commons,  it  is  some- 
times difficult  to  distinguish  this  body 
from  the  general  council  of  the  nation ; 
being  composed,  in  fact,  of  the  same  class 
of  persons,  though  in  smaller  numbers. 
A  similar  difficulty  applies  to  the  English 
history.  The  nature  of  their  proceedings 
seems  best  to  ascertain  the  distinction. 
All  executive  acts,  including  those  ordi- 
nances which  may  appear  rather  of  a  le- 
gislative nature,  all  grants  and  charters, 
are  declared  to  be  with  the  assent  of  the 
court  (curia),  or  of  the  magnats  of  the 
palace,  or  of  the  chiefs  or  nobles. $  This 
privy  council  was  an  essential  part  of  all 


*  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  i.,  p.  34. 

t  Porque,  segunt  leyes  de  nuestros  reynos,  cu- 
nndo  los  reyes  ban  de  facer  alguna  cosa  de  gran 
importancia,  non  lo  deben  facer  sin  consejo  e  safa- 
ri uria  de  las  cibdades  e  villas  principales  devuestros 
reynos.— Idem,  t.  ii.,  p.  241. 

J  Idem,  t.  iii.,  p.  183. 

<$>  Cum  assensu  magnatum  palatii :  Cum  consilio 
curiae  meae  :  Cum  consilio  et  beneplacito  omnium 
principium  meorum,  nullo  contradicente  nee  re- 
clamente,  p.  325. 


European  monarchies.  And,  though  the 
sovereign  might  be  considered  as  free  to 
call  in  the  advice  of  whomsoever  he 
pleased,  yet,  in  fact,  the  princes  of  the 
blood  and  most  powerful  nobility  had  an- 
ciently a  constitutional  right  to  be  mem- 
bers of  such  a  council ;  so  that  it  formed 
a  very  material  check  upon  his  personal 
authority. 

The  council  under  went  several  changes, 
in  progress  of  time,  which  it  is  not  ne- 
cessary to  enumerate.  It  was  justly 
deemed  an  important  member  of  the  con- 
stitution, and  the  cortes  showed  a  lauda- 
ble anxiety  to  procure  its  composition  in 
such  a  manner  as  to  form  a  guarantee 
for  the  due  execution  of  laws  after  their 
own  dissolution.  Several  times,  espe- 
cially in  minorities,  they  even  named  its 
members,  or  a  part  of  them ;  and  in  the 
reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  John  II.,  they 
obtained  the  privilege  of  adding  a  perma- 
nent deputation,  consisting  of  four  per- 
sons, elected  out  of  their  own  body,  an- 
nexed, as  it  were,  to  the  council,  who 
were  to  continue  at  the  court  during  the 
interval  of  cortes,  and  watch  over  the  due 
observance  of  the  laws.*  This  deputation 
continued,  as  an  empty  formality,  in  the 
sixteenth  century.  In  the  council,  the 
king  was  bound  to  sit  personally  three 
days  in  the  week.  Their  business,  which 
included  the  whole  executive  govern- 
ment, was  distributed  with  considerable 
accuracy  into  what  might  be  despatched 
by  the  council  alone,  under  their  own 
seals  and  signatures,  and  what  required 
the  royal  seal.f  The  consent  of  this 
body  was  necessary  for  almost  every  act 
of  the  crown,  for  pensions  or  grants  of 
money,  ecclesiastical  and  political  pro- 
motions, and  for  charters  of  pardon,  the 
easy  concession  of  which  was  a  great 
encouragement  to  the  homicides  so  usual 
in  those  ages,  and  was  restrained  by 
some  of  our  own  laws.|  But  the  coun- 
cil did  not  exercise  any  judicial  authority, 
if  we  may  believe  the  well-informed  au- 
thor from  whom  I  have  learned  these 
particulars ;  unlike,  in  this,  to  the  ordi- 
nary council  of  the  kings  of  England.  It 
was  not  until  the  days  of  Ferdinand  and 
Isabella  that  this,  among  other  innova- 
tions, was  introduced. $ 

Civil  and  criminal  justice  was  adminis- 
tered, in  the  first  instance,  by  the  Aaminis- 
alcaldes,  or  municipal  judges  of  tration  of 
towns;  elected  within  themselves  Justice- 
originally  by  the  community  at  large,  but 
in  subsequent  times  by  the  governing 

*  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  346. 

t  Idem,  p.  354.  t  Idem,  p.  360,  362,  372. 

f)  Idem,  p.  375,  379. 


214 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


body.  In  other  places,  a  lord  possessed 
the  right  of  jurisdiction  by  grant  from  the 
crown,  not,  what  we  find  in  countries 
where  the  feudal  system  was  more  thor- 
oughly established,  as  incident  to  his 
own  territorial  superiority.  The  kings, 
however,  began  in  the  thirteenth  century 
to  appoint  judges  of  their  own,  called  cor- 
regidores,  a  name  which  seems  to  express 
concurrent  jurisdiction  with  regidores,  or 
ordinary  magistrates.*  The  cortes  fre- 
quently remonstrated  against  this  en- 
croachment. Alfonso  XI.  consented  to 
withdraw  his  judges  from  all  corpora- 
tions by  which  he  had  not  been  requested 
to  appoint  them.f  Some  attempts  to  in- 
terfere with  the  municipal  authorities  of 
Toledo  produced  serious  disturbances 
under  Henry  III.  and  John  H.J  Even 
where  the  king  appointed  magistrates  at 
a  city's  request,  he  was  bound  to  select 
them  from  among  the  citizens. $  From 
this  immediate  jurisdiction  an  appeal  lay 
to  the  adelantado,  or  governor  of  the 
province,  and  from  thence  to  the  tribunal 
of  royal  alcaldes.  ||  The  latter,  however, 
could  not  take  cognizance  of  any  cause 
depending  before  the  ordinary  judges ;  a 
contrast  to  the  practice  of  Aragon,  where 
the  justiciary's  right  of  evocation  (juris 
firm  a)  was  considered  as  a  principal  safe- 
guard of  public  liberty.^  As  a  court  of 
appeal,  the  royal  alcaldes  had  the  su- 
preme jurisdiction.  The  king  could  only 
cause  their  sentence  to  be  revised,  but 
neither  alter  nor  revoke  it.**  They  have 
continued  to  the  present  day  as  a  criminal 
tribunal ;  but  civil  appeals  were  trans- 
ferred by  the  ordinances  of  Toro  in  1371 
to  a  new  court,  styled  the  king's  audience, 
which,  though  deprived  under  Ferdinand 
and  his  successors  of  part  of  its  jurisdic- 
tion, still  remains  one  of  the  principal  ju- 
dicatures in  Castile. ft 

No  people  in  a  half-civilized  state  of 
violent  ac-  society  have  a  full  practical  se- 
tions  of  curity  against  particular  acts  of 
some  kings  arbitrary  power.  They  were 
tlle'  more  common,  perhaps,  in  Cas- 
tile than  in  any  other  European  monarchy 
which  professed  to  be  free.  Laws  in- 
deed were  not  wanting  to  protect  men's 
lives  and  liberties,  as  well  as  their  prop- 
erties. Ferdinand  IV.,  in  1299,  agreed  to 
a  petition  that  "justice  shall  be  executed 

*  Alfonso  X-  says  ;  Ningun  ome  sea  osado  juz- 
gar  pleytos,  se  no  fuere  alcalde  puesto  por  el  rey. 
— Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  fol.  27.  This  seems  an 
encroachment  on  the  municipal  magistrates. 

t  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  p.  251. 

j  Idem,  p.  255.    Mariana,  1.  xx.,  c.  13. 

$  Idem,  p.  255.  ||  Idem,  p.  266. 

%  Idem,  p.  260.  **  Idem,  p.  287, 304. 

ft  Idem,  p.  292-302, 


impartially  according  to  law  and  right; 
and  that  no  one  shall  be  put  to  death,  or 
imprisoned,  or  deprived  of  his  posses- 
sions without  trial,  and  that  this  be  bet- 
ter observed  than  heretofore."*  He  re- 
newed the  same  law  in  1307.  Neverthe- 
less, the  most  remarkable  circumstance 
of  this  monarch's  history  was  a  violation 
of  so  sacred  and  apparently  so  well  es- 
tablished a  law.  Two  gentlemen  having 
been  accused  of  murder,  Ferdinand,  with- 
out waiting  for  any  process,  ordered  them 
to  instant  execution.  They  summoned 
him  with  their  last  words  to  appear  be- 
fore the  tribunal  of  God  in  thirty  days ; 
and  his  death  within  the  time,  which  has 
given  him  the  surname  of  the  Summon- 
ed, might,  we  may  hope,  deter  succeed- 
ing sovereigns  from  iniquity  so  flagrant. 
But  from  the  practice  of  causing  their 
enemies  to  be  assassinated,  neither  law 
nor  conscience  could  withhold  them. 
Alfonso  XL  was  more  than  once  guilty 
of  this  crime.  Yet  he  too  passed  an  or- 
dinance, in  1325,  that  no  warrant  should 
issue  for  putting  any  one  to  death,  or 
seizing  his  property,  till  he  should  be 
duly  tried  by  course  of  law.  Henry  II. 
repeats  the  same  law  in  very  explicit 
language.!  But  the  civil  history  of  Spain 
displays  several  violations  of  it.  An  ex- 
traordinary prerogative  of  committing 
murder  appears  to  have  been  admitted, 
in  early  times,  by  several  nations  who 
did  not  acknowledge  unlimited  power  in 
their  sovereign. J  Before  any  regular 
police  was  established,  a  powerful  crimi- 
nal might  have  been  secure  from  all  pun- 
ishment, but  for  a  notion,  as  barbarous 
as  any  which  it  served  to  counteract, 
that  he  could  be  lawfully  killed  by  the 
personal  mandate  of  the  king.  And  the 
frequent  attendance  of  sovereigns  in  their 
courts  of  judicature  might  lead  men  not 
accustomed  to  consider  the  indispensable 
necessity  of  legal  forms,  to  confound  an 


*  Que  mandase  facer  la  justicia  en  aquellos  que  la 
merecen  comunahnente  con  fuero  e  con  derecho ; 
e  los  homes  que  non  sean  muertos  nin  presos  nin 
tornados  lo  que  han  sin  ser  oidos  por  derecho  6  por 
fuero  de  aquel  logar  do  acaesciere,  e  que  sea  guarda- 
do  mejor  que  se  guard6  fasta  aqui. — Marina,  En- 
sayo  Hist.  Critico,  p.  148. 

t  Que  non  mandemos  matar  nin  prender  nin  lisi- 
ar  nin  despechar  nin  tomar  a  alguno  ninguna  cosa 
de  lo  suyo,  sin  ser  ante  Hamad  o  £  oido  e  vencido 
por  fuero  e  por  derecho,  por  querella  nin  por  querel- 
las  que  a  nos  fuesen  dadas,  segunt  que  esto  esta  or- 
denado  por  el  rei  don  Alonso  nuestro  padre. — Teo- 
ria de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  287. 

t  Si  quis  hominem  per  jussionem  regis  vel  ducis 
sui  occiderit,  non  requiratur  ei,  nee  sit  faidosus, 
quia  jussio  domini  sui  fuit,  et  non  potuit  contradi 
cere  jussionem. — Leges  Bajuvariorum,  tit.  ii.,  in 
Baluz.  Capitularibus, 


CHAP.  IV.3 


SPAIN, 


215 


act  of  assassination  with  the  execution 
of  justice. 

Though  it  is  very  improbable  that  the 
Confedera-  nobility  were  not  considered  as 
des  of  the  essential  members  of  the  cortes, 
nobility.  ^ey  certainly  attended  in  small- 
er numbers  than  we  should  expect  to  find 
from  the  great  legislative  and  deliberative 
'authority  of  that  assembly.  This  arose 
chiefly  from  the  lawless  spirit  of  that 
martial  aristocracy,  which  placed  less 
confidence  in  the  constitutional  methods 
of  resisting  arbitrary  encroachment  than 
in  its  own  armed  combinations.*  Such 
confederacies  to  obtain  redress  of  griev- 
ances by  force,  of  which  there  were  five 
or  six  remarkable  instances,  were  called 
Hermandad  (brotherhood  or  union),  and 
though  not  so  explicitly  sanctioned  as 
they  were  by  the  celebrated  Privilege 
of  Union  in  Aragon,  found  countenance 
in  a  law  of  Alfonso  X.,  which  cannot  be 
deemed  so  much  to  have  voluntarily  em- 
anated from  that  prince  as  to  be  a  rec- 
ord of  original  rights  possessed  by  the 
Castilian  nobility.  "  The  duty  of  sub- 
jects towards  their  king,"  he  says,  "en- 
joins them  not  to  permit  him  knowingly 
to  endanger  his  salvation,  nor  to  incur 
dishonour  and  inconvenience  in  his  per- 
son or  family,  nor  to  produce  mischief  to 
liis  kingdom.  And  this  may  be  fulfilled 
in  two  ways ;  one  by  good  advice,  show- 
ing him  the  reason  wherefore  he  ought  not 
to  act  thus ;  the  other  by  deeds,  seeking 
means  to  prevent  his  going  on  to  his 
own  ruin,  and  putting  a  stop  to  those 
who  give  him  ill  counsel,  forasmuch  as 
his  errors  are  of  worse  consequence  than 
those  of  other  men,  it  is  the  bounden 
cluty  of  subjects  to  prevent  his  commit- 
ting them."f  To  this  law  the  insurgents 
appealed  in  their  coalition  against  Alva- 
ro  de  Luna ;  and  indeed  we  must  confess, 
that  however  just  and  admirable  the  prin- 
ciples which  it  breathes,  so  general  a 
license  of  rebellion  was  not  likely  to  pre- 
serve the  tranquillity  of  a  kingdom.  The 
deputies  of  towns,  in  a  cortes  of  1445,  pe- 
titioned the  king  to  declare  that  no  con- 
struction should  be  put  on  this  law  in- 
consistent with  the  obedience  of  subjects 
towards  their  sovereign;  a  request  to 
which  of  course  he  willingly  acceded. 

Castile,  it  will  be  apparent,  bore  a 
closer  analogy  to  England  in  its  form  of 
civil  polity  than  France  or  even  Aragon. 
But  the  frequent  disorders  of  its  govern- 
ment, and  a  barbarous  state  of  manners, 
rendered  violations  of  law  much  more 
continual  and  flagrant  than  they  were  in 


*  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  ii.,  p.  465. 
t  Ensayo  Hist.  Critico,  p.  312. 


England  under  the  Plantagenet  dynasty. 
And  besides  these  practical  mischiefs, 
there  were  two  essential  defects  in  the 
constitution  of  Castile,  through  which 
perhaps  it  was  ultimately  subverted.  It 
wanted  those  two  brilliants  in  the  coro- 
net of  British  liberty,  the  representation 
of  freeholders  among  the  commons, 
and  trial  by  jury.  The  cortes  of  Castile 
became  a  congress  of  deputies  from  a 
few  cities,  public-spirited  indeed  and  in- 
trepid, as  we  find  them  in  bad  times,  to 
an  eminent  degree,  but  too  much  limited 
in  number,  and  too  unconnected  with 
the  territorial  aristocracy,  to  maintain  a 
just  balance  against  the  crown.  Yet, 
with  every  disadvantage,  that  country 
possessed  a  liberal  form  of  government, 
and  was  animated  with  a  noble  spirit  for 
its  defence.  Spain,  in  her  late  memora- 
ble though  short  resuscitation,  might  well 
have  gone  back  to  her  ancient  institu- 
tions, and  perfected  a  scheme  of  policy 
which  the  great  example  of  England 
would  have  shown  to  be  well  adapted  to 
the  security  of  freedom.  What  she  did, 
or  rather  attempted  instead,  I  need  not 
recall.  May  her  next  effort  be  more 
wisely  planned  and  more  happily  termi- 
nated !* 

Though  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  was 
very  inferior  in  extent  to  that  of  Affairs  or 
Castile,  yet  the  advantages  of  a  Aragon. 
better  form  of  government  and  wiser 
sovereigns,  with  those  of  industry  and 
commerce  along  a  line  of  seacoast,  ren- 
dered it  almost  equal  in  importance.  Cas- 
tile rarely  intermeddled  in  the  civil  dis- 
sensions of  Aragon ;  the  kings  of  Aragon 
frequently  carried  their  arms  into  the 
heart  of  Castile.  During  the  sanguinary 
outrages  of  Peter  the  Cruel,  and  the 
stormy  revolutions  which  ended  in  es- 
tablishing the  house  of  Trastamare,  Ara- 
gon was  not  indeed  at  peace,  nor  alto- 
gether well  governed ;  but  her  political 
consequence  rose  in  the  eyes  of  Europe 
through  the  long  reign  of  the  ambitious 
and  wily  Peter  IV.,  whose  sagacity  and 
good  fortune  redeemed,  according  to  the 
common  notions  of  mankind,  the  iniquity 
with  which  he  stripped  his  relation,  the 
King  of  Majorca,  of  the  Balearic  Islands, 
and  the  constant  perfidiousness  of  his 
character.  I  have  mentioned  in  another 
place  the  Sicilian  war,  prosecuted  with 
so  much  eagerness  for  many  years  by 
Peter  III.  and  his  son  Alfonso  III.  Af- 
ter this  object  was  relinquished,  James 
II.  undertook  an  enterprise  less  splen- 
did, but  not  much  less  difficult,  the  con- 


*  The  first  edition  of  this  work  was  published 
in  1818. 


216 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


quest  of  Sardinia.  That  island,  long  ac- 
customed to  independence,  cost  an  in- 
credible expense  of  blood  and  treasure 
to  the  kings  of  Aragon  during  the  whole 
fourteenth  century.  It  was  not  fully 
subdued  till  the  commencement  of  the 
next,  under  the  reign  of  Martin. 

At  the  death  of  Martin,  king  of  Aragon, 
Disputed  in  1410,  a  memorable  question 
succession  arose  as  to  the  right  of  succes- 
death  of  sion.  Though  Petronilla,  daugh- 
Martin.  ter  of  Ramiro  II.,  had  reigned 
in  her  own  right  from  1137  to  1172,  an 
opinion  seems  to  have  gained  ground 
from  the  thirteenth  century,  that  females 
could  not  inherit  the  crown  of  Aragon. 
Peter  IV.  had  excited  a  civil  war  by  at- 
tempting to  settle  the  succession  upon 
his  daughter,  to  the  exclusion  of  his  next 
brother.  The  birth  of  a  son  about  the 
same  time  suspended  the  ultimate  decis- 
ion of  this  question ;  but  it  was  tacitly 
understood  that  what  is  called  the  Salique- 
law  ought  to  prevail.*  Accordingly,  on 
the  death  of  John  I.,  in  1395,  his  two 
daughters  were  set  aside  in  favour  of  his 
brother  Martin,  though  not  without  oppo- 
sition on  the  part  of  the  elder,  whose 
husband,  the  Count  of  Foix,  invaded  the 
kingdom,  and  desisted  from  his  preten- 
sion only  through  want  of  force.  Mar- 
tin's son,  the  King  of  Sicily,  dying  in  his 
father's  lifetime,  the  nation  was  anxious 
that  the  king  should  fix  upon  his  suc- 
cessor, and  would  probably  have  acqui- 
esced in  his  choice.  But  his  dissolution 
occurring  more  rapidly  than  was  expect- 
ed, the  throne  remained  absolutely  va- 
cant. The  Count  of  Urgel  had  obtained 


[  a  grant  of  the  lieutenancy,  which  was  the 
right  of  the  heir  apparent.  This  noble- 
man possessed  an  extensive  territory  in 
Catalonia,  bordering  on  the  Pyrenees. 
He  was  grandson  of  James,  next  brother 
to  Peter  IV.,  and,  according  to  our  rules 
of  inheritance,  certainly  stood  in  the  first 
place.  The  other  claimants  were  the 
Duke  of  Gandia,  grandson  of  James  II., 
who,  though  descended  from  a  more 
distant  ancestor,  set  up  a  claim  founded 
on  proximity  to  the  royal  stock,  which 
in  some  countries  was  preferred  to  a  rep- 
resentative title ;  the  Duke  of  Calabria, 
son  of  Violante,  younger  daughter  of 
John  I.  (the  Countess  of  Foix  being 
childless) ;  Frederick,  count  of  Luna,  a 
natural  son  of  the  younger  Martin,  king 
of  Sicily,  legitimated  by  the  pope,  but 
with  a  reservation  excluding  him  from 
royal  succession ;  and  finally,  Ferdinand, 
infant  of  Castile,  son  of  the  late  king's 
sister. t  The  Count  of  Urgel  was  fa- 
voured in  general  by  the  Catalans,  and 
he  seemed  to  have  a  powerful  support  in 
Antonio  de  Luna,  a  baron  of  Aragon,  so 
rich  that  he  might  go  through  his  own 
estate  from  France  to  Castile.  But  this 
apparent  superiority  frustrated  his  hopes. 
The  justiciary  and  other  leading  Arago- 
nese  were  determined  not  to  suffer  this 
great  constitutional  question  to  be  deci- 
ded by  an  appeal  to  force,  which  might 
sweep  away  their  liberties  in  the  strug- 
gle. Urgel,  confident  of  his  right,  and 
surrounded  by  men  of  ruined  fortunes, 
was  unwilling  to  submit  his  pretensions 
to  a  civil  tribunal.  His  adherent,  Anto- 
nio de  Luna,  committed  an  extraordinary 


*  Zurita,  t.  ii.,  f.  188.  It  was  pretended  that  women  were  excluded  from  the  crown  in  England  as 
well  as  France  :  and  this  analogy  seems  to  have  had  some  influence  in  determining  the  Aragonese  to 
adopt  a  Salique-law. 

t  The  subjoined  pedigree  will  show  more  clearly  the  respective  titles  of  the  competitors  :— 
JAMES  II.  died  1327. 


ALFONSO  IV.  d.  1336. 

D.  of 
D.  of 

PETER  IV.  d.  1387. 

James  C.  of  Urgel. 
Peter  C.  of  Urgel. 

C.  of  Urgel. 
1409. 

Elear 

He 
K.  of 

or  Q.  of  Castile.                JOHN  I.  d.  1395.         MARTIN, 
d.  1410. 

iry  III.         Ferdinand. 
Castile. 

Martin, 

1      ~ 

|      K.  of  Sicily, 

Joanna 

John  II.        Countess  of  Foix. 
K.  of  Castile. 


Violante 
Q.  of  Naples. 

1  Frederick 

I  C.  of  Luna. 

Louis  D.  of 
CcXafria. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


217 


outrage,  the  assassination  of  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Saragosa,  which  alienated  the 
minds  of  good  citizens  from  his  cause. 
On  the  other  hand,  neither  the  Duke  of 
Gandia,  who  was  very  old,*  nor  the 
Count  of  Luna,  seemed  fit  to  succeed. 
The  party  of  Ferdinand,  therefore,  gained 
ground  by  degrees.  It  was  determined, 
however,  to  render  a  legal  sentence. 
The  cortes  of  each  nation  agreed  upon 
the  nomination  of  nine  persons,  three 
Aragonese,  three  Catalans,  and  three 
Valencians,  who  were  to  discuss  the 
pretensions  of  the  several  competitors, 
and,  by  a  plurality  of  six  votes,  to  adjudge 
the  crown.  Nothing  could  be  more 
solemn,  more  peaceful,  nor,  in  appear- 
ance, more  equitable,  than  the  proceed- 
ings of  this  tribunal.  They  summoned 
the  claimants  before  them,  and  heard 
them  by  counsel.  One  of  these,  Fred- 
erick of  Luna,  being  ill  defended,  the 
court  took  charge  of  his  interests,  and 
named  other  advocates  to  maintain  them. 
A  month  was  passed  in  hearing  argu- 
ments ;  a  second  was  allotted  to  con- 
sidering them ;  and,  at  the  expiration  of 
the  prescribed  time,  it  was  announced  to 
the  people,  by  the  mouth  of  St.  Vincent 
Ferrier,  that  Ferdinand  of  Castile  had 
ascended  the  throne. f 

[A.  D.  1412.]  In  this  decision  it  is  im- 
Decision  in  possi°le  not  to  suspect  that  the 
favour  of  judges  were  swayed  rather  by 
Ferdinand  politic  considerations  than  a 
'  strict  sense  of  hereditary  right. 
It  was  therefore  by  no  means  universally 
popular,  especially  in  Catalonia,  of  which 
principality  the  Count  of  Urgel  was  a 
native ;  and  perhaps  the  great  rebellion 
of  the  Catalans  fifty  years  afterward  may 

*  This  Duke  of  Gandia  died  during  the  interreg- 
num. His  son,  though  not  so  objectionable  on  the 
score  of  age,  seemed  to  have  a  worse  claim  ;  yet 
he  became  a  competitor. 

t  Biancae  Commentaria,  in  Schotti  Hispariia  II- 
lustrata,  t.  ii.  Zurita,  t.  iii.  f.  1-74.  Vincent  Fer- 
rier was  the  most  distinguished  churchman  of  his 
time  in  Spain.  His  influence,  as  one  of  the  nine 
judges,  is  said  to  have  been  very  instrumental  in 
procuring  the  crown  for  Ferdinand.  Five  others 
voted  the  same  way ;  one  for  the  Count  of  Urgel ; 
one  doubtfully  between  the  Count  of  Urgel  and 
Duke  of  Gandia ;  the  ninth  declined  to  vote. — 
Zurita,  t.  iii.,  f.  71.  It  is  curious  enough,  that 
John,  king  of  Castile,  was  altogether  disregarded  ; 
though  his  claim  was  at  least  as  plausible  as  that 
of  his  uncle  Ferdinand.  Indeed,  upon  the  princi- 
ples of  inheritance  to  which  we  are  accustomed, 
Louis,  duke  of  Calabria,  had  a  prior  right  to  Ferdi- 
nand, admitting  the  rule  which  it  was  necessary 
for  both  of  them  to  establish ;  namely,  that  a  right 
of  succession  might  be  transmitted  through  females, 
which  females  could  not  personally  enjoy.  This, 
as  is  well  known,  had  been  advanced  in  the  pre- 
ceding age  by  Edward  III.  as  the  foundation  of  his 
claim  to  the  crown  of  France. 


be  traced  to  the  disaffection  which  this 
breach,  as  they  thought,  of  the  lawful 
succession  had  excited.  Ferdinand  how- 
ever was  well  received  in  Aragon.  The 
cortes  generously  recommended  the 
Count  of  Urgel  to  his  favour,  on  account 
of  the  great  expenses  he  had  incurred  in 
prosecuting  his  claim.  But  Urgel  did  not 
wait  the  effect  of  this  recommendation. 
Unwisely  attempting  a  rebellion  with 
very  inadequate  means,  he  lost  his  es- 
tates, and  was  thrown  for  life  into  prison. 
[A.  D.  1416.]  Ferdinand's  sue-  oy 

cessor  was  his  son  Alfonso  V., 
more  distinguished  in  the  history  of  Italy 
than  of  Spain.  For  all  the  latter  years 
of  his  life,  he  never  quitted  the  kingdom 
that  he  had  acquired  by  his  arms :  and, 
enchanted  by  the  delicious  air  of  Naples, 
intrusted  the  government  of  his  patrimo- 
nial territories  to  the  care  of  a  brother 
and  an  heir.  [A.  D.  1458.]  John 
II.,  upon  whom  they  devolved  by  c 
the  death  of  Alfonso  without  legitimate 
progeny,  had  been  engaged  during  his 
youth  in  the  turbulent  revolutions  of  Cas- 
tile, as  the  head  of  a  strong  party  that  op- 
posed the  domination  of  Alvaro  de  Luna. 
[A.  D.  1420.]  By  marriage  with  the  heir- 
ess of  Navarre,  he  was  entitled,  accord- 
ing to  the  usage  of  those  times,  to  assume 
the  title  of  king,  and  administration  of 
government  during  her  life.  But  his  am,- 
bitious  retention  of  power  still  longer 
produced  events  which  are  the  chief 
stain  on  his  memory.  Charles,  prince  of 
Viana,  was,  by  the  constitution  of  Na- 
varre, entitled  to  succeed  his  mother.  [A. 
D.  1442.]  She  had  requested  him  in  her 
testament  not  to  assume  the  government 
without  his  father's  consent.  That  con- 
sent was  always  withheld.  The  prince 
raised  what  we  ought  not  to  call  a  rebell- 
ion ;  but  was  made  prisoner,  and  remain- 
ed for  some  time  in  captivity.  John's  ill 
disposition  towards  his  son  was  exasper- 
ated by  a  stepmother,  who  scarcely  dis- 
guised her  intention  of  placing  her  own 
child  on  the  throne  of  Aragon  at  the  ex- 
pense of  the  eldest-born.  After  a  life  of 
perpetual  oppression,  chiefly  passed  in 
exile  or  captivity,  the  Prince  of  Viana 
died  in  Catalonia,  at  a  moment  when  that 
province  was  in  open  insurrection  upon 
his  account.  [A.  D.  1461.]  Though  it 
hardly  seems  that  the  Catalans  had  any 
more  general  provocations,  they  perse- 
vered for  more  than  ten  years  with  in- 
veterate obstinacy  in  their  rebellion ;  of- 
fering the  sovereignty  first  to  a  prince  of 
Portugal,  and  afterward  to  Regnier,  duke 
of  Anjou,  who  was  destined  to  pass  his 
life  in  unsuccessful  competition  for  king- 


218 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


doms.  The  King  of  Aragon  behaved 
with  great  clemency  towards  these  in- 
surgents on  their  final  submission. 

It  is  consonant  to  the  principle  of  this 
constitution  work,  to  pass  lightly  over  the 
of  Aragon.  common  details  of  history,  in 
order  to  fix  the  reader's  attention  more 
fully  on  subjects  of  philosophical  inquiry. 
Perhaps  in  no  European  monarchy,  ex- 
cept our  own,  was  the  form  of  govern- 
ment more  interesting  than  in  Aragon,  as 
a  fortunate  temperament  of  law  and  jus- 
tice with  the  royal  authority.  So  far  as 
Originally  a  any  thing  can  be  pronounced  of 
sort  of  regal  its  earlier  period,  before  the 
racy-  capture  of  Saragosa  in  1118,  it 
was  a  kind  of  regal  aristocracy,  where  a 
small  number  of  powerful  barons  elected 
their  sovereign  on  every  vacancy,  though, 
as  usual  in  other  countries,  out  of  one 
family ;  and  considered  him  as  little  more 
t*ian  ^e  cm^f  of  their  confeder- 
acy.*  These  were  the  ricos 
hombres  or  hombres  or  barons,  the  first  or- 
der of  the  state.  Among  these 
the  kings  of  Aragon,  in  subsequent  times, 
as  they  extended  their  dominions,  shared 
the  conquered  territory  in  grants  of  hon- 
ours on  a  feudal  tenure. f  For  this  sys- 
tem was  fully  established  in  the  kingdom 
of  Aragon.  A  rico  hombre,  as  we  read 
in  Vitalis,  bishop  of  Huesca,  about  the 
middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  ,J  must 
hold  of  the  king  an  honour  or  barony 
capable  of  supporting  more  than  three 
knights ;  and  this  he  was  bound  to  dis- 
tribute among  his  vassals  in  military  fiefs. 
Once  in  the  year  he  might  be  summoned 
with  his  feudataries  to  serve  the  sover- 
eign for  two  months  (Zurita  says  three) ; 
and  he  was  to  attend  the  royal  court,  or 
general  assembly,  as  a  counsellor,  when- 

*  Alfonso  III.  complained  that  his  barons  want- 
ed to  bring  back  old  times,  quando  havia  en  el 
reyno  tantos  reyes  como  ricos  hombres. — Biancae 
Commentaria,  p.  787.  The  form  of  election  sup- 
posed to  have  been  used  by  these  bold  barons  is 
well  known.  "  We,  who  are  as  good  as  you, 
choose  you  for  our  king  and  lord,  provided  that  you 
observe  our  laws  arid  privileges,  and  if  not,  not." 
But  I  do  not  much  believe  the  authenticity  of  this 
form  of  words. — See  Robertson's  Charles  V.,  vol. 
i.,  note  31.  It  is,  however,  sufficiently  agreeable 
to  the  spirit  of  the  old  government. 

t  Los  ricos  hombres,  por  los  feudos  que  tenian 
del  rey,  eran  obligados  de  seguir  al  rey,  si  yva  en 
persona  a  la  guerra,  y  residir  en  ella  tres  meses  en 
cadaun  ano. — Zurita,  torn,  i.,  fol.  43.  (Saragosa, 
1610.)  A  fief  was  usually  called  in  Aragon  an  hon- 
our, que  en  Castilla  llamavan  tierra,  y  en  el  prin- 
cipado  de  Cataluaa  feudo,  fol.  46. 

\  I  do  not  know  whether  this  work  of  Vitalis 
has  been  printed  ;  but  there  are  large  extracts  from 
it  in  Blancas's  history,  and  also  in  Du  Cange,  un- 
der the  words  Infancia,  Mesnadarius,  &c.  Several 
illustrations  of  these  military  tenures  may  be  found 
in  the  Fueros  de  Aragon,  especially  lib.  7. 


ever  called  upon,  assisting  in  its  judicial 
as  well  as  deliberative  business.  In  the 
towns  and  villages  of  his  barony  he  might 
appoint  bailiffs  to  administer  justice  and 
receive  penalties  ;  but  the  higher  crimi- 
nal jurisdiction  seems  to  have  been  re- 
served to  the  crown.  According  to 
Vitalis,  the  king  could  divest  these  ricos 
hombres  of  their  honours  at  pleasure,  af- 
ter which  they  fell  into  the  class  of  mes- 
nadaries,  or  mere  tenants  in  chief.  But 
if  this  were  constitutional  in  the  reign  of 
James  I.,  which  Blancas  denies,  it  was 
not  long  permitted  by  that  high-spirited 
aristocracy.  By  the  General  Privilege,  or 
Charter  of  Peter  III.,  it  is  declared  that 
no  barony  can  be  taken  away  without  a 
just  cause  and  legal  sentence  of  the  jus- 
ticiary and  council  of  barons.*  And  the 
same  protection  was  extended  to  the  vas- 
sals of  the  ricos  hombres. 

Below  these  superior  nobles  were  the 
mesnadaries,  corresponding  to  Lower  no- 
our  mere  tenants  in  chief,  hold-  bmtv- 
ing  estates  not  baronial  immediately 
from  the  crown  ;  and  the  military  vas- 
sals of  the  high  nobility,  the  knights  and 
infanzones ;  a  word  which  may  be  ren- 
dered by  gentlemen.  These  had  con- 
siderable privileges  in  that  aristocratic 
government:  they  were  exempted  from 
all  taxes,  they  could  only  be  tried  by  the 
royal  judges  for  any  crime ;  and  offences 
committed  against  them  were  punished 
with  additional  severity.f  The  Burgesses 
ignoble  classes  were,  as  in  other  and  peas- 
countries,  the  burgesses  of  towns,  antry- 
and  the  villeins  or  peasantry.  The  peas- 
antry seem  to  have  been  subject  to  ter- 
ritorial servitude,  as  in  France  and  Eng- 
land. Vitalis  says,  that  some  villeins 
were  originally  so  unprotected,  that,  as 
he  expresses  it,  they  might  be  divided 
into  pieces  by  the  sword  among  the  sons 
of  their  masters  :  till  they  were  provoked 
to  an  insurrection,  which  ended  in  es- 
tablishing certain  stipulations,  whence 
they  obtained  the  denomination  of  vil- 
leins de  parada,  or  of  convention.^ 

Though  from  the  twelfth  century  the 
principle  of  hereditary  succes-  Liberties0f 
sion  to  the  throne  superseded,  tneAragon- 
in  Aragon  as  well  as  Castile,  j£emking' 
the  original  right  of  choosing  a 
sovereign  within  the  royal  family,  it  was 
still  founded  upon  one  more  sacred  and 
fundamental,  that  of  compact.  No  king 
of  Aragon  was  entitled  to  assume  that 
name  until  he  had  taken  a  coronation 
oath,  administered  by  the  justiciary  at 
Saragosa,  to  observe  the  laws  and  liber- 


*  Biancae  Comm.,  p.  730. 
f  Idem,  p.  732. 


I  Idem,  p.  729. 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


210 


ties  of  the  realm.*  Alfonso  III.,  in  1285, 
being  in  France  at  the  time  of  his  father's 
death,  named  himself  king  in  addressing 
the  states,  who  immediately  remonstra- 
ted on  this  premature  assumption  of  his 
title,  and  obtained  an  apology.f  Thus 
too  Martin,  having  been  called  to  the 
crown  of  Aragon  by  the  cortes  in  1395, 
was  specially  required  not  to  exercise 
any  authority  before  his  coronation.! 

Blancas  quotes  a  noble  passage  from 
the  acts  of  cortes  in  1451.  "We  have 
always  heard  of  old  time,  and  it  is  found 
by  experience,  that,  seeing  the  great  bar- 
renness of  this  land,  and  the  poverty  of 
the  realm,  if  it  were  not  for  the  liberties 
thereof,  the  folk  would  go  hence  to  live 
and  abide  in  other  realms,  and  lands 
more  fruitful.  "$  This  high  spirit  of  free- 
dom had  long  animated  the  Aragonese. 
After  several  contests  with  the  crown  in 
the  reign  of  James  I.,  not  to  go  back  to 
earlier  times,  they  compelled  Peter  III., 
General  m  1283>  to  grant  a  law,  called  the 
Privilege  General  Privilege,  the  Magna 
of  1283  Charta  of  Aragon,  and  perhaps  a 
more  full  and  satisfactory  basis  of  civil 
liberty  than  our  own.  It  contains  a  se- 
ries of  provisions  against  arbitrary  talla- 
ges,  spoliations  of  property,  secret  pro- 
cess after  the  manner  of  the  Inquisition  in 
criminal  charges,  sentences  of  the  justi- 
ciary without  assent  of  the  cortes,  ap- 
pointment of  foreigners  or  Jews  to  judi- 
cial offices,  trials  of  accused  persons  in 
places  beyond  the  kingdom,  the  use  of 
torture,  except  in  charges  of  falsifying 
the  coin,  and  the  bribery  of  judges. 
These  are  claimed  as  the  ancient,  liber- 
ties of  their  country.  "Absolute  power 

*  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  t.  i.,  fol.  104;  t.  iii., 
fol.  76. 

t  Biancae  Comm..  p.  661.  They  acknowledged, 
at  the  same  time,  that  he  was  their  natural  lord, 
and  entitled  to  reign  as  lawful  heir  to  his  father — 
so  oddly  were  the  hereditary  and  elective  titles 
jumbled  together. —Zurita,  t.  i.,  fol.  303. 

t  Zurita,  t.  ii.,  fol.  424. 

<j  Siempre  havemos  oydo  dezir  antigament,  e  se 
trqba  por  esperiencia,  que  attendida  la  grand  ste- 
rilidad  deaquesta  tierra,e  probreza  deaqueste  reg- 
no,  si  non  fues  por  las  libertades  de  aquel,  se  yrian 
a  bivir,  y  habitar  las  gentes  a  otros  regnos,  e  tier- 
ras  mas  frutieras,  p.  571.  Aragon  was,  in  fact,  a 
poor  country,  barren  and  ill-peopled.  The  kings 
were  forced  to  go  to  Catalonia  for  money,  and  in- 
deed were  little  able  to  maintain  expensive  con- 
tests. The  wars  of  Peter  IV.  in  Sardinia,  and  of 
Alfonso  V.  with  Genoa  and  Naples,  empoverished 
their  people.  A  hearth-tax  having  been  imposed 
in  1404,  it  was  found  that  there  were  42,683  houses 
in  Aragon,  which,  according  to  most  calculations, 
will  not  give  much  more  than  200,000  inhabitants. 
In  1429,  a  similar  tax  being  laid  on,  it  is  said  that 
the  number  of  houses  was  diminished  in  conse- 
quence of  war.— Zurita,  t.  iii.,  fol.  1 89.  It  contains 
at  present  between 600,000  and 700,000  inhabitants. 


(mero  imperio  e  mixto),  it  is  declared, 
never  was  the  constitution  of  Aragon,  nor 
of  Valencia,  nor  yet  of  Ribagorpa,  nor 
shall  there  be  in  time  to  come  any  inno- 
vation made ;  but  only  the  law,  custom, 
and  privilege  which  has  been  anciently 
used  in  the  aforesaid  kingdoms."*  . 

The  concessions  extorted  by  our  ances- 
tors from  John,  Henry  III.,  and  privilege  of 
Edward  I.,were  secured  by  the  Union. 
only  guarantee  those  times  could  afford, 
the  determination  of  the  barons  to  en- 
force them  by  armed  confederacies. 
These,  however,  were  formed  according 
to  emergencies,  and,  except  in  the  fa- 
mous commission  of  twenty-five  conser- 
vators of  Magna  Charta,  in  the  last  year 
of  John,  were  certainly  unwarranted  by 
law.  But  the  Aragonese  established  a 
positive  right  of  maintaining  their  liber- 
ties by  arms.  This  was  contained  in  the 
Privilege  of  Union  granted  by  Alfonso 

III.  in  1287,  after  a  violent  conflict  with 
his  subjects;    but  which  was  afterward 
so  completely  abolished,  and  even  eradi- 
cated from  the  records  of  the  kingdom, 
that  its  precise  words  have  never  been 
recovered.!    According  to  Zurita,  it  con- 
sisted of  two  articles  :  first,  that,  in  the 
case  of  the  king's   proceeding  forcibly 
against  any  member  of  the  union  without 
previous  sentence  of  the  justiciary,  the 
rest  should  be  absolved  from  their  allegi- 
ance ;  secondly,  that  he  should  hold  cor- 
tes every  year  in  Saragosa.J    During  the 
two  subsequent  reigns  of  James  II.  and 
Alfonso  IV.,  little  pretence  seems  to  have 
been  given  for  the  exercise  of  this  right. 
But  dissensions  breaking  out  under  Peter 

IV.  in  1347,  rather  on  account  of  his  at- 
tempt to  settle  the  crown  upon  his  daugh- 
ter than  of  any  specific  public  grievances, 
the  nobles  had  recourse  to  the  union,  that 
last  voice,  says  Blancas,  of  an  al-  Revoit 
most  expiring  state,  full  of  weight  against 
and  dignity,  to  chastise  the  pre-  Peterlv~- 
sumption  of  kings.  ^    They  assembled  at 
Saragosa,  and  used  a  remarkable  seal  for 
all  their  public  instruments,  an  engraving 
from  which  may  be  seen  in  the  historian 


*  Fueros  de  Aragon,  fol.  9.  Zurita,  t.  i., fol.  265. 

•f  Blancas  says  that  he  had  discovered  a  copy  of 
the  Privilege  of  Union  in  the  archives  of  the  see 
of  Tarragona,  and  would  gladly  have  published  it, 
but  for  his  deference  to  the  wisdom  of  former  ages, 
which  had  studiously  endeavoured  to  destroy  all 
recollection  of  that  dangerous  law. — Ibid.,  p.  662. 

$  Ibid.,  t.  i.,  f.  322. 

§  Priscam  illam  Unionis,  quasi  morientis  reipub- 
licae  extremam  vocem,  auctoritatis  et  gravitatis  ple- 
nam,  regum  insolentiae  apertum  vindicem  excita"- 
runt,  summa"  ac  singulari  bonorum  omnium  con- 
sensione,  p.  669.  It  is  remarkable  that  such  strong 
language  should  have  been  tolerated  under  Philip 


220 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    IV. 


I  have  just  quoted.  It  represents  the 
king  sitting  on  his  throne,  with  the  con- 
federates kneeling  in  a  suppliant  attitude 
around,  to  denote  their  loyalty,  and  un 
willingness  to  offend.  But  in  the  back- 
ground tents  and  lines  of  spears  are  dis- 
covered, as  a  hint  of  their  ability  and  res- 
olution to  defend  themselves.  The  le- 
gend is  Sigillum  Unionis  Aragonum.  This 
respectful  demeanour  towards  a  sovereign 
against  whom  they  were  waging  war,  re- 
minds us  of  the  language  held  out  by  our 
Long  Parliament  before  the  Presbyteri- 
an party  was  overthrown.  And  although 
it  has  been  lightly  censured  as  inconsist- 
ent and  hypocritical,  this  tone  is  the  safest 
that  men  can  adopt,  who,  deeming  them- 
selves under  the  necessity  of  withstand- 
ing the  reigning  monarch,  are  anxious  to 
avoid  a  change  of  dynasty,  or  subversion 
of  their  constitution.  These  confederates 
were  defeated  by  the  king  at  Epila,  in 
1348.*  But  his  prudence  and  the  re- 
maining strength  of  his  opponents  indu- 
cing him  to  pursue  a  moderate  course, 
there  ensued  a  more  legitimate  and  per- 
manent balance  of  the  constitution  from 
Privilege  this  victory  of  the  royalists.  The 
abdnsEi  Privilege  °f  Union  was  abroga- 
other  pro-  ted,  Peter  himself  cutting  to 
visions  in-  pieces  with  his  sword  the  origi- 
ted-  nal  instrument.  But,  in  return, 
many  excellent  laws  for  the  security  of 
the  subject  were  enacted  ;f  and  their  pres- 
ervation was  intrusted  to  the  greatest 
officer  of  the  kingdom,  the  justiciary, 
whose  authority  and  pre-eminence  may 
in  a  great  degree  be  dated  from  this  peri- 
od.! That  watchfulness  over  public  lib- 
erty, which  originally  belonged  to  the 
aristocracy  of  ricos  hombres,  always  apt 
to  thwart  the  crown,  or  to  oppress  the 
people,  and  which  was  afterward  main- 
tained by  the  dangerous  privilege  of  union, 
became  the  duty  of  a  civil  magistrate, 
accustomed  to  legal  rules,  and  responsi- 
ble for  his  actions,  whose  office  and  func- 

*  Zurita  observes  that  the  battle  of  Epila  was 
the  last  fought  in  defence  of  public  liberty,  for 
which  it  was  held  lawful  of  old  to  take  up  arms, 
and  resist  the  king,  by  virtue  of  the  Privileges  of 
Union.  For  the  authority  of  the  justiciary  being 
afterward  established,  the  former  contentions  and 
wars  came  to  an  end ;  means  being  found  to  put 
the  weak  on  a  level  with  the  powerful,  in  which 
consists  the  peace  and  tranquillity  of  all  states ;  and 
from  thence  the  name  of  Union  was,  by  common 
consent,  proscribed,  t.  ii.,  fol.  226.  Blancas  also 
remarks,  that  nothing  could  have  turned  out  more 
advantageous  to  the  Aragouese  than  their  ill-for- 
tune at  Epila. 

t  Fueros  de  Aragon.  De  lis,  quae  Dominus  rex, 
fol.  14,.  et  alibi  passim. 

t  Bianc.  Comm.,  p.  671,811.    Zurita,  t.  ii.,  fol. 


tions  are  the  most  pleasing  feature  in  the 
constitutional  history  of  Aragon. 

The  justiza  or  justiciary  of  Aragon  has 
been  treated  by  some  writers  as  office  of 
a  sort  of  anomalous  magistrate,  J«*W«jjr. 
created  originally  as  an  intermediate  pow- 
er between  the  king  and  people,  to  watch 
over  the  exercise  of  royal  authority.  But 
I  do  not  perceive  that  his  functions  were, 
in  any  essential  respect,  different  from 
those  of  the  chief  justice  of  England,  di- 
vided, from  the  time  of  Edward  I.,  among 
the  judges  of  the  King's  Bench.  We 
should  undervalue  our  own  constitution 
by  supposing  that  there  did  not  reside  in 
that  court  as  perfect  an  authority  to  re- 
dress the  subject's  injuries,  as  was  pos- 
sessed bv  the  Aragonese  magistrate.  In 
the  pracucal  exercise,  indeed,  of  this  pow- 
er, there  was  an  abundant  difference. 
Our  English  judges,  more  timid  and  pli- 
ant, left  to  the  remonstrances  of  parlia- 
ment that  redress  of  grievances  which 
very  frequently  lay  within  the  sphere  of 
their  jurisdiction.  There  is,  I  believe,  no 
recorded  instance  of  a  habeas  corpus 
granted  in  any  case  of  illegal  imprison- 
ment by  the  crown  ojr  its  officers  during 
the  continuance  of  the  Plantagenet  dy- 
nasty. We  shall  speedily  take  notice  of 
a  very  different  conduct  in  Aragon. 

The  office  of  justiciary,  whatever  con- 
jectural antiquity  some  have  assigned  to 
it,  is  not  to  be  traced  beyond  the  capture 
of  Saragosa  in  1118,  when  the  series  of 
magistrates  commences.*  But  for  a 
reat  length  of  time  they  do  not  appear 
to  have  been  particularly  important ;  the 
"udicial  authority  residing  in  the  council 
of  ricos  hombres,  whose  suffrages  the  jus- 
ticiary collected,  in  order  to  pronounce 
their  sentence  rather  than  his  own.  A  pas- 
sage in  Vitalis,  bishop  of  Huesca,  whom 
[  have  already  mentioned,  shows  this  to 
have  been  the  practice  during  the  reign 
of  James  I.f  Gradually,  as  notions  of 
liberty  became  more  definite,  and  laws 
more  numerous,  the  reverence  paid  to 
their  permanent  interpreter  grew  strong- 
r ;  and  there  was  fortunately  a  succes- 
sion of  prudent  and  just  men  in  that  high 
office,  through  whom  it  acquired  dignity 
and  stable  influence.  Soon  after  the  ac- 


*  Biancse  Comment.,  p.  638. 

t  Id.,  p.  722.  Zurita  indeed  refers  the  justicia- 
ry's pre-eminence  to  an  earlier  date  ;  namely,  the 
reign  of  Peter  II.,  who  took  away  a  great  part  of 
;he  local  jurisdictions  of  the  ricos  hombres,  t.  i.,fol. 
102.  But,  if  I  do  not  misunderstand  the  meaning 
of  Vitalis,  his  testimony  seems  to  be  beyond  dis- 
pute. By  the  General  Privilege  of  1283,  the  justi- 
ciary was  to  advise  with  the  ricos  hombres  in  all 
cases  where  the  king  was  a  party  against  any  of 
his  subjects.— Zurita,  f.  281.  See  also  f.  180, 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


221 


cession  of  James  II.,  on  some  dissen- 
sions arising  between  the  king  and  his 
barons,  he  called  in  the  justiciary  as  a  me- 
diator, whose  sentence,  says  Blancas>  all 
obeyed.*  At  a  subsequent  time  in  the 
same  reign,  the  military  orders,  pretending 
that  some  of  their  privileges  were  violated, 
raised  a  confederacy  or  union  against  the 
king.  James  offered  to  refer  the  dispute 
to  the  justiciary,  Ximenes  Salanova,  a 
man  of  eminent  legal  knowledge.  The 
knights  resisted  his  jurisdiction,  alleging 
the  question  to  be  of  spiritual  cognizance. 
He  decided  it,  however,  against  them  in 
full  cortes  at  Saragosa,  annulled  their 
league,  and  sentenced  the  leaders  to  pun- 
ishment, f  It  was-  adjudged  also  that  no 
appeal  could  lie  to  the  spiritual  court 
from  a  sentence  of  the  justiciary  passed 
with  assent  of  the  cortes.  James  II.  is 
said  to  have  frequently  sued  his  subjects 
in  the  justiciary's  court,  to  show  his  re- 
gard for  legal  measures  ;  and  during  the 
reign  of  this  good  prince,  its  authority 
became  more  established. J  Yet  it  was 
not  perhaps  looked  upon  as  fully  equal  to 
maintain  public  liberty  against  the  crown, 
till,  in  the  cortes  of  1348,  after  the  Privi- 
lege of  Union  was  for  ever  abolished,  such 
laws  were  enacted,  and  such  authority  giv- 
en to  the  justiciary,  as  proved  eventually  a 
more  adequate  barrier  against  oppression 
than  any  other  country  could  boast.  All 
the  royal  as  well  as  territorial  judges 
were  bound  to  apply  for  his  opinion  in 
case  of  legal  difficulties  arising  in  their 
courts,  which  he  was  to  certify  within 
eight  days.  By  subsequent  statutes  of 
the  same  reign,  it  was  made  penal  for 
any  one  to  obtain  letters  from  the  king, 
impeding  the  execution  of  the  justiza's 
process,  and  they  were  declared  null.  In- 
ferior courts  were  forbidden  to  proceed 
in  any  business  after  his  prohibition.^ 
Many  other  laws  might  be  cited,  corrob- 
orating the  authority  of  the  great  magis- 
trate ;  but  there  are  two  parts  of  his  re- 
medial jurisdiction  which  deserve  special 
notice. 

These  are  the  processes  of  jurisfirma,  or 
firma  del  derecho,  and  of  manifestation. 


*  Biancas  Comment.,  p.  663. 

t  Zurita,  t.  i.,  f.  403  ;  t.  ii.,  f.  34.  Blanc.,  p.  666. 
The  assent  of  the  cortes  seems  to  render  this  in  the 
nature  of  a  legislative  rather  than  a  judicial  pro- 
ceeding ;  but  it  is  difficult  to  pronounce  about  a 
transaction  so  remote  in  time,  and  in  a  foreign 
country,  the  native  historians  writing  rather  con- 
cisely. 

t  Bianc.,  p.  663.  James  acquired  the  surname  of 
Just,  el  Justiciero,  by  his  fair  dealings  towards  his 
subjects.— Zurita,  t.  ii.,  fol.  82. 

§  Fueros  de  Aragon  :  Quod  in  dubiis  non  crassis. 
(A.  D.  1348.)  Quod impetrans (1372),  &c.  Zurita, 
t.  ii.,  fol.  229.  Bianc.,  p.  671  and  811. 


The  former  bears  some  anal-  Processes  of 
ogy  to  the  writs  of  pone  and  Ini"!™3 
certiorari  in  England,  through  festation. 
which  the  court  of  King's  Bench  exer- 
cises its  right  of  withdrawing  a  suit  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  inferior  tribunals.  But 
the  Aragonese  jurisfirma  was  of  more 
extensive  operation.  Its  object  was  not 
only  to  bring  a  cause  commenced  in  an  in- 
ferior court  before  the  justiciary,  but  to 
prevent  or  inhibit  any  process  from  issu- 
ing against  the  person  who  applied  for  its 
benefit,  or  any  molestation  from  being 
offered  to  him;  so  that,  as  Biancas  ex- 
presses it,  when  we  have  entered  into  a 
recognisance  (firme  et  graviter  assevere- 
mus)  before  the  justiciary  of  Aragon  to 
abide  the  decision  of  law,  our  fortunes 
shall  be  protected  by  the  interposition  of 
his  prohibition,  from  the  intolerable  ini- 
quity of  the  royal  judges.*  The  process 
termed  manifestation,  afforded  as  ample 
security  for  personal  liberty  as  that  of 
jurisfirma  did  for  property.  "To  mani- 
fest any  one,"  says  the  writer  so  often 
quoted,  "  is  to  wrest  him  from  the  hands 
of  the  royal  officers,  that  he  may  not  suf- 
fer any  illegal  violence;  not  that  he  is 
set  at  liberty  by  this  process,  because  the 
merits  of  his  case  are  still  to  be  inquired 
into  ;  but  because  he  is  now  detained 
publicly,  instead  of  being,  as  it  were,  con- 
cealed, and  the  charge  against  him  is 
investigated,  not  suddenly  or  with  pas- 
sion, but  in  calmness  and  according  to 
law,  therefore  this  is  called  manifesta- 
tion."! The  power  of  this  writ  (if  I  may 


*  Bianc.,  p.  751.    Fueros  de  Aragon,  f.  137. 

t  Est  apud  nos  manifestare,  reum  subito  sumere, 
atque  e  regiis  manibus  extorquere,  ne  qua  ipsi  con- 
tra jus  vis  inferatur.  Non  quod  tune  reus  judicio 
liberetur  ;  nihilominus  tamen.ut  loquimur,  de  mer- 
itis  causae  ad  plenum  cognoscitur.  Sed  quod  dein- 
ceps  manifesto  teneatur,  quasi  antea  celatus  extitis- 
set ;  necesseque  deinde  sit  de  ipsius  culpa,,  non  im- 
petu  et  cum  furore,  sed  sedatis  prorsus  animis,  et 
juxta  constitutas  leges  judicari.  Ex  eo  autem,  quod 
hujusmodi  judicium  manifesto  deprehensum,  omni- 
bus jam  patere  debeat,  Manifestationis  sibi  nomen 
arripuit,  p.  675. 

Ipsius  Manifestationis  potestas  tarn  solida  est  et 
repentina,  ut  homini  jam  collum  in  laqueum  inse- 
renti  subveniat.  Illius  enim  praesidio,  damnatus, 
dum  per  leges  licet,  quasi  experiendi  juris  gratia, 
de  manibus  judicum  confestim  extorquetur,  et  in 
carcerem  ducitur  ad  id  aedificatum,  ibidemque  as- 
servatur  tamdiu,  quamdiu  jurene,  an  injuna  quid 
in  ea  causa  factum  fuerit,  judicatur.  Propterea 
career  hie  vulgari  lingua,  la  carcel  de  los  manifes 
tados  nuncupatur,  p.  751. 

Fueros  de  Aragon,  fol.  60.  De  Manifestationi- 
bus  personarum.  Independently  of  this  right  of 
manifestation  by  writ  of  the  justiciary,  there  are 
several  statutes  in  the  Fueros  against  illegal  de- 
tention, or  unnecessary  severity  towards  prisoners. 
— (De  Custodia  reorum,  f.  163.)  No  judge  could 
proceed  secretly  in  a  criminal  process ;  an  indis- 
pensable safeguard  to  public  liberty,  and  one  of  the 


S22 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


apply  our  term)  was  such,  as  he  else- 
where asserts,  that  it  would  rescue  a 
man  whose  neck  was  in  the  halter.  A 
particular  prison  was  allotted  to  those 
detained  for  trial  under  this  process. 

Several  proofs  that  such  admirable  pro- 
instances  of  visions  did  not  remain  a  dead 
their  appii-  letter  in  the  law  of  Aragon, 
cation.  appear  in  the  two  historians, 
Blancas  and  Zurita,  whose  noble  attach- 
ment to  liberties,  of  which  they  had 
either  witnessed,  or  might  foretel  the 

most  salutary,  as  well  as  most  ancient,  provisions 
in  our  own  constitution.  (De  judiciis.)  Torture 
was  abolished,  except  in  cases  of  coining  false  mon- 
ey, and  then  only  in  respect  of  vagabonds.— (Gen- 
eral Privilege  of  1283.) 

Zurita  has  explained  the  two  processes  of  juris- 
firma  and  manifestation  so  perspicuously,  that,  as 
the  subject  is  very  interesting,  and  rather  out  of 
the  common  way,  I  shall  both  quote  and  translate 
the  passage.  Con  firrnar  de  derecho,  que  es  dar 
caution  a  estar  a  justicia,  se  conseden  literas  inhib- 
itorias  por  el  justicia  de  Aragon,  para  que  no  pue- 
dan  ser  presos,  ni  privados,  ni  despojados  de  su 
possession,  hasta  que  judicialmente  se  conozca,  y 
declare  sobre  la  pretension,  y  justicia  de  las  partes, 
y  parezca  por  processo  legitimo,  que  se  deve  revo- 
car  la  tal  inhibition.  Esta  fue  la  suprema  y  prin- 
cipal autoridad  del  Justicia  de  Aragon  desde  que 
este  magistrado  tuvo  origen,  y  lo  que  llama  mani- 
festation; porque  assi  como  la  firma  de  derecho 
por  privilegio  general  del  reyno  impide,  que  no 
puede  ninguno'ser  preso,  o  agraviado  contra  razon 
y  justicia,  de  la  misma  manera  la  manifestation, 
que  es  otro  privilegio,  y  remedia  muy  principal, 
tiene  fuerca,  quando  alguno  es  preso  sin  preceder 
processo  legitimo,  o  quando  lo  prenden  de  hecho 
sin  orden  de  justicia  ;  y  en  estos  casos  solo  el  Jus- 
ticia de  Aragon,  quando  se  tiene  recurso  al  el,  se 
interpone,  manifestando  il  preso,  que  es  tomarlo  a 
su  mano,  de  poder  de  qualquiera  juez,  aunque  sea 
el  mas  supremo  ;  y  es  obligado  el  Justicia  de  Ara- 
gon, y  sus  lugartenientes  de  proveer  la  manifesta- 
cion  en  el  mismo  instante,  que  les  es  pedida  sin 
preceder  informacion ;  y  basta  que  se  pida  por 
qualquiere  persona  que  se  diga  procurator  del  que 
quiere  que  lo  tengan  por  manifesto,  t.  ii.,  fol.  386. 
"  Upon  a  firma  de  derecho,  which  is  to  give  securi- 
ty for  abiding  the  decision  of  law,  the  Justiciary  of 
Aragon  issues  letters  inhibiting  all  persons  to  ar- 
rest the  party,  or  deprive  him  of  his  possession, 
until  the  matter  shall  be  judicially  inquired  into, 
and  it  shall  appear  that  such  inhibition  ought  to  be 
revoked.  This  process  and  that  which  is  called 
manifestation  have  been  the  chief  powers  of  the 
justiciary  ever  since  the  commencement  of  that 
magistracy.  And  as  the  firma  de  derecho,  by  the 
general  privilege  of  the  realm,  secures  every  man 
from  being  arrested  or  molested  against  reason 
and  justice,  so  the  manifestation,  which  is  another 
principal  and  remedial  right,  takes  place  when  any 
one  is  actually  arrested  without  lawful  process ; 
and  in  such  cases  only  the  Justiciary  of  Aragon, 
when  recourse  is  had  to  him,  interposes  by  mani- 
festing the  person  arrested,  that  is,  by  taking  him 
into  his  own  hands,  out  of  the  power  of  any  judge, 
however  high  in  authority ;  and  this  manifestation 
the  justiciary,  or  his  deputies  in  his  absence,  are 
bound  to  issue  at  the  same  instant  it  is  demanded, 
without  farther  inquiry ;  and  it  may  be  demanded 
by  any  one  as  attorney  of  the  party  requiring  to  be 
manifested." 


extinction,  continually  displays  itself.  I 
cannot  help  illustrating  this  subject  by 
two  remarkable  instances.  The  heir  ap- 
parent of  the  kingdom  of  Aragon  had  a 
constitutional  right  to  the  lieutenancy  or 
regency  during  the  sovereign's  absence 
from  the  realm.  The  title  and  office  in 
deed  were  permanent,  though  the  func- 
tions must  of  course  have  been  superse- 
ded during  the  personal  exercise  of  roy- 
al authority.  But  as  neither  Catalonia 
nor  Valencia,  which  often  demanded  the 
king's  presence,  was  considered  as  part 
of  the  kingdom,  there  were  pretty  fre- 
quent occasions  for  this  anticipated  reign 
of  the  eldest  prince.  Such  a  regulation 
was  not  likely  to  diminish  the  mutual 
and  almost  inevitable  jealousies  between 
kings  and  their  heirs  apparent,  which  have 
so  often  disturbed  the  tranquillity  of  a 
court  and  a  nation.  Peter  IV.  removed 
his  eldest  son,  afterward  John  I.,  from 
the  lieutenancy  of  the  kingdom.  The 
prince  entered  into  a  firma  del  derecho 
before  the  justiciary,  Dominic  de  Cerda, 
who,  pronouncing  in  his  favour,  enjoined 
the  king  to  replace  his  son  in  the  lieuten- 
ancy as  the  undoubted  right  of  the  eldest 
born.  Peter  obeyed,  not  only  in  fact,  to 
which,  as  Blancas  observes,  the  law  com- 
pelled him,  but  with  apparent  cheerful- 
ness.* There  are  indeed  no  private  per- 
sons who  have  so  strong  an  interest  in 
maintaining  a  free  constitution  and  the 
civil  liberties  of  their  countrymen,  as  the 
members  of  royal  families;  since  none 
are  so  much  exposed,  in  absolute  govern- 
ments, to  the  resentment  and  suspicion 
of  a  reigning  monarch: 

John  I.,  who  had  experienced  the  pro- 
tection of  law  in  his  weakness,  had  af- 
terward occasion  to  find  it  interposed 
against  his  power.  This  king  had  sent 
some  citizens  of  Saragosa  to  prison  with- 
out form  of  law.  They  applied  to  Juan 
de  Cerda,  the  justiciary,  for  a  manifesta- 
tion. He  issued  his  writ  accordingly; 
nor,  says  Blancas,  could  he  do  otherwise, 
without  being  subject  to  a  heavy  fine. 
The  king,  pretending  that  the  justiciary 
was  partial,  named  one  of  his  own  judges, 
the  vice-chancellor,  as  coadjutor.  This 
raised  a  constitutional  question,  whether, 
on  suspicion  of  partiality,  a  coadjutor  to 
the  justiciary  could  be  appointed.  The 
king  sent  a  private  order  to  the  justiciary 
not  to  proceed  to  sentence  upon  this  in- 
terlocutory point  until  he  should  receive 
instructions  in  the  council,  to  which  he 
was  directed  to  repair.  But  he  instantly 
pronounced  sentence  in  favour  of  his  ex- 

*  Zurita,  ubi  supra.    Blancas,  p.  673. 


CHAP.  IV.j 


SPAIN. 


223 


elusive  jurisdiction  without  a  coadjutor. 
He  then  repaired  to  the  palace.  Here 
the  vice-chancellor,  in  a  long  harangue, 
enjoined  him  to  suspend  sentence  till  he 
had  heard  the  decision  of  the  council. 
Juan  de  Cerda  answered  that,  the  case 
being  clear,  he  had  already  pronounced 
upon  it.  This  produced  some  expres- 
sions of  anger  from  th«  king,  who  began 
to  enter  into  an  argument  on  the  merits 
of  the  question.  But  the  justiciary  an- 
swered that,  with  all  deference  to  his 
majesty,  he  was  bound  to  defend  his  con- 
duct before  the  cortes,  and  not  elsewhere. 
On  a  subsequent  day,  the  king  having 
drawn  the  justiciary  to  his  country  pal- 
ace on  pretence  of  hunting,  renewed  the 
conversation  with  the  assistance  of  his 
ally  the  vice-chancellor ;  but  no  impres- 
sion was  made  on  the  venerable  magis- 
trate, whom  John  at  length,  though  much 
pressed  by  his  advisers  to  violent  cour- 
ses, dismissed  with  civility.  The  king 
was  probably  misled  throughout  this  trans- 
action, which  1  have  thought  fit  to  draw 
from  obscurity,  not  only  in  order  to  illus- 
trate the  privilege  of  manifestation,  but 
as  exhibiting  an  instance  of  judicial  firm- 
ness and  integrity,  to  which,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  no  country  perhaps  in 
Europe  could  offer  a  parallel.* 

Before  the  cortes  of  1348,  it  seems  as 
Office  of  if  tne  justiciary  might  have 
justiciary  been  displaced  at  the  king's 
held  for  life,  pleasure.  From  that  time  he 
held  his  station  for  life.  But,  in  order  to 
evade  this  law,  the  king  sometimes  ex- 
acted a  promise  to  resign  upon  request. 
Ximenes  Cerdan,  the  justiciary  in  1420, 
having  refused  to  fulfil  this  engagement, 
Alfonso  V.  gave  notice  to  all  his  subjects 
not  to  obey  him,  and  notwithstanding  the 
alarm  which  this  encroachment  created, 
eventually  succeeded  in  compelling  him 
to  quit  his  office.  In  1439,  Alfonso  in- 
sisted with  still  greater  severity  upon  the 
execution  of  a  promise  to  resign  made 
by  another  justiciary,  detaining  him  in 
prison  until  his  death.  But  the  cortes  of 
1442  proposed  a  law,  to  which  the  king 
reluctantly  acceded,  that  the  justiciary 
should  not  be  compellable  to  resign  his 
office  on  account  of  any  previous  en- 
gagement he  might  have  made.f 

But  lest  these  high  powers,  imparted 
Responsibi-  f°r  ^ne  prevention  of  abuses, 
lityofthis  should  themselves  be  abused, 
magistrate.  tne  justiciary  was  responsible, 
in  case  of  an  unjust  sentence,  to  the  ex- 


*  Biancae  Commentar.,  ubi  supra.  Zurita  relates 
^he  story,  but  not  so  fully. 

t  Fueros  de  Aragon,  fol.  22.  Zurita,  t.  iii.,  fol. 
140,  255,  272.  Bianc.  Comment.,  p.  701. 


tent  of  the  injury  inflicted;*  and  was 
also  subjected,  by  a  statute  of  1390,  to  a 
court  of  inquiry,  composed  of  four  per- 
sons chosen  by  the  king  out  of  eight 
named  by  the  cortes;  whose  office  ap- 
pears to  have  been  that  of  examining 
and  reporting  to  the  four  estates  in  cortes, 
by  whom  he  was  ultimately  to  be  ac- 
quitted or  condemned.  This  superintend- 
ence of  the  cortes,  however,  being 
thought  dilatory  and  inconvenient,  a 
court  of  seventeen  persons  was  appointed, 
in  1461,  to  hear  complaints  against  the 
justiciary.  Some  alterations  were  after- 
ward made  in  this  tribunal.f  The  justi- 
ciary was  always  a  knight,  chosen  from 
the  second  order  of  nobility,  the  barons 
not  being  liable  to  personal  punishment. 
He  administered  the  coronation-oath  to 
the  king;  and  in  the  cortes  of  Aragon, 
the  justiciary  acted  as  a  sort  of  royal 
commissioner,  opening  or  proroguing  the 
assembly  by  the  king's  direction. 

No  laws  could  be  enacted  or  repealed, 
nor  any  tax  imposed,  without  Rjghtsone_ 
the  consent  of  the  estates  duly  gisiation  and 
assembled. ;£  Even  as  early  as  taxation- 
the  reign  of  Peter  II.,  in  1205,  that  prince 
having  attempted  to  impose  a  general  tal- 
lage,  the  nobility  and  commons  united  for 
the  preservation  of  their  franchises ;  and 
the  tax  was  afterward  granted  in  part  by 
the  cortes. $  It  may  easily  be  supposed 
that  the  Aragonese  were  not  behind  other 
nations  in  statutes  to  secure  these  priv- 
ileges, which,  upon  the  whole,  appear  to 
have  been  more  respected  than  in  any 
other  monarchy.  ||  The  general  privilege 


*  Fueros  de  Aragon,  fol.  25. 

t  Blancas.  Zurita,  t.  iii.,  f.  321  ;  t.  iv.,  f.  103. 
These  regulations  were  very  acceptable  to  the  na- 
tion. In  fact,  the  justiza  of  Aragon  had  possessed 
much  more  unlimited  powers  than  ought  to  be  in- 
trusted to  any  single  magistrate.  The  court  of 
King's  Bench  in  England,  besides  its  consisting  of 
four  co-ordinate  judges,  is  checked  by  the  appel- 
lant jurisdictions  of  the  Exchequer  Chamber  and 
House  of  Lords,  and,  still  more  importantly,  by  the 
rights  of  juries. 

J  Majores  nostri,  quae  de  omnibus  statuenda  es- 
sent,  noluenint  juberi,  vetarive  posse,  nisi  vocatis, 
descriptisque  ordinibus.  ac  cunctis  eorum  adhibitis 
suffrages,  re  ipsa  cognita  et  promulgata.  Unde 
perpetuum  illud  nobis  comparatum  est  jus,  ut  com- 
munes et  publicae  leges  neque  tolli,  necme  rogari 
possint,  nisi  prius  universus  populus  una  voce  co- 
mitiis  institutis  suum  e&  de  re  liberums  uffragium 
ferat ;  idque  postea  ipsius  regis  assensu  comprobe- 
tur.— Biancae,  p.  761. 

§  Zurita,  t.  i.,  fol.  92. 

II  Fueros  de  Aragon :  Quod  sissae  in  Aragonia 
removeantur  (A  D.  1372).  De  prohibitione  sissa- 
rum  (1398).  De  conservatione  patrimonii  (1461). 
I  have  only  remarked  two  instances  of  arbitrary 
taxation  in  Zurita's  history,  which  is  singularly  full 
of  information  ;  one,  in  1343,  when  Peter  IV.  col- 
lected money  from  various  cities,  though  not  with 
out  opposition ;  and  the  other  a  remonstrance  of 


224 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IV. 


of  1283  formed  a  sort  of  ground-work  for 
this  legislation,  like  the  Great  Charter  in 
England,  By  a  clause  in  this  law,  cortes 
were  to  be  held  every  year  at  Saragosa 
But,  under  James  II.,  their  time  of  meet- 
ing was  reduced  to  once  in  two  years 
and  the  place  was  left  to  the  king's  dis- 
cretion.* Nor  were  the  cortes  of  Ara- 
gon  less  vigilant  than  those  of  Castile  in 
claiming  a  right  to  be  consulted  in  all  im- 
portant deliberations  of  the  executive 
power,  or  in  remonstrating  against  abuses 
of  government,  or  in  superintending  the 
proper  expenditure  of  public  money. f  A 
variety  of  provisions,  intended  to  secure 
these  parliamentary  privileges  and  the 
civil  liberty  of  the  subject,  will  be  found 
dispersed  in  the  collection  of  Aragonese 
laws,;};  which  may  be  favourably  com- 
pared with  those  of  our  own  statute- 
book. 

Four  estates,  or,  as  they  were  called, 
Cortes  of  arms  (brazos),  formed  the  cortes 
Aragon.  of  Aragon ;  the  prelates,^  andcom- 

the  cortes  in  1383  against  heavy  taxes ;  and  it  is 
not  clear  that  this  refers  to  general  unauthorized 
taxation. — Zurita,  t.  ii.,  f.  168  and  382.  Blancas 
mentions  that  Alfonso  V.  set  a  tallage  upon  his 
towns  for  the  marriage  of  his  natural  daughters, 
which  he  might  have  done  had  they  been  legiti- 
mate ;  but  they  appealed  to  the  justiciary's  tribu- 
nal, and  the  king  receded  from  his  demand,  p.  701. 

Some  instances  of  tyrannical  conduct  in  violation 
of  the  constitutional  laws  occur,  as  will  naturally 
be  supposed,  in  the  annals  of  Zurita.  The  execu- 
tion of  Bernard  Cabrera  under  Peter  IV.,  t.  ii.,  f. 
336,  and  the  severities  inflicted  on  Queen  Forcia 
by  her  son-in-law  John  I.,  f.  391,  are  perhaps  as 
remarkable  as  any. 

*  Zurita,  t.  i.,  f.  426.  In  general  the  session 
lasted  from  four  to  six  months.  One  assembly 
was  prorogued  from  time  to  time,  and  continued 
six  years,  from  1446  to  1452,  which  was  com- 
plained of  as  a  violation  of  the  law  for  their  bien- 
nial renewal,  t.  iv.,  f.  6. 

t  The  Sicilian  war  of  Peter  III.  was  very,  un- 
popular, because  it  bad  been  undertaken  without 
consent  of  the  barons,  contrary  to  the  practice  of 
the  kingdom;  porque  ningun  negocio  arduo  em- 
prendian,  sin  acuerdo  y  consejo  de  sus  ricos  hom- 
bres.— Zurita,  t.  i,  fol.  264.  The  cortes,  he  tells 
us,  were  usually  divided  into  two  parties,  whigs 
and  tories  ;  estava  ordinariamente  dividida  en  dos 
partes,  la  una  que  pensava  procurar  el  beneficiodel 
reyno,  y  la  otra  que  el  servicio  del  rey,  t.  iii.,  fol. 
321. 

t  Fueros  y  observancias  del  reyno  de  Aragon. 
2  vols.  in  fol.,  Saragosa,  1667.  The  most  impor- 
tant of  these  are  collected  by  Blancas,  p.  750. 

§  It  is  said  by  some  writers  that  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal arm  was  not  added  to  the  cortes  of  Aragon  till 
about  the  year  1300.  But  I  do  not  find  mention  in 
Zurita  of  any  such  constitutional  change  at  that 
time ;  and  the  prelates,  as  we  might  expect  from 
the  analogy  of  other  countries,  appear  as  members 
of  the  national  council  long  before.  Queen  Petro- 
niila,  in  1142,  summoned  a  los  perlados,  ricos 
hornbres,  y  cavalleros,  y  procuradores  de  las  ciu- 
dades  y  villas,  que  le  juntassen  a  cortes  generales 
en  la  ciudad  de  Huesca. — Zurita,  t.  i.,  fol.  71.  So 
in  the  cortes  of  1275,  and  on  other  occasions. 


manders  of  military  orders,  who  passed 
for  ecclesiastics;  the  barons,  or  ricos 
hombres  ;  the  equestrian  order,  or  in  fan- 
zones,  and  the  deputies  of  royal  towns.* 
The  two  former  had  a  right  of  appearing 
by  proxy.  There  was  no  representation 
of  the  infanzones,  or  lower  nobility. 
But  it  must  be  remembered  that  they 
were  not  numerous,  nor  was  the  kingdom 
large.  Thirty-five  are  reckoned  by  Zu- 
rita as  present  in  the  cortes  of  1395,  and 
thirty-three  in  those  of  1412 ;  and  as 
upon  both  occasions  an  oath  of  fealty  to 
a  new  monarch  was  to  be  taken,  I  pre- 
sume that  nearly  all  the  nobility  of  the 
kingdom  were  present. f  The  ricos  hom- 
bres do  not  seem  to  have  exceeded  twelve 
or  fourteen  in  number.  The  ecclesiasti- 
cal estate  was  not  much,  if  at  all,  more 
numerous.  A  few  principal  towns  alone 
sent  deputies  to  the  cortes;  but  their 
representation  was  very  full;  eight  or 
ten,  and  sometimes  more,  sat  for  Sara- 
gosa, and  no  town  appears  to  have  had 
less  than  four  representatives.  During 
the  interval  of  the  cortes  a  permanent 
commission,  varying  a  good  deal  as  to 
numbers,  but  chosen  out  of  the  four  es- 
tates, was  empowered  to  sit  with  very 
considerable  authority,  receiving  and 
managing  the  public  revenue,  and  pro- 
tecting the  justiciary  in  his  functions. | 

The  kingdom  of  Valencia  and  princi- 
pality of  Catalonia  having  been  Govern. 
annexed  to  Aragon,  the  one  by  mem  of  Va- 
conquest,  the  other  by  marriage,  iencia  and 
were  always  kept  distinct  from 
it  in  their  laws  and  government.  Each 
had  its  cortes,  composed  of  three  estates, 
for  the  division  of  the  nobility  into  two 
orders  did  not  exist  in  either  country. 
The  Catalans  were  tenacious  of  their 
ancient  usages,  and  averse  to  incorpora- 
;ion  with  any  other  people  of  Spain. 
Their  national  character  was  high-spir- 
ted and  independent ;  in  no  part  of  the 
peninsula  did  the  territorial  aristocracy 
retain,  or  at  least  pretend  to  such  exten- 
sive privileges,^  and  the  citizens  were 


*  Popular  representation  was  more  ancient  in 
Aragon  than  in  any  other  monarchy.  The  depu- 
;ies  of  towns  appear  in  the  cortes  of  1133,  .as  Rob- 
ertson has  remarked  from  Zurita. — Hist,  of  Charles 
V.,  note  32.  And  this  cannot  well  be  called  in  ques- 
ion,  or  treated  as  an  anomaly ;  for  we  find  them 
nentioned  in  1142  (the  passage  cited  in  the  last 
note),  and  again  in  1164,  when  Zurita  enumerates 
many  of  their  names,  fol.  74.  The  institution  of 
concejos,  or  corporate  districts  under  a  presiding 
own,  prevailed  in  Aragon,  as  it  did  in  Castile. 

t  Zurita,  t.  ii.,  f.  420  ;  t.  iii.,  f.  76. 

t  Biancse,  p.  762.  Zurita,  t.  hi.,  f.  76 ;  f.  182,  et 
alibi. 

Zurita,  t.  ii.,  f.  360.    The  villanage  of  the  peas- 
antry in  some  parts  of  Catalonia  was  very  severe, 


CHAP.  IV.] 


SPAIN. 


225 


justly  proud  of  wealth  acquired  by  Indus 
try,  and  of  renown  achieved  by  valour 
At  the  accession  of  Ferdinand  L,  which 
they  had  not  much  desired,  the  Catalans 
obliged  him  to  swear  three  times  succes- 
sively to  maintain  their  liberties,  before 
they  would  take  the  reciprocal  oath  of 
allegiance.*  For  Valencia  it  seems  to 
have  been  a  politic  design  of  James  the 
Conqueror  to  establish  a  constitution 
nearly  analogous  to  that  of  Aragon,  but 
with  such  limitations  as  he  should  im- 
pose, taking  care  that  the  nobles  of  the 
two  kingdoms  should  not  acquire  strength 
by  union.  In  the  reigns  of  Peter  III. 
and  Alfonso  III.,  one  of  the  principal  ob- 
jects contended  for  by  the  barons  of  Ar- 
agon was  the  establishment  of  their  own 
laws  in  Valencia;  to  which  the  king 
never  acceded. f  They  permitted,  how- 
ever, the  possessions  of  the  natives  of  Ar- 
agon in  the  latter  kingdom  to  be  govern- 
ed by  the  law  of  Aragon.|  These  three 
states,  Aragon,  Valencia,  and  Catalonia, 
were  perpetually  united  by  a  law  of  Al- 
fonso III. ;  and  every  king  on  his  acces- 
sion was  bound  to  swear  that  he  would 
never  separate  them.§  Sometimes  gen- 
eral cortes  of  the  kingdoms  and  princi- 
pality were  convened ;  but  the  members 
did  not,  even  in  this  case,  sit  together, 
and  were  no  otherwise  united,  than  as 
they  met  in  the  same  city.|| 

I  do  not  mean  to  represent  the  actual 
condition  of  society  in  Aragon  as  equally 
excellent  with  the  constitutional  laws. 
Relatively  to  ^)ther    monarchies,   as    I 
state  of  have  already  observed,  there  seem 
police,    to  have  been  fewer  excesses   of 
the  royal  prerogative  in  that  kingdom. 
But  the  licentious  habits  of  a  feudal  aris- 
tocracy prevailed  very  long.     We  find  in 
history  instances  of  private  war  between 
the  great  families,  so  as  to  disturb  the 
peace  of  the  whole  nation,  even  near  the 
close   of  the   fifteenth  century.^f    The 
right  of  avenging  injuries  by  arms,  and 
the  ceremony  of  diffidation,  or  solemn 
defiance  of  an  enemy,  are  preserved  by 
the  laws.     We  even  meet  with  the  an- 
cient barbarous  usage  of  paying  a  compo- 
sition to  the  kindred  of  a  murdered  man.** 
The  citizens  of  Saragosa  were  sometimes 

even  near  the  end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  t.  iv., 
f.  237. 

*  Zurita,  t.  iii.,  f.  81. 

t  Id.,  t.  i.,  f.  281,  310,  333.  There  was  originally 
a  justiciary  in  the  kingdom  of  Valencia,  f.  281 ;  but 
this,  I  believe,  did  not  long  continue. 

t  Idem,  t.  ii,  f.  433.  $  Idem,  t.  ii.,  f.  91. 

II  Biancae  Comment.,  p.  760.    Zurita,  t.  iii.,  fol. 
239. 

IT  Zurita,  t.  iv.,  fol.  189. 

**  Fueros  de  Aragon,  f.  166,  &c. 


turbulent,  and  a  refractory  nobleman 
sometimes  defied  the  ministers  of  jus- 
tice. But,  owing  to  the  remarkable  co- 
piousness of  the  principal  Aragonese  his- 
torian, we  find  more  frequent  details  of 
this  nature  than  in  the  scantier  annals  of 
some  countries.  The  internal  condition 
of  society  was  certainly  far  from  peace- 
able in  other  parts  of  Europe. 

By  the  marriage  of  Ferdinand  with 
Isabella,  and  by  the  death  of  Union  df 
John  II.  in  1479,  the  two  an-  Castiieand 
cient  and  rival  kingdoms  of  Cas-  Aras°n- 
tile  and  Aragon  were  for  ever  consolida- 
ted in  the  monarchy  of  Spain.  There 
had  been  some  difficulty  in  adjusting  the 
respective  rights  of  the  husband  and  wife 
over  Castile.  In  the  middle  ages,  it  was 
customary  for  the  more  powerful  sex  to 
exercise  all  the  rights  which  it  derived 
from  the  weaker,  as  much  in  sovereign- 
ties as  in  private  possessions.  But  the 
Castilians  were  determined  to  maintain 
the  positive  and  distinct  prerogatives  of 
their  que'en,  to  which  they  attached  the 
independence  of  their  nation.  A  com- 
promise therefore  was  concluded,  by 
which,  though,  according  to  our  notions, 
Ferdinand  obtained  more  than  a  due 
share,  he  might  consider  himself  as  more 
strictly  limited  than  his  father  had  been 
in  Navarre.  The  names  of  both  were  to 
appear  jointly  in  their  style,  and  upon 
the  coin,  the  king's  taking  the  prece- 
dence in  respect  of  his  sex.  But,  in  the 
royal  scutcheon,  the  arms  of  Castile 
were  preferred  on  account  of  the  king- 
dom's dignity.  Isabella  had  the  appoint- 
ment of  all  civil  offices  in  Castile ;  the 
nomination  of  spiritual  benefices  ran  in 
the  name  of  both.  The  government  was 
to  be  conducted  by  the  two  conjointly 
when  they  were  together,  or  by  either 
singly,  in  the  province  where  one  or  other 
might  happen  to  reside.*  This  partition 
was  well  preserved  throughout  the  life 
of  Isabel  without  mutual  encroachments 
or  jealousies.  So  rare  a  unanimity  be- 
tween persons  thus  circumstanced  must 

attributed  to  the  superior  qualities  of 
that  princess,  who,  while  she  maintained 
a  constant  good  understanding  with  a 
very  ambitious  husband,  never  relaxed 
n  the  exercise  of  her  paternal  authority 
over  the  kingdoms  of  her  ancestors. 

Ferdinand  and  Isabella  had  no  sooner 
quenched  the  flames  of  civil  Conquest  of 
discord  in  Castile,  than  they  Granada, 
determined  to  give  an  unequivocal  proof 
to  Europe  of  the  vigour  which  the  Span- 
'sh  monarchy  was  to  display  under  their 


*  Zurita,  t.  iv.,  fol.  224.     Mariana,  1.  xxiv.,  c.  5. 


226 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   IV. 


government.     For  many  years  an  armis- 
tice with  the  Moors  of  Granada  had  been 
uninterrupted.      Neither    John   II.    nor 
Henry  IV.  had  been  at  leisure  to  think  of 
aggressive   hostilities ;    and  the   Moors 
themselves,  a  prey,  like  their  Christian 
enemies,  to  civil  war,  and  the  feuds  of 
their  royal  family,  were  content  with  the 
unmolested  enjoyment  of  the  finest  prov- 
ince in  the  peninsula.     If  we  may  trust 
historians,   the   sovereigns   of   Granada 
were   generally   usurpers   and    tyrants. 
But  I  know  not  how  to  account  for  that 
vast   populousness,  that    grandeur    and 
magnificence,   which   distinguished    the 
Mahometan  kingdoms  of  Spain,  without 
ascribing  some  measure  of  wisdom  and 
beneficence  to  their  governments.   These 
southern  provinces  have  dwindled  in  later 
times  ;  and,  in  fact,  Spain  itself  is  chiefly 
interesting   to   most   travellers,  for  the 
monuments  which  a  foreign  and  odious 
race   of    conquerors    have    left    behind 
them.     Granada  was  however  disturbed 
by  a  series  of  revolutions  about'the  time 
of  Ferdinand's  accession,  which  natural- 
ly encouraged  his  designs.     The  Moors, 
contrary  to  what  might  have  been  ex- 
pected from  their  relative  strength,  were 
the  aggressors  by  attacking  a  town  in 
Andalusia.*     [A.  D.  1481.]  Predatory  in- 
roads of  this  nature  had  hitherto  been 
only  retaliated  by  the  Christians.     But 
Ferdinand  was  conscious  that  his  resour- 
ces extended  to  the  conquest  of  Granada, 
the  consummation  of  a  struggle  protract- 
ed through  nearly  eight  centuries.     Even 
in  the  last  stage  of  the  Moorish  dominion, 
exposed  on  every  side  to  invasion,  en- 
feebled by  a  civil  dissension,  that  led  one 
party  to  abet  the  common  enemy,  Grana- 
da was  not  subdued  without  ten  years  of 
sanguinary  and  unremitting  contest.  Fer- 
tile beyond  all  the  rest  of  Spain,  that 
kingdom  contained  seventy  walled  towns ; 
and  the  capital  is  said,  almost  two  cen- 
turies before,  to  have  been  peopled  by 

*  Zurita,  t.  iv.,  fol.  314. 


200,000  inhabitants.*     Its  resistance  to 
such  a  force  as  that  of  Ferdinand  is  per- 
haps the  best  justification  of  the  apparent 
negligence   of   earlier   monarchs.      But 
Granada  was  ultimately  compelled  to  un- 
dergo the  yoke.     The  city  surrendered 
on  the  second  of  January,  1492  ;  an  event 
glorious  not  only  to  Spain,  but  to  Chris- 
tendom ;  and  which,  in  the  political  com- 
bat of  the  two  religions,  seemed  almost 
to  counterbalance  the  loss  of  Constanti- 
nople.    It  raised  the  name  of  Ferdinand, 
and  of  the  new  monarchy  which  he  gov- 
erned, to  high  estimation  throughout  Eu- 
rope.    Spain  appeared  an  equal  compet- 
itor with  France  in  the  lists  of  ambition. 
These  great  kingdoms  had  for  some  time 
felt  the  jealousy  natural  to  emulous  neigh- 
Dours.    The  house  of  Aragon  loudly  com- 
Dlained  of  the  treacherous  policy  of  Louis 
XL     He  had  fomented  the  troubles  of 
astile,  and  given,  not  indeed  an  effectual 
aid,  but  all  promises  of  support,  to  the 
Princess  Joanna,  the  competitor  of  Isabel. 
Rousillon,  a  province  belonging  to  Ara- 
gon, had  been  pledged  to  France  by  John 
[I.  for  a  sum  of  money.     It  would  be  te- 
dious to  relate  the  subsequent  events,  or 
o  discuss  their  respective  claims  to  its 
possession.!     At  the  accession  of  Fer- 
dinand, Louis  XL  still  held  Rousillon,  and 
howed  little  intention  to  resign  it.     But 
Charles  VIII. ,  eager  to  smooth  every  im- 
pediment to  his  Italian  expedition,  resto- 
•ed  the  province  to  Ferdinand  in  1493. 
Whether,  by  such  a  sacrifice,  he  was  able 
o  lull  the  King  of  Aragon  into  acquies- 
cence, while  he  dethroned  his  relation 
at  Naples,  and  alarmed  for  a  moment  all 
taly  with  the  apprehension  of  French 
dominion,  it  is  not  within  the  limits  of  the 
present  work  to  inquire. 


*  Zurita,  t.  iv.,  fol.  314. 

t  For  these  transactions,  see  Gamier,  Hist,  de 
rrance,  or  Gaillard,  Rivalit6  de  France  et  d'Es- 
>agne,  t.  iii.  The  latter  is  the  most  impartial 
Drench  writer  I  have  ever  read,  in  matters  where 
lis  own  country  is  concerned. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


227 


CHAPTER  V. 

HISTORY  OF  GERMANY  TO  THE  DIET  OF  WORMS  IN  1495, 


Sketch  of  German  History  under  the  Emperors  of 
the  House  of  Saxony.  —  House  of  Franconia.  — 
Henry  IV.  —  House  of  Swabia.  —  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa.  —  Fall  of  Henry  the  Lion.—  Frederick  II. 
—  Extinction  of  House  of  Swabia.  —  Changes  in 
the  Germanic  Constitution.  —  Electors.—  Terri- 
torial Sovereignty  6f  the  Princes.—  Rodolph  of 
Hapsburg.—  State  of  the  Empire  after  his  Time. 
—Causes  of  Decline  of  Imperial  Power.  —  House 
of  Luxemburg.—  Charles  IV.  —  Golden  Bull.— 
House  of  Austria.  —  Frederick  III.  —  Imperial 
Cities.  —  Provincial  States.  —  Maximilian.—  Diet 
of  Worms.  —  Abolition  of  private  Wars.  —  Im- 
perial Chamber.  —  Aulic  Council.—  Bohemia.  — 
Hungary.—  Switzerland. 

AFTER  the  deposition  of  Charles  the 

Separation       Fat>   in  888>  vvhich  finally  sev~ 

of  Germany  ered  the  connexion  between 
from  France.  France  and  Germany,*  Arnulf, 
an  illegitimate  descendant  of  Charle- 
magne, obtained  the  throne  of  the  latter 
country,  in  which  he  was  succeeded  by 
his  son  Louis.  f  But  upon  the  death  of 
this  prince  in  911,  the  German  branch  of 
that  dynasty  became  extinct.  There  re- 
mained indeed  Charles  the  Simple,  ac- 
knowledged as  king  in  some  parts  of 
France,  but  rejected  in  others,  and  pos- 
sessing no  per^mal  claims  to  respect. 
The  Germans  Therefore  wisely  deter- 
mined to  choose  a  sovereign  from  among 
themselves.  They  were  at  this  time 
divided  into  five  nations,  each  under  its 
own  duke,  and  distinguished  by  difference 
of  laws  as  well  as  of  origin;  the  Franks, 
whose  territory,  comprising  Franconia 
and  the  modem  palatinate,  was  consid- 
ered as  the  cradle  of  the  empire,  and 
who  seem  to  have  arrogated  some  supe- 
riority over  the  rest,  the  Swabians,  the 
Bavarians,  the  Saxons,  under  which  name 
the  inhabitants  of  Lower  Saxony  alone 
and  Westphalia  were  included,  and  the 

*  There  can  be  no  question  about  this  in  a  gen- 
eral sense.  But  several  German  writers  of  the 
time  assert,  that  both  Eudes  and  Charles  the  Sim- 
ple, rival  kings  of  France,  acknowledged  the  feudal 
superiority  of  Arnulf.  Charles,  says  Regino,  re^ 
num  quod  usurpaverat  ex  manu  ejus  percepit.  — 
Struvius,  Corpus  Hist.  German.,  p.  202,  203. 

t  The  German  princes  had  some  hesitation  about 
the  choice  of  Louis  :  but  their  partiality  to  the 
Carlovingian  line  prevailed.  —  Struvius,  p.  208: 
quia  reges  Francorum  semper  ex  uno  genere  pro- 
cedebant,  says  an  archbishop  Hatto,  in  writing  to 


P  2 


Lorrainers,  who  occupied  the  left  bank 
of  the  Rhine  as  far  as  its  termination. 
[A.  D.  911.]  The  choice  of  these  Election  of 
nations  in  their  general  assem-  Conrad, 
bly  fell  upon  Conrad,  duke  of  Franco- 
nia, according  to  some  writers,  or  at 
least  a  man  of  high  rank,  and  descended 
through  females  from  Charlemagne.* 

Conrad  dying  without  male  issue,  the 
crown  of  Germany  was  bestowed  House  of 
upon  Henry  the  Fowler,  duke  of  Saxony. 
Saxony,  ancestor  of  the  three  Othos,  who 
followed  him  in  direct  succes-  Henry  the 
sion.  To  Henry,  and  to  the  Fowier,9i9. 
first  Otho,  Germany  was  more  indebted 
than  to  any  sovereign  since  Charle- 
magne. The  conquest  of  Italy,  and  re- 
covery of  the  imperial  title,  are  Otho  T  936 
indeed  the  most  brilliant  tro-  otho  li.  073. 
phies  of  Otho  the  Great;  but  othoin.983. 
he  conferred  far  more  unequivocal  bene- 
fits upon  his  own  country  by  completing 
what  his  father  had  begun,  her  liberation 
from  the  inroads  of  the  Hungarians. 
Two  marches,  that  of  Misnia,  erected  by 
Henry  the  Fowler,  and  that  of  Austria, 
by  Otho,  were  added  to  the  Germanic 
territories  by  their  victories.! 

A  lineal  succession  of  four  descents 
without  the  least  opposition,  seems  to 
show  that  the  Germans  were  disposed  to 
consider  their  monarchy  as  fixed  in  the 
Saxon  family.  Otho  II.  and  III.  had 
been  chosen  each  in  his  father's  life- 
time, and  during  infancy.  The  formality 
of  election  subsisted  at  that  time  in  every 
European  kingdom;  and  the  imperfect 
rights  of  birth  required  a  ratification  by 
public  assent.  If  at  least  France  and 
England  were  hereditary  monarchies  in 


*  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p.  288, 
Struvius,  Corpus  Historiae  Germanicaj,  p.  210. 
The  former  of  these  writers  does  not  consider 
Conrad  as  Duke  of  Franconia. 

t  Many  towns  in  Germany,  especially  on  the 
Saxon  frontier,  were  built  by  Henry  I.,  who  is 
said  to  have  compelled  every  ninth  man  to  take  up 
his  residence  in  them.  This  had  a  remarkable 
tendency  to  promote  the  improvement  of  that  ter- 
ritory, and,  combined  with  the  discovery  of  the 
gold  and  silver  mines  of  Goslar  under  Otho  I.,  ren- 
dered it  the  richest  and  most  important  part  of  the 
empire. — Struvius,  p.  225  and  251.  Schmidt,  t.  ii., 
p.  322.  Putter,  Historical  Development  of  the 
German  Constitution,  vol..  i.,  p.  115, 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V. 


the  tenth  century,  the  same  may  surely 
be  said  of  Germany;  since  we  find  the 
lineal  succession  fully  as  well  observed 
in  the  last  as  in  the  former.  But  upon 
the  immature  and  unexpected  decease  of 
Otho  III.,  a  momentary  opposition  was 
Henry  ii.  offered  to  Henry,  duke  of  Bava- 

1002.  rja,  a  collateral  branch  of  the 
reigning  family.  He  obtained  the  crown, 
however,  by  what  contemporary  his- 
torians call  an  hereditary  title,*  and  it 
was  not  until  his  death,  in  1024,  that  the 
house  of  Saxony  was  deemed  to  be  ex- 
tinguished. 

No  person  had  now  any  pretensions 
House  of  that  could  interfere  with  the  un- 
Franconia.  biased  suffrages  of  the  nation ; 
C°i024d  IL  an(*  accordingly  a  general  as- 
Henry'm.  sembly  was  determined  by  merit 

H1039'iv  to  elect  Conrad'  surnamed  the 
IS.  '  Salic,  a  nobleman  of  Franco- 
Henry  v.  nia.f  From  this  prince  sprang 
106.  three  successive  emperors,  Hen- 
ry III.,  IV.,  and  V.  Perhaps  the  impe- 
rial prerogatives  over  that  insubordinate 
confederacy  never  reached  so  high  a 
point  as  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  the 
second  emperor  of  the  house  of  Franco- 
ma.  It  had  been,  as  was  natural,  the, 
object  of  all  his  predecessors,  not  only  to' 
render  their  throne  hereditary,  which,  in 
effect,  the  nation  was  willing  to  concede, 
but  to  surround  it  with  authority  suffi- 
cient to  control  the  leading  vassals. 
These  were  the  dukes  of  the  four  nations 
of  Germany,  Saxony,  Bavaria,  Svvabia, 
and  Franconia,  and  the  three  archbishops 
of  the  Rhenish  cities,  Mentz,  Treves,  and 
Cologne.  Originally,  as  has  been  more 
fully  shown  in  another  place,  dutchies, 
like  counties,  were  temporary  govern- 
ments, bestowed  at  the  pleasure  of  the 
crown.  From  this  first  stage  they  ad- 
vanced to  hereditary  offices,  and  finally 
to  patrimonial  fiefs.  But  their  progress 
was  much  slower  in  Germany  than  in 
France.  Under  the  Saxon  line  of  empe- 
rors, it  appears  probable,  that  although 
it  was  usual,  and  consonant  to  the  pre- 
vailing notions  of  equity,  to  confer  a 
dutchy  upon  the  nearest  heir,  yet  no  pos- 
itive rule  enforced  this  upon  the  empe- 
ror%  and  some  instances  of  a  contrary 
proceeding  occurred. J  But,  if  the  royal 

*  A  maxima  multitudine  vox  una  respondit; 
Henricum,  Christ!  adjutorio,  et  jure  haereditario, 
regnaturum. — Ditmar  apud  Stru vium,  p.  273.  See 
other  passages  quoted  in  the  same  place. — Schmidt, 
t.  ii.,  p.  410. 

t  Conrad  was  descended  from  a  daughter  of 
Otho  the  Great,  and  also  from  Conrad  I.  His 
first  cousin  was  Duke  of  Franconia. — Struvius. 
Schmidt.  Pfeffel. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  393,  403.    Struvius,  p.  214, 


prerogative  in  this  respect  stood  higher 
than  in  France,  there  was  a  countervail- 
ing principle,  that  prohibited  the  empe- 
ror from  uniting  a  fief  to  his  domain,  or 
even  retaining  one  which  he  had  posses- 
sed before  his  accession.  Thus  Otho  the 
Great  granted  away  his  dutchy  of  Saxony, 
and  Henry  II.  that  of  Bavaria.  Otho  the 
Great  endeavoured  to  counteract  the  ef- 
fects of  this  custom,  by  conferring  the 
dutchies  that  fell  into  his  hands  upon 
members  of  his  own  family.  This  pol- 
icy, though  apparently  well  conceived, 
proved  of  no  advantage  to  Otho  ;  his  son 
and  brother  having  mixed  in  several 
rebellions  against  him.  It  was  revived, 
however,  by  Conrad  II.  and  Henry  III. 
The  latter  was  invested  by  his  father 
with  the  two  dutchies  of  Swabia  and 
Bavaria.  Upon  his  own  accession,  he 
retained  the  former  for  six  years,  and 
even  the  latter  for  a  short  time.  The 
dutchy  of  Franconia,  which  became  va- 
cant, he  did  not  regrant,  but  endeavoured 
to  set  a  precedent  of  uniting  fiefs  to  the 
domain.  At  another  time,  after  sentence 
of  forfeiture  against  the  Duke  of  Bavaria, 
he  bestowed  that  great  province  on  his 
wife,  the  Emperess  Agnes.*  He  put  an 
end  altogether  to  the  form  of  popular 
concurrence,  which  had  been  usual  when 
the  investiture  of  a  dutchy  was  conferred : 
and  even  deposed  dukes  by  the  sentence 
of  a  few  princes,  without  the  consent  of 
the  diet.f  If  we  combine  with  these 
proofs  of  authority  in  the  domestic  ad- 
ministration of  Henry  III.,  his  almost 
unlimited  control  oveH^apal  elections, 
or  rather  the  right  of  nomination  that  he 
acquired,  we  must  consider  him  as  the 
most  absolute  monarch  in  the  annals  of 
Germany. 

These  ambitious  measures  of  Henry 
III.  prepared  fifty  years  of  ca-  unfortunate 
.amity  for  his  son.     It  is  easy  reign  of 
to  perceive  that  the  misfortunes  Henry  1V- 
of  Henry  IV.  were  primarily  occasioned 
3y  the  jealousy  with  which  repeated  vio- 
.ations  of  their  constitutional  usages  had 
inspired   the  nobility.J    The   mere   cir- 
cumstance of  Henry  IV. 's  minority,  under 


supposes  the  hereditary  rights  of  dukes  to  have 
commenced  under  Conrad  1.  ;  but  Schmidt  is  per- 
laps  a  better  authority ;  and  Struvius  afterward 
mentions  the  refusal  of  Otho  I.  to  grant  the  dutchy 
of  Bavaria  to  the  sons  of  the  last  duke,  which, 
however,  excited  a  rebellion,  p.  235. 

*  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  25,  37. 

t  Id.,  p.  207. 

J  In  the  very  first  year  of  Henry's  reign,  while 
tie  was  but  six  years  old,  the  princes  of  Saxony  are 
said  by  Lambert  of  Aschaffenburg  to  have  formed 
a  conspiracy  to  depose  him,  out  of  resentment  for 
the  injuries  they  had  sustained  from  his  father .- 
Struvius,  p.  306.  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  248. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


the  guardianship  of  a  woman,  was  enough 
to  dissipate  whatever  powers  his  fathei 
had  acquired.  Hanno,  archbishop  of 
Mentz,  carried  the  young  king  away  by 
force  from  his  mother,  and  governed 
Germany  in  his  name ;  till  another  arch- 
bishop, Adalbert  of  Bremen,  obtained 
greater  influence  over  him.  Through 
the  neglect  of  his  education,  Henry  grew 
up  with  a  character  not  well  fitted  to  re- 
trieve the  mischief  of  so  unprotected  a 
minority ;  brave  indeed,  well-natured,  and 
affable,  but  dissolute  beyond  measure,  and 
addicted  to  low  and  debauched  company 
[A.  D.  1073.]  He  was'soon  involved  in  a 
desperate  war  with  the  Saxons,  a  nation 
valuing  itself  on  its  populousness  and 
riches,  jealous  of  the  house  of  Franco- 
nia,  who  wore  a  crown  that  had  belonged 
to  their  own  dukes,  and  indignant  at 
Henry's  conduct  in  erecting  fortresses 
throughout  their  country. 

In  the  progress  of  this  war  many  of  the 
chief  princes  evinced  an  unwillingness  to 
support  the  emperor.*  Notwithstanding 
this,  it  would  probably  have  terminated, 
as  other  rebellions  had  done,  with  no  per- 
manent loss  to  either  party.  But,  in  the 
middle  of  this  contest,  another  far  more 
memorable  broke  out  with  the  Roman 
see,  concerning  ecclesiastical  investi- 
tures. The  motives  of  this  famous  quar- 
rel will  be  explained  in  a  different  chap- 
ter of  the  present  work.  Its  effect  in 
Germany  was  ruinous  to  Henry.  [A.  D. 
1077.]  A  sentence,  not  only  of  excom- 
munication, but  of  deposition,  which  Greg- 
ory VII.  pronounced  against  him,  gave  a 
pretence  to  all  his  enemies,  secret  as  well 
as  avowed,  to  withdraw  their  allegiance. f 
At  the  head  of  these  was  Rodolph,  duke 
of  Swabia,  whom  an  assembly  of  revolted 
princes  raised  to  the  throne.  We  may 
perceive,  in  the  conditions  of  Rodolph's 
election,  a  symptom  of  the  real  principle 
that  animated  the  German  aristocracy 
against  Henry  IV.  It  was  agreed  that 
the  kingdom  should  no  longer  be  heredi- 
tary, not  conferred  on  the  son  of  a  reign- 

*  Struvius.     Schmidt. 

f  A  party  had  been  already  formed  who  were 
meditating  to  depose  Henry.  His  excommunica- 
tion came  just  in  time  to  confirm  their  resolutions. 
It  appears  clearly,  upon  a  little  consideration  of 
Henry  IV.'s  reign,  that  the  ecclesiastical  quarrel 
was  only  secondary  in  the  eyes  of  Germany.  The 
contest  against  him  was  a  struggle  of  the  aristoc- 
racy, jealous  of  the  imperial  prerogatives  which 
Conrad  II.  and  Henry  III.  had  strained  to  the  ut- 
most. Those  who  were  in  rebellion  against  Henry 
were  not  pleased  with  Gregory  VII.  Bruno,  au- 
thor of  a  history  of  the  Saxon  war,  a  furious  invec- 
tive, manifests  great  dissatisfaction  with  the  court 
of  Rome,  which  he  reproaches  with  dissimulation 
and  venality. 


ing  monarch,  unless  his  merit  should 
challenge  the  popular  approbation.*  The 
pope  strongly  encouraged  this  plan  of 
rendering  the  empire  elective,  by  which 
he  hoped  either  eventually  to  secure  the 
nomination  of  its  chief  for  the  Holy  See, 
or,  at  least,  by  sowing  the  seed  of  civil 
dissensions  in  Germany,  to  render  Italy 
more  independent.  Henry  IV.  however 
displayed  greater  abilities  in  his  adversity 
than  his  early  conduct  had  promised. 
[A.  D.  1080.]  In  the  last  of  several  deci- 
sive battles,  Rodolph,  though  victorious, 
was  mortally  wounded ;  and  no  one  cared 
to  take  up  a  gauntlet  which  was  to  be 
won  with  so  much  trouble  and  uncer- 
tainty. The  Germans  were  sufficiently 
disposed  to  submit ;  but  Rome  persevered 
in  her  unrelenting  hatred.  At  the  close 
of  Henry's  long  reign,  she  excited  against 
him  his  eldest  son,  and  after  more  than 
thirty  years  of  hostility,  had  the  satisfac- 
tion of  wearing  him  down  with  misfortune, 
and  casting  out  his  body,  as  excommuni- 
cated, from  its  sepulchre. 

In  the  reign  of  his  son  Henry  V.  there 
is  no  event  worthy  of  much  at-  Extinction  or 
tention,  except  the  termination  the  House  of 
of  the  great  contest  about  in-  F 
vestitures.  At  his  death  in  1 125,  the  male 
line  of  the  Franconian  emperors  was  at 
an  end.  [A.  D.  1125.]  Frederick,  duke 
of  Swabia,  grandson  by  his  mother  of 
Henry  IV.,  had  inherited  their  patrimo- 
nial estates,  and  seemed  to  represent  their 
dynasty.  But  both  the  last  emperors  had 
so  many  .enemies,  ,and  a  disposition  to 
render  the  crown  elective  prevailed  so 
strongly  among  the  leading  princes,  that 
Lothaire,  duke  of  Saxony,  was  Election  of 
elevated  to  the  throne,  though  Lothaire. 
rather  in  a  tumultuous  and  irregular  man- 
ner, f  Lothaire,  who  had  been  engaged 
n  a  revolt  against  Henry  V.  and  the  chief 


*  Hoc  etiam  ibi  cpnsensu  communi  comproba- 
.um,  Romani  pontiflcis  auctoritate  est  corrobora- 
,um,  ut  regia  potestas  nulli  per  haereditatem,  sicut 
antea  fuit  consuetude,  cederet,  sed  filius  regis, 
etiamsi  valde  dignus  esset,  per  electionem  spqnta- 
neam,  non  per  successions  lineam,  rex  proveniret : 
si  vero  non  esset  dignus  regis  filius,  vel  si  nollet 
eum  populus,  quern  regem  facere  vellet,  haberet  in 
)otestate  populus. — Bruno  de  Bello  Saxonico,  apud 
Struvium,  p.  327. 

t  See  an  account  of  Lothaire's  election  by  a  con- 
emporary  writer,  in  Struvius,  p.  357.  See  also 
proofs  of  the  dissatisfaction  of  the  aristocracy  at  the 
•Vanconian  government.— Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  328. 
t  was  evidently  their  determination  to  render  the 
smpire  truly  elective  (Id.,  p.  335) ;  and  perhaps  we 
nay  date  that  fundamental  principle  of  the  Ger- 
manic constitution  from  the  accession  of  Lothaire. 
reviously  to  that  era,  birth  seems  to  have  given 
lot  only  a  fair  title  to  preference,  but  a  sort  of  in- 
hoate  right,  as  in  France,  Spain,  and  England, 
jothaire  signed  a  capitulation  at  his  accession. 


230 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    V. 


of  a  nation  that  bore  an  inveterate  hatred 
to  the  house  of  Franconia,  was  the  natu- 
ral enemy  of  the  new  family  that  derived 
its  importance  and  pretensions  from  that 
stock.  It  was  the  object  of  his  reign,  ac- 
cordingly, to  oppress  the  two  brothers, 
Frederick  and  Conrad,  of  the  Hohen- 
stauffen  or  Swabian  family.  By  this 
means  he  expected  to  secure  the  succes- 
sion of  the  empire  for  his  son-in-law. 
Henry,  surnamed  the  Proud,  who  mar- 
ried Lothaire's  only  child,  was  fourth  in 
descent  from  Welf,  son  of  Azon,  marquis 
of  Este,  by  Cunegonda,  heiress  of  a  dis- 
tinguished family,  the  Welfs  of  Altorf  in 
Swabia.  Her  son  was  invested  with  the 
dutchy  of  Bavaria  in  1071.  His  descend- 
ant, Henry  the  Proud,  represented  also, 
through  his  mother,  the  ancient  dukes 
of  Saxony,  surnamed  Billung,  from  whom 
he  derived  the  dutchy  of  Luneburg.  The 
wife  of  Lothaire  transmitted  to  her  daugh- 
ter the  patrimony  of  Henry  the  Fowler, 
consisting  of  Hanover  and  Brunswick. 
Besides  this  great  dowry,  Lothaire  be- 
stowed upon  his  son-in-law  the  dutchy  of 
Saxony,  in  addition  to  that  of  Bavaria.* 

This  amazing  preponderance,  however, 
tended  to  alienate  the  princes  of  Ger- 
many from  Lothaire's  views  in  favour  of 
Henry ;  and  the  latter  does  not  seem  to 
have  possessed  abilities  adequate  to  his 
eminent  station.  On  the  death  of  Lo- 
thaire in  1138,  the  partisans  of  the  house 
of  Swabia  made  a  hasty  and  irregular 
election  of  Conrad,  in  which  the  Saxon 
House  of  faction  found  itself  obliged  to 
Swabia.  acquiesce.f  The  new  emperor 
Conrad  in.  availed  himself  of  the  jealousy 
which  Henry  the  Proud's  aggrandizement 
had  excited.  [A.  IX  1138.]  Under  pre- 
tence that  two  dutchies  could  not  legally 
be  held  by  the  same  person,  Henry  was 
summoned  to  resign  one  of  them ;  and  on 
his  refusal,  the  diet  pronounced  that  he 
had  incurred  a  forfeiture  of  both.  Henry 
made  but  little  resistance,  and,  before  his 
death,  which  happened  soon  afterward, 
saw  himself  stripped  of  all  his  hereditary 
as  well  as  acquired  possessions.  Upon 
Original  of  this  occasion,  the  famous  names 
Gueifsand  of  Guelf  and  Ghibelin  were  first 
Ghibeims.  heard?  which  we-e  destined  to 

keep  alive  the  flame  of  civil  dissension  in 
far  distant  countries,  and  after  their  mean- 
ing had  been  forgotten.  The  Guelfs  or 
Welfs  were,  as  I  have  said,  the  ancestors 
of  Henry,  and  the  name  has  become  a 
sort  of  patronymic  in  his  family.  The 

*  Pfeffel,  Abrege  Chronologique  de  1'Histoire 
d'Allemagne,  t.  i.,  p.  269  (Paris,  1777).  Gibbon's 
Antiquities  of  the  House  of  Brunswick. 

f  Schmidt. 


word  Ghibelin  is  derived  from  Wibelung, 
a  town  in  Franconia,  whence  the  empe- 
rors of  that  line  are  said  to  have  sprung. 
The  house  of  Swabia  was  considered  in 
Germany  as  representing  that  of  Fran- 
conia ;  as  the  Guelfs  may,  without  much 
impropriety,  be  deemed  to  represent  the 
Saxon  line.* 

Though  Conrad  III.  left  a  son,  the 
choice  of  the  electors  fell,  at  Frederick 
his  own  request,  upon  his  neph-  arbarowa. 
ew,  Frederick  Barbarossa.f  The  most 
conspicuous  events  of  this  great  empe- 
ror's life  belong  to  the  history  of  Italy. 
At  home  he  was  feared  and  respected ; 
the  imperial  prerogatives  stood  as  high 
during  his  reign,  as,  after  their  previous 
decline,  it  was  possible  for  a  single  man 
to  carry  them.J  But  the  only  circum- 
stance which  appears  memorable  enough 
for  the  present  sketch,  is  the  second  fall 
of  the  Guelfs.  [A.  D.  1178.]  Fan  of  Hen- 
Henry  the  Lion,  son  of  Henry  ry the  Lion- 
the  Proud,  had  been  restored  by  Conrad 
III.  to  his  father's  dutchy  of  Saxony, 
resigning  his  claim  to  that  of  Bavaria, 
which  had  been  conferred  on  the  Mar- 
grave of  Austria.  This  renunciation, 
which  indeed  was  only  made  in  his  name 
during  childhood,  did  not  prevent  him 
from  urging  the  Emperor  Frederick  to 
restore  the  whole  of  his  birthright ;  and 
Frederick,  his  first  cousin,  whose  life  he 
had  saved  in  a  sedition  at  Rome,  was  in- 
duced to  comply  with  this  request  in  1156. 
Far  from  evincing  that  political  jealousy 
which  some  writers  impute  to  him,  the 
emperor  seems  to  have  carried  his  gen- 
erosity beyond  the  limits  of  prudence. 
For  many  years  their  union  was  appa- 
rently cordial.  But,  whether  it  was  that 
Henry  took  umbrage  at  part  of  Freder- 
ick's conduct,^  or  that  mere  ambition  ren- 
dered him  ungrateful,  he  certainly  aban- 
doned his  sovereign  in  a  moment  of  dis- 
tress, refusing  to  give  any  assistance  in 
that  expedition  into  Lombardy,  which  end- 
ed in  the  unsuccessful  battle  of  Legnano. 
Frederick  could  not  forgive  this  injury ; 
and  taking  advantage  of  complaints  which 
Henry's  power  and  haughtiness  had  pro- 
duced, summoned  him  to  answer  charges 
in  a  general  diet.  The  duke  refused  to 
appear,  and  being  adjudged  contumacious, 
a  sentence  of  confiscation,  similar  to  that 
which  ruined  his  father,  fell  upon  his 
head ;  and  the  vast  imperial  fiefs  that  he 


*  Struvius,  p.  370  and  378.  t  Ibid. 

t  Pfeffel,  p.  341. 

§  Frederick  had  obtained  the  succession  of  Welf, 
marquis  of  Tuscany,  uncle  of  Henry  the  Lion,  who 
probably  considered  himself  as  entitled  to  expect  it. 
—Schmidt,  p.  427. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


281 


possessed  were  shared  among  some  po- 
tent enemies.*  He  made  an  ineffectual 
resistance ;  like  his  father,  he  appears  to 
have  owed  more  to  fortune  than  to  na- 
ture ;  and,  after  three  years'  exile,  was 
obliged  to  remain  content  with  the  res- 
toration of  his  allodial  estates  in  Saxony. 
These,  fifty  years  afterward,  were  con- 
verted into  imperial  fiefs,  and  became 
the  two  dutchies  of  the  house  of  Bruns- 
wick, the  lineal  representatives  of  Henry 
the  Lion,  and  inheritors  of  the  name  of 
Guelf.f 

Notwithstanding  the  prevailing  spirit 
of  the  German  oligarchy,  Frederick  Bar- 
barossa  had  found  no  difficulty  in  procu- 
ring the  election  of  his  son  Henry,  even 
during  infancy,  as  his  successor.!  [A.  D. 
1190.]  The  fall  of  Henry  the 
Henry  vi.  Lion  had  greatly  weakened  the 
ducal  authority  in  Saxony  and  Bavaria ; 
the  princes  who  acquired  that  title,  es- 
pecially in  the  former  country,  finding 
that  the  secular  and  spiritual  nobility  of 
the  first  class  had  taken  the  opportunity 
to  raise  themselves  into  an  immediate 
dependance  upon  the  empire.  Henry  VI. 
came  therefore  to  the  crown  with  con- 
siderable advantages  in  respect  of  pre- 
rogative ;  and  these  inspired  him  with  a 
bold  scheme  of  declaring  the  empire  he- 
reditary. One  is  more  surprised  to  find 
that  he  had  no  contemptible  prospect  of 
success  in  this  attempt ;  fifty-two  princes, 
and  even  what  appears  hardly  credible, 
the  See  of  Rome,  under  Clement  III., 
having  been  induced  to  concur  in  it. 
But  the  Saxons  made  so  vigorous  an  op- 
position, that  Henry  did  not  think  it 
advisable  to  persevere. §  He  procured, 
however,  the  election  of  his  son  Freder- 
ick, an  infant  only  two  years  old.  But, 
the  emperor  dying  almost  immediately, 
a  powerful  body  of  princes,  supported  by 
Pope  Innocent  III.,  were  desirous  to 
withdraw  their  consent.  [A.  D.  1197.] 
Philip,  duke  of  Swabia,  the  late  king's 

*  Putter,  in  his  Historical  Development  of  the 
Constitution  of  the  German  Empire,  is  inclined  to 
consider  Henry  the  Lion  as  sacrificed  to  the  empe- 
ror's jealousy  of  the  Guelfs,  and  as  illegally  pro- 
scribed by  the  diet.  But  the  provocations  he  had 
given  Frederick  are  undeniable  ;  and,  without  pre- 
tending to  decide  on  a  question  of  German  history, 
I  do  not  see  that  there  was  any  precipitancy  or 
manifest  breach  of  justice  in  the  course  of  pro- 
ceedings against  him.  Schmidt,  Pfeftel,  and  Stru- 
vius  do  not  represent  the  condemnation  of  Henry 
as  unjust. 

f  Putter,  p.  220.  J  Struvius,  p.  418. 

§  Struvius,  p.  424.  Impetravit  a  subditis,  ut, 
cessante  pristina  Palatinorum  electione,  imperiurn 
in  ipsius  posteritatem,  distincta  proximorum  suc- 
cessione,  transiret,  et  sic  in  ipso  terminus  esset 
electionis,  principiumque  successive  dignitatis. — 
Gervaa.  Tilburiens.,  ibidem. 


brother,  unable  to  secure  his  ne-  phiiip  and 
phew's  succession,  brought  about  O'h° IV- 
his  own  election  by  one  party,  while 
another  chose  Otho  of  Brunswick,  young- 
er son  of  Henry  the  Lion.  This  double 
election  renewed  the  rivalry  between 
the  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins,  and  threw  Ger- 
many into  confusion  for  several  years. 
Philip,  whose  pretensions  appear  to  be 
the  mftre  legitimate  of  the  two,  gained 
ground  upon  his  adversary,  notwithstand- 
ing the  opposition  of  the  pope,  till  he 
was  assassinated,  in  consequence  of  a 
private  resentment.  [A.  D.  1208.]  Otho 
IV.  reaped  the  benefit  of  a  crime  in 
which  he  did  not  participate ;  and  be- 
came for  some  years  undisputed  sover- 
eign. But,  having  offended  the  pope 
by  not  entirely  abandoning  his  imperial 
rights  over  Italy,  he  had,  in  the  latter 
part  of  his  reign,  to  contend  against 
Frederick,  son  of  Henry  VI.,  who,  having 
grown  up  to  manhood,  came  into  Germa- 
ny as  heir  of  the  house  of  Swabia,  and, 
what  was  not  very  usual  in  his  own  his- 
tory or  that  of  his  family,  the  favoured 
candidate  of  the  Holy  See.  Otho  IV. 
had  been  almost  entirely  deserted,  ex- 
cept by  his  natural  subjects,  when  his 
death,  in  1218,  removed  every  difficulty, 
and  left  Frederick  II.  in  the  peaceable 
possession  of  Germany. 

The  eventful  life  of  Frederick  II.  was 
chiefly  passed  in  Italy.  To 
preserve  his  hereditary  domin-  ! 
ions,  and  chastise  the  Lombard  cities, 
were  the  leading  objects  of  his  political 
and  military  career.  He  paid  therefore 
but  little  attention  to  Germany,  from 
which  it  was  in  vain  for  any  emperor  to 
expect  effectual  assistance  towards  ob- 
jects of  his  own.  Careless  of  preroga- 
tives which  it  seemed  hardly  worth  an  ef- 
fort to  preserve,  he  sanctioned  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  princes,  which  may  be 
properly  dated  from  his  reign.  In  return, 
they  readily  elected  his  son  Henry  king 
of  the  Romans ;  and,  on  his.  being  impli- 
cated in  a  rebellion,  deposed  him  with 
equal  readiness,  and  substituted  his  broth- 
er Conrad  at  the  emperors  request,* 
But  in  the  latter  part  of  Frederick's  reign, 
the  deadly  hatred  of  Rome  penetrated  be- 
yond the  Alps.  After  his  sol-  Conge. 
emn  deposition  in  the  council  quencesof 
of  Lyons,  he  was  incapable,  in  ^  LC.°n"cil 
ecclesiastical  eyes,  of  holding 
the  imperial  sceptre.  [A.  D.  1245.]  In- 
nocent IV.  found  however  some  difficulty 
in  setting  up  a  rival  emperor.  Henry, 
landgrave  of  Thuringia,  made  an  indiffer- 

*  Struvius,  p.  457. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V. 


ent  figure  in  this  character.  [A.  D.  1248.] 
Upon  his  death,  William,  count  of  Hol- 
land, was  chosen  by  the  party  adverse  to 
Frederick  and  his  son  Conrad  ;  and,  after 
the  emperor's  death,  he  had  some  suc- 
cess against  the  latter.  It  is  hard  indeed 
to  say  that  any  one  was  actually  sover- 
eign for  twenty-two  years  that  followed 
the  death  of  Frederick  II. ;  a  period  of 
contested  title  and  universal  anarchy, 
Grand  in-  which  is  usually  denominated 
terregnum.  the  grand  interregnum.  [A.  D. 
1250-1272.]  On  the  decease  of  William 
of  Holland,  in  1256,  a  schism  among  the 
electors  produced  the  double  choice  of 
Richard  of  Richard,  earl  of  Cornwall,  and 
Cornwall.  Alfonso  X.,  king  of  Castile.  It 
seems  not  easy  to  determine  which  of 
these  candidates  had  a  legal  majority  of 
votes,*  but  the  subsequent  recognition 
of  almost  all  Germany,  and  a  sort  of  pos- 
session evidenced  by  public  acts,  which 
have  been  held  valid,  as  well  as  the  gener- 
al consent  of  contemporaries,  may  justify 
us  in  adding  Richard  to  the  imperial  list. 
The  choice  indeed  was  ridiculous,  as  he 
possessed  no  talents  which  could  compen- 
sate for  his  want  of  power ;  but  the  elec- 
tors attained  their  objects;  to  perpetuate 
a  state  of  confusion  by  which  their  own 
independence  was  consolidated,  and  to 
plunder  without  scruple  a  man,  like  Di- 
dius  at  Rome,  rich  and  foolish  enough  to 
purchase  the  first  place  upon  earth. 

That  place,  indeed,  was  now  become  a 
state  of  the  mockery  of  greatness.  For 
Germanic  more  than  two  centuries,  not- 
tion-  withstanding  the  temporary  in- 
fluence of  Frederick  Barbarossa  and  his 
son,  the  imperial  authority  had  been  in  a 
state  of  gradual  decay.  From  the  time 
of  Frederick  II.  it  had  bordered  upon  ab- 
solute insignificance  ;  and  the  more  pru- 
dent German  princes  were  slow  to  can- 
vass for  a  dignity  so  little  accompanied 

*  The  election  ought  legally  to  have  been  made 
at  Frankfort.  But  the  Elector  of  Treves,  having 
got  possession  of  the  town,  shut  out  the  archbish- 
ops of  Mentz  and  Cologne,  and  the  count  palatine, 
on  pretence  of  apprehending  violence.  They  met 
under  the  walls,  and  there  elected  Richard.  After- 
ward Alfonso  was  chosen  by  the  votes  of  Treves, 
Saxony,  and  Brandenburg.  Historians  differ  about 
the  vote  of  Ottocar,  king  of  Bohemia,  which  would 
turn  the  scale.  Some  time  after  the  election,  it  is 
certain  that  he  was  on  the  side  of  Richard.  Per- 
haps we  may  collect  from  the  opposite  statement 
in  Struvius,  p.  504,  that  the  proxies  of  Ottocar  had 
voted  for  Alfonso,  and  that  he  did  not  think  fit  to 
recognise  their  act. 

There  can  be  no  doubt  that  Richard  was  de  facto 
sovereign  of  Germany ;  and  it  is  singular  that 
Struvius  should  assert  the  contrary,  on  the  author- 
ity of  an  instrument  of  Rodolph,  which  expressly 
designates  him  king,  per  quondam  Richardum  re- 
gem  illustrem.— Struv.,  p.  502. 


by  respect.  The  changes  wrought  in  the 
Germanic  constitution  during  the  period 
of  the  Swabian  emperors  chiefly  consist 
in  the  establishment  of  an  oligarchy  of 
electors,  and  of  the  territorial  sovereignty 
of  the  princes. 

1.  At  the  extinction  of  the  Franconian 
line  by  the  death  of  Henry  V.,  it 
was  determined  by  the  German 
nobility  to  make  their  empire  practically 
elective,  admitting  no  right,  or  even  nat- 
ural pretension,  in  the  eldest  son  of  a 
reigning  sovereign.  Their  choice  upon 
former  occasions  had  been  made  by  free 
and  general  suffrage.  But  it  may  be  pre- 
sumed that  each  nation  voted  unanimous- 
ly, and  according  to  the  disposition  of  its 
duke.  It  is  probable,  jpo,  that  the  lead- 
ers, after  discussing  in  previous  delibera- 
tions the  merits  of  the  several  candidates, 
submitted  their  own  resolutions  to  the 
assembly,  which  would  generally  concur 
in  them  without  hesitation.  At  the  elec- 
tion of  Lothaire,  in  1124,  we  find  an  evi- 
dent instance  of  this  previous  choice,  or, 
as  it  was  called,  prataxation,  from  which 
the  electoral  college  of  Germany  has 
been  derived.  The  princes,  it  is  said, 
trusted  the  choice  of  an  emperor  to  ten 
persons,  in  whose  judgment  they  prom- 
ised to  acquiesce.*  This  precedent  was, 
in  all  likelihood,  followed  at  all  subse- 
quent elections.  The  proofs  indeed  are 
not  perfectly  clear.  But  in  the  famous 
privilege  of  Austria,  granted  by  Frederick 
I.,  in  1156,  he  bestows  a  rank  upon  the 
newly  created  duke  of  that  country,  im- 
mediately* after  the  electing  princes  (post 
principes  electores)  ;f  a  strong  presump- 
tion that  the  right  of  praetaxation  was  not 
only  established,  but  limited  to  a  few  def- 
inite persons.  In  a  letter  of  Innocent 
III.  concerning  the  double  election  of 
Philip  and  Otho,  in  1198,  he  asserts  the 
latter  to  have  had  a  majority  in  his  favour 
of  those  to  whom  the  right  of  election 
chiefly  belongs  (ad  quos  principaliter 
spectat  electio)4  And  a  ^aw  °f  Otho,  in 
1208,  if  it  be  genuine,  appears  to  fix  the 
exclusive  privilege  of  the  seven  electors. § 
Nevertheless,  so  obscure  is  this  important 
part  of  the  Germanic  system,  that  we 
find  four  ecclesiastical  and  two  secular 
princes  concurring  with  the  regular  elect- 
ors in  the  act,  as  reported  by  a  contem- 
porary writer,  that  creates  Conrad,  son 
of  Frederick  II.,  king  of  the  Romans. || 
This,  however,  may  have  been  an  irregu- 

*  Struv.,  p.  357.     Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  331. 
f  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  390.         J  Pfeffel,  p.  360. 
<j  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  80. 

||  This  is  not  mentioned  in  Struvius,  or  the  other 
German  writers.    But  Denina  (Rivoluzioni  d'lta- 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


233 


lar  deviation  from  the  principle  already 
established.  But  it  is  admitted,  that  all 
the  princes  retained,  at  least  during  the 
twelfth  century,  their  consenting  suf- 
frage ;  like  the  laity  in  an  episcopal  elec- 
tion, whose  approbation  continued  to  be 
necessary  long  after  the  real  power  of 
choice  had  been  withdrawn  from  them.* 
It  is  not  easy  to  account  for  all  the 
circumstances  that  gave  to  seven  spirit- 
ual and  temporal  princes  this  distinguish- 
ed pre-eminence.  The  three  archbish- 
ops, Mentz,  Treves,  and  Cologne,  were 
always  indeed  at  the  head  of  the  German 
church.  But  the  secular  electors  should 
naturally  have  been  the  dukes  of  four 
nations  :  Saxony,  Franconia,  Swabia,  and 
Bavaria.  We  find,  however,  only  the 
first  of  these  in  the  undisputed  exercise 
of  a  vote.  It  seems  probable  that,  when 
the  electoral  princes  came  to  be  distin- 
guished from  the  rest,  their  privilege  was 
considered  as  peculiarly  connected  with 
the  discharge  of  one  of  the  great  offices 
in  the  imperial  court.  These  were  at- 
tached, as  early  as  the  diet  of  Mentz,  in 
1184,  to  the  four  electors,  who  ever  af- 
terward possessed  them :  the  Duke  of 
Saxony  having  then  officiated  as  arch- 
marshal,  the  Count  Palatine  of  the  Rhine 
as  arch-steward,  the  King  of  Bohemia  as 
arch-cup-bearer,  and  the  Margrave  of 
Brandenburg  as  arch-chamberlain  of  the 
empire. f  But  it  still  continues  a  prob- 
lem why  the  three  latter  offices,  with  the 
electoral  capacity  as  their  incident,  should 
not  rather  have  been  granted  to  the  dukes 
of  Franconia,  Swabia,  and  Bavaria.  I 
have  seen  no  adequate  explanation  of 
this  circumstance ;  which  may  perhaps 
lead  us  to  presume  that  the  right  of  pre- 
election was  not  quite  so  soon  confined 
to  the  precise  number  of  seven  princes. 
The  final  extinction  of  two  great  origi- 
nal dutchies,  Franconia  and  Swabia,  in 
the  thirteenth  century,  left  the  electoral 
rights  of  the  count  palatine  and  the  Mar- 
grave of  Brandenburg  beyond  dispute. 
But  the  dukes  of  Bavaria  continued  to 
claim  a  vote  in  opposition  to  the  kings 
of  Bohemia.  At  the  election  of  Rodolph 
in  1272,  the  two  brothers  of  the  house  of 
Wittelsbach  voted  separately,  as  count 
palatine,  and  Duke  of  Lower  Bavaria. 
Ottocar  was  excluded  upon  this  occasion  ; 
and  it  was  not  till  1290  that  the  suffrage 

A 

lia,  1.  xi.,  c.  9)  quotes  the  style  of  the  act  of  elec- 
tion from  the  Chronicle  of  Francis  Pippin. 

*  This  is  manifest  by  the  various  passages  rela- 
ting to  the  elections  of  Philip  and  Otho,  quoted 
by  Struvius,  p.  428,  430.  See  too  Pfeffel,  ubi  su- 
pra. Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  79. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  78. 


of  Bohemia  was  fully  recognised.  The 
palatine  and  Bavarian  branches,  howev- 
er, continued  to  enjoy  their  family  vote 
conjointly,  by  a  determination  of  Rodolph ; 
upon  which  Louis  of  Bavaria  slightly  in- 
novated, by  rendering  the  suffrage  alter- 
nate. But  the  golden  bull  of  Charles  IV. 
put  an  end  to  all  doubts  on  the  rights  of 
electoral  houses,  and  absolutely  excluded 
Bavaria  from  voting.  The  limitation  to 
seven  electors,*  first  perhaps  fixed  by  ac- 
cident, came  to  be  invested  with  a  sort 
of  mysterious  importance,  and  certainly 
was  considered,  until  times  comparative- 
ly recent,  as  a  fundamental  law  of  the 
empire.* 

2.  It  might  appear  natural  to  expect 
that  an  oligarchy  of  seven  per- 
sons,  who  had  thus  excluded 
their  equals  from  all  share  in 
the  election  of  a  sovereign,  ity' 
would  assume  still  greater  authority,  and 
trespass  farther  upon  the  less  powerful 
vassals  of  the  empire.  But  while  the 
electors  were  establishing  their  peculiar 
privilege,  the  class  immediately  inferior 
raised  itself  by  important  acquisitions  of 
power.  The  German  dukes,  even  after 
they  became  hereditary,  did  not  succeed 
in  compelling  the  chief  nobility  within 
their  limits  to  hold  their  lands  in  fief  so 
completely  as  the  peers  of  France  had 
done.  The  nobles  of  Swabia  refused  to 
follow  their  duke  into  the  field  against 
the  Emperor  Conrad  II. f  Of  this  aristoc- 
racy the  superior  class  were  denominated 
princes ;  an  appellation  which,  after  the 
eleventh  century,  distinguished  them 
from  the  untitled  nobility,  most  of  whom 
were  their  vassals.  They  were  constit- 
uent parts  of  all  diets,  and  though  grad- 
ually deprived  of  their  original  participa- 
tion in  electing  an  emperor,  possessed, 
in  all  other  respects,  the  same  rights  as 
the  dukes  or  electors.  Some  of  them 
were  fully  equal  to  the  electors,  in  birth 
as  well  as  extent  of  dominions ;  such  as 
the  princely  houses  of  Austria,  Hesse, 
Brunswick,  and  Misnia.  By  the  division 
of  Henry  the  Lion's  vast  territories,^  and 
by  the  absolute  extinction  of  the  Swabian 
family  in  the  following  century,  a  great 
many  princes  acquired  additional  weight. 
Of  the  ancient  dutchies  only  Saxony  and 
Bavaria  remained  ;  the  former  of  which 
especially  was  so  dismembered,  that  it 
was  vain  to  attempt  any  renewal  of  the 


*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  78,  568.  Putter,  p.  274. 
Pfeffel,  p.  435, 565.  Struvius,  p.  51 1. 

t  Pfeffel,  p.  209. 

i  See  the  arrangements  made  in  consequence 
of  Henry's  forfeiture,  which  gave  quite  a  new  face 
to  Germany,  in  Pfeffel,  p.  234,  also  p.  437. 


234 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.     V 


ducal  jurisdiction.  That  of  the  emperor, 
formerly  exercised  by  the  counts  pala- 
tine, went  almost  equally  into  disuse  du- 
ring the  contest  between  Philip  and 
Otho  IV.  The  princes  accordingly  had 
acted  with  sovereign  independence  with- 
in their  own  fiefs  before  the  reign  of 
Frederick  II. ;  but  the  legal  recognition 
of  their  immunities  was  reserved  for  two 
edicts  of  that  emperor  ;  one  in  1220,  re- 
lating to  ecclesiastical,  and  the  other  in 
1232,  to  secular  princes.  By  these  he 
engaged  neither  to  levy  the  customary 
imperial  dues,  nor  to  permit  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  palatine  judges,  within  the 
limits  of  a  state  of  the  empire  ;*  conces- 
sions that  amounted  to  little  less  than  an 
abdication  of  his  own  sovereignty.  From 
this  epoch  the  territorial  independence  of 
the  states  may  be  dated. 

A  class  of  titled  nobility,  inferior  to  the 
princes,  were  the  counts  of  the  empire, 
who  seem  to  have  been  separated  from 
the  former  in  the  twelfth  century,  and  to 
have  lost  at  the  same  time  their  right  of 
voting  in  the  diets. f  In  some  parts  of 
Germany,  chiefly  in  Franconia  and  upon 
the  Rhine,  there  always  existed  a  very 
numerous  body  of  lower  nobility;  unti- 
tled,  at  least  till  modern  times,  but  sub- 
ject to  no  superior  except  the  emperor. 
These  are  supposed  to  have  become  im- 
mediate, after  the  destruction  of  the  house 
of  Swabia,  within  whose  dutchies  they 
had  been  comprehended. J 

[A.  D.  1272.]  A  short  interval  elapsed 
Election  of  a^ter  tne  death  of  Richard  of 
Rodoiphof  Cornwall,  before  the  electors 
Hapsburg.  cou\&  be  induced,  by  the  deplo- 
rable state  of  confusion  into  which  Ger- 
many had  fallen,  to  fill  the  imperial 
throne.  Their  choice  was  however  the 
best  that  could  have  been  made.  It  fell 
upon  Rodolph,  count  of  Hapsburg,  a 
prince  of  very  ancient  family,  and  of 
considerable  possessions  as  well  in  Swis- 
serland  as  upon  each  bank  of  the  upper 
Rhine,  but  not  sufficiently  powerful  to 
alarm  the  electoral  oligarchy.  Rodolph 
was  brave,  active,  and  just ;  but  his  char- 
acteristic quality  appears  to  have  been 
good  sense,  and  judgment  of  the  circum- 
stances in  which  he  was  placed.  Of  this 
he  gave  a  signal  proof  in  relinquishing 
the  favourite  project  of  so  many  prece- 
ding emperors,  and  leaving  Italy  alto- 


gether to  itself.  At  home  he  manifested 
a  vigilant  spirit  in  administering  justice, 
and  is  said  to  have  destroyed  seventy 
strongholds  of  noble  robbers  in  Thurin- 
gia  and  other  parts,  bringing  many  of  the 
criminals  to  capital  punishment.*  But 
he  wisely  avoided  giving  offence  to  the 
more  powerful  princes;  and  during  his 
reign  there  were  hardly  any  rebellions 
in  Germany. 

It  was  a  very  reasonable  object  of 
every  emperor  to  aggrandize  his  investment 
family  by  investing  his  near  °f;.his  so" 
kindred  with  vacant  fiefs ;  but  dutch"  of 
no  one  was  so  fortunate  in  his  Austria, 
opportunities  as  Rodolph.  At  his  acces- 
sion, Austria,  Styria,  and  Carniola  were 
in  the  hands  of  Ottocar,  king  of  Bohe- 
mia. These  extensive  and  fertile  coun- 
tries had  been  formed  into  a  march  or 
margraviate,  after  the  victories  of  Otho 
he  Great  over  the  Hungarians.  Frederick 
Barbarossa  erected  them  into  a  dutchy, 
vith  many  distinguished  privileges,  espe- 
ially  that  of  female  succession,  hitherto 
unknown  in  the  feudal  principalities  of 
jermany.f  Upon  the  extinction  of  the 
louse  of  Bamberg,  which  had  enjoyed 
his  dutchy,  it  was  granted  by  Frederick 
I.  to  a  cousin  of  his  own  name ;  after 
whose  death  a  disputed  succession  gave 
rise  to  several  changes,  and  ultimately 
enabled  Ottocar  to  gain  possession  of  the 
country.  Against  this  King  of  Bohemia 
Rodolph  waged  two  successive  wars,  and 
recovered  the  Austrian  provinces,  which, 
as  vacant  fiefs,  he  conferred,  with  the 
consent  of  the  diet,  upon  his  son  Albert. t 
rA.  D.  1283.] 


*  Pfeffel,  p.  384.    Putter,  p.  233. 

t  In  the  instruments  relating  to  the  election  of 
Otho  IV.,  the  princes  sign  their  names,  Ego  N, 
elegi  et  subscripsi.    But  the  counts  only  as  follows 
Ego  N.  consensi  et  subscripsi. — Pfeffel,  p.  360. 

t  Pfeflel,  p.  445.    Putter,  p.  254.    Struvius,  p 
511. 


*  Struvius,  p.  530.  Coxe's  Hist,  of  House  of 
Austria,  p.  57.  This  valuable  work  contains  a  full 
and  interesting  account  of  Rodolph's  reign. 

t  The  privileges  of  Austria  were  granted  to  the 
Margrave  Henry  in  1156,  by  way  of  indemnity  for 
lis  restituiion  of  Bavaria  to  Henry  the  Lion.  The 
territory  between  the  Inn  and  the  Ems  was  sep- 
arated from  the  latter  province,  and  annexed  to 
Austria  at  this  time.  The  Dukes  of  Austria  are 
declared  equal  in  rank  to  the  palatine  archdukes 
'archi-ducibus  palatinis).  This  expression  gave  a 
hint  to  the  Duke  Rodolph  IV.  to  assume  the  title 
of  Archduke  of  Austria.— Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  390. 
Frederick  II.  even  created  the  Duke  of  Austria 
king:  a  very  curious  fact,  though  neither  .he  nor 
his  successors  ever  assumed  the  title.— Struvius, 
p.  463.  The  instrument  runs  as  follows  :  Duca- 
tus  Austriae  et  Styriae,  cum  pertinentiis  et  termi- 
nis  suis  quot  hactenus  habuit,  ad  nomen  et  honorem 
regium  transferentes,  te  hact»nus  ducatuum,  prae- 
dictorum  ducem,  de  potestatis  nostrse  plenitudine  et 
magnificentia  speciali  promovemus  in  regem,  per 
libertates  et  jura  prsedictum  regnum  tuum  praesen- 
tis  epigrammatis  auctoritate  donantes,  quae  regiam 
deceant  dignitatem  :  ut  tamen  ex  honore  quem  tibi 
libenter  addimus,  nihil  honoris  et  juris  nostri  dia 
dematis  aut  imperil  subtrahatur. 
t  Struvius,  p.  525.  Schmidt.  Coxe. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


235 


Notwithstanding  the  merit  and  popu- 
stateofthe  larity  of  Rodolph ,  the  electors 
empire  after  refused  to  choose  his  son  King 
Kodoiph.  Of  the  Romans  in  his  lifetime  ; 
and,  after  his  death,  determined  to  avoid 
Adoiphus  tne  appearance  of  hereditary 
succession,  put  Adoiphus  of 
A1ib293!'  Nassau  upon  the  throne.  There 
Henry "vii.  is  very  little  to  attract  notice 
.  13.08jv  in  the  domestic  history  of  the 
°i3U.  '  empire  during  the  next  two 
Charles  iv.  centuries.  From  Adoiphus  to 
We3nc7esiaus  Sigismund,  every  emperor  had 

1378.  either  to  struggle  against  a 
R°ib4oo  competitor,  claiming  the  ma- 
Sigismund  jority  of  votes  at  his  election, 

1414.  or  against  a  combination  of 
the  electors  to  dethrone  him.  The  impe- 
rial authority  became  more  and  more  in- 
effective ;  yet  it  was  frequently  made  a 
subject  of  reproach  against  the  emperors, 
that  they  did  not  maintain  a  sovereignty 
to  which  no  one  was  disposed  to  submit. 

It  may  appear  surprising,  that  the  Ger- 
manic confederacy,  under  the  nominal 
supremacy  of  an  emperor,  should  have 
been  preserved  in  circumstances  appa- 
rently so  calculated  to  dissolve  it.  But, 
besides  the  natural  effect  of  prejudice 
and  a  famous  name,  there  were  sufficient 
reasons  to  induce  the  electors  to  pre- 
serve a  form  of  government  in  which 
they  bore  so  decided  a  sway.  Accident 
had  in  a  considerable  degree  restricted 
the  electoral  suffrages  to  seven  princes. 
Without  the  college,  there  were  houses 
more  substantially  powerful  than  any 
within  it.  The  dutchy  of  Saxony  had 
been  subdivided  by  repeated  partitions 
among  children,  till  the  electoral  right 
was  vested  in  a  prince  who  possessed 
only  the  small  territory  of  Wittenberg. 
The  great  families  of  Austria,  Bavaria, 
and  Luxemburg,  though  not  electoral, 
were  the  real  heads  of  the  German  body ; 
and  though  the  two  former  lost  much  of 
their  influence  for  a  time  through  the  per- 
nicious custom  of  partition,  the  empire 
seldom  looked  for  its  head  to  any  other 
house  than  one  of  these  three. 

While  the  dutchies  and  counties  of  Ger- 
Custom  of  many  retained  their  original  char- 
partition,  acter  of  offices  or  governments, 
they  were  of  course,  even  though  consid- 
ered as  hereditary,  not  subject  to  parti- 
tion among  children.  When  they  ac- 
quired the  nature  of  fiefs,  it  was  still  con- 
sonant to  the  principles  of  a  feudal  ten- 
ure, that  the  eldest  son  should  inherit  ac- 
cording to  the  law  of  primogeniture  ;  an 
inferior  provision,  or  appanage,  at  most, 
being  reserved  for  the  younger  children. 
The  law  of  England  favoured  the  eldest 


exclusively;  that  of  France  gave  him 
great  advantages.  But  in  Germany  a  dif- 
ferent rule  began  to  prevail  about  the 
thirteenth  century.*  An  equal  partition 
of  the  inheritance,  without  the  least  re- 
gard to  priority  of  birth,  was  the  general 
law  of  its  principalities.  Sometimes  this 
was  effected  by  undivided  possession,  or 
tenancy  in  common,  the  brothers  resi- 
ding together  and  reigning  jointly.  This 
tended  to  preserve  the  integrity  of  domin- 
ion ;  but  as  it  was  frequently  incommo- 
dious, a  more  usual  practice  was  to  di- 
vide the  territory.  From  such  partitions 
are  derived  those  numerous  independent 
principalities  of  the  same  house,  many 
of  which  still  subsist  in  Germany.  In 
1589,  there  were  eight  reigning  princes 
of  the  palatine  family ;  and  fourteen,  in 
1675,  of  that  of  Saxony.f  Originally, 
these  partitions  were  in  general  absolute 
and  without  reversion ;  but,  as  their  ef- 
fect in  weakening  families  became  evi- 
dent, a  practice  was  introduced  of  ma- 
king compacts  of  reciprocal  succession, 
by  which  a  fief  was  prevented  from  es- 
cheating to  the  empire,  until  all  the  male 
posterity  of  the  first  feudatary  should  be 
extinct.  Thus,  while  the  German  em- 
pire survived,  all  the  princes  of  Hesse  or 
of  Saxony  had  reciprocal  contingencies 
of  succession,  or  what  our  lawyers  call 
cross-remainders,  to  each  other's  domin- 
ions. A  different  system  was  gradually 
adopted.  By  the  Golden  Bull  of  Charles 
IV.,  the  electoral  territory,  that  is,  the 
particular  district  to  which  the  electoral 
suffrage  was  inseparably  attached,  be- 
came incapable  of  partition,  and  was  to 
descend  to  the  eldest  son.  In  the  fif- 
teenth century,  the  present  house  of 
Brandenburg  set  the  first  example  of  es- 
tablishing primogeniture  by  law;  the 
principalities  of  Anspach  and  Bayreuth 
were  dismembered  from  it  for  the  benefit 
of  younger  branches  ;  but  it  was  declared 
that  all  the  other  dominions  of  the  family 
should  for  the  future  belong  exclusively 
to  the  reigning  elector.  This  politic 
measure  was  adopted  in  several  other 
families ;  but,  even  in  the  sixteenth  cen- 
tury, the  prejudice  was  not  removed,  and 
some  German  princes  denounced  curses 
on  their  posterity  if  they  should  introduce 
the  impious  custom  of  primogeniture. J 
Weakened  by  these  subdivisions,  the 


*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  66.  Pfeffel,  p.  289,  main- 
tains that  partitions  were  not  introduced  till  the 
latter  end  of  the  thirteenth  century.  This  may 
be  true,  as  a  general  rule  ;  but  I  find  the  house  of 
Baden  divided  into  two  branches,  Baden  and  Hoch- 
berg,  in  1190,  with  rights  of  mutual  reversion. 

f  Pfeffel,  ib.    Putter,  p.  189.  J  Id.,  p.  280. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V. 


principalities  of  Germany  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries  shrink  to  a 
more  and  more  diminutive  size  in  the 
scale  of  nations.  But  one  family,  the 
most  illustrious  of  the  former  age,  was 
less  exposed  to  this  enfeebling  system. 
House  of  Henry  VII.,  count  of  Luxem- 
Luxemburg.  burg,  a  man  of  much  more  per- 
sonal merit  than  hereditary  importance, 
was  elevated  to  the  empire  in  1308.  Most 
part  of  his  short  reign  he  passed  in  Italy ; 
but  he  had  a  fortunate  opportunity  of  ob- 
taining the  crown  of  Bohemia  for  his 
son.  John,  king  of  Bohemia,  did  not 
himself  wear  the  imperial  crown;  but 
three  of  his  descendants  possessed  it 
with  less  interruption  than  could  have 
been  expected.  His  son  Charles  IV. 
succeeded  Louis  of  Bavaria  in  1347 ;  not 
indeed  without  opposition,  for  a  double 
election  and  a  civil  war  were  matters  of 
course  in  Germany.  Charles  IV.  has 
been  treated  with  more  derision  by  his 
contemporaries,  and  consequently  by 
later  writers,  than  almost  any  prince  in 
history ;  yet  he  was  remarkably  success- 
ful in  the  only  objects  that  he  seriously 
pursued.  Deficient  in  personal  courage, 
insensible  of  humiliation,  bending  with- 
out shame  to  the  pope,  to  the  Italians,  to 
the  electors,  so  poor  and  so  little  rever- 
enced as  to  be  arrested  by  a  butcher  at 
Worms  for  want  of  paying  his  demand, 
Charles  IV.  affords  a  proof  that  a  certain 
dexterity  and  cold-blooded  perseverance 
may  occasionally  supply,  in  a  sovereign, 
the  want  of  more  respectable  qualities. 
He  has  been  reproached  with  neglecting 
the  empire.  But  he  never  designed  to 
trouble  himself  about  the  empire,  except 
for  his  private  ends.  He  did  not  neglect 
the  kingdom  of  Bohemia,  to  which  he  al- 
most seemed  to  render  Germany  a  prov- 
ince. Bohemia  had  been  long  consid- 
ered as  a  fief  of  the  empire,  and  indeed 
could  pretend  to  an  electoral  vote  by  no 
other  title.  Charles,  however,  gave  the 
states  by  law  the  right  of  choosing  a  king, 
on  the  extinction  of  the  royal  family, 
which  seems  derogatory  to  the  imperial 
prerogative.*  It  was  much  more  mate- 
rial that,  upon  acquiring  Brandenburg, 
partly  by  conquest  and  partly  by  a  com- 
pact of  succession  in  1373,  he  not  only 
invested  his  sons  with  it,  which  was  con- 
formable to  usage,  but  annexed  that  elec- 
torate for  ever  to  the  kingdom  of  Bohe- 
mia, f  He  constantly  resided  at  Prague, 
where  he  founded  a  celebrated  university, 
and  embellished  the  city  with  buildings. 

*  Struvius,  p.  641. 

t  Pfeffel,  p.  575.    Schmidt,  t.  iv.t  p.  595. 


This  kingdom,  augmented  also  during  his 
reign  by  the  acquisition  of  Silesia,  he  be- 
queathed to  his  son  Wenceslaus,  for 
whom,  by  pliancy  towards  the  electors 
and  the  court  of  Rome,  he  had  procured, 
against  all  recent  example,  the  imperial 
succession.* 

The  reign  of  Charles  IV.  is  distinguish- 
ed in  the  constitutional  history  of  the 
empire  by  his  Golden  Bull ;  an  in-  Golden 
strument  which  finally  ascertained  Buli- 
the  prerogatives  of  the  electoral  college. 
[A.  D.  1355.]  The  Golden  Bull  termina- 
ted the  disputes  which  had  arisen  be- 
tween different  members  of  the  same 
house  as  to  their  right  of  suffrage,  which 
was  declared  inherent  in  certain  definite 
territories.  The  number  was  absolutely 
restrained  to  seven.  The  place  of  legal 
imperial  elections  was  fixed  at  Frankfort ; 
of  coronations,  at  Aix-la-Chapelle ;  and 
the  latter  ceremony  was  to  be  performed 
by  the  Archbishop  of  Cologne.  These 
regulations,  though  consonant  to  ancient 
usage,  had  not  always  been  observed, 
and  their  neglect  had  sometimes  excited 
questions  as  to  the  validity  of  elections. 
The  dignity  of  elector  was  enhanced  by 
the  Golden  Bull  as  highly  as  an  imperial 
edict  could  carry  it ;  they  were  declared 
equal  to  kings,  and  conspiracy  against 
their  persons  incurred  the  penalty  of  high 
treason. f  Many  other  privileges  are 
granted  to  render  them  more  completely 
sovereign  within  their  dominions.  It 
seems  extraordinary  that  Charles  should 
have  voluntarily  elevated  an  oligarchy, 
from  whose  pretensions  his  predecessors 
had  frequently  suffered  injury.  But  he 
had  more  to  apprehend  from  the  two 
great  families  of  Bavaria  and  Austria, 
whom  he  relatively  depressed  by  giving 
such  a  preponderance  to  the  seven  elec- 
tors, than  from  any  members  of  the  col- 
lege. By  this  compact  with  Branden- 
Durg  he  had  a  fair  prospect  of  adding  a 
second  vote  to  his  own ;  and  there  was 
more  room  for  intrigue  and  management, 
which  Charles  always  preferred  to  arms, 
with  a  small  number,  than  with  the  whole 
body  of  princes. 

The  next  reign,  "nevertheless,  evinced 
the  danger  of  investing  the  elec-  Deposition 
tors    with   such  preponderating  of  Wen- 
authority.     Wenceslaus,    a   su-  ceslaus- 
Dine  and  voluptuous  man,  less  respected, 
and  more  negligent  of  Germany,  if  pos- 


*  Struvius.  p.  637. 

t  Pfeffel,  p.  565.  Putter,  p.  271.  Schmidt,  t. 
v.,  p.  566.  The  Golden  Bull  not  only  fixed  the 
)alatine  vote,  in  absolute  exclusion  of  Bavaria,  but 
settled  a  controversy  of  long  standing  between  the 
,wo  branches  of  the  house  of  Saxony,  Wittenberg 
md  Lauenberg,  in  favour  of  the  former. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


237 


sible,  than  his  father,  was  regularly  de- 
posed by  a  majority  of  the  electoral  col- 
lege in  1400.  This  right,  if  it  is  to  be 
considered  as  a  right,  they  had  already 
used  against  Adolphus  of  Nassau  in  1298, 
and  against  Louis  of  Bavaria  in  1346. 
They  chose  Robert  count  palatine  in- 
stead of  Wenceslaus;  and  though  the 
latter  did  not  cease  to  have  some  adhe- 
rents, Robert  has  generally  been  counted 
among  the  lawful  emperors.*  Upon  his 
death  the  empire  returned  to  the  house  of 
Luxemburg ;  Wenceslaus  himself  waiv- 
ing his  right  in  favour  of  his  brother  Si- 
gismund,  king  of  Hungary. f 

The  house  of  Austria  had  hitherto  giv- 
House  of  en  but  two  emperors  to  Germa- 
Austria.  nV)  Rodolph,  its  founder,  and  his 
son  Albert,  whom  a  successful  rebellion 
elevated  in  the  place  of  Adolphus.  Upon 
the  death  of  Henry  of  Luxemburg,  in 
1313,  Frederick,  son  of  Albert,  disputed 
the  election  of  Louis,  duke  of  Bavaria, 
alleging  a  majority  of  genuine  votes. 
This  produced  a  civil  war,  in  which  the 
Austrian  party  were  entirely  worsted. 
Though  they  advanced  no  pretensions  to 
the  imperial  dignity  during  the  rest  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  the  princes  of 
that  line  added  to  their  possessions  Ca- 
rinthia,  Istria,  and  the  Tyrol.  As  a  coun- 
terbalance to  these  acquisitions,  they  lost 
a  great  part  of  their  ancient  inheritance 
by  unsuccessful  wars  with  the  Swiss. 
According  to  the  custom  of  partition,  so 
injurious  to  princely  houses,  their  domin- 
ions were  divided  among  three  branches  : 
one  reigning  in  Austria,  a  second  in  Styria 
and  the  adjacent  provinces,  a  third  in  the 
Tyrol  and  Alsace.  [A.  D.  1438.] 
l<  This  had  in  a  considerable  degree 
eclipsed  the  glory  of  the  house  of  Haps- 
burg.  But  it  was  now  its  destiny  to  re- 
vive, and  to  enter  upon  a  career  of  pros- 
perity which  has  never  since  been  per- 
manently interrupted.  Albert,  duke  of 
Austria,  who  had  married  Sigismund's 
only  daughter,  the  queen  of  Hungary  and 
Bohemia,  was  raised  to  the  imperial 
throne  upon  the  death  of  his  father-in- 


*  Many  of  the  cities,  besides  some  princes,  con- 
tinued to  recognise  Wenceslaus  throughout  the  life 
of  Robert ;  and  the  latter  was  so  much  considered 
as  a  usurper  by  foreign  states,  that  his  ambassa- 
dors were  refused  admittance  at  the  council  of  Pisa. 
— Struvius,  p.  658. 

t  This  election  of  Sigismund  was  not  uncontest- 
ed :  Josse.  or  Jodocus,  margrave  of  Moravia,  hav- 
ing been  chosen,  as  far  as  appears,  by  a  legal  major- 
ity. However,  his  death,  within  three  months,  re- 
moved the  difficulty ;  and  Josse,  who  was  not  crown- 
ed at  Frankfort,  has  never  been  reckoned  among 
the  emperors,  though  modern  critics  agree  that  his 
title  was  legitimate.-— Struv.,  p.  684.  Pfeffel,  p. 


law  in  1437.  He  died  in  two  years,  leav- 
ing his  wife  pregnant  with  a  son,  Ladis- 
laus  Posthumus,  who  afterward  reigned 
in  the  two  kingdoms  just  mentioned ;  and 
the  choice  of  the  electors  fell  upon  Fred- 
erick, duke  of  Styria,  second  cousin  of 
the  last  emperor,  from  whose  posterity 
it  never  departed,  except  in  a  single  in- 
stance, upon  the  extinction  of  his  male 
line  in  1740. 

Frederick  III.  reigned  fifty-three  years ; 
a  longer  period  than  any  of  his  Reign  of 
predecessors ;  and  his  person-  Frederick  in. 
al  character  was  more  insignificant.  [A. 
D.  1440-1493.]  With  better  fortune  than 
could  be  expected,  considering  both  these 
circumstances,  he  escaped  any  overt  at- 
tempt to  depose  him,  though  such  a  pro- 
ject was  sometimes  in  agitation.  He 
reigned  during  an  interesting  age,  full  of 
remarkable  events,  and  big  with  others 
of  more  leading  importance.  The  de- 
struction of  the  Greek  empire,  and  ap- 
pearance of  the  victorious  crescent  upon 
the  Danube,  gave  an  unhappy  distinction 
to  the  earlier  years  of  his  reign,  and  dis- 
played his  mean*  and  pusillanimous  char- 
acter in  circumstances  which  demanded 
a  hero.  At  a  later  season  he  was  drawn 
into  contentions  with  France  and  Bur- 
gundy, which  ultimately  produced  a  new 
and  more  general  combination  of  Europe- 
an politics.  Frederick,  always  poor,  and 
scarcely  able  to  protect  himself  in  Aus- 
tria from  the  seditions  of  his  subjects,  or 
the  inroads  of  the  King  of  Hungary,  was 
yet  another  founder  of  his  family,  and 
left  their  fortunes  incomparably  more 
prosperous  than  at  his  accession.  The 
marriage  of  his  son  Maximilian  with  the 
heiress  of  Burgundy  began  that  aggran- 
dizement of  the  house  of  Austria  which 
Frederick  seems  to  have  anticipated.* 
The  electors,  who  had  lost  a  good  deal 
of  their  former  spirit,  and  were  grown 
sensible  of  the  necessity  of  choosing  a 
powerful  sovereign,  made  no  opposition 
to  Maximilian's  becoming  king  of  the 
Romans  in  his  father's  lifetime.  The 
Austrian  provinces  were  reunited,  either 
under  Frederick,  or  in  the  first  years  of 
Maximilian  ;  so  that,  at  the  close  of  that 


*  The  famous  device  of  Austria,  A.  E.  I.  O.  U., 
was  first  used  by  Frederick  III.,  who  adopted  it  on 
his  plate,  books,  and  buildings.  These  initials 
stand  for  Austriae  Est  Imperare  Orbi  Universe  ;  or, 
in  German,  Alles  Erdreich  1st  Osterreich  Unter- 
than :  a  bold  assumption  for  a  man  who  was  not  safe 
in  an  inch  of  his  dominions.— Struvius,  p.  722.  He 
confirmed  the  arch-ducal  title  of  his  family,  whkh 
might  seem  implied  in  the  original  grant  of  Freder- 
ick I.,  and  bestowed  other  high  privileges  above 
all  princes  of  the  empire.  These  are  enumerated 
in  Coxe's  house  of  Austria,  vol.  i.,  p.  263. 


238 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


f 

[CHAP.  V. 


period  which  we  denominate  the  Middle 
Ages,  the  German  empire,  sustained  by 
the  patrimonial  dominions  of  its  chief,  be- 
came again  considerable  in  the  scale  of 
nations,  and  capable  of  preserving  a  bal- 
ance between  the  ambitious  monarchies 
of  France  and  Spain. 

The  period  between  Rodolph  and  Fred- 
Progress  or  erick  IIT.  is  distinguished  by  no 
free  imp*-  circumstance  so  interesting  as 
rial  cities,  fae  prosperous  state  of  the  free 
imperial  cities,  which  had  attained  their 
maturity  about  the  commencement  of 
that  interval.  We  find  the  cities  of  Ger- 
many, in  the  tenth  century,  divided  into 
such  as  depended  immediately  upon  the 
empire,  which  were  usually  governed  by 
their  bishop  as  imperial  vicar,  and  such 
as  were  included  in  the  territories  of  the 
dukes  and  counts.*  Some  of  the  former, 
lying  principally  Upon  the  Rhine  and  in 
Franconia,  acquired  a  certain  degree  of 
importance  before  the  expiration  of  the 
eleventh  century.  Worms  and  Cologne 
manifested  a  zealous  attachment  to  Hen- 
ry IV.,  whom  they  supported  in  despite 
of  their  bishops. f  His  son  Henry  V. 
granted  privileges  of  enfranchisement 
to  the  inferior  townsmen  or  artisans, 
who  had  hitherto  been  distinguished  from 
the  upper  class  of  freemen,  and  particu- 
larly relieved  them  from  oppressive  usa- 
ges, which  either  gave  the  whole  of  their 
moveable  goods  to  the  lord  upon  their 
decease,  or  at  least  enabled  him  to  seize 
the  best  chattel  as  his  heriot.J  He  took 
away  the  temporal  authority  of  the  bish- 
op, at  least  in  several  instances,  and  re- 
stored the  cities  to  a  more  immediate  de- 
pendance  upon  the  empire.  The  citizens 
were  classed  in  companies,  according 
to  their  several  occupations;  an  in- 
stitution which  was  speedily  adopted 
in  other  commercial  countries.  It  does 
not  appear  that  any  German  city  had  ob- 
tained, under  this  emperor,  those  privile- 
ges of  choosing  its  own  magistrates, 
which  were  conceded  about  the  same 
time,  in  a  few  instances,  to  those  of 
France. §  Gradually,  however,  they  be- 
gan to  elect  councils  of  citizens  as  a  sort 
of  senate  and  magistracy.  This  innova- 
tion might  perhaps  take  place  as  early  as 


*  Pieffel,  p.  187.  The  Othos  adopted  the  same 
policy  in  Germany  which  they  had  introduced  in 
Italy,  conferring  the  temporal  government  of  cities 
upon  the  bishops  ;  probably  as  a  counterbalance  to 
the  lay  aristocracy. — Putter,  p.  136.  Struvius, 
p.  252. 

f  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  239. 

t  Schmidt,  p.  242.  Pfeffel,  p.  293.  Dumont, 
Corps  Diplomatique,  t.  i.,  p.  64. 

$  Schmidt,  p.  245, 


the  reign  of  Frederick  I,  ;*  at  least  it  was 
fully  established  in  that  of  his  grandson. 
They  were  at  first  only  assistants  to  the 
imperial  or  episcopal  bailiff,  who  proba- 
bly continued  to  administer  criminal  jus- 
tice. But,  in  the  thirteenth  century,  the 
citizens,  grown  richer  and  stronger,  ei- 
ther purchased  the  jurisdiction,  or  usurp- 
ed it  through  the  lord's  neglect,  or  drove 
out  the  bailiff  by  force. f  The  great  rev- 
olution in  Franconia  and  Swabia  occa- 
sioned by  the  fall  of  the  Hohenstauffen 
family,  completed  the  victory  of  the  cit- 
ies. Those  which  had  depended  upon 
mediate  lords  became  immediately  con- 
nected with  the  empire;  and  with  the 
empire  in  its  state  of  feebleness,  when  an 
occasional  present  of  money  would  easi- 
ly induce  its  chief  to  acquiesce  in  any 
claims  of  immunity  which  the  citizens 
might  prefer. 

It  was  a  natural  consequence  of  the 
importance  which  the  free  citizens  had 
reached,  and  of  their  immediacy,  that 
they  were  admitted  to  a  place  in  the 
diets,  or  general  meetings  of  the  confed- 
eracy. They  were  tacitly  acknowledged 
to  be  equally  sovereign  with  the  electors 
and  princes.  ,  No  proof  exists  of  any  law 
by  which  they  were  adopted  into  the 
diet.  We  find  it  said  that  Rodolph  of 
Hapsburg,  in  1291,  renewed  his  oath 
with  the  princes,  lords,  and  cities.  Under 
the  Emperor  Henry  VII.  there  is  unequiv- 
ocal mention  of  the  three  orders  compo- 
sing the  diet ;  electors,  princes,  and  dep- 
uties from  cities. |  And,  in  1344,  they  ap- 
pear as  a  third  distinct  college  in  the 
diet  of  Frankfort. § 

The  inhabitants  of  these  free  cities  al- 
ways preserved  their  respect  for  the  em- 
peror, and  gave  him  much  less  vexation 
than  his  other  subjects.  He  was  indeed 
their  natural  friend.  But  their  nobility 
and  prelates  were  their  natural  enemies  ; 
and  the  western  parts  of  Germany  were 
the  scenes  of  irreconcilable  warfare  be- 
tween the  possessors  of  fortified  castles 
and  the  inhabitants  of  fortified  cities. 
Each  party  was  frequently  the  aggressor. 


*  In  the  charter  granted  by  Frederick  I.  to  Spire 
in  1182,  confirming  and  enlarging  that  of  Henry 
V.,  though  no  express  mention  is  made  of  any  muni- 
cipal jurisdiction,  yet  it  seems  implied  in  the  fol- 
lowing words :  Causam  in  civitate  jam  lite  con- 
testatam  non  episcopus  aut  alia  potestas  extra  civ- 
itatem  determinari  compellet. — Dumont,  p.  108. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  96.    Pfeffel,  p.  441. 

j  Mansit  ibi  rex  sex  hebdomadibus  cum  principi- 
bus  electoribus  et  aliis  principibus  el  civitatum  nun- 
tils,  de  suo*  transitu  et  de  prsestandis  servitiis  in 
Italiam  disponendo.— Auctor  apud  Schmidt,  t.  vi.» 
p.  31. 

$  Pfeffel,  p.  552. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


239 


The  nobles  were  too  often  mere  robbers, 
who  lived  upon  the  plunder  of  travellers. 
But  the  citizens  were  almost  equally  in- 
attentive to  the  rights  of  others.  It  was 
their  policy  to  offer  the  privileges  of 
burghership  to  all  strangers.  The  peas- 
antry of  feudal  lords,  flying  to  a  neigh- 
bouring town,  found  an  asylum  constant- 
ly open.  A  multitude  of  aliens,  thus 
seeking  as  it  were  sanctuary,  dwelt  in 
the  suburbs  or  liberties,  between  the  city 
walls  and  the  palisades  which  bounded 
the  territory.  Hence  they  were  called 
Pfahlburgher,  or  burgesses  of  the  pali- 
sades; and  "this  encroachment  on  the 
rights  of  the  nobility  was  positively, 
but  vainly  prohibited  by  several  imperial 
edicts,  especially  the  Golden  Bull.  An- 
other class  were  the  Ausburger,  or  out- 
burghers,  who  had  been  admitted  to  priv- 
ileges of  citizenship,  though  resident  at  a 
distance,  and  pretended  in  consequence 
to  be  exempted  from  all  dues  to  their 
original  feudal  superiors.  If  a  lord  re- 
sisted so  unreasonable  a  claim,  he  incur- 
red the  danger  of  bringing  down  upon 
himself  the  vengeance  of  the  citizens. 
These  outburghers  are  in  general  classed 
under  the  general  name  of  Pfahlburgher 
by  contemporary  writers.* 

As  the  towns  were  conscious  of  the 
Leagues  of  hatred  which  the  nobility  bore 
the  cities,  towards  them,  it  was  their  inter- 
est to  make  a  common  cause,  and  render 
mutual  assistance.  From  this  necessity 
of  maintaining,  by  united  exertions,  their 
general  liberty,  the  German  cities  never 
suffered  the  petty  jealousies  which  might, 
no  doubt,  exist  among  them,  to  ripen  into 
such  deadly  feuds  as  sullied  the  glory, 
and  ultimately  destroyed  the  freedom,  of 
Lombardy.  They  withstood  the  bishops 
and  barons  by  confederacies  of  their  own, 
framed  expressly  to  secure  their  com- 
merce against  rapine  or  unjust  exactions 
of  toll.  More  than  sixty  cities,  with  three 
ecclesiastical  electors  at  their  head,  form- 
ed the  league  of  the  Rhine  in  1255,  to  re- 
pel the  inferior  nobility,  who,  having  now 
become  immediate,  abused  that  inde- 
pendence by  perpetual  robberies. f  The 
Hanseatic  Union  owes  its  origin  to  no 
other  cause,  and  may  be  traced  perhaps 
to  rather  a  higher  date.  About  the  year 
1370,  a  league  was  formed,  which,  though 
it  did  not  continue  so  long,  seems  to  have 
produced  more  striking  effects  in  Ger- 
many. The  cities  of  Swabia  and  the 

*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  98 ;  t.  vi.,  p.  76.  Pfeffel,  p. 
402.  Du  Cange,  Gloss,  v.  Pfalburger.  Fauxbourg 
is  derived  from  this  word. 

t  Struvius,  p.  498.  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  101.  Pfef- 
fel,  p.  416. 


Rhine  united  themselves  in  a  strict  con- 
federacy against  the  princes,  and  espe- 
cially the  families  of  Wirtemburg  and  Ba- 
varia. It  is  said  that  the  Emperor  Wen- 
ceslaus  secretly  abetted  their  projects. 
The  recent  successes  of  the  Swiss,  who 
had  now  almost  established  their  repub- 
lic, inspired  their  neighbours  in  the  empire 
with  expectations  which  the  event  did  not 
realize;  for  they  were  defeated  in  this 
war,  and  ultimately  compelled  to  relin- 
quish their  league.  Counter-associations 
were  formed  by  the  nobles,  styled  socie- 
ty of  St.  George,  St.  William,  the  Lion, 
or  the  Panther.* 

The  spirit  of  political  liberty  was  not 
confined  to  the  free  immediate  provincial 
cities.  In  all  the  German  prin-  states  of  the 
cipalities,  a  form  of  limited  empire- 
monarchy  prevailed,  reflecting,  on  a  re- 
duced scale,  the  general  constitution  of 
the  empire.  As  the  emperors  shared 
their  legislative  sovereignty  with  the  diet, 
so  all  the  princes  who  belonged  to  that 
assembly  had  their  own  provincial  states 
composed  of  their  feudal  vassals,  and  of 
their  rhediate  towns  within  their  territory. 
No  tax  could  be  imposed  without  consent 
of  the  states ;  and,  in  some  countries,  the 
prince  was  obliged  to  account  for  the 
proper  disposition  of  the  money  granted. 
In  all  matters  of  importance  affecting  the 
principality,  and  especially  in  cases  of 
partition,  it  was  necessary  to  consult 
them;  and  they  sometimes  decided  be- 
tween competitors  in  a  disputed  succes- 
sion, though  this  indeed  more  strictly  be- 
longed to  the  emperor.  The  provincial 
states  concurred  with  the  prince  in  ma- 
king laws,  except  such  as  were  enacted 
by  the  general  diet.  The  city  of  Wurtz- 
burgh,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  tells  its 
bishop,  that  if  a  lord  would  make  any  new 
ordinance,  the  custom  is  that  he  must 
consult  the  citizens,  who  have  always 
opposed  his  innovating  upon  the  ancient 
laws  without  their  consent.! 

The  ancient  imperial  domain,  or  pos- 
sessions which  belonged  to  the  Alienation  of 
chief  of  the  empire  as  such,  the  imperial 
had  originally  been  very  exten-  domain- 
sive.  Besides  large  estates  in  every 
province,  the  territory  upon  each  bank 
of  the  Rhine,  afterward  occupied  by  the 
counts  palatine  and  ecclesiastical  elec- 
tors, was,  until  the  thirteenth  century,  an 
exclusive  property  of  the  emperor.  This 
imperial  domain  was  deemed  so  adequate 
to  the  support  of  his  dignity,  that  it  was 
usual,  if  not  obligatory,  for  him  to  grant 


*  Struvius,  p.  649.    Pfeffel,  p.  586.     Schmidt,  t. 
v.,  p.  10  ;  t.  vi.,  p.  78.     Putter,  p.  293. 
t  Schmidt,  t.  vi.,  p.  8.    Putter,  p.  236. 


240 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


tCHAP.    V. 


away  his  patrimonial  domains  upon  his 
election.  But  the  necessities  of  Freder- 
ick II.,  and  the  long  confusion  that  en- 
sued upon  his  death,  caused  the  domain 
to  be  almost  entirely  dissipated.  Ro- 
dolph  made  some  efforts  to  retrieve  it, 
but  too  late;  and  the  poor  remains  of 
what  had  belonged  to  Charlemagne  and 
Otho  were  alienated  by  Charles  IV.* 
This  produced  a  necessary  change  in 
that  part  of  the  constitution  which  depri- 
ved an  emperor  of  hereditary  posses- 
sions. It  was,  however,  some  time  be- 
fore it  took  place.  Even  Albert  I.  con- 
ferred the  dutchy  of  Austria  upon  his 
sons  when  he  was  chosen  emperor,  f 
Louis  of  Bavaria  was  the  first  who  re- 
tained his  hereditary  dominions,  and 
made  them  his  residence.  J  Charles  IV. 
and  Wenceslaus  lived  almost  wholly  in 
Bohemia ;  Sigismund  chiefly  in  Hungary ; 
Frederick  III.  in  Austria.  This  residence 
in  their  hereditary  countries,  while  it 
seemed  rather  to  lower  the  imperial  dig- 
nity, and  to  lessen  their  connexion  with 
the  general  confederacy,  gave  them  in- 
trinsic power  and  influence.  If  the  em- 
perors of  the  houses  of  Luxemburg  and 
Austria  were  not  like  the  Conrads  and 
Fredericks,  they  were  at  least  very  su- 
perior in  importance  to  the  Williams  and 
Adolphuses  of  the  thirteenth  century. 

[A.  D.  1495.]  The  accession  of  Maxi- 

e  milian   nearly  coincides   with 

MaxTSan    the  expedition  of  Charles  VIII. 

Diet  of         against  Naples;   and  I  should 

™*'  here  close  the  German  history 
of  the  middle  age,  were  it  not  for  the 
great  epoch  which  is  made  by  the  diet  of 
Worms,  in  1495.  This  assembly  is  cel- 
ebrated for  the  establishment  of  a  perpet- 
ual public  peace,  and  of  a  paramount 
court  of  justice,  the  Imperial  Chamber. 

The  same  causes  which  produced 
F  w  h  continual  hostilities  among  the 
mem  of  "  French  nobility  were  not  likely 
public  to  operate  less  powerfully  on 
peace>  the  Germans,  equally  warlike 
with  their  neighbours,  and  rather  less 
civilized.  But  while  the  imperial  gov- 
ernment was  still  vigorous,  they  were 
kept  under  some  restraint.  We  find 
Henry  III.,  the  most  powerful  of  the 
Franconian  emperors,  forbidding  all  pri- 
vate defiances,  and  establishing  solemnly 


*  Pfeffel,  p.  580. 

t  Idem,  p.  494.    Struvius,  p.  546. 

t  Struvius,  p.  611.  In  the  capitulation  of  Rob- 
ert, it  was  expressly  provided  that  he  should  re- 
tain any  escheated  fief  for  the  domain,  instead  of 
granting  it  away ;  so  completely  was  the  public 
policy  of  the  empire  reversed. — Schmidt,  t.  v., 
p.  44. 


a  general  peace.*  After  his  time,  the 
natural  tendency  of  manners  overpower- 
ered  all  attempts  to  coerce  it,  and  private 
war  raged  without  limits  in  the  empire. 
Frederick  I.  endeavoured  to  repress  it 
by  a  regulation  which  admitted  its  legal- 
ity. This  was  the  law  of  defiance  (jus 
diffidationis),  which  required  a  solemn 
declaration  of  war,  and  three  days'  no- 
tice, before  the  commencement  of  hostile 
measures.  All  persons  contravening  this 
provision  were  deemed  robbers,  and  not 
legitimate  enemies. f  Frederick  II.  car- 
ried the  restraint  farther,  and  limited  the 
right  of  self-redress  to  cases  where  jus- 
tice could  not  be  obtained.  Unfortunate- 
ly there  was,  in  later  times,  no  sufficient 
provision  for  rendering  justice.  The 
German  empire  indeed  had  now  assumed 
so  peculiar  a  character,  and  the  mass  of 
states  who  composed  it  were  in  so  many 
respects  sovereign  within  their  own  ter- 
ritories, that  wars,  unless  in  themselves 
unjust,  could  not  be  made  a  subject  of 
reproach  against  them,  nor  considered, 
strictly  speaking,  as  private.  It  was  cer- 
tainly most  desirable  to  put  an  end  to 
them  by  common  agreement,  and  by  the 
only  means  that  could  render  war  unne- 
cessary, the  establishment  of  a  supreme 
jurisdiction.  War  indeed,  legally  under- 
taken, was  not  the  only,  nor  the  severest 
grievance.  A  very  large  proportion  of 
the  rural  nobility  lived  by  robbery. J 
Their  castles,  as  the  ruins  still  bear  wit- 
ness, were  erected  upon  inaccessible  hills, 
and  in  defiles  that  command  the  public 
road.  An  archbishop  of  Cologne  having 
built  a  fortress  of  this  kind,  the  governor 
inquired  how  he  was  to  maintain  him- 
self, no  revenue  having  been  assigned  for 
that  purpose.  The  prelate  only  desired 
him  to  remark  that  the  castle  was  situa- 
ted near  the  junction  of  four  roads. §  As 
commerce  increased,  and  the  example  of 
French  and  Italian  civilization  rendered 
the  Germans  more  sensible  to  their  own 
rudeness,  the  preservation  of  public  peace 
was  loudly  demanded.  Every  diet  under 
Frederick  III.  professed  to  occupy  itself 
with  the  two  great  objects  of  domestic 
reformation,  peace  and  law.  Temporary 


*  Pfeffel,  p.  212. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,p.  108,  et  infra.  Pfeffel,  p.  340. 
Putter,  p.  205. 

J  Germani  atque  Alemanni,  quibus  census  patri- 
monii  ad  victum  suppetit,  et  hos  qui  procul  urbi- 
bus,  aut  qui  castellis  et  oppidulis  dominantur,  quo- 
rum magna  pars  latrocinio  deditur,  nobiles  censent. 
—Pet.  de  Andlo.  apud  Schmidt,  t.  v.,  p.  490. 

A  Quern  cum  officiatus  suus  interrogans,  de  quo 
castrum  deberit  retinere,  cum  annuis  careret  redi- 
tibus,  dicitur  respondisse  :  Quatuorviae  sunt  trans 
castrum  situate. — Auctor  apud  Schmidt,  p.  492. 


CHAP.  V.J 


GERMANY. 


241 


cessations,  during  which  all  private  hos- 
tility was  illegal,  were  sometimes  enact- 
ed ;  and,  if  observed,  which  may  well  be 
doubted,  might  contribute  to  accustom 
men  to  habits  of  greater  tranquillity, 
The  leagues  of  the  cities  were  probably 
more  efficacious  checks  upon  the  disturb- 
ers of  order.  In  1486  a  ten  years'  peace 
was  proclaimed,  and  before  the  expira- 
tion of  this  period  the  perpetual  abolition 
of  the  right  of  defiance  was  happily  ac- 
complished in  the  diet  of  Worms.* 

These  wars,  incessantly  waged  by  the 
states  of  Germany,  seldom  ended  in  con- 
quest. Very  few  princely  houses  of  the 
middle  ages  were  aggrandized  by  such 
means.  That  small  and  independent  no- 
bility, the  counts  and  knights  of  the  em- 
pire, whom  the  unprincipled  rapacity  of 
our  own  age  has  annihilated,  stood 
through  the  storms  of  centuries  with 
little  diminution  of  their  numbers.  An 
incursion  into  the  enemy's  territory,  a 
pitched  battle,  a  siege,  a  treaty,  are  the 
general  circumstances  of  the  minor  wars 
of  the  middle  ages,  as  far  as  they  appear 
in  history.  Before  the  invention  of  ar- 
tillery, a  strongly  fortified  castle,  or 
walled  city,  was  hardly  reduced  except 
by  famine,  which  a  besieging  army,  wast- 
ing improvidently  its  means  of  subsist- 
ence, was  full  as  likely  to  feel.  That 
invention  altered  the  condition  of  society, 
and  introduced  an  inequality  of  forces, 
that  rendered  war  more  inevitably  ruin- 
ous to  the  inferior  party.  Its  first  and 
most  beneficial  effect  was  to  bring  the 
plundering  class  of  the  nobility  into  con- 
trol ;  their  castles  were  more  easily 
taken,  and  it  became  their  interest  to  de- 
serve the  protection  of  law.  A  few  of 
these  continued  to  follow  their  own  pro- 
fession after  the  diet  of  Worms ;  but  they 
were  soon  overpowered  by  the  more  ef- 
ficient police  established  under  Maximil- 
ian. 

The  next  object  of  the  diet  was  to  pro- 
imperial  vide  an  effectual  remedy  for  pri- 
chamber.  vat,e  wrongs  which  might  super- 
sede all  pretence  for  taking  up  arms. 
The  administration  of  justice  had  always 
been  a  high  prerogative,  as  well  as  bound- 
en  duty,  of  the  emperors.  It  was  exer- 
cised originally  by  themselves  in  person, 
or  by  the  count  palatine,  the  judge  who 
always  attended  their  court.  In  the  prov- 
inces of  Germany,  the  dukes  were  in- 
trusted with  this  duty:  but,  in  order  to 
control  their  influence,  Otho  the  Great 
appointed  provincial  counts  palatine, 
whose  jurisdiction  was  in  some  respects 

*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  116;  t.  v.,  p.  338,  371 ;  t.  vi., 
p.  34.  Putter,  p.  292,  348. 

Q 


exclusive  of  that  still  possessed  by  the 
dukes.  As  the  latter  became  more  inde- 
pendent of  the  empire,  the  provincial 
counts  palatine  lost  the  importance  of 
their  office,  though  their  name  may  be 
traced  to  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies.* The  ordinary  administration  of 
justice  by  the  emperors  went  into  disuse  ; 
in  cases  where  states  of  the  empire 
were  concerned,  it  appertained  to  the 
diet,  or  to  a  special  court  of  princes. 
The  first  attempt  to  re-establish  an  im- 
perial tribunal  was  made  by  Frederick  IL 
in  a  diet  held  at  Mentz  in  1235.  A  judge 
of  the  court  was  appointed  to  sit  daily, 
with  certain  assessors,  half  nobles,  half 
lawyers,  and  with  jurisdiction  over  all 
causes  where  princes  of  the  empire 
were  not  concerned.!  Rodolphof  Haps- 
burg  endeavoured  to  give  efficacy  to  this 
judicature  ;  but,  after  his  reign,  it  under- 
went the  fate  of  all  those  parts  of  the 
Germanic  constitution  which  maintained 
the  prerogatives  of  the  emperors.  Si- 
gismund  endeavoured  to  revive  this  tri- 
bunal ;  but,  as  he  did  not  render  it  perma- 
nent, nor  fix  the  place  of  its  sittings,  it 
produced  little  other  good  than  as  it  ex- 
cited an  earnest  anxiety  for  a  regular  sys- 
tem. This  system,  delayed  throughout 
the  reign  of  Frederick  III.,  was  reserved 
for  the  first  diet  of  his  son.J 

The  Imperial  Chamber,  such  was  the 
name  of  the  new  tribunal,  consisted,  at 
its  original  institution,  of  a  chief  judge, 
who  was  to  be  chosen  among  the  princes 
or  counts,  and  of  sixteen  assessors,  part- 
ly of  noble  or  equestrian  rank,  partly  pro- 
fessors of  law.  They  were  named  by 
the  emperor  with  the  approbation  of  the 
diet.  The  functions  of  the  Imperial 
Chamber  were  chiefly  the  two  following. 
They  exercised  an  appellant  jurisdiction 
over  causes  that  had  been  decided  by  the 
tribunals  established  in  states  of  the  em- 
pire. But  their  jurisdiction  in  private 
causes  was  merely  appellant.  According 
to  the  original  law  of  Germany,  no  man 
could  be  sued  except  in  the  nation  or 
province  to  which  he  belonged.  The 
early  emperors  travelled  from  one  part 
of  their  dominions  to  another,  in  order  to 
render  justice  consistently  with  this  fun- 
damental privilege.  When  the  Luxem- 
burg emperors  fixed  their  residence  in 
Bohemia,  the  jurisdiction  of  the  imperial 
court  in  the  first  instance  would  have 
ceased  of  itself  by  the  operation  of  this 
ancient  rule.  It  was  not,  however, 
strictly  complied  with ;  and  it  is  said  that 


*  PfefFel,  p.  180. 

i  Idem,  p.  386.     Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  56. 

*  Pfeffel,  t.  Jx,  p.  66. 


242 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    V. 


the  emperors  had  a  concurrent  jurisdic- 
tion with  the  provincial  tribunals  even  in 
private  causes.  They  divested  them- 
selves, nevertheless,  of  this  right,  by 
granting  privileges  de  non  evocando ;  so 
that  no  subject  of  a  state  which  enjoyed 
such  a  privilege  could  be  summoned  into 
the  imperial  court.  All  the  electors  pos- 
sessed this  exemption  by  the  terms  of  the 
Golden  Bull ;  and  it  was  specially  granted 
to  the  burgraves  of  Nuremberg,  and  some 
other  princes.  This  matter  was  finally 
settled  at  the  diet  of  Worms;  and  the 
Imperial  Chamber  was  positively  re- 
stricted from  taking  cognizance  of  any 
causes  in  the  first  instance,  even  where 
a  state  of  the  empire  was  one  of  the  par- 
ties. It  was  enacted,  to  obviate  the  de- 
nial of  justice  that  appeared  likely  to  re- 
sult from  the  regulation  in  the  latter  case, 
that  every  elector  and  prince  should  es- 
tablish a  tribunal  in  his  own  dominions, 
where  suits  against  himself  might  be  en- 
tertained.* 

The  second  part  of  the  chamber's  ju- 
risdiction related  to  disputes  between 
two  states  of  the  empire.  But  these  two 
could  only  come  before  it  by  way  of  ap- 
peal. During  the  period  of  anarchy  which 
preceded  the  establishment  of  its  juris- 
diction, a  custom  was  introduced,  in  or- 
der to  prevent  the  constant  recurrence 
of  hostilities,  of  referring  the  quarrels  of 
states  to  certain  arbitrators,  called  Aus- 
tregues,  chosen  among  states  of  the  same 
rank.  This  conventional  reference  be- 
came so  popular  that  the  princes  would 
not  consent  to  abandon  it  on  the  institu- 
tion of  the  Imperial  Chamber ;  but,  on  the 
contrary,  it  was  changed  into  an  invaria- 
ble and  universal  law,  that  all  disputes 
between  different  states  must,  in  the  first 
instance,  be  submitted  to  the  arbitration 
of  Austregues.f 

The  sentence  of  the  chamber  would 
Establish-  have  been  very  idly  pronounced, 
ment  of  if  means  had  not  been  devised  to 
carry  them  into  execution.  In 
earlier  times  the  want  of  coercive  pro- 
cess had  been  more  felt  than  that  of  ac- 
tual jurisdiction.  For  a  few  years  after 
the  establishment  of  the  chamber,  this  de- 
ficiency was  not  supplied.  But  in  1501 
an  institution,  originally  planned  under 
Wenceslaus,  and  attempted  by  Albert  II., 
was  carried  into  effect.  The  empire, 
with  the  exception  of  the  electorates  and 
the  Austrian  dominions,  was  divided  into 
six  circles  ;  each  of  which  had  its  coun- 
cil of  states,  its  director,  whose  province 

*   Schmidt,  t.  v.,  p.  373.     Putter,  p.  372. 
t  Putter,  p.  361.    Pfeffel,  p.  452. 


it  was  to  convoke  them,  and  its  military 
force  to  compel  obedience.  In  1512  four 
more  circles  were  added,  comprehending 
those  states  which  had  been  excluded  in 
the  first  division.  It  was  the  business  of 
the  police  of  the  circles  to  enforce  the 
execution  of  sentences  pronounced  by 
the  Imperial  Chamber  against  refractory 
states  of  the  empire.* 

As  the  judges  of  the  Imperial  Chamber 
were  appointed  with  the  consent  AUHC 
of  the  diet,  and  held  their  sittings  council. 
in  a  free  imperial  city,  its  establishment 
seemed  rather  to  encroach  on  the  ancient 
prerogatives  of  the  emperors.  Maximil- 
ian expressly  reserved  these  in  consent- 
ing to  the  new  tribunal.  And,  in  order  to 
revive  them,  he  soon  afterward  instituted 
an  Aulic  Council  at  Vienna,  composed  of 
judges  appointed  by  himself,  and  under 
the  political  control  of  the  Austrian  gov- 
ernment. Though  some  German  patri- 
ots regarded  this  tribunal  with  jealousy, 
it  continued  until  the  dissolution  of  the 
empire.  The  Aulic  Council  had,  in  all 
cases,  a  concurrent  jurisdiction  with  the 
Imperial  Chamber;  an  exclusive  one  in 
feudal  and  some  other  causes.  But  it 
was  equally  confined  to  cases  of  appeal ; 
and  these,  by  multiplied  privileges  de  non 
appellando,  granted  to  the  electoral  and 
superior  princely  houses,  were  gradually 
reduced  into  moderate  compass. f 

The  Germanic  constitution  may  be 
reckoned  complete,  as  to  all  its  essential 
characteristics,  in  the  reign  of  Maximil- 
ian. In  later  times,  and  especially  by 
the  treaty  of  Westphalia,  it  underwent 
several  modifications.  Whatever  might 
be  its  defects,  and  many  of  them  seem  to 
have  been  susceptible  of  reformation 
without  destroying  the  system  of  govern- 
ment, it  had  one  invaluable  excellence : 
it  protected  the  rights  of  the  weaker 
against  the  stronger  powers.  The  law  of 
nations  was  first  taught  in  Germany,  and 
grew  out  of  the  public  law  of  the  empire. 
To  narrow,  as  far  as  possible,  the  rights 
of  war  and  of  conquest,  was  a  natural 
principle  of  those  who  belonged  to  petty 
states,  and  had  nothing  to  tempt  them  in 
ambition.  No  revolution  of  our  own 
eventful  age,  except  the  fall  of  the  ancient 
French  system  of  government,  has  been 
so  extensive,  or  so  likely  to  produce  im- 
portant consequences,  as  the  spontane- 
ous dissolution  of  the  German  empire. 
Whether  the  new  confederacy  that  has 
been  substituted  for  that  venerable  con- 
stitution will  be  equally  favourable  to 

*  Putter,  p.  355.    Pfeffel,  t.  ii.,  p.  100. 
t  Idem,  p.  357.     Pfeffel,  p.  102. 


CH.VP.  V.] 


GERMANY". 


243 


peace,  justice,  and  liberty,  is  among  the 
most  interesting  and  difficult  problems 
that  can  occupy  a  philosophical  observer.* 

At  the  accession  of  Conrad  the  First, 
Limits  of  Germany  had  by  no  means 
the  empire,  reached  its  present  extent  on 
the  eastern  frontier.  Henry  the  Fowler 
and  the  Othos  made  great  acquisitions 
upon  that  side.  But  tribes  of  Sclavonian 
origin,  generally  called  Venedic,  or,  less 
properly,  Vandal,  occupied  the  northern 
coast  from  the  Elbe  to  the  Vistula.  These 
were  independent  and  formidable  both 
to  the  kings  of  Denmark  and  princes  of 
Germany,  till,  in  the  reign  of  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  two  of  the  latter,  Henry  the 
Lion,  duke  of  Saxony,  and  Alberi  the 
Bear,  margrave  of  Brandenburg,  subdued 
Mecklenburg  and  Pomerania,  which  af- 
terward became  dutchies  of  the  empire. 
Bohemia  was  undoubtedly  subject,  in  a 
feudal  sense,  to  Frederick  I.  and  his  suc- 
cessors, though  its  connexion  with  Ger- 
many was  always  slight.  The  emperors 
sometimes  assumed  a  sovereignty  over 
Denmark,  Hungary,  and  Poland.  But 
what  they  gained  upon  this  quarter  was 
compensated  by  the  gradual  separation  of 
the  Netherlands  from  their  dominion,  and 
by  the  still  more  complete  loss  of  the  king- 
dom of  Aries.  The  house  of  Burgundy 
possessed  most  part  of  the  former,  and  paid 
as  little  regard  as  possible  to  the  imperial 
supremacy  ;  though  the  German  diets  in 
the  reign  of  Maximilian  still  continued  to 
treat  the  Netherlands  as  equally  subject 
to  their  lawful  control  with  the  states  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Rhine.  But  the 
provinces  between  the  Rhone  and  the 
Alps  were  absolutely  separated ;  Swis- 
serland  has  completely  succeeded  in  es- 
tablishing her  own  independence ;  and 
the  kings  of  France  no  longer  sought 
even  the  ceremony  of  an  imperial  inves- 
titure for  Dauphine  and  Provence. 

Bohemia,  which  received  the  Christian 
Bohemia—  faith  in  the  tenth  century,  was 
its  consti-  elevated  to  the  rank  of  a  kingdom 
near  the  end  of  the  twelfth.  The 
dukes  and  kings  of  Bohemia  were  feudal- 
ly dependant  upon  the  emperors,  from 
whom  they  received  investiture.  They 
possessed,  in  return,  a  suffrage  among  the 
seven  electors,  and  held  one  of  the  great 
offices  in  the  imperial  court.  But,  sep- 
arated by  a  rampart  of  mountains,  by  a 
difference  of  origin  and  language,  and 
perhaps  by  national  prejudices,  from  Ger- 
many, the  Bohemians  withdrew  as  far  as 
possible  from  the  general  politics  of  the 

*  The  first  edition  of  this  work  was  published 
early  in  1818. 
Q2 


confederacy.  The  kings  obtained  dis- 
pensations from  attending  the  diets  of  the 
empire,  nor  were  they  able  to  reinstate 
themselves  in  the  privilege  thus  abandon- 
ed till  the  beginning  of  the  last  century.* 
The  government  of  this  kingdom,  in  a 
very  slight  degree  partaking  of  the  feudal 
character,!  bore  rather  a  resemblance  to 
that  of  Poland ;  but  the  nobility  were  di- 
vided into  two  classes,  the  baronial  and 
the  equestrian,  and  the  burghers  formed  a 
third  state  in  the  national  diet.  For  the 
peasantry,  they  were  in  a  condition  of 
servitude,  or  predial  villanage.  The  roy- 
al authority  was  restrained  by  a  corona- 
tion oath,  by  a  permanent  senate,  and  by 
frequent  assemblies  of  the  diet,  where  a 
numerous  and  armed  nobility  appeared  to 
secure  their  liberties  by  law  or  force.J 
The  sceptre  passed,  in  ordinary  times,  to 
the  nearest  heir  of  the  royaj  blood  ;  but 
the  right  of  election  was  only  suspended, 
and  no  king  of  Bohemia  ventured  to  boast 
of  it  as  his  inheritance. §  This  mixture 
of  elective  and  hereditary  monarchy  was 
common,  as  we  have  seen,  to  most  Eu- 
ropean kingdoms  in  their  original  consti- 
tution, though  few  continued  so  long  to  ad- 
mit the  participation  of  popular  suffrages. 
The  reigning  dynasty  having  become 
extinct,  in  1306,  by  the  death  of  House  of 
Wenceslaus,  son  of  that  Otto-  Luxemburg. 
car,  who,  after  extending  his  conquests 
to  the  Baltic  Sea,  and  almost  to  the  Adri- 
atic, had  lost  his  life  in  an  unsuccessful 
contention  with  the  Emperor  Rodolph, 
the  Bohemians  chose  John  of  Luxemburg, 
son  of  Henry  VII.  Under  the  kings  of 
this  family  in  the  fourteenth  century,  and 
especially  Charles  IV..  whose  character 
appeared  in  a  far  more  advantageous  light 
in  his  native  domains  than  in  the  empire, 
Bohemia  imbibed  some  portion  of  refine- 
ment and  science.j)  A  university,  erect- 
ed by  Charles  at  Prague,  became  one  of 

*  Pfeffel,  t.  ii.,  p.  497. 

t  Bpna  ipsorum  tola  Bohemia  pleraque  omnia 
hseredilaria  sunt  seu  allodialia,  perpauca  feudalia. 
— Stransky,  Resp.  Bohemica,  p.  392.  Stransky 
was  a  Bohemian  Protestant,  who  fled  to  Holland 
after  the  subversion  of  the  civil  and  religious  liber- 
ties of  his  country  by  the  fatal  battle  of  Prague,  in 
1621. 

%  Dubravius,  the  Bohemian  historian,  relates 
(lib.  xviii.)  that  the  kingdom  having  no  written  laws, 
Wenceslaus,  one  of  the  kings,  about  the  year  1300, 
sent  for  an  Italian  lawyer  to  compile  a  code.  But 
the  nobility  refused  to  consent  to  this  ;  aware,  prob- 
ably, of  the  consequences  of  letting  in  the  prerog- 
ative doctrines  of  the  civilians.  They  opposed,  at 
the  same-  time,  the  institution  of  a  university  at 
Praguepwhich,  however,  took  place  afterward  un- 
der Charles  IV. 

$  Stransky,  Resp.  Bohem.  Coxe's  House  ef 
Austria,  p.  487. 

I!  Schmidt.    Coxe. 


244 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V. 


the  most  celebrated  in  Europe.  [A.  D. 
HUBS  14f6-]  J°nn  Huss,  rector  of  the 
'  university,  who  had  distinguish- 
ed himself  by  opposition  to  many  abuses 
then  prevailing  in  the  church,  repaired  to 
the  council  of  Constance,  under  a  safe  con- 
duct from  the  Emperor  Sigismund.  In  vi- 
olation of  this  pledge,  to  the  indelible  in- 
famy of  that  prince  and  of  the  council,  he 
was  condemned  to  be  burnt ;  and  his  dis- 
ciple, Jerome  of  Prague,  underwent  after- 
Hussitewar  ward  the  same  fate.  Hiscoun- 
'  trymen,  aroused  by  this  atroci- 
ty, flew  to  arms.  They  found  at  their 
head  one  of  those  extraordinary  men, 
whose  genius,  created  by  nature  and 
called  into  action  by  fortuitous  events, 
appears  to  borrow  no  reflected  light  from 

John  Zisca  that  of  otners-  Jo.nn  Zisca  had 
not  been  trained  in  any  school 
which  could  have  initiated  him  in  the 
science  of  war;  that,  indeed,  except  in 
Italy,  was  still  rude,  and  nowhere  more 
so  than  in  Bohemia.  But,  self-taught,  he 
became  one  of  the  greatest  captains  who 
had  appeared  hitherto  in  Europe.  It  ren- 
ders his  exploits  more  marvellous,  that 
he  was  totally  deprived  of  sight.  Zisca 
has  been  called  the  inventor  of  the  mod- 
ern art  of  fortification ;  the  famous  moun- 
tain near  Prague,  fanatically  called  Tabor, 
became,  by  his  skill,  an  impregnable  in- 
trenchment.  For  his  stratagems  he  has 
been  compared  to  Hannibal.  In  battle, 
being  destitute  of  cavalry,  he  disposed  at 
intervals  ramparts  of  carriages  filled  with 
soldiers,  to  defend  his  troops  from  the 
enemy's  horse.  His  own  station  was  by 
the  chief  standard  ;  where,  after  hearing 
the  circumstances  of  the  situation  ex- 
plained, he  gave  his  orders  for  the  dispo- 
sition of  the  army.  Zisca  was  never  de- 
feated ;  and  his  genius  inspired  the  Hus- 
sites with  such  enthusiastic  affection,  that 
some  of  those  who  had  served  under  him 
refused  to  obey  any  other  general,  and 
denominated  themselves  Orphans,  in 
commemoration  of  his  loss.  He  was  in- 
deed a  ferocious  enemy,  though  some  of 
his  cruelties  might,  perhaps,  be  extenua- 
ted by  the  law  of  retaliation ;  but  to  his 
soldiers  affable  and  generous,  dividing 
among  them  all  the  spoil.* 

[A.  D.  1424.]  Even  during  the  lifetime 
n0nvti  »   of  Zisca,  the  Hussite  sect  was 

OailXlinSt      ,  .  -j-i          i  •*•  /»-r-k 

disunited;  the  citizens  of  Prague 
and  many  of  the  nobility  contenting  them- 
selves with  moderate  demands,  while  the 
Taborites,  his  peculiar  followers,  were 
actuated  by  a  most  fanatical  phrensy.  The 


*  Lenfant,  Hist,   de  la  Guerre  des  Hussites. 
Schmidt.    Coxe. 


former  took  the  name  of  Calixtins,  from 
their  retention  of  the  sacramental  cup,  of 
which  the  priests  had  latterly  thought  fit 
to  debar  laymen;  an  abuse  indeed  not 
sufficient  to  justify  a  civil  war,  but  so  to- 
tally without  pretence  or  apology,  that 
no  thing  less  than  the  determined  obstinacy 
of  the  Romish  church  could  have  main- 
tained it  to  this  time.  The  Taborites, 
though  no  longer  led  by  Zisca,  gained 
some  remarkable  victories,  but  were  at 
last  wholly  defeated ;  while  the  Catholic 
and  Calixtin  parties  came  to  an  accom- 
modation, by  which  Sigismund  was  ac- 
knowledged as  King  of  Bohemia,  which 
he  had  claimed  by  the  title  of  heir  to  his 
brother  Wenceslaus,  and  a  few  indul- 
gences, especially  the  use  of  the  sacra- 
mental cup,  conceded  to  the  moderate 
Hussites.  [A.  D.  1433.]  But  this  com- 
pact, though  concluded  by  the  council  of 
Basle,  being  ill  observed  through  the  per- 
fidious bigotry  of  the  See  of  Rome,  the 
reformers  armed  again  to  defend  their  re- 
ligious liberties,  and  ultimately  elected  a 
nobleman  of  their  own  party  [A.  D.  1458], 
by  name  George  Podiebrad,  to  the  throne 
of  Bohemia,  which  he  maintained  during 
his  life  with  great  vigour  and  prudence.* 
Upon  his  death  they  chose  Uladislaus 
[A.  D.  1471],  son  of  Casimir,  king  of  Po- 
land, who  afterward  obtained  also  the 
kingdom  of  Hungary.  [A.  D.  1527.]  Both 
these  crowns  were  conferred  on  his  son 
Louis,  after  whose  death,  in  the  unfortu- 
nate battle  of  Mohacz,  Ferdinand  of  Aus- 
tria became  sovereign  of  the  two  king- 
doms. 

The  Hungarians,  that  terrible  people 
who  laid  waste  the  Italian  and 
German  provinces  of  the  empire 
in  the  tenth  century,  became  proselytes 
soon  afterward  to  the  religion  of  Europe, 
and  their  sovereign,  St.  Stephen,  was  ad- 
mitted by  the  pope  into  the  list  of  Chris- 
tian kings.  Though  the  Hungarians  were 
of  a  race  perfectly  distinct  from  either 
the  Gothic  or  the  Sclavonian  tribes,  their 
system  of  government  was  in  a  great 
measure  analogous.  None  indeed  could 
be  more  natural  to  rude  nations,  who  had 
but  recently  accustomed  themselves  to 
settled  possessions,  than  a  territorial  aris- 
tocracy, jealous  of  unlimited  or  even  he- 
reditary power  in  their  chieftain,  and  sub- 
jugating the  inferior  people  to  that  servi- 
tude, which,  in  such  a  state  of  society,  is 
the  unavoidable  consequence  of  poverty. 

The  marriage  of  an  Hungarian  princess 
with  Charles  II.,  king  of  Naples,  event- 
ually connected  her  country  far  more 


*  Lenfant.    Schmidt.    Coxe. 


CHAP.  V.] 


GERMANY. 


245 


than  it  had  been  with  the  affairs  of  Italy. 
1  have  mentioned  in  a  different  place  the 
circumstances  which  led  to  the  invasion 
of  Naples  by  Louis,  king  of  Hungary,  and 
the  wars  of  that  powerful  monarch  with 
,  Venice.  [A.  D.  1392.]  By  mar- 

Sigismund.        .  T.U  Id  c 

rymg  the  eldest  daughter  of 
Louis,  Sigismund,  afterward  emperor,  ac- 
quired the  crown  of  Hungary,  which,  upon 
her  death  without  issue,  he  retained  in 
his  own  right,  and  was  even  able  to  trans- 
mit to  the  child  of  a  second  marriage,  and 
to  her  husband,  Albert,  duke  of  Austria. 
From  this  commencement  is  deduced  the 
connexion  between  Hungary  and  Austria. 
[A.  D.  1437.]  In  two  years,  however,  Al- 
bert, dying,  left  his  widow  pregnant ;  but 
the  states  of  Hungary,  jealous  of  Austrian 
influence,  and  of  the  intrigues  of  a  mi- 
nority, without  waiting  for  her  delivery, 
_  bestowed  the  crown  upon  Ula- 

uiauisiaus.     -..    ••  ••   .  ,»  T  *    i         i         r*      T-V 

dislaus,  king  of  Poland.  [A.  D. 
1440.]  The  birth  of  Albert's  posthumous 
son,  Ladislaus,  produced  an  opposition  in 
behalf  of  the  infant's  right;  but  the  Aus- 
trian party  turned  out  the  weaker,  and 
Uladislaus,  after  a  civil  war  of  some  du- 
ration, became  undisputed  king.  Mean- 
while a  more  formidable  enemy  drew 
near.  The  Turkish  arms  had  subdued  all 
Servia,  and  excited  a  just  alarm  through- 
out Christendom.  Uladislaus  led  a  con- 
siderable force,  to  which  the  presence  of 
the  Cardinal  Julian  gave  the  appearance 
of  a  crusade,  into  Bulgaria,  and  after  sev- 
eral successes,  concluded  an  honourable 
treaty  with  Amurath  II.  [A.  D.  1444.] 
Battle  of  But  this  he  was  unhappily  per- 
Wama.  suaded  to  violate,  at  the  instiga- 
tion of  the  cardinal,  who  abhorred  the 
impiety  of  keeping  faith  with  infidels.* 
Heaven  judged  of  this  otherwise,  if  the 
judgment  of  Heaven  was  pronounced 
upon  the  field  of  Warna.  In  that  fatal 
battle  Uladislaus  was  killed,  and  the  Hun- 
garians utterly  routed.  The  crown  was 
now  permitted  to  rest  on  the  head  of 
young  Ladislaus;  but  the  regency  was 
allotted  by  the  states  of  Hungary  to  a  na- 
Hunniades  ^ve  warri°r>  John  Hunniades.f 

This  hero  stood  in  the  breach 
for  twelve  years  against  the  Turkish 


*  ^Eneas  Sylvius  lays  this  perfidy  on  Pope  Eu- 
genius  IV.  Scripsit  Cardinali,  nullum  valere 
foedus,  quod  se  inconsulto  cum  hostibus  religionis 
percussum  esset,  p.  397.  The  words  in  italics  are 
slipped  in  to  give  a  slight  pretext  for  breaking  the 
treaty. 

t  Hunniades  was  a  Wallachian,  of  a  small  fam- 
ily. The  Poles  charged  him  with  cowardice  at 
Warna. — (JEneas  Sylvius,  p.  398.)  And  the  Greeks 
impute  the  same  to  him,  or  at  least  desertion  of  his 
troops,  at  Cossova,  where  he  was  defeated  in  1448. 
— (Spondanus,  adann.  1448.)  Probably  he  was  one 


power,  frequently  defeated,  but  uncon- 
quered  in  defeat.  If  the  renown  of  Hun- 
niades may  seem  exaggerated  by  the  par- 
tiality of  writers  who  lived  under  the 
reign  of  his  son,  it  is  confirmed  by  more 
unequivocal  evidence,  by  the  dread  and 
hatred  of  the  Turks,  whose  children  were 
taught  obedience  by  threatening  them 
with  his  name,  and  by  the  deference  of  a 
jealous  aristocracy  to  a  man  of  no  dis- 
tinguished birth.  He  surrendered  to 
young  Ladislaus  a  trust  that  he  had  exer- 
cised with  perfect  fidelity ;  but  his  merit 
was  too  great  to  be  forgiven,  and  the 
court  never  treated  him  with  cordiality. 
The  last,  and  the  most  splendid  service  of 
Hunniades,  was  the  relief  of  Belgrade. 
[A.  D.  1456.]  That  strong  city  was  Relief  of 
besieged  by  Mahomet  II.,  three  Belgrade. 
years  after  the  fall  of  Constantinople ; 
its  capture  would  have  laid  open  all  Hun- 
gary. A  tumultuary  army,  chiefly  col- 
lected by  the  preaching  of  a  friar,  was 
intrusted  to  Hunniades ;  he  penetrated 
into  the  city,  and  having  repulsed  the 
Turks  in  a  fortunate  sally,  wherein  Ma- 
homet was  wounded,  had  the  honour  of 
compelling  him  to  raise  the  siege  in  con- 
fusion. The  relief  of  Belgrade  was  more 
important  in  its  effect  than  in  its  imme- 
diate circumstances.  It  revived  the  spir- 
its of  Europe,  which  had  been  appalled 
by  the  unceasing  victories  of  the  infidels. 
Mahomet  himself  seemed  to  acknowl- 
edge the  importance  of  the  blow,  and  sel- 
dom afterward  attacked  the  Hungarians. 
Hunniades  died  soon  after  this  achieve- 
ment, and  was  followed  by  the  King  La- 
dislaus.* The  states  of  Hungary,  al- 
though the  Emperor  Frederick  III.  had 
secured  to  himself,  as  he  thought,  the  re- 


of  those  prudently  brave  men,  who,  when  victory 
is  out  of  their  power,  reserve  themselves  to  fight 
another  day ;  which  is  the  characteristic  of  all  par- 
tisans accustomed  to  desultory  warfare.  This  is 
the  apology  made  for  him  by  ^Ineas  Sylvius :  for- 
tasse  rei  militaris  perito  nulla  in  pugna  salus  visa, 
et  salvare  aliquos  quam  omnes  perire  maluit.  Po- 
loni  acceptam  eo  praelio  cladem  Huniadis  vecordiae 
atque  ignaviae  tradiderunt ;  ipse  sua  consilia  spreta 
conquestus  est.  I  observe  that  all  the  writers 
upon  Hungarian  affairs  have  a  party  bias  one  way 
or  other.  The  best  and  most  authentic  account  of 
Hunniades  seems  to  be,  still  allowing  for  this  par- 
tiality, in  the  chronicle  of  John  Thwrocz,  who 
lived  under  Matthias.  Bonfinius,  an  Italian  com- 
piler of  the  same  age,  has  amplified  this  original  au- 
thority in  his  three  decads  of  Hungarian  history. 

*  Ladislaus  died  at  Prague,  at  the  age  of  twen- 
ty-two, with  great  suspicion  of  poison,  which  fell 
chiefly  on  George  Podiebrad  and  the  Bohemians. 
uEneas  Sylvius  was  with  him  at  the  time,  and  in  a 
letter  written  immediately  after,  plainly  hints  this ; 
and  his  manner  carries  with  it  more  persuasion  than 
if  he  had  spoken  out.— Epist.  324.  Mr.  Coxe, 
however,  informs  us  that  the  Bohemian  historians 
have  fully  disproved  the  charge. 


246 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V 


version,  were  justly  averse  to  his  char- 
acter, and  to  Austrian  connexions.  They 
Matthias  conferred  their  crown  on  Mat- 
corvinus.  thias  Corvinus,  son  of  their  great 
Hunniades.  [A.  D.  1458.]  This  prince 
reigned  above  thirty  years  with  consid- 
erable reputation,  to  which  his  patronage 
of  learned  men,  who  repaid  his  munifi- 
cence with  very  profuse  eulogies,  did  not 
a  little  contribute.*  Hungary,  at  least  in 
his  time,  was  undoubtedly  formidable  to 
her  neighbours,  and  held  a  respectable 
rank  as  an  independent  power  in  the  re- 
public of  Europe. 

The  kingdom  of  Burgundy  or  Aries  com- 
swisscriand  P^ehended  the  whole  mount- 
— its  early  ainous  region  which  we  now 
history.  cau  Swisserland.  It  was  ac- 
cordingly reunited  to  the  Germanic  em- 
pire by  the  bequest  of  Rodolph  along 
with  the  rest  of  his  dominions.  [A.  D. 
1032.]  A  numerous  and  ancient  nobility, 
vassals  one  to  another,  or  to  the  empire, 
divided  the  possession  with  ecclesiasti- 
cal lords,  hardly  less  powerful  than  them- 
selves. Of  the  former  we  find  the  counts 
of  Zahringen,  Kyburg,  Hapsburg,  and 
Tokenburg  most  conspicuous  ;  of  the  lat- 
ter, the  Bishop  of  Coire,  the  Abbot  of  St. 
Gall,  and  Abbess  of  Seckingen.  Every 
variety  of  feudal  rights  was  early  found 
and  long  preserved  in  Helvetia ;  nor  is 
there  any  country  whose  history  better 
illustrates  that  ambiguous  relation,  half 
property  and  half  dominion,  in  which  the 
territorial  aristocracy,  under  the  feudal 
system,  stood  with  respect  to  their  de- 
pendants. In  the  twelfth  century,  the 
Swiss  towns  rise  into  some  degree  of 
importance.  Zuric  was  eminent  for  com- 
mercial activity,  and  seems  to  have  had 
no  lord  but  the,  emperor.  Basle,  though 
subject  to  its  bishop,  possessed  the  usu- 
al privileges  of  municipal  government. 
Berne  and  Friburg,  founded  only  in  that 
century,  made  a  rapid  progress,  and  the 
latter  was  raised,  along  with  Zuric,  by 
Frederick  II.,  in  1218,  to  the  rank  of  a 
free  imperial  city.  Several  changes  in 
the  principal  Helvetian  families  took 
place  in  the  thirteenth  century,  before 
the  end  of  which  the  house  of  Hapsburg, 
under  the  politic  and  enterprising  Ro- 

*  Spondanus  frequently  blames  the  Italians, 
who  received  pensions  from  Matthias,  or  wrote  at 
his  court,  for  exaggerating  his  virtues  or  dissem- 
bling his  misfortunes.  And  this  was  probably  the 
case.  However,  Spondanus  has  rather  contracted 
a  prejudice  against  the  Corvini.  A  treatise  of  Gal- 
eotus  Martius,  an  Italian  litterateur,  De  dictis  et  fac- 
tis  Mathiae,  though  it  often  notices  an  ordinary  say- 
ing as  jocose  or  facete  dictum,  gives  a  favourable 
impression  of  Matthias's  ability,  and  also  of  his 
integrity. 


dolph,  and  his  son  Albert,  became  pos- 
sessed, through  various  titles,  of  a  great 
ascendency  in  Swisserland.* 

Of  these  titles  none  was  more  tempt- 
ing to  an  ambitious  chief  than  Albert  of 
that  of  advocate  to  a  convent.  Austria. 
That  specious  name  conveyed  with  it  a 
kind  of  indefinite  guardianship,  and  right 
of  interference,  which  frequently  ended 
in  reversing  the  conditions  of  the  eccle- 
siastical sovereign  and  its  vassal.  But, 
during  times  of  feudal  anarchy,  there 
was  perhaps  no  other  means  to  secure 
the  rich  abbeys  from  absolute  spoliation  ; 
and  the  free  cities  in  their  early  stage 
sometimes  adopted  the  same  policy. 
Among  other  advocacies,  Albert  T  . 
obtained  that  of  some  convents 
which  had  estates  in  the  valleys  of 
Schvvitz  and  Underwald.  These  seques- 
tered regions  in  the  heart  of  the  Alps 
had  been  for  ages  the  habitation  of  a 
pastoral  race,  so  happily  forgotten,  or 
so  inaccessible  in  their  fastnesses,  as  to 
have  acquired  a  virtual  independence,  reg- 
ulating their  own  affairs  in  their  general 
assembly  with  a  perfect  equality,  though 
they  acknowledged  the  sovereignty  of 
the  empire. t  The  people  of  Schwitz 
had  made  Rodolph  their  advocate.  They 
distrusted  Albert,  whose  succession  to 
his  father's  inheritance  spread  alarm 
through  Helvetia.  It  soon  appeared  that 
their  suspicions  were  well  founded.  Be- 
sides the  local  rights  which  his  ecclesi- 
astical advocates  gave  him  over  part  of 
the  forest  cantons,  he  pretended,  after 
his  election  to  the  empire,  to  send  impe- 
rial bailiffs  into  their  valleys,  as  adminis- 
trators of  criminal  justice.  Their  op- 
pression of  a  people  unused  to  control, 
whom  it  was  plainly  the  design  of  Albert 
to  reduce  into  servitude,  excited  those 
generous  emotions  of  resentment  which 
a  brave  and  simple  race  have  seldom 
the  discretion  to  repress.  Three  men, 
Stauffacher  of  Schwitz,  Furst  of  Uri, 
Melchthal  of  Underwald,  each  Their  insur- 
with  ten  chosen  associates,  met  rectum, 
by  night  in  a  sequestered  field,  and 
swore  to  assert  the  common  cause  of 
their  liberties,  without  bloodshed  or  in- 
jury to  the  rights  of  others.  Their 
success  was  answerable  to  the  justice 
of  their  undertaking ;  the  three  cantons 
unanimously  took  up  arms,  and  expelled 
their  oppressors  without  a  contest.  [A. 
D.  1308.]  Albert's  assassination  by  his 
nephew,  which  followed  soon  afterward, 
fortunately  gave  them  leisure  to  consol- 


*  Planta's  History  of  the  Helvetic  Confederacy, 
vol.  i.,  chaps.  2-5. 
t  Id.,  c.  4. 


CHAP.  V.] 


idate  their  union.*  He  was  succeeded 
in  the  empire  by  Henry  VII.,  jealous  of 
the  Austrian  family,  and  not  at  all  dis- 
pleased at  proceedings  which  had  been 
accompanied  with  so  little  violence  or 
disrespect  for  the  empire.  But  Leopold, 
duke  of  Austria,  resolved  to  humble  the 
peasants  who  had  rebelled  against  his 
father,  led  a  considerable  force  into  their 
country.  The  Swiss,  commending  them- 
selves to  Heaven,  and  determined  rather 
to  perish  than  undergo  that  yoke  a  sec- 
ond time,  though  ignorant  of  regular 
discipline  and  unprovided  with  defensive 
Battle  of  armour,  utterly  discomfited  the 
Morgarien.  assailants  at  Morgarten.f  [A.  D. 
1315.] 

This  great  victory,  the  Marathon  of 
Swisserland,  confirmed  the  independence 
Form  tion  °^  ^e  three  original  cantons. 
of  Swiss  After  some  years,  Lucerne,  con- 
confede-  tiguous  in  situation  and  alike  in 
interests,  was  incorporated  into 
their  confederacy.  It  was  far  more  ma- 
terially enlarged  about  the  middle  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  by  the  accession 
of  Zuric,  Glaris,  Zug,  and  Berne,  all 
which  took  place  within  two  years.  The 
first  and  last  of  these  cities  had  already 
been  engaged  in  frequent  wars  with  the 
Helvetian  nobility,  and  their  internal 
polity  was  altogether  republican.^  They 
acquired,  not  independence,  which  they 
already  enjoyed,  but  additional  security 
by  this  union  with  the  Swiss,  properly 
so  called,  who,  in  deference  to  their 
power  and  reputation,  ceded  to  them  the 
first  rank  in  the  league.  The  eight 
already  enumerated  are  called  the  an- 
cient cantons,  and  continued  till  the  late 
reformation  of  the  Helvetic  system  to 
possess  several  distinctive  privileges, 
and  even  rights  of  sovereignty  over  sub- 
ject territories,  in  which  the  five  cantons 
of  Friburg,  Soleure,  Basle,  Schaffausen, 
and  Appenzel,  did  not  participate.  From 
this  time  the  united  cantons,  but  espe- 
cially those  of  Berne  and  Zuric,  began 
to  extend  their  territories  at  the  expense 
of  the  rural  nobility.  The  same  contest 
between  these  parties,  with  the  same 
termination,  which  we  know  generally 
to  have  taken  place  in  Lombardy  during 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  may 
be  traced  with  more  minuteness  in  the 
annals  of  Swisserland.  $  Like  the  Lom- 
bards too,  the  Helvetic  cities  acted  with 
policy  and  moderation  towards  the  nobles 
whom  they  overcame,  admitting  them  to 
the  franchises  of  their  community,  as  co- 


GERMANY.  247 

burghers  (a  privilege  which  virtually  im- 
plied a  defensive  alliance  against  any 
assailant),  and  uniformly  respecting  the 
legal  rights  of  property.  Many  feudal 
superiorities  they  obtained  from  the 
owners  in  a  more  peaceable  manner, 
through  purchase  or  mortgage.  Thus 
the  house  of  Austria,  to  which  the  exten- 
sive domains  of  the  counts  of  Kyburg 
had  devolved,  abandoning,  after  repeated 
defeats,  its  hopes  of  subduing  the  forest 
cantons,  alienated  a  great  part  of  its 
possessions  to  Zuric  and  Berne.*  And 
the  last  remnant  of  their  ancient  Helve- 
tic territories  in  Argovia  was  wrested  in 
1417  from  Frederick,  count  of  Tyrol,  who, 
imprudently  supporting  Pope  John  XXIII. 
against  the  council  of  Constance,  had 
been  put  to  the  ban  of  the  empire.  These 
conquests  Berne  could  not  be  induced  to 
restore,  and  thus  completed  the  inde- 
pendence of  the  confederate  republics.! 
The  other  free  cities,  though  not  yet  in- 
corporated, and  the  few  remaining  nobles, 
whether  lay  or  spiritual,  of  whom  the 
abbot  of  St.  Gall  was  the  principal,  entered 
into  separate  leagues  with  different  can- 
tons. Swisserland  became  therefore,  in 
the  first  part  of  the  fifteenth  century,  a 
free  country,  acknowledged  as  such  by 
neighbouring  states,  and  subject  to  no 
external  control,  though  still  compre- 
hended within  the  nominal  sovereignty 
of  the  empire. 

The  affairs  of  Swisserland  occupy  a 
very  small  space  in  the  great  chart  of  Eu- 
ropean history  But  in  some  respects  they 
are  more  interesting  than  the  revolutions 
of  mighty  kingdoms.  Nowhere  besides 
do  we  find  so  many  titles  to  our  sympa- 
thy, or  the  union  of  so  much  virtue  with 
so  complete  success.  In  the  Italian  re- 
publics, a  more  splendid  temple  may 
seem  to  have  been  erected  to  liberty;  but, 
as  we  approach,  the  serpents  of  faction 
hiss  around  her  altar,  and  the  form  of 
tyranny  flits  among  the  distant  shadows 
behind  the  shrine.  Swisserland,  not  ab- 
solutely blameless  (for  what  republic  has 
aeen  so  ?),  but  comparatively  exempt  from 
turbulence,  usurpation,  and  injustice,  has 
well  deserved  to  employ  the  native  pen 
of  an  historian,  accounted  the  most  elo- 
quent of  the  last  age.J  Other  nations 


*  Planta,  c.  6. 
t  W.,  cc.  8,  9. 


t  Id.,  c.  7. 
$  Id.,  c.  10. 


*  Planta,  c.  11.  f  Vol.  ii.,  e.  1. 

|  I  am  unacquainted  with  Muller's  history  in  the 
original  language  ;  but,  presuming  the  first  volume 
of  Mr.  Planta's  History  of  the  Helvetic  Confedera- 
cy to  be  a  free  translation  or  abridgment  of  it,  I  can 

ell  conceive  that  it  deserves  the  encomiums  of 
Madame  de  Stae'l,  and  other  foreign  critics.  It  is 
very  rare  to  meet  with  such  picturesque  and  lively 
delineation  in  a  modern  historian  of  distant  times. 
But  I  must  observe,  that,  if  the  authentic  chroni- 


248 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  V. 


displayed  an  insuperable  resolution  in  the 
defence  of  walled  towns;  but  the  steadi- 
ness of  the  Swiss  in  the  field  of  battle 
was  without  a  parallel,  unless  we  recall 
the  memory  of  Lacedaemon.  It  was  even 
established  as  a  law,  that  whoever  re- 
turned from  battle  after  a  defeat  should 
forfeit  his  life  by  the  hands  of  the  exe- 
cutioner. Sixteen  hundred  men,  who  had 
been  sent  to  oppose  the  predatory  inva- 
sion of  the  French  in  1444,  though  they 
might  have  retreated  without  loss,  deter- 
mined rather  to  perish  on  the  spot,  and 
fell  amid  a  far  greater  heap  of  the  hostile 
slain.*  At  the  famous  battle  of  Sem- 
pach,  in  1385,  the  last  which  Austria  pre- 
sumed to  try  against  the  forest  cantons, 
the  enemy's  knights,  dismounted  from 
their  horses,  presented  an  impregnable 
barrier  of  lances,  which  disconcerted  the 
Swiss ;  till  Winkelried,  a  gentleman  of 
Underwald,  commending  his  wife  and 
children  to  his  countrymen,  threw  him- 
self upon  the  opposite  ranks,  and  collect- 
ing as  many  lances  as  he  could  grasp, 
forced  a  passage  for  his  followers  by  bu- 
rying them  in  his  bosom. f 

The  burghers  and  peasants  of  Swisser- 
Exceiience  land,  ill  provided  with  cavalry, 
of  the  Swiss  and  better  able  to  dispense  with 
it  than  the  natives  of  cham- 
paign countries,  may  be  deemed  the  prin- 
cipal restorers  of  the  Greek  and  Roman 
tactics,  which  place  the  strength  of  ar- 
mies in  a  steady  mass  of  infantry.  Be- 
sides their  splendid  victories  over  the 
dukes  of  Austria  and  their  own  neigh- 
bouring nobility,  they  had  repulsed,  in  the 
year  1375,  one  of  those  predatory  bodies 
of  troops,  the  scourge  of  Europe  in  that 
age,  and  to  whose  licentiousness  king- 
doms and  free  states  yielded  alike  a  pas- 
sive submission.  They  gave  the  dauphin, 
afterward  Louis  XI.,  who  entered  their 
country,  in  1444,  with  a  similar  body  of 
ruffians,  called  Armagnacs,  the  disbanded 
mercenaries  of  the  English  war,  sufficient 
reason  to  desist  from  his  invasion  and  to 
respect  their  valour.  That  able  prince 
formed  indeed  so  high  a  notion  of  the 
Swiss,  that  he  sedulously  cultivated  their 
alliance  during  the  rest  of  his  life.  He 

cles  of  Swisserland  have  enabled  Muller  to  embel- 
lish his  narration  with  so  much  circumstantial  de- 
tail, he  has  been  remarkably  fortunate  in  his  au- 
thorities. No  man  could  write  the  annals  of  Eng- 
land or  France  in  the  fourteenth  century  with  such 
particularity,  if  he  was  scrupulous  not  to  fill  up  the 
meager  sketch  of  chroniclers  from  the  stories  of 
his  invention.  The  striking  scenery  of  Swisser- 
land, and  Muller's  exact  acquaintance  with  it, 
have  given  him  another  advantage  as  a  painter  of 
history. 

Vol.  ii.,  c.  2.  t  Vol.  i.,  c.  10. 


was  made  abundantly  sensible  of  the  wis- 
dom of  this  policy,  when  he  saw  his 
greatest  enemy,  the  Duke  of  Burgundy, 
routed  at  Granson  and  Moral,  and  his  af- 
fairs irrecoverably  ruined  by  these  hardy 
republicans.  The  ensuing  age  is  the 
most  conspicuous,  though  not  the  most 
essentially  glorious,  in  the  history  of 
Swisserland.  Courted  for  the  excellence 
of  their  troops  by  the  rival  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  and  themselves  too  sensible  both 
to  ambitious  schemes  of  dominion  and  to 
the  thirst  of  money,  the  united  cantons 
came  to  play  a  very  prominent  part  in  the 
wars  of  Lombardy,  with  great  military 
renown,  but  not  without  some  impeach- 
ment of  that  sterling  probity  which  had 
distinguished  their  earlier  efforts  for  in- 
dependence. These  events,  however,  do 
not  fall  within  my  limits;  but  the  last 
year  of  the  fifteenth  century  is  a  leading 
epoch  with  which  I  shall  close  this 
sketch.  Though  the  house  of  p  ,.. 
Austria  had  ceased  to  menace  SfSSnO? 
the  liberties  of  Helvetia,  and  dependence 
had  even  been  for  many  years  in  1500' 
its  ally,  the  Emperor  Maximilian,  aware 
of  the  important  service  he  might  derive 
from  the  cantons  in  his  projects  upon 
Italy,  as  well  as  of  the  disadvantage  he 
sustained  by  their  partiality  to  French  in- 
terest, endeavoured  to  revive  the  im- 
extinguished  supremacy  of  the  empire. 
That  supremacy  had  just  been  restored 
in  Germany  by  the  establishment  of  the 
Imperial  Chamber,  and  of  a  regular  pecu- 
niary contribution  for  its  support  as-  well 
as  for  other  purposes,  in  the  diet  of 
Worms.  The  Helvetic  cantons  were 
summoned  to  yield  obedience  to  these 
imperial  laws;  an  innovation,  for  such 
the  revival  of  obsolete  prerogatives  must 
be  considered,  exceedingly  hostile  to  their 
republican  independence,  and  involving 
consequences  not  less  material  in  their 
eyes,  the  abandonment  of  a  line  of  policy 
which  tended  to  enrich,  if  not  to  ag- 
grandize them.  Their  refusal  to  comply 
brought  on  a  war,  wherein  the  Tyrolese 
subjects  of  Maximilian,  and  the  Swabian 
league,  a  confederacy  of  cities  in  that 
province  lately  formed  under  the  empe- 
ror's auspices,  were  principally  engaged 
against  the  Swiss.  But  the  success  of 
the  latter  was  decisive ;  and,  after  a  ter- 
rible devastation  of  the  frontiers  of  Ger- 
many, peace  was  concluded  upon  terms 
very  honourable  for  Swisserland.  The 
cantons  were  declared  free  from  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  Imperial  Chamber,  and 
from  all  contributions  imposed  by  the 
diet.  Their  right  to  enter  into  foreign 
alliance,  even  hostile  to  the  empire,  if  it 


CIUP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


249 


was  not  expressly  recognised,  continued  ;  treaty  of  Westphalia,  their  real  sover- 
imimpaired  in  practice ;  nor  am  I  aware  |  eignty  must  be  dated  by  an  historian  from 
that  they  were  at  any  time  afterward  sup-  j  the  year  when  every  prerogative  which 


posed  to  incur  the  crime  of  rebellion  by 
such  proceedings.  Though,  perhaps,  in 
the  strictest  letter  of  public  law,  the  Swiss 
cantons  were  not  absolutely  released  from 
their  subjection  to  the  empire  until  the 


a  government  can  exercise  was  finally 
abandoned.* 

*  Planta,  vol.  ii.,  c.  4. 


CHAPTER  VI. 


HISTORY  OF  THE  GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


Rise  of  Mahometanism.— Causes  of  its  Success. — 
Progress  of  Saracen  Arms. — Greek  Empire. — 
Decline  of  the  Khalifs. — The  Greeks  recover 
part  of  their  Losses.— The  Turks.— The  Cru- 
sades.— Capture  of  Constantinople  by  the  Lat- 
ins.—Its  Recovery  by  the  Greeks.— The  Mo- 
guls.— The  Ottomans.— Danger  at  Constantino- 
ple.— Timur.— Capture  of  Constantinople  by  Ma- 
homet II. — Alarm  of  Europe. 

THE  difficulty  which  occurs  to  us  in 
endeavouring  to  fix  a  natural  commence- 
ment of  modern  history,  even  in  the 
Western  countries  of  Europe,  is  much 
enhanced  when  we  direct  our  attention 
to  the  Eastern  Empire.  In  tracing  the 
long  series  of  the  Byzantine  annals,  we 
never  lose  sight  of  antiquity ;  the  Greek 
language,  the  Roman  name,  the  titles, 
the  laws,  all  the  shadowy  circumstance 
of  ancient  greatness,  attend  us  throughout 
the  progress  from  the  first  to  the  last  of 
the  Constantines  ;  and  it  is  only  when 
we  observe  the  external  condition  and 
relations  of  their  empire,  that  we  per- 
ceive ourselves  to  be  embarked  in  a  new 
sea,  and  are  compelled  to  deduce,  from 
points  of  bearing  to  the  history  of  other 
nations,  a  line  of  separation,  which  the 
domestic  revolutions  of  Constantinople 
would  not  satisfactorily  afford.  The  ap- 
pearance of  Mahomet,  and  the  conquests 
of  his  disciples,  present  an  epoch  in  the 
history  of  Asia  still  more  important  and 
more  definite  than  the  subversion  of  the 
Roman  empire  in  Europe ;  and  hence  the 
boundary  line  between  the  ancient  and 
modern  divisions  of  Byzantine  history 
will  intersect  the  reign  of  Heraclius. 
That  prince  may  be  said  to  have  stood 
on  the  verge  of  both  hemispheres  of  time, 
whose  youth  was  crowned  with  the  last 
victories  over  the  successors  of  Arta- 
xerxes,  and  whose  age  was  clouded  by 
the  first  calamities  of  Mahometan  inva- 
sion. 

Of  all  the  revolutions  which  have  had 


a  permanent  influence  upon  the 
civil  history  of  mankind,  none  anceofMs- 
I  could  so  little  be  anticipated  by  homet- 
I  human  prudence  as  that  effected  by  the 
I  religion  of  Arabia.  As  the  seeds  of  in- 
|  visible  disease  grow  up  sometimes  in  si- 
lence to  maturity,  till  they  manifest  them- 
selves hopeless  and  irresistible,  the  grad- 
ual propagation  of  a  new  faith  in  a  bar- 
barous country  beyond  the  limits  of  the 
empire  was  hardly  known  perhaps,  and 
certainly  disregarded,  in  the  court  of 
Constantinople.  Arabia,  in  the  age  of 
Mahomet,  was  divided  into  many  small 
states,  most  of  which,  however,  seem  to 
have  looked  up  to  Mecca  as  the  capital 
of  their  nation  and  the  chief  seat  of  their 
religious  worship.  The  capture  of  that 
city  accordingly,  and  subjugation  of  its 
powerful  and  numerous  aristocracy,  read- 
ily drew  after  it  the  submission  of  the 
minor  tribes,  who  transferred  to  the  con- 
queror the  reverence  they  were  used  to 
show  to  those  he  had  subdued.  If  we 
consider  Mahomet  only  as  a  military 
usurper,  there  is  nothing  more  explicable, 
or  more  analogous,  especially  to  the 
course  of  Oriental  history,  than  his  suc- 
cess. But  as  the  author  of  a  religious 
imposture,  upon  which,  though  avowedly 
unattested  by  miraculous  powers,  and 
though  originally  discountenanced  by 
the  civil  magistrates,  he  had  the  boldness 
to  found  a  scheme  of  universal  dominion 
which  his  followers  were  half  enabled  to 
realize,  it  is  a  curious  speculation,  by 
what  means  he  could  inspire  so  sincere, 
so  ardent,  so  energetic,  and  so  perma- 
nent a  belief. 

A  full  explanation  of  the  causes  which 
contributed  to  the  progress  of  Causes  of 
Mahometanism  is  not  perhaps  ^  success, 
at  present  attainable  by  those  most  con- 
versant with  this  department  of  litera- 
ture. But  we  may  point  out  several  of 


250 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


leading  importance  :*  in  the  first  place, 
those  just  and  elevated  notions  of  the  di- 
vine nature,  and  of  moral  duties,  the  gold 
ore  that  pervades  the  dross  of  the  Koran, 
which  were  calculated  to  strike  a  serious 
and  reflecting  people,  already  perhaps 
disinclined,  by  intermixture  with  their 
Jewish  and  Christian  fellow-citizens,  to 
the  superstitions  of  their  ancient  idola- 
try;! next,  the  artful  incorporation  of 
tenets,  usages,  and  traditions  from  the 
various  religions  that  existed  in  Arabia  ;| 
and  thirdly,  the  extensive  application  of 
the  precepts  in  the  Koran,  a  book  con- 
fessedly written  with  more  elegance  and 
purity,  to  all  legal  transactions,  and  all 
the  business  of  life.  It  may  be  expected 
that  I  should  add  to  these,  what  is  com- 

*  We  are  very  destitute  of  satisfactory  materials 
for  the  history  of  Mahomet  himself.  Abulfeda,  the 
most  judicious  of  his  biographers,  lived  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  when  it  must  have  been  morally 
impossible  to  discriminate  the  truth  amid  the  tor- 
rent of  fabulous  tradition.  Al  Jannabi,  whom  Gag- 
nier  translated,  is  a  mere  legend  writer ;  it  would 
be  as  rational  to  quote  the  Acta  Sanctorum  as  his 
romance.  It  is  therefore  difficult  to  ascertain  the 
real  character  of  the  prophet,  except  as  it  is  dedu- 
cible  from  the  Koran ;  and  some  skeptical  Orien- 
talists, if  I  am  not  mistaken,  have  called  in  ques- 
tion the  absolute  genuineness  even  of  that.  Gib- 
bon has  hardly  apprized  the  reader  sufficiently  of 
the  crumbling  foundation  upon  which  his  narrative 
of  Mahomet's  life  and  actions  depends. 

t  The  very  curious  romance  of  Antar,  written 
perhaps  before  the  appearance  of  Mahomet,  seems 
to  render  it  probable,  that  however  idolatry,  as  we 
are  told  by  Sale,  might  prevail  in  some  parts  of 
Arabia,  yet  the  genuine  religion  of  the  descendants 
of  Ishmael  was  a  belief  in  the  unity  of  God  as 
strict  as  is  laid  down  in  the  Koran  itself,  and  ac- 
companied by  the  same  antipathy,  partly  religious, 
partly  national,  towards  the  Fire-worshippers, 
which  Mahomet  inculcated.  This  corroborates 
what  I  had  said  in  the  text  before  the  publication 
of  that  work. 

t  I  am  very  much  disposed  to  believe,  notwith- 
standing what  seems  to  be  the  general  opinion, 
that  Mahomet  had  never  read  any  part  of  the  New 
Testament.  His  knowledge  of  Christianity  ap- 
pears to  be  wholly  derived  from  the  apocryphal 
gospels,  and  similar  works.  He  admitted  the  mi- 
raculous conception  and  prophetic  character  of 
Jesus,  but  not  his  divinity  or  pre-existence.  Hence 
it  is  rather  surprising  to  read,  in  a  popular  book  of 
sermons  by  a  living  prelate,  that  all  the  heresies  of 
the  Christian  church  (I  quote  the  substance  from 
memory)  are  to  be  found  in  the  Koran,  but  espe- 
cially that  of  Ariamsm.  No  one  who  knows  what 
Arianism  is,  and  what  Mahometanism  is,  could 
possibly  fall  into  so  strange  an  error.  The  mis- 
fortune has  been,  that  the  learned  writer,  while 
accumulating  a  mass  of  reading  upon  this  part  of 
his  subject,  neglected  what  should  have  been  the 
nucleus  of  the  whole,  a  perusal  of  the  single  book 
which  contains  the  doctrine  of  the  Arabian  impos- 
tor. In  this  strange  chimera  about  the  Arianism  , 
of  Mahomet,  he  has  been  led  away  by  a  misplaced 
trust  in  Whitaker;  a  writer  almost  invariably  in 
the  wrong,  and  whose  bad  reasoning  upon  all  the 
points  of  historical  criticism  which  he  attempted 
to  discuss  is  quite  notorious. 


monly  considered  as  a  distinguishing 
mark  of  Mahometanism,  its  indulgence  to 
voluptuousness.  But  this  appears  to  be 
greatly  exaggerated.  Although  the  char- 
acter of  its  founder  may  have  been  taint- 
ed by  sensuality  as  well  as  ferociousness, 
I  do  not  think  that  he  relied  upon  induce- 
ments of  the  former  kind  for  the  diffusion 
of  his  system.  We  are  not  to  judge  of 
this  by  rules  of  Christian  purity  or  of 
European  practice.  If  polygamy  was  a 
prevailing  usage  in  Arabia,  as  is  not  ques- 
tioned, its  permission  gave  no  additional 
license  to  the  proselytes  of  Mahomet, 
who  will  be  found  rather  to  have  nar- 
rowed the  unbounded  liberty  of  Oriental 
manners  in  this  respect ;  while  his  deci- 
ded condemnation  of  adultery,  and  of  in- 
cestuous connexions,  so  frequent  among 
barbarous  nations,  does  not  argue  a  very 
lax  and  accommodating  morality.  A  de- 
vout Mussulman  exhibits  much  more  of 
the  Stoical  than  the  Epicurean  character. 
Nor  can  any  one  read  the  Koran  without 
being  sensible  that  it  breathes  an  austere 
and  scrupulous  spirit.  And,  in  fact,  the 
founder  of  a  new  religion  or  sect  is  little 
likely  to  obtain  permanent  success  by  in- 
dulging the  vices  and  luxuries  of  mankind. 
I  should  rather  be  disposed  to  reckon  the 
severity  of  Mahomet's  discipline  among 
the  causes  of  its  influence.  Precepts  of 
ritual  observance,  being  always  definite 
and  unequivocal,  are  less  likely  to  be 
neglected,  after  their  obligation  has  been 
acknowledged,  than  those  of  moral  vir- 
tue. Thus  the  long  fasting,  the  pilgrim- 
ages, the  regular  prayers  and  ablutions, 
the  constant  almsgiving,  the  abstinence 
from  stimulating  liquors,  enjoined  by  the 
Koran,  created  a  visible  standard  of  prac- 
ice  among  its  followers,  and  preserved  a 
continual  recollection  of  their  law. 

But  the  prevalence  of  Islam  in  the  life- 
ime  of  its  prophet,  and  during  the  first 
ages  of  its  existence,  was  chiefly  owing 
o  the  spirit  of  martial  energy  that  he  in- 
used  into  it.  The  religion  of  Mahomet 
is  as  essentially  a  military  system  as  the 
institution  of  chivalry  in  the  west  of  Eu- 
rope. The  people  of  Arabia,  a  race  of 
strong  passions  and  sanguinary  temper, 
inured  to  habits  of  pillage  and  murder, 
found  in  the  law  of  their  native  prophet, 
not  a  license,  but  a  command  to  desolate 
the  world,  and  a  promise  of  all  that  their 
glowing  imaginations  could  anticipate  of 
Paradise  annexed  to  all  in  which  they 
nost  delighted  upon  earth.  It  is  difficult 
for  us,  in  the  calmness  of  our  closets,  to 
conceive  that  feverish  intensity  of  excite- 
ment to  which  man  may  be  wrought, 
when  the  animal  and  intellectual  ener- 


CHAP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


251 


gies  of  his  nature  converge  to  a  point, 
and  the  buoyancy  of  strength  and  cour- 
age reciprocates  the  influence  of  moral 
sentiment  or  religious  hope.  The  effect 
of  this  union  I  have  formerly  remarked 
in  the  crusades ;  a  phenomenon  perfectly 
analogous  to  the  early  history  of  the 
Saracens.  In  each,  one  hardly  knows 
whether  most  to  admire  the  prodigious 
exertions  of  heroism,  or  to  revolt  from 
the  ferocious  bigotry  that  attended  them. 
But  the  crusades  were  a  temporary  ef- 
fort, not  thoroughly  congenial  to  the 
spirit  of  Christendom,  which,  even  in  the 
darkest  and  most  superstitious  ages,  was 
not  susceptible  of  the  solitary  and  over- 
ruling fanaticism  of  the  Moslems.  They 
needed  no  excitements  from  pontiffs  and 
preachers  to  achieve  the  work  to  which 
they  were  called ;  the  precept  was  in 
their  law,  the  principle  was  in  their 
hearts,  the  assurance  of  success  was  in 
their  swords.  O  prophet,  exclaimed 
Ali,  when  Mahomet,  in  the  first  years 
of  his  mission,  sought  among  the  scanty 
and  hesitating  assembly  of  his  friends  a 
vizier  and  lieutenant  in  command,  I  am 
the  man ;  whoever  rises  against  thee,  I 
will  dash  out  his  teeth,  tear  out  his  eyes, 
break  his  legs,  rip  up  his  belly.  O  proph- 
et, I  will  be  thy  vizier  over  ,them.* 
These  words  of  Mahomet's  early  and  il- 
lustrious disciple  are,  as  it  were,  a  text, 
upon  which  the  commentary  expands 
into  the  whole  Saracenic  history.  They 
contain  the  vital  essence  of  his  religion, 
implicit  faith,  and  ferocious  energy. 
Death,  slavery,  tribute  to  unbelievers, 
were  the  glad  tidings  of  the  Arabian 
prophet.  To  the  idolaters  indeed,  or 
those  who.  acknowledged  no  special  rev- 
elation, one  alternative  only  was  pro- 
posed, conversion  or  the  sword.  The 
People  of  the  Book,  as  they  are  termed 
in  the  Koran,  or  four  sects  of  Christians, 
Jews,  Magians,  and  Sabians,  were  per- 
mitted to  redeem  their  adherence  to  their 
ancient  law,  by  the  payment  of  tribute, 
and  other  marks  of  humiliation  and  ser- 
vitude. But  the  limits  which  Mahomet- 
an intolerance  had  prescribed  to  itself 
were  seldom  transgressed,  the  word 
pledged  to  unbelievers  was  seldom  for- 
feited ;  and,  with  all  their  insolence  and 
oppression,  the  Moslem  conquerors  were 
mild  and  liberal  in  comparison  with  those 
who  obeyed  the  pontiffs  of  Rome  or  Con- 
stantinople. 

At  the  death  of  Mahomet  in  632,  his 
First  con-      temporal    and  religious  sover- 
guestsof  the  eignty  embraced,  and  was  lim- 
ited by,  the  Arabian  peninsula. 
*  Gibbon,  vol.  ix.,  p.  284! 


Saracens. 


The  Roman  and  Persian  empires,  enga- 
ged in  tedious  and  indecisive  hostility 
upon  the  rivers  of  Mesopotamia  and  the 
Armenian  mountains,  were  viewed  by  the 
ambitious  fanatics  of  his  creed  as  their 
quarry.  In  the  very  first  year  of  Mahom- 
et's immediate  successor,  Abubeker,  each 
of  these  mighty  empires  was  invaded. 
The  latter  opposed  but  a  short  resistance. 
The  crumbling  fabric  of  eastern  despot- 
ism is  never  secure  against  rapid  and 
total  subversion ;  a  few  victories,  a  few 
sieges,  carried  the  Arabian  arms  from 
the  Tigris  to  the  Oxus,  and  overthrew, 
with  the  Sassanian  dynasty,  the  an- 
cient and  famous  religion  they  had 
professed.  Seven  years  of  active  and 
unceasing  warfare  sufficed  to  subju- 
gate the  rich  province  of  Syria,  though 
defended  by  numerous  armies  and  for- 
tified cities  [A.  D.  632-639];  and  the 
Khalif  Omar  had  scarcely  returned  thanks 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  conquest, 
when  Amrou  his  lieutenant  announced 
to  him  the  entire  reduction  of  Egypt. 
After  some  interval,  the  Saracens  won 
their  way  along  the  coast  of  Africa  as 
far  as  the  pillars  of  Hercules  [A.  D.  647 
-698],  and  a  third  province  was  irretriev- 
ably torn  from  the  Greek  empire.  These 
western  conquests  introduced  them  to 
fresh  enemies,  and  ushered  in  more  splen- 
did successes ;  encouraged  by  the  disu- 
nion of  the  Visigoths,  and  invited  by 
treachery,  Musa,  the  general  of  a  master 
who  sat  beyond  the  opposite  extremity  of 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  [A.  D.  710],  pass- 
ed over  into  Spain,  and  within  about  two 
years  the  name  of  Mahomet  was  invoked 
under  the  Pyrenees.* 

These  conquests,  which  astonish  the 
careless  and  superficial,  are  less  state  of  the 
perplexing  to  a  calm  inquirer  than  Greek  em* 
their  cessation ;  the  loss  of  half  PI 
the  Roman  empire,  than  the  preservation 
of  the  rest.  A  glance  from  Medina  to 
Constantinople,  in  the  middle  of  the  sev- 
enth century,  would  probably  have  indu- 
ced an  indifferent  spectator,  if  such  a  be- 
ing may  be  imagined,  to  anticipate  by 
eight  hundred  years  the  establishment  of 


*  Ockley's  History  of  the  Saracens.  Cardonne, 
Revolutions  de  I'Afrique  et  de  1'Espagne.  The 
former  of  these  works  is  well  known,  and  justly 
admired  for  its  simplicity  and  picturesque  details. 
Scarcely  any  narrative  has  ever  excelled  in  beauty 
that  of  the  death  of  Hossein.  But  these  do  not 
tend  to  render  it  more  deserving  of  confidence. 
On  the  contrary,  it  may  be  laid  down  as  a  pretty 
general  rule,  that  circumstantiality,  which  enhances 
the  credibility  of  a  witness,  diminishes  that  of  an 
historian  remote  in  time  or  situation.  And  I  ob- 
serve that  Reiske,  in  his  preface  to  Abulfeda, 
speaks  of  Wakidi,  from  whom  Ockley's  book  is 
but  a  translation,  as  a  mere  fabulist. 


252 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


a  Mahometan  dominion  upon  the  shores 
of  the  Hellespont.  The  fame  of  Herac- 
lius  had  withered  in  the  Syrian  war;  and 
his  successors  appeared  as  incapable  to 
resist  as  they  were  unworthy  to  govern. 
Their  despotism,  unchecked  by  law,  was 
often  punished  by  successful  rebellion ; 
but  not  a  whisper  of  civil  liberty  was 
ever  heard,  and  the  vicissitudes  of  servi- 
tude and  anarchy  consummated  the  mor- 
al degeneracy  of  the  nation.  Less  igno- 
rant than  the  western  barbarians,  the 
Greeks  abused  their  ingenuity  in  theo- 
logical controversies,  those  especially 
which  related  to  the  nature  and  incarna- 
tion of  our  Saviour ;  wherein  the  dispu- 
tants, as  is  usual,  became  more  positive 
and  rancorous  as  their  creed  receded 
from  the  possibility  of  human  apprehen- 
sion. Nor  were  these  confined  to  the 
clergy,  who  had  not,  in  the  East,  obtain- 
ed the  prerogative  of  guiding  the  national 
faith;  the  sovereigns  sided  alternately 
with  opposing  factions  ;  Heraclius  was 
not  too  brave,  nor  Theodora  too  infamous, 
for  discussions  of  theology ;  and  the  dis- 
senters from  an  imperial  decision  were 
involved  in  the  double  proscription  of 
treason  and  heresy.  But  the  persecu- 
tors of  their  opponents  at  home  pretend- 
ed to  cowardly  scrupulousness  in  the 
field ;  nor  was  the  Greek  church  ashamed 
to  require  the  lustration  of  a  canonical 
penance  from  the  soldier  who  shed  the 
blood  of  his  enemies  in  a  national  war. 

But  this  depraved  people  were  preserv- 
Deciine  of  G&  from  destruction  by  the  vices 
the  Sara-  of  their  enemies,  still  more  than 
cens.  •  by  some  intrinsic  resources  which 
they  yet  possessed.  A  rapid  degenera- 
cy enfeebled  the  victorious  Moslems  in 
their  career.  That  irresistible  enthu- 
siasm, that  earnest  and  disinterested  zeal 
of  the  companions  of  Mahomet  was  in  a 
great  measure  lost,  even  before  the  first 
generation  had  passed  away.  In  the 
fruitful  valleys  of  Damascus  and  Bassora, 
the  Arabs  of  the  desert  forgot  their  ab- 
stemious habits.  Rich  from  the  tribute 
of  an  enslaved  people,  the  Mahometan 
sovereigns  knew  no  employment  of  rich- 
es but  in  sensual  luxury,  and  paid  the 
price  of  voluptuous  indulgence  in  the  re- 
laxation of  their  strength  and  energy. 
Under  the  reign  of  Moawiyah,  the  fifth 
khalif,  an  hereditary  succession  was  sub- 
stituted for  the  free  choice  of  the  faith- 
ful, by  which  the  first  representatives 
of  the  prophet  had  been  elevated  to  pow- 
er ;  and  this  regulation,  necessary  as  it 
plainly  was  to  avert  in  some  degree  the 
dangers  of  schism  and  civil  war,  exposed 
the  kingdom  to  the  certainty  of  being 


often  governed  by  feeble  tyrants.  But  no 
regulation  could  be  more  than  a  tempo- 
rary preservative  against  civil  war.  The 
dissensions  which  still  separate  and  ren- 
der hostile  the  followers  of  Mahomet, 
may  be  traced  to  the  first  events  that  en- 
sued upon  his  death,  to  the  rejection  of 
his  son-in-law  Ali  by  the  electors  of  Me- 
dina. Two  reigns,  those  of  Abubeker 
and  Omar,  passed  in  external  glory  and 
domestic  reverence ;  but  the  old  age  of 
Othman  was  weak  and  imprudent,  and 
the  conspirators  against  him  established 
the  first  among  a  hundred  precedents  of 
rebellion  and  regicide.  Ali  was  now 
chosen ;  but  a  strong  faction  disputed  his 
right ;  and  the  Saracen  empire  was  for 
many  years  distracted  with  civil  war, 
among  competitors  who  appealed,  in  re- 
ality, to  no  other  decision  than  that  of 
the  sword.  The  family  of  Ommiyah  suc- 
ceeded at  last  in  establishing  an  unresist- 
ed,  if  not  an  undoubted  title.  But  rebell- 
ions were  perpetually  afterward  breaking 
out  in  that  vast  extent  of  dominion,  till 
one  of  these  revolters  acquired  by  suc- 
cess a  better  name  than  rebel,  and  found- 
ed the  dynasty  of  the  Abbassides. 

[A.  D.  750.]  Damascus  had  been  the 
seat  of  empire  under  the  Ommi-  Khaiifs  of 
ades ;  it  was  removed  by  the  sue-  Baidad- 
ceeding  family  to  their  new  city  of  Bag- 
dad. There  are  not  any  names  in  the 
long  line  of  khalifs,  after  the  companions 
of  Mahomet,  more  renowned  in  history 
than  some  of  the  earlier  sovereigns  who 
reigned  in  this  capital,  Almansor,  Haroun 
Alraschid,  and  Almamun.  Their  splen- 
did palaces,  their  numerous  guards,  their 
treasures  of  gold  and  silver,  the  popu- 
lousness  and  wealth  of  their  cities,  form- 
ed a  striking  contrast  to  the  rudeness  and 
poverty  of  the  western  nations  in  the 
same  age.  In  their  court,  learning,  which 
the  first  Moslem  had  despised  as  unwar- 
like,  or  rejected  as  profane,  was  held  in 
honour.*  The  Khalif  Almamiln,  especial- 
ly, was  distinguished  for  his  patronage 
of  letters  ;  the  philosophical  writings  of 
Greece  were  eagerly  sought  and  transla- 
ted ;  the  stars  were  numbered,  the  course 
of  the  planets  was  measured  ;  the  Arabi- 
ans improved  upon  the  science  they  bor- 
rowed, and  returned  it  with  abundant  in- 
terest to  Europe  in  the  communication  of 
numeral  figures  and  the  intellectual  lan- 
guage of  algebra. f  Yet  the  merit  of  the 


*  The  Arabian  writers  date  the  9rigin  of  their 
literature  (except  those  works  of  fiction  which  had 
always  been  popular)  from  the  reign  of  Almansor, 
A.  D.  758.— Abulpharagius,  p.  160.  Gibbon,  c.  52. 

f  Several  very  recent  publications  contain  in- 
teresting details  on  Saracen  literature;  Berington's 


CHAP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


253 


Abbassides  has  been  exaggerated  by  adu- 
lation or  gratitude.  After  all  the  vague 
praises  of  hireling  poets,  which  have  some- 
times been  repeated  in  Europe,  it  is  very 
rare  to  read  the  history  of  an  eastern 
sovereign  unstained  by  atrocious  crimes. 
No  Christian  government,  except  perhaps 
that  of  Constantinople,  exhibits  such  a 
series  of  tyrants  as  the  khalifs  of  Bagdad, 
if  deeds  of  blood  wrought  through  unbri- 
dled passion,  or  jealous  policy,  may  chal- 
lenge the  name  of  tyranny.  These  are 
ill  redeemed  by  ceremonious  devotion, 
and  acts  of  trifling,  perhaps  ostentatious 
humility ;  or  even  by  the  best  attribute  of 
Mahometan  princes,  a  rigorous  justice  in 
chastising  the  offences  of  others.  Anec- 
dotes of  this  description  give  as  imperfect 
a  sketch  of  an  oriental  sovereign  as  monk- 
ish chroniclers  sometimes  draw  of  one 
in  Europe,  who  founded  monasteries  and 
obeyed  the  clergy;  though  it  must  be 
owned  that  the  former  are  in  much  bet- 
ter taste. 

Though  the  Abbassides  have  acquired 
more  celebrity,  they  never  attained  the 
real  strength  of  their  predecessors.  Un- 
der the  last  of  the  house  of  Ommiyah,  one 
command  was  obeyed  almost  along  the 
whole  diameter  of  the  known  world,  from 
the  banks  of  the  Sihon  to  the  utmost  pro- 
montory of  Portugal.  But  the  revolution 
which  changed  the  succession  of  khalifs 
produced  another  not  less  important.  A 
ifugitive  of  the  vanquished  family,  by  name 
Abdalrahman,  arrived  in  Spain;  and  the 
Moslems  of  that  country,  not  sharing  in 
the  prejudices  which  had  stirred  up  the 
Persians  in  favour  of  the  line  of  Abbas, 
and  conscious  that  their  remote  situa- 
tion entitled  them  to  independence,  pro- 
separation  claimed  him  Khalif  of  Cordova, 
of  Spain  There  could  be  little  hope  of  re- 
nca-  ducing  so  distant  adependance; 
and  the  example  was  not  unlikely  to  be 
imitated.  In  the  reign  of  Haroun  Alras- 
chid,  two  principalities  were  formed  in 
Africa ;  of  the  Aglabites,  who  reigned 
over  Tunis  and  Tripoli ;  and  of  the  Edri- 
sites,  in  the  western  parts  of  Barbary. 
These  yielded  in  about  a  century  to  the 
Fatimites,  a  more  powerful  dynasty, 


Literary  History  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Mill's  Histo- 
ry of  Mahometanism,  chap,  vi.,  Turner's  History 
of  England,  vol.  i.  Harris's  Philological  Arrange- 
ments is  perhaps  a  book  better  known  ;  and  though 
it  has  since  been  much  excelled,  was  one  of  the 
first  contributions,  in  our  own  language,  to  this  de- 
partment, in  which  a  great  deal  yet  remains  for  the 
oriental  scholars  of  Europe.  Casiri's  admirable 
catalogue  of  Arabic  MSS.  in  the  Escurial  ought 
before  this  to  have  been  followed  up  by  a  more  ac- 
curate examination  of  their  contents  than  it  was 
possible  for  him  to  give.  But  sound  literature  and 
the  Escurial !— what  jarring  ideas ! 


who  afterward  established  an  empire  in 
Egypt.* 

The  loss,  however,  of  Spain  and  Africa 
was  the  inevitable  effect  of  that  im- 
mensely extended  dominion,  Decline  of 
which  their  separation  alone  the  Khalifs. 
would  not  have  enfeebled.  But  other 
revolutions  awaited  it  at  home.  In  the 
history  of  the  Abbassides  of  Bagdad  we 
read  over  again  the  decline  of  European 
monarchies,  through  their  various  symp- 
toms of  ruin ;  and  find  alternate  analogies 
to  the  insults  of  the  barbarians  towards 
imperial  Rome  in  the  fifth  century,  to  the 
personal  insignificance  of  the  Merovin- 
gian kings,  and  to  the  feudal  usurpations 
that  dismembered  the  inheritance  of 
Charlemagne.  1.  Beyond  the  northeast- 
ern frontier  of  the  Saracen  empire  dwelt 
a  warlike  and  powerful  nation  of  the  Tar- 
tar family,  who  defended  the  independ- 
ence of  Turkestan  from  the  Sea  of  Aral 
to  the  great  central  chain  of  mountains. 
In  the  wars  which  the  khalifs  or  their 
lieutenants  waged  against  them,  many  of 
these  Turks  were  led  into  captivity,  and 
dispersed  over  the  empire.  Their  strength 
and  courage  distinguished  them  among  a 
people  grown  effeminate  by  luxury  ;  and 
that  jealousy  of  disaffection  among  his 
subjects,  so  natural  to  an  eastern  mon- 
arch, might  be  an  additional  motive  with 
the  Khalif  Motassem  to  form  bodies  of 
guards  out  of  these  prisoners.  But  his 
policy  was  fatally  erroneous.  More  rude, 
and  even  more  ferocious  than  the  Arabs, 
they  contemned  the  feebleness  of  the 
khalifate,  while  they  grasped  at  its  rich- 
es. The  son  of  Motassem,  Motawakkel, 
was  murdered  in  his  palace  by  the  barba- 
rians of  the  north ;  and  his  fate  revealed 
the  secret  of  the  empire,  that  the  choice 
of  its  sovereign  had  passed  to  their  slaves. 
Degradation  and  death  were  frequently 
the  lot  of  succeeding  khalifs ;  but,  in  the 
East,  the  son  leaps  boldly  on  the  throne 
which  the  blood  of  his  father  has  stained, 
and  the  praetorian  guards  of  Bagdad  rarely 
failed  to  render  a  fallacious  obedience  to 
the  nearest  heir  of  the  house  of  Abbas. 
2.  In  about  one  hundred  years  after  the 
introduction  of  the  Turkish  soldiers,  the 
sovereigns  of  Bagdad  sunk  almost  into 
oblivion.  Al  Radi,  who  died  in  940,  was 
the  last  of  these  that  officiated  in  the 
mosque,  that  commanded  the  forces  in 
person,  that  addressed  the  people  from 
the  pulpit,  that  enjoyed  the  pomp  and 
splendour  of  royalty .f  But  he  was  the 


•  For  these  revolutions,  which  it  is  not  very  easy 
to  fix  in  the  memory,  consult  Cardonne,  who  has 
made  as  much  of  them  as  the  subject  would  bear. 

t  Abulfeda,  p.  261.     Gibbon, 'c.  52.     Modem 


254 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VI. 


first  who  appointed,  instead  of  a  vizier,  a 
new  officer,  a  mayor,  as  it  were,  of  the 
palace,  with  the  title  of  Emir  al  Omra, 
commander  of  commanders,  to  whom  he 
delegated  by  compulsion  the  functions  of 
his  office.  This  title  was  usually  seized 
by  active  and  martial  spirits ;  it  was  some- 
times hereditary,  and  in  effect  irrevoca- 
ble by  the  khalifs,  whose  names  hardly 
appear  after  this  time  in  oriental  annals. 
3.  During  these  revolutions  of  the  pal- 
ace, every  province  successively  shook 
off  its  allegiance;  new  principalities  were 
formed  in  Syria  and  Mesopotamia,  as 
well  as  in  Khorasan  and  Persia,  till  the 
dominion  of  the  Commander  of  the  Faith- 
ful was  literally  confined  to  the  city  of 
Bagdad  and  its  adjacent  territory.  Fora 
time,  some  of  these  princes,  who  had 
been  appointed  as  governors  by  the  kha- 
lifs, professed  to  respect  his  supremacy, 
by  naming  him  in  the  public  prayers  and 
upon  the  coin ;  but  these  tokens  of  de- 
pendance  were  gradually  obliterated.* 

Such  is  the  outline  of  Saracenic  his- 
Revivai  of  tory  for  three  centuries  after 
the  Greek  Mahomet ;  one  age  of  glorious 
conquest ;  a  second  of  stationary, 
but  rather  precarious  greatness ;  a  third 
of  rapid  decline.  The  Greek  empire 
meanwhile  survived,  and  almost  recov- 
ered from  the  shock  it  had  sustained. 
Besides  the  decline  of  its  enemies,  sev- 
eral circumstances  may  be  enumerated, 
tending  to  its  preservation.  The  mari- 
time province  of  Cilicia  had  been  over- 
run by  the  Mahometans ;  but  between 
this  and  the  lesser  Asia,  Mount  Taurus 
raises  its  massy  buckler,  spreading,  as  a 
natural  bulwark,  from  the  seacoast  of  the 
ancient  Pamphylia  to  the  hilly  district  of 
Isauria,  whence  it  extends  in  an  easterly 
direction,  separating  the  Cappadocian  and 
Cilician  plains,  and,  after  throwing  off 
considerable  ridges  to  the  north  and 
south,  connects  itself  with  other  chains 
of  mountains  that  penetrate  far  into  the 
Asiatic  continent.  Beyond  this  barrier 
the  Saracens  formed  no  durable  settle- 
ment, though  the  armies  of  Alraschid 
wasted  the  country  as  far  as  the  Helles- 
pont, and  the  city  of  Amorium  in  Phry- 
gia  was  razed  to  the  ground  by  Al  Mo- 
tassem.  The  position  of  Constantinople, 
chosen  with  a  sagacity  to  which  the 
course  of  events  almost  gave  the  appear- 
ance of  prescience,  secured  her  from  any 

Univ.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.  Al  Radi's  command  of  the 
army  is  only  mentioned  by  the  last. 

*  The  decline  of  the  Saracens  is  fully  discussed 
in  the  52d  chapter  of  Gibbon,  which  is,  in  itself,  a 
complete  philosophical  dissertation  upon  this  part 
of  history.  * 


immediate  danger  on  the  side  of  Asia, 
and  rendered  her  as  little  accessible  to 
an  enemy  as  any  city  which  valour  and 
patriotism  did  not  protect.  Yet,  in  the 
days  of  Arabian  energy,  she  was  twice 
attacked  by  great  naval  armaments  [A.  D. 
668];  the  first  siege,  or  rather  blockade, 
continued  for  seven  years  [A.  D.  716] ; 
the  second,  though  shorter,  was  more 
terrible,  and  her  walls,  as  well  as  her 
port,  were  actually  invested  by  the  com- 
bined forces  of  the  Khalif  Waled,  under 
his  brother  Moslema.*  The  final  dis- 
comfiture of  these  assailants  showed  the 
resisting  force  of  the  empire,  or  rather 
of  its  capital;  but  perhaps  the  abandon- 
ment of  such  maritime  enterprises  by  the 
Saracens  may  be  in  some  measure  as- 
cribed to  the  removal  of  their  metropolis 
from  Damascus  to  Bagdad.  But  the 
Greeks  in  their  turn  determined  to  dis- 
pute the  command  of  the  sea.  By  pos- 
sessing the  secret  of  an  inextinguishable 
fire,  they  fought  on  superior  terms  :  their 
wealth,  perhaps  their  skill,  enabled  them 
to  employ  larger  and  better  appointed 
vessels ;  and  they  ultimately  expelled 
their  enemies  from  the  islands  of  Crete 
and  Cyprus.  By  land  they  were  less  de- 
sirous of  encountering  the  Moslems. 
The  science  of  tactics  is  studied  by  the 
pusillanimous,  like  that  of  medicine  by 
the  sick;  and  the  Byzantine  emperors, 
Leo  and  Constantine,  have  left  written 
treatises  on  the  art  of  avoiding  defeat,  of 
protracting  contest,  of  resisting  attack. f 
But  this  timid  policy,  and  even  the  pur- 
chase of  armistices  from  the  Saracens, 
were  not  ill  calculated  for  the  state  of 
both  nations  ;  while  Constantinople  tem- 
porized, Bagdad  shook  to  her  founda- 
tions ;  and  the  heirs  of  the  Roman  name 
might  boast  the  immortality  of  their  own 
empire,  when  they  contemplated  the  dis- 
solution of  that  which  had  so  rapidly 
sprung  up  and  perished.  Amid  all  the 
crimes  and  revolutions  of  the  Byzantine 
government,  and  its  history  is  but  a  series 
of  crimes  and  revolutions,  it  was  never 
dismembered  by  intestine  war ;  a  sedition 
in  the  army,  a  tumult  in  the  theatre,  a 
conspiracy  in  the  palace,  precipitated  a 
monarch  from  the  throne  ;  but  the  alle- 
giance of  Constantinople  was  instantly 
transferred  to  his  successor,  and  the  prov- 
inces implicitly  obeyed  the  voice  of  the 
capital.  The  custom  too  of  partition,  so 

*  Gibbon,  c.  52. 

f  Idem,  c.  53.  Constantine  Porphyrogenitus,  in 
his  advice  to  his  son  as  to  the  administration  of  the 
empire,  betrays  a  mind  not  ashamed  to  confess 
weakness  and  cowardice,  and  pleasing  itself  in 
petty  arts  to  elude  the  rapacity,  or  divide  the  power 
of  its  enemie*. 


CHAP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


255 


baneful  to  the  Latin  kingdoms,  and  which 
was  not  altogether  unknown  to  the  Sara- 
cens, never  prevailed  in  the  Greek  em- 
pire. It  stood  in  the  middle  of  the  tenth 
century,  as  vicious  indeed  and  cowardly, 
but  more  wealthy,  more  enlightened,  and 
far  more  secure  from  its  enemies,  than 
under  the  first  successors  of  Heraclius. 
For  about  one  hundred  years  preceding 
there  had  been  only  partial  wars  with  the 
Mahometan  potentates ;  and  in  these  the 
emperors  seem  gradually  to  have  gained 
the  advantage,  and  to  have  become  more 
frequently  the  aggressors.  [A.  D.  963- 
975.]  But  the  increasing  distractions  of 
the  East  encouraged  two  brave  usurpers, 
Nicephorus  Phocas  and  John  Zimisces, 
to  attempt  the  actual  recovery  of  the  lost 
provinces.  They  carried  the  Roman 
arms  (one  may  use  the  term  with  less  re- 
luctance than  usual)  over  Syria ;  Antioch 
and  Aleppo  were  taken  by  storm,  Damas- 
cus submitted ;  even  the  cities  of  Meso- 
potamia, beyond  the  ancient  boundary  of 
the  Euphrates,  were  added  to  the  trophies 
of  Zimisces,  who  unwillingly  spared  the 
capital  of  the  khalifate.  From  such  dis- 
tant conquests  it  was  expedient,  and  in- 
deed necessary,  to  withdraw  ;  but  Cilicia 
and  Antioch  were  permanently  restored 
to  the  empire.  At  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century,  the  emperors  of  Constantinople 
possessed  the  best  and  greatest  portion 
of  the  modern  kingdom  of  Naples,  a  part 
of  Sicily,  the  whole  European  dominions 
of  the  Ottomans,  the  province  of  Anato- 
lia or  Asia  Minor,  with  some  part  of  Syria 
and  Armenia.* 

These  successes  of  the  Greek  empire 
were  certainly  much  rather  due 

1  lie  lurks.    ,       i  i      J          *>  ' A 

to  the  weakness  of  its  enemies, 
than  to  any  revival  of  national  courage 
and  vigour ;  yet  they  would  probably 
have  been  more  durable,  if  the  contest 
had  been  only  with  the  khalifate,  or  the 
kingdoms  derived  from  it.  But  a  new 
actor  was  to  appear  on  the  stage  of  Asiat- 
ic tragedy.  The  same  Turkish  nation, 
the  slaves  and  captives  from  which  had 
become  arbiters  of  the  sceptre  of  Bagdad, 
passed  their  original  limits  of  the  laxartes. 
or  Sihon.  The  sultans  of  Gazna,  a  dy- 
nasty whose  splendid  conquests  were  of 
very  short  duration,  had  deemed  it  politic 
to  divide  the  strength  of  these  formidable 
allies,  by  inviting  a  part  of  them  into  Kho- 
rasan.  They  covered  that  fertile  prov- 

*  Gibbon,  c.  52  and  53.  The  latter  of  these 
chapters  contains  as  luminous  a  sketch  of  the  con- 
dition of  Greece,  as  the  former  does  of  Saracenic 
history.  In  each  the  facts  are  not  grouped  histor- 
ically, according  to  the  order  of  time,  but  philosoph- 
ically, according  to  their  relations. 


ince  with  their  pastoral  tents,  and  beck- 
oned their  compatriots  to  share  the  rich- 
es of  the  south.  [A.  D.  1038.]  The  Gaz- 
nevides  fell  the  earliest  victims  ;  Their  con- 
but  Persia,  violated  in  turn  by  quests. 
every  conqueror,  was  a  tempting  and  un- 
resisting prey.  Togrol  Bek,  the  founder 
of  the  Seljukian  dynasty  of  Turks,  over- 
threw the  family  of  Bowides,  who  had 
long  reigned  at  Ispahan,  respected  the 
pageant  of  Mahometan  sovereignty  in  the 
Khalif  of  Bagdad,  embraced  with  all  his 
tribes  the  religion  of  the  vanquished,  and 
commenced  the  attack  upon  Christendom 
by  an  irruption  into  Armenia.  [A.  D. 
1071.]  His  nephew  and  successor,  Alp 
Arslan,  defeated  and  took  prisoner  the 
Emperor  Romanus  Diogenes;  and  the 
conquest  of  Asia  Minor  was  almost  com- 
pleted by  princes  of  the  same  family,  the 
Seljukians  of  Rum,*  who  were  permitted 
by  Malek  Shah,  the  third  sultan  of  the 
Turks,  to  form  an  independent  kingdom. 
Through  their  own  exertions,  and  the 
selfish  impolicy  of  rival  competitors  for 
the  throne  of  Constantinople,  who  barter- 
ed the  strength  of  the  empire  for  assist- 
ance, the  Turks  became  masters  of  the 
Asiatic  cities  and  fortified  passes;  nor 
did  there  seem  any  obstacle  to  the  inva- 
sion of  Europe. f 

In  this  state  of  jeopardy,  the  Greek 
empire  looked  for  aid  to  the  na-  The  first 
tions  of  the  west,  and  received  it  CrUi*ades. 
in  fuller  measure  than  was  expected,  or 
perhaps  desired.  The  deliverance  of 
Constantinople  was  indeed  a  very  sec- 
ondary object  with  the  crusaders.  But  it 
was  necessarily  included  in  their  scheme 
of  operations,  which,  though  they  all 
tended  to  the  recovery  of  Jerusalem, 
must  commence  with  the  first  enemies 
that  lay  on  their  line  of  march.  The 
Turks  were  entirely  defeated,  their  capi- 
tal of  Nice  restored  to  the  empire.  As 
the  Franks  passed  onwards,  the  Emperor 
Alexius  Comnenus  trod  on  their  foot- 
steps, and  secured  to  himself  the  fruits 
for  which  their  enthusiasm  disdained  to 
wait.  He  regained  possession  of  the 
strong  places  on  the  ^Egean  shores,  of 
the  defiles  of  Bithynia,  and  of  the  entire 
coast  of  Asia  Minor,  both  on  the  Euxine 
and  Mediterranean  Seas,  which  the  Turk- 
ish armies,  composed  of  cavalry  and  un- 
used to  regular  warfare,  could  not  recov- 
er.J  So  much  must  undoubtedly  be  as- 


*  Rum,  i.  e.,  country  of  the  Romans. 

f  Gibbon,  c.  57.  De  Guignes,  Hist,  des  Huns, 
t.  ii.,  1.  2. 

t  It  does  not  seem  perfectly  clear  whether  the 
seacoast,  north  and  south,  was  reannexed  to  the 
empire  during  the  reign  of  Alexius,  or  of  his  gal- 


256 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VI, 


cribed  to  the  first  crusade.  But  I  think 
that  the  general  effect  of  these  expedi- 
tions has  been  overrated  by  those  who 
consider  them  as  having  permanently  re- 
Progress  of  tarded  the  progress  of  the  Turk- 
tile  Greeks-  ish  power.  The  Christians  in 
Palestine  and  Syria  were  hardly  in  con- 
tact with  the  Seljukian  kingdom  of  Rum, 
the  only  enemies  of  the  empire  ;  and  it  is 
not  easy  to  perceive  that  their  small  and 
feeble  principalities,  engaged  commonly 
in  defending  themselves  against  the  Ma- 
hometan princes  of  Mesopotamia,  or  the 
Fatimite  khalifs  of  Egypt,  could  obstruct 
the  arms  of  a  sovereign  of  Iconium  upon 
the  Maeander  or  the  Halys.  Other  causes 
are  adequate  to  explain  the  equipoise  in 
which  the  balance  of  dominion  in  Ana- 
tolia was  kept  during  the  twelfth  century ; 
the  valour  and  activity  of  the  two  Com- 
neni,  John  and  Manuel,  especially  the 
former ;  and  the  frequent  partitions  and 
internal  feuds,  through  which  the  Selju- 
kians  of  Iconium,  like  all  other  oriental 
governments,  became  incapable  of  for- 
eign aggression. 

But  whatever  obligation  might  be  due 
Capture  of  to  tne  nrst  crusaders  from  the 
constant!-  eastern  empire  was  cancelled  by 
ffLatfns  ^eiY  descendants  one  hundred 
years  afterward,  when  the  fourth 
in  number  of  those  expeditions  was  turn- 
ed to  the  subjugation  of  Constantinople 
itself.  One  of  those  domestic  revolu- 
tions which  occur  perpetually  in  Byzan- 
tine history,  had  placed  a  usurper  on  the 
imperial  throne.  The  lawful  monarch 
was  condemned  to  blindness  and  a  pris- 
on ;  but  the  heir  escaped  to  recount  his 
misfortunes  to  the  fleet  and  army  of  cru- 
saders, assembled  in  the  Dalmatian  port 
of  Zara.  [A.  D.  1202.]  This  armament 
had  been  collected  for  the  usual  purposes, 
and  through  the  usual  motives,  temporal 
and  spiritual,  of  a  crusade ;  the  military 
force  chiefly  consisted  of  French  nobles  ; 
the  naval  was  supplied  by  the  republic 
of  Venice,  whose  doge  commanded  per- 
sonally in  the  expedition.  It  was  not  ap- 
parently consistent  with  the  primary  ob- 
ject of  retrieving  the  Christian  affairs  in 
Palestine,  to  interfere  in  the  government 
of  a  Christian  empire;  but  the  tempta- 
tion of  punishing  a  faithless  people,  and 
the  hope  of  assistance  in  their  subsequent 
operations,  prevailed.  They  turned  their 
prows  up  the  Archipelago ;  and  notwith- 
standing the  vast  population  and  defen- 
sible strength  of  Constantinople,  compell- 
ed the  usurper  to  fly,  and  the  citizens  to 


lant  son  John  Comnenus.    But  the  doubt  is  hard- 
ly worth  noticing. 


surrender.  But  animosities  springing 
from  religious  schism  and  national  jeal- 
ousy were  not  likely  to  be  allayed  by 
such  remedies ;  the  Greeks,  wounded  in 
their  pride  and  bigotry,  regarded  the  legit- 
imate emperor  as  a  creature  of  their  ene- 
mies, ready  to  sacrifice  their  church^  a 
stipulated  condition  of  his  restoration,  to 
that  of  Rome.  In  a  few  months  a  new 
sedition  and  conspiracy  raised  another 
usurper,  in  defiance  of  the  crusaders'  army 
encamped  without  the  walls.  [A.  D. 
1204.]  The  siege  instantly  recommen- 
ced ;  and  after  three  months  the  city  of 
Constantinople  was  taken  by  storm.  The 
tale  of  pillage  and  murder  is  always  uni- 
form ;  but  the  calamities  of  ancient  capi- 
tals, like  those  of  the  great,  impress  us 
more  forcibly.  Even  now  we  sympa- 
thize with  the  virgin  majesty  of  Constan- 
tinople, decked  with  the  accumulated 
wealth  of  ages,  and  resplendent  with  the 
monuments  of  Roman  empire  and  of  Gre- 
cian art.  Her  populousness  is  estimated 
beyond  credibility :  ten,  twenty,  thirty- 
fold  that  of  London  or  Paris ;  certainly 
far  beyond  the  united  capitals  of  all  Eu- 
ropean kingdoms  in  that  age.*  In  mag- 
nificence she  excelled  them  more  than 
in  numbers;  instead  of  the  thatched 
roofs,  the  mud  walls,  the  narrow  streets, 
the  pitiful  buildings  of  those  cities,  she 
had  marble  and  gilded  palaces,  churches 
and  monasteries,  the  works  of  skilful  ar- 
chitects, through  nine  centuries,  gradual- 
ly sliding  from  the  severity  of  ancient 
taste  into  the  more  various  and  brilliant 
combinations  of  eastern  fancy,  f  In  the 
libraries  of  Constantinople  were  collect- 
ed the  remains  of  Grecian  learning  ;  her 
forum  and  hippodrome  were  decorated 
with  those  of  Grecian  sculpture  ;  but  nei- 
ther would  be  spared  by  undistinguishing 
rapine ;  nor  were  the  chiefs  of  the  cru- 
saders more  able  to  appreciate  the  loss 
than  their  soldiery.  Four  horses,  that 


*  Ville  Hardouin  reckons  the  inhabitants  of  Con- 
stantinople at  quatre  cens  mil  homines  ou  plus,  by 
which  Gibbon  understands  him  to  mean  men  of  a 
military  age.  Le  Beau  allows  a  million  for  the 
whole  population. — Gibbon,  vol.  xi.,  p.  213.  We 
should  probably  rate  London,  in  1204.  too  high  at 
40,000  souls.  Paris  had  been  enlarged,  by  Philip 
Augustus,  and  stood  on  more  ground  than  London. 
— Delamare  sur  la  Police,  t.  i.,  p.  76. 

t  O  quanta  civitas,  exclaims  Fulk  of  Chartres  a 
hundred  years  before,  nobilis  et  decora  !  quot  mo- 
nasteria  quotque  palatia  sunt  in  ea,  opere  mero 
fabrefacta !  quot  etiam  in  plateis  vel  in  vicis  opera 
ad  spectandurn  mirabilia !  Taedium  est  quidem 
magnum  recitare,  quanta  sit  ibi  opulentia  bonorum 
omnium,  auri  et  argenti,  palliorum  multiformium, 
sacrarumque  reliquiarum.  Omni  etiam  tempore, 
navigio  frequenti  cuncta  hominum  necessaria  illuc 
afferuntur. — Du  Chesne,  Scrip.  Rerum  Gallica- 
rum,  t.  iv.,  p.  822. 


CHAP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


257 


breathe  in  the  brass  of  Lysippus,  were 
removed  from  Constantinople  to  the 
square  of  St.  Mark  at  Venice ;  destinet 
again  to  become  the  trophies  of  war,  and 
to  follow  the  alternate  revolutions  of  con- 
quest. But  we  learn  from  a  contemporary 
Greek  to  deplore  the  fate  of  many  other 
pieces  of  sculpture,  which  were  destroy- 
ed in  wantonness,  or  even  coined  into 
brass  money.* 

The  lawful  emperor  and  his  son  had 
Partition  of  perished  in  the  rebellion  that 
the  empire.  gave  occasion  to  this  catas- 
trophe ;  and  there  remained  no  right  to 
interfere  with  that  of  conquest.  But  the 
Latins  were  a  promiscuous  multitude, 
and  what  their  independent  valour  had 
earned  was  not  to  be  transferred  to  a 
single  master.  Though  the  name  of  em- 
peror seemed  necessary  for  the  govern 
ment  of  Constantinople,  the  unity  of  de- 
spotic power  was  very  foreign  to  the 
principles  and  the  interests  of  the  crusa- 
ders. In  their  selfish  schemes  of  ag- 
grandizement they  tore  in  pieces  the 
Greek  empire.  One  fourth  only  was  al- 
lotted to  the  emperor,  three  eighths  were 
the  share  of  the  republic  of  Venice,  and 
the  remainder  was  divided  among  the 
chiefs.  Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders,  ob- 
tained the  imperial  title,  with  the  feudal 
sovereignty  over  the  minor  principalities. 
A  monarchy  thus  dismembered  had  little 
prospect  of  honour  or  durability.  The 
Latin  emperors  of  Constantinople  were 
more  contemptible  and  unfortunate,  not 
so  much  from  personal  character  as  po- 
litical weakness,  than  their  predecessors ; 
their  vassals  rebelled  against  sovereigns 
not  more  powerful  than  themselves ;  the 
Bulgarians,  a  nation  who,  after  being 
long  formidable,  had  been  subdued  by  the 
imperial  arms,  and  only  recovered  inde- 
pendence on  the  eve  of  the  Latin  con- 
quest, insulted  their  capital ;  the  Greeks 
The  Greeks  viewed  them  with  silent  hatred, 
recover  '  and  hailed  the  dawning  deliver- 
Constanti-  ance  frOm  the  Asiatic  coast. 
On  that  side  of  the  Bosphorus, 
the  Latin  usurpation  was  scarcely  for  a 
moment  acknowledged;  Nice  became 
the  seat  of  a  Greek  dynasty,  who  reigned 
with  honour  as  far  as  the  Maeander ;  and 
crossing  into  Europe,  after  having  estab- 
lished their  dominion  throughout  Roma- 
nia and  other  provinces  [A.  D.  1261],  ex- 
pelled the  last  Latin  emperors  from  Con- 
stantinople in  less  than  sixty  years  from 
its  capture. 

During  the  reign  of  these  Greeks  at 
Nice,  they  had  fortunately  little  to  dread 


*  Gibbon,  c.  60. 


on  the  side  of  their  former  enemies,  and 
were  generally  on  terms  of  friendship 
with  the  Seljukians  of  Iconium.  That 
monarchy  indeed  had  sufficient  objects 
of  apprehension  for  itself.  Their  own 
example  in  changing  the  up-  invasi0n8of 
land  plains  of  Tartary  for  the  Asia  by  the 
cultivated  valleys  of  the  south  Karismians 
was  imitated  in  the  thirteenth  century  by 
two  successive  hordes  of  northern  bar- 
barians. The  Karismians,  whose  tents 
had  been  pitched  on  the  lower  Oxus  and 
Caspian  Sea,  availed  themselves  of  the 
decline  of  the  Turkish  power  to  establish 
their  dominion  in  Persia,  and  menaced, 
though  they  did  not  overthrow,  the  king* 
dom  of  Iconium.  A  more  tremendous 
storm  ensued  in  the  irruption  A  dM 
of  Moguls  under  the  sons  of 
Zingis  Khan.  From  the  farthest  regions 
of  Chinese  Tartary  issued  a  race  more 
fierce  and  destitute  of  civilization  than 
those  who  had  preceded,  whose  numbers 
were  told  by  hundreds  of  thousands,  and 
whose  only  test  of  victory  was  devasta- 
tion. [A.  D.  1218-1272.]  All  Asia,  from 
the  Sea  of  China  to  the  Euxine,  wasted 
beneath  the  locusts  of  the  north.  They 
annihilated  the  phantom  of  authority 
which  still  lingered  with  the  name  of 
khalif  at  Bagdad.  They  reduced  into  de- 
pendance,  and  finally  subverted,  the  Sel- 
jukian  dynasty  of  Persia,  Syria,  and  Ico- 
nium. The  Turks  of  the  latter  kingdom 
betook  themselves  to  the  mountainous 
country,  where  they  formed  several  petty 
principalities,  which  subsisted  by  incur- 
sions into  the  territory  of  the  Moguls  or 
Greeks.  The  chief  of  one  of  these,  na- 
med Othman,  at  the  end  of  the  thirteenth 
century  [A.  D.  1299],  penetrated  into  the 
province  of  Bithynia,  from  which  his 
posterity  were  never  to  withdraw.* 

The  empire  of  Constantinople  had  nev- 
er recovered  the  blow  it  receiv-  Declining 
ed  at  the  hands  of  the  Latins,  state  of  the 
Most  of  the  islands  in  the  Archi-  on**  em* 
pelago,  and  the  provinces  of  pl 
proper  Greece  from  Thessaly  southward, 
were  still  possessed  by  those  invaders. 
The  wealth  and  naval  power  of  the  em- 
pire had  passed  into  the  hands  of  the 
naritime  republics  ;  Venice,  Genoa,  Pi- 
sa, and  Barcelona  were  enriched  by  a 
commerce -which  they  carried  oft  as  in- 
dependent states  within  the  precincts  of 
Constantinople,  scarcely  deigning  to  so- 
icit  the  permission  or  recognise  the  su- 
)remacy  of  its  master,  [A.  D.  1352.]  In 
i  great  battle  fought  under  the  walls  of 


De  Guignes,  Hist,  des  Huns,  t.  iii.,  1. 15.    Gib- 
)on,  c.  64. 


R 


258 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VI. 


the  city  between  the  Venetian  and  Gen- 
oese fleets,  the  weight  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, in  Gibbon's  expression,  was  scarce- 
ly felt  in  the  balance  of  these  opulent 
and  powerful  republics.  Eight  galleys 
were  the  contribution  of  the  Emperor 
Cantacuzene  to  his  Venetian  allies ;  and 
upon  their  defeat  he  submitted  to  the  ig- 
nominy of  excluding  them  for  ever  from 
trading  in  his  dominions.  Meantime  the 
remains  of  the  empire  in  Asia  were  seiz- 
ed by  the  independent  Turkish  dynasties, 
The  otto-  of  which  the  most  illustrious,  that 
mans.  of  the  Ottomans,  occupied  the 
province  of  Bithynia.  [A.  D.  1341.]  In- 
vited by  a  Byzantine  faction  into  Europe, 
about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, they  fixed  themselves  in  the  neigh- 
bourhood of  the  capital,  and  in  the  thirty 
years'  reign  of  Amurath  I.,  subdued,  with 
little  resistance,  the  province  of  Roma- 
nia, and  the  small  Christian  kingdoms 
that  had  been  formed  on  the  lower  Dan- 
ube. Bajazet,  the  successor  of  Amurath, 
reduced  the  independent  emirs  of  Anato- 
lia to  subjection,  and,  after  long  threaten- 
ing Constantinople,  invested  it  by  sea 
and  land.  [A.  D.  1396.]  The  Greeks 
called  loudly  upon  their  brethren  of  the 
west  for  aid  against  the  common  enemy 
of  Christendom ;  but  the  flower  of  French 
chivalry  had  been  slain  or  taken  in  the 
battle  of  Nicopolis  in  Bulgaria,*  where 
the  King  of  Hungary,  notwithstanding 
the  heroism  of  these  volunteers,  was  en- 
tirely defeated  by  Bajazet.  The  Empe- 
ror Manuel  left  his  capital  with  a  faint 
hope  of  exciting  the  courts  of  Europe 
to  some  decided  efforts,  by  personal  rep- 
resentations of  the  danger ;  and,  during 
his  absence,  Constantinople  was  saved, 
not  by  a  friend,  indeed,  but  by  a  power 
more  formidable  to  her  enemies  than  to 
herself. 

The  loose  masses  of  mankind,  that 
The  Tartars  without  laws,  agriculture,  or 
or  Moguls  of  fixed  dwellings,  overspread  the 
vast  central  regions  of  Asia, 
have  at  various  times  been  impelled,  by 
necessity  of  subsistence,  or  through  the 

*  The  Hungarians  fled  in  this  battle,  and  desert- 
ed their  allies,  according  to  the  Memoires  de  Bou- 
cicaut,  c.  25.  But  Froissart,  who  seems  a  fairer 
authority,  imputes  the  defeat  to  the  rashness  of  the 
French. — Part  iv.,  ch.  79.  The  Count  de  Nevers 
(Jean  Sans  Peur,  afterward  Duke  of  Burgundy), 
who  commanded  the  French,  was  made  prisoner 
with  others  of  the  royal  blood,  and  ransomed  at  a 
very  high  price.  Many  of  eminent  birth  and  merit 
were  put  to  death ;  a  fate  from  which  Boucicaut 
was  saved  by  the  interference  of  the  Count  de 
Nevers,  who  might  better  himself  have  perished 
with  honour  on  that  occasion,  than  survived  to 
plunge  his  country  into  civil  war,  and  his  name 
into  infamy. 


casual  appearance  of  a  commanding  ge- 
nius, upon  the  domain  of  culture  and  civ- 
ilization. Two  principal  roads  connect 
the  nations  of  Tartary  with  those  of  the 
west  and  south ;  the  one  into  Europe, 
along  the  Sea  of  Azoph,  and  northern 
coast  of  the  Euxine ;  the  other  across 
the  interval  between  the  Bukharian  moun- 
tains and  the  Caspian  into  Persia.  Four 
times  at  least  within  the  period  of  authen- 
tic history,  the  Scythian  tribes  have  ta- 
ken the  former  course,  and  poured  them- 
selves into  Europe,  but  each  wave  was 
less  effectual  than  the  preceding.  The 
first  of  these  was  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries,  for  we  may  range  those  rapid- 
ly successive  migrations  of  the  Goths 
and  Huns  together,  when  the  Roman 
empire  fell  to  the  ground,  and  the  only 
boundary  of  barbarian  conquest  was  the 
Atlantic  Ocean  upon  the  shores  of  Portu- 
gal. The  second  wave  came  on  with 
the  Hungarians  in  the  tenth  century, 
whose  ravages  extended  as  far  as  the 
southern  provinces  of  France.  A  third 
attack  was  sustained  from  the  Moguls 
under  the  children  of  Zingis,  at  the  same 
period  as  that  which  overwhelmed  Persia. 
The  Russian  monarchy  was  destroyed  in 
this  invasion,  and  for  two  hundred  years 
that  great  country  lay  prostrate  under  the 
yoke  of  the  Tartars.  As  they  advanced, 
Poland  and  Hungary  gave  little  opposi- 
tion ;  and  the  farthest  nations  of  Europe 
were  appalled  by  the  tempest.  But  Ger- 
many was  no  longer  as  she  had  been  in 
the  anarchy  of  the  tenth  century;  the 
Moguls  were  unused  to  resistance,  and 
still  less  inclined  to  regular  warfare  ;  they 
retired  before  the  Emperor  Frederick  II. 
[A.  D.  1245],  and  the  utmost  points  of 
their  western  invasion  were  the  cities  of 
Lignitz,  in  Silesia,  and  Neustadt,  in  Aus- 
tria. In  the  fourth  and  last  aggression 
of  the  Tartars,  their  progress  in  Europe 
is  hardly  perceptible ;  the  Moguls  of  Ti- 
mur's  army  could  only  boast  the  destruc- 
tion of  Azoph,  and  the  pillage  of  some 
Russian  provinces.  Timur,  the  sover- 
eign of  these  Moguls,  and  founder  of 
their  second  dynasty,  which  has  been 
more  permanent  and  celebrated  than  that 
of  Zingis,  had  been  the  prince  of  a  small 
tribe  in  Transoxiana,  between  the  Gihon 
and  Sirr,  the  doubtful  frontier  of  settled 
and  pastoral  nations.  His  own  energy 
and  the  weakness  of  his  neighbours  are 
sufficient  to  explain  the  revolution  he 
effected.  Like  former  conquerors,  To- 
grol  Bek  and  Zingis,  he  chose  the  road 
through  Persia;  and,  meeting  little  re- 
sistance from  the  disordered  governments 
of  Asia,  extended  his  empire  on  one  side 


CHAP.  VI.] 


GREEKS  AND  SARACENS. 


259 


to  the  Syrian  coast,  while  by  successes 
still  more  renowned^  though  not  belong- 
ing to  this  place,  it  reached  on  the  other 
to  the  heart  of  Hindostan.  In  his  old 
age,  the  restlessness  of  ambition  impelled 
him  against  the  Turks  of  Anatolia.  Ba- 
jazet  hastened  from  the  siege  of  Constan- 
tinople to  a  more  perilous  contest :  his 
Defeat  of  defeat  and  captivity,  in  the  plains 
Bajazet.  of  Angora  [A.  D.  1402],  clouded 
for  a  time  the  Ottoman  crescent,  and 
preserved  the  wreck  of  the  Greek  empire 
for  fifty  years  longer. 

The  Moguls  did  not  improve  their 
Danger  of  victory ;  in  the  western  parts  of 
constan-  Asia,  as  in  Hindostan,  Timur  was 
tinopie.  j-,ut  a  barbarian  destroyer,  though 
at  Samarcand  a  sovereign  and  a  legisla- 
tor. He  gave  up  Anatolia  to  the  sons  of 
Bajazet ;  but  the  unity  of  their  power 
was  broken ;  and  the  Ottoman  kingdom, 
like  those  which  had  preceded,  experien- 
ced the  evils  of  partition  and  mutual  ani- 
mosity. For  about  twenty  years  an  op- 
portunity was  given  to  the  Greeks  of  re- 
covering part  of  their  losses  ;  but  they 
were  incapable  of  making  the  best  use  of 
this  advantage,  and  though  they  regained 
possession  of  part  of  Romania,  did  not  ex- 
tirpate a  strong  Turkish  colony  that  held 
the  city  of  Gallipoli  in  the  Chersonesus. 
[A.  D.  1421.]  When  Amurath  II.,  there- 
fore, reunited  under  his  vigorous  scep- 
tre the  Ottoman  monarchy,  Constantino- 
ple was  exposed  to  another  siege  and 
to  fresh  losses.  Her  walls,  however, 
repelled  the  enemy;  and,  during  the 
reign  of  Amurath,  she  had  leisure  to  re- 
peat those  signals  of  distress  which  the 
princes  of  Christendom  refused  to  ob- 
serve. The  situation  of  Europe  was  in- 
deed sufficiently  inauspicious  :  France, 
the  original  country  of  the  crusades  and  of 
chivalry,  was  involved  in  foreign  and  do- 
mestic war;  while  a  schism,  apparently 
interminable,  rent  the  bosom  of  the  Latin 
church,  and  impaired  the  efficiency  of  the 
only  power  that  could  unite  and  animate 
its  disciples  in  a  religious  war.  Even 
when  the  Roman  pontiffs  were  best  dis- 
posed to  rescue  Constantinople  from  de- 
struction, it  was  rather  as  masters  than 
as  allies  that  they  would  interfere ;  their 
ungenerous  bigotry,  or  rather  pride,  dic- 
tated the  submission  of  her  church,  and 
the  renunciation  of  her  favourite  article 
of  distinctive  faith.  The  Greeks  yielded 
with  reluctance  and  insincerity  in  the 
council  of  Florence ;  but  soon  rescinded 
their  treaty  of  union.  Eugenius  IV.  pro- 
cured a  short  diversion  on  the  side  of 
Hungary ;  but  after  the  unfortunate  bat- 
tle of  Warna,  the  Hungarians  were  abun- 
R  2 


dantly  employed  in  self-defence.    [A.  D. 
1444.] 

The  two  monarchies  which  have  suc- 
cessively held  their  seat  in  the  city  of 
Constantine,  may  be  contrasted  in  the 
circumstances  of  their  decline.  In  the 
present  day  we  anticipate,  with  an  assu- 
rance that  none  can  deem  extravagant, 
the  approaching  subversion  of  the  Otto- 
man power ;  but  the  signs  of  internal 
weakness  have  not  yet  been  confirmed 
by  the  dismemberment  of  provinces  ;  and 
the  arch  of  dominion,  that  long  since  has 
seemed  nodding  to  its  fall,  and  totters  at 
every  blast  of  the  north,  still  rests  upon 
the  landmarks  of  ancient  conquest,  and 
spans  the  ample  regions  from  Bagdad  to 
Belgrade.  Far  different  were  the  events 
that  preceded  the  dissolution  of  the  Greek 
empire.  Every  province  was  in  turn  sub- 
dued ;  every  city  opened  her  gates  Ug  fal] 
to  the  conqueror ;  the  limbs  were 
lopped  off  one  by  one ;  but  the  pulse  still 
beat  at  the  heart,  and  the  majesty  of  the 
Roman  name  was  ultimately  confined  to 
the  walls  of  Constantinople.  Before  Ma- 
homet II.  planted  his  cannon  against 
them,  he  had  completed  every  smaller 
conquest,  and  deprived  the  expiring  em- 
pire of  every  hope  of  succour  or  delay. 
It  was  necessary  that  Constantinople 
should  fall ;  but  the  magnanimous  resigna- 
tion of  her  emperor  bestows  an  honour 
upon  her  fall  which  her  prosperity  sel- 
dom earned.  The  long  deferred  but  in- 
evitable moment  arrived  [A.  D.  1453], 
and  the  last  of  the  Cesars  (I  will  not  say 
of  the  Palaeologi)  folded  round  him  the 
imperial  mantle,  and  remembered  the 
name  which  he  represented  in  the  dignity 
of  heroic  death.  It  is  thus  that  the  intel- 
lectual principle,  when  enfeebled  by  dis- 
ease or  age,  is  said  to  rally  its  energies 
in  the  presence  of  death,  and  to  pour  the 
radiance  of  unclouded  reason  around  the 
last  struggles  of  dissolution. 

Though  the  fate  of  Constantinople  had 
been  protracted  beyond  all  rea-  Aiarm  ex. 
sonable  expectation,  the  actual  cited  by  it 
intelligence  operated  like  that  inEur°Pe- 
of  sudden  calamity.  A  sentiment  of 
consternation,  perhaps  of  self-reproach, 
thrilled  to  the  heart  of  Christendom. 
There  seemed  no  longer  any  thing  to 
divert  the  Ottoman  armies  from  Hunga- 
ry ;  and,  if  Hungary  should  be  subdued,  it 
was  evident  that  both  Italy  and  the  Ger- 
man empire  were  exposed  to  invasion.* 


*  Sive  vincitur  Hungaria,  sive  coacta  jungitnr 
Turcis,  neque  Italia  neque  Germania  tuta  ent, 
neque  satis  Rherius  Gallos  secures  reddet.— ^En. 
Sylv.,  p.  678.  This  is  part  of  a  discourse  pronoun- 
ced by  ^Eneas  Sylvius  before  the  diet  of  Frankfort ; 


260 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAK   VI. 


A  general  union  of  Christian  powers  was 
required  to  withstand  this  common  ene- 
my. But  the  popes,  who  had  so  often 
armed  them  against  each  other,  wasted 
their  spiritual  and  political  counsels  in 
attempting  to  restore  unanimity.  War 
was  proclaimed  against  the  Turks  at  the 
diet  of  Frankfort,  in  1454 ;  but  no  efforts 
were  made  to  carry  the  menace  into  ex- 
ecution. No  prince  could  have  sat  on 
the  imperial  throne  more  unfitted  for  the 
emergency  than  Frederick  III. ;  his  mean 
spirit  and  narrow  capacity  exposed  him 
to  the  contempt  of  mankind ;  his  avarice 
and  duplicity  ensured  the  hatred  of  Aus- 
tria and  Hungary.  During  the  papacy  of 
Pius  II.,  whose  heart  was  thoroughly  en- 
gaged in  this  legitimate  crusade,  a  more 
specious  attempt  was  made  by  convening 
a  European  congress  at  Mantua.  Almost 
all  the  sovereigns  attended  by  their  en- 
voys ;  it  was  concluded  that  50,000  men- 
at-arms  should  be  raised,  and  a  tax  levied 
for  three  years  of  one  tenth  from  the 
revenues  of  the  clergy,  one  thirtieth  from 
those  of  the  laity,  and  one  twentieth  from 
the  capital  of  the  Jews.*  Pius  engaged 
to  head  this  armament  in  person;  but 
when  he  appeared  next  year  at  Ancona, 
the  appointed  place  of  embarcation,  the 
princes  had  failed  in  all  their  promises  of 
men  and  money ;  and  he  found  only  a  head- 
long crowd  of  adventurers,  destitute  of 
every  necessary,  and  expecting  to  be  fed 
and  paid  at  the  pope's  expense.  It  was 
not  by  such  a  body  that  Mahomet  could 
be  expelled  from  Constantinople.  If  the 
Christian  sovereigns  had  given  a  steady 
and  sincere  co-operation,  the  contest 
would  still  have  been  arduous  and  uncer- 
instituiion  of  tain.  In  the  early  crusades, 
Janizaries,  the  superiority  of  arms,  of  skill, 
and  even  of  discipline,  had  been  uniform- 
ly on  the  side  of  Europe.  But  the  pres- 
ent circumstances  were  far  from  similar. 
An  institution,  begun  by  the  first  and  per- 
fected by  the  second  Amurath,  had  given 
to  the  Turkish  armies,  what  their  enemies 
still  wanted,  military  subordination  and 
veteran  experience.  Aware,  as  it  seems, 


of  the  real  superiority  of  Europeans  in 
war,  these  sultans  selected  the  stoutest 
youths  from  their  Bulgarian,  Servian,  or 
Albanian  captives,  who  were  educated  in 
habits  of  martial  discipline,  and  formed 
into  a  regular  force  with  the  name  of  Jan- 
izaries. After  conquest  had  put  an  end 
to  personal  captivity,  a  tax  of  every  fifth 
male  child  was  raised  upon  the  Christian 
population  for  the  same  purpose.  The 
arm  of  Europe  was  thus  turned  upon  her- 
self ;  and  the  western  nations  must  have 
contended  with  troops  of  hereditary  ro- 
bustness and  intrepidity,  whose  emulous 
enthusiasm  for  the  country  that  had  adopt- 
ed them  was  controlled  by  habitual  obe- 
dience to  their  commanders.* 

Yet,  forty  years  after  the  fall  of 
Constantinople,  at  the  epoch  of  Charles 
VIII. 's  expedition  into  Italy,  the  just  ap- 
prehensions of  European  statesmen  might 
have  gradually  subsided.  Except  the 
Morea,  Negropont,  and  a  few  other  un- 
important conquests,  no  real  suspension  of 
progress  had  been  made  by  the  ottoman 
the  Ottomans.  Mahomet  II.  con<iuests- 
had  been  kept  at  bay  by  the  Hungarians ; 
he  had  been  repulsed  with  some  ignomi- 
ny by  the  knights  of  St.  John  from  the 
Island  of  Rhodes.  A  petty  chieftain  de- 


which,  though  too  declamatory,  like  most  of  his 
writings,  is  an  interesting  illustration  of  the  state  of 
Europe,  and  of  the  impression  produced  by  that 
calamity.  Spondanus,  ad  an.  1454,  has  given  large 
extracts  from  this  oration. 

*  Spondanus.  Neither  Charles  VII.,  nor  even 
Philip  of  Burgundy,  who  had  made  the  loudest 
professions,  and  pledged  himself  in  a  fantastic  pa- 
geant at  his  court,  soon  after  the  capture  of  Con- 
stantinople, to  undertake  this  crusade,  was  sincere 
in  his  promises.  The  former  pretended  apprehen- 
sions of  invasion  from  England,  as  an  excuse  for 
sending  no  troops ;  which,  considering  the  situation 
of  England  in  1459,  was  a  bold  attempt  upon  the 
credulity  of  mankind. 


*  In  the  long  declamation  of  ^Eneas  Sylvius  be- 
fore the  diet  of  Frankfort,  in  1454,  he  has  the  follow- 
ing contrast  between  the  European  and  Turkish 
I  militia ;  a  good  specimen  of  the  artifice  with  which 
an  ingenious  orator  can  disguise  the  truth,  while 
he  seems  to  be  stating  it  most  precisely.  Confer- 
amus  mine  Turcos  et  vos  invicem ;  et  quid  speran- 
dum  sit,  si  cum  illis  pugnetis,  examinemus.  Vos 
nati  ad  arma,  illi  tracti.  Vos  armati,  illi  inermes ; 
vos  gladios  versatis,  illi  cultris  utuntur ;  vos  balis- 
tas  tenditis,  illi  arcus  trahunt;  vos  loricae  thora- 
cesque  protegunt,  illos  culcitra  tegit ;  vos  equos  re- 
gitis,  illi  ab  equis  reguntur ;  vos  nobiles  in  bellum 
ducitis,  illi  servos  aut  artifices  cogunt,  &c.  &c.,  p. 
685.  This,  however,  had  little  effect  upon  the 
hearers,  who  were  better  judges  of  military  affairs 
than  the  secretary  of  Frederick  III.  Pius  II.,  or 
^Eneas  Sylvius,  was  a  lively  writer  and  a  skilful  in- 
triguer. Long  experience  had  given  him  a  consid- 
erable insight  into  European  politics  ;  and  his 
views  are  usually  clear  and  sensible.  Though  not 
so  learned  as  some  popes,  he  knevy  much  better 
what  was  going  forward  in  his  own  time.  But  the 
vanity  of  displaying  his  eloquence  betrayed  him  into 
a  strange  folly,  when  he  addressed  a  very  long  let- 
ter to  Mahomet  II.,  explaining  the  Catholic  faith, 
and  urging  him  to  be  baptized ;  in  which  case,  so 
far  from  preaching  a  crusade  against  the  Turks,  he 
would  gladly  make  use  of  their  power  to  recover 
the  rights  of  the  church.  Some  of  his  inducements 
are  curious,  and  must,  if  made  public,  have  been 
highly  gratifying  to  his  friend  Frederick  III.  Quip- 
pe  ut  arbitramur,  si  Christianus  fuisses,  mortuo 
Ladislao  Ungariae  et  Bohemias  rege,  nemo  praeter 
te  sua  regna  fuisset  adeptus.  Sperassent  Ungari 
post  diuturna  bellorum  mala  sub  tuo  regimine  pa- 
cem,  et  illos  Bohemi  secuti  fuissent ;  sed  cum 
esses  nostrae  religionis  hostis,  elegerunt  Ungari, 
&c.— Epist.  396. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


261 


fied  this  mighty  conqueror  for  twenty 
years  in  the  mountains  of  Epirus ;  and 
the  persevering  courage  of  his  desulto- 
ry warfare  with  such  trifling  resources, 
and  so  little  prospect  of  ultimate  success, 
may  justify  the  exaggerated  admiration 
with  which  his  contemporaries  honoured 
the  names  of  Scander^lg.  Once  only 
the  crescent  was  displayed  on  the  Cala- 
brian  coast  [A.  D.  1480] ;  but  the  city  of 
Otranto  remained  but  a  year  in  the  pos- 


session of  Mahomet.  On  his  death  a  dis- 
puted succession  involved  his  children  in 
civil  war.  Bajazet,  the  eldest,  obtained 
the  victory;  but  his  rival  brother  Zizim 
fled  to  Rhodes,  from  whence  he  was  re- 
moved to  France,  and  afterward  to  Rome. 
Apprehensions  of  this  exiled  prince  seem 
to  have  dictated  a  pacific  policy  to  the 
reigning  sultan,  whose  character  did  not 
possess  the  usual  energy  of  Ottoman 
sovereigns. 


CHAPTER  VII. 


HISTORY  OF  ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


Wealth  of  the  Clergy— its  Sources.— Encroach- 
ments on  Ecclesiastical  Property— their  Juris- 
diction —  arbitrative  —  coercive  —  their  Political 
Power.  —  Supremacy  of  the  Crown.  —  Charle- 
magne.—Change  after  his  Death,  and  Encroach- 
ments of  the  Church  in  the  ninth  Century. — Pri- 
macy of  the  See  of  Rome— its  early  Stage.— 
Gregory  I. — Council  of  Frankfort — false  Decre- 
tals.—Progress  of  Papal  Authority.— Effects  of 
Excommunication.  —  Lothaire.  —  State  of  the 
Church  in  the  tenth  Century.  —  Marriage  of 
Priests.  —  Simony. —  Episcopal  Elections. — Im- 
perial Authority  over  the  Popes.— Disputes  con- 
cerning Investitures. — Gregory  VII.  and  Henry 
IV.— Concordat  of  Calixtus.— Election  by  Chap- 
ters—general System  of  Gregory  VII.— Progress 
of  Papal  usurpations  in  the  twelfth  Century. — 
Innocent  III.— his  Character  and  Schemes— con- 
tinual Progress  of  the  Papacy. — Canon  Law. — 
Mendicant  Orders— dispensing  Power. — Taxa- 
tion of  the  Clergy  by  the  Popes.— Encroachments 
on  Rights  of  Patronage. — Mandats,  Reserves, 
&c. — General  Disaffection  towards  the  See  of 
Rome  in  the  thirteenth  century.— Progress  of 
Ecclesiastical  Jurisdiction.  —  Immunity  of  the 
Clergy  in  Criminal  Cases.— Restraints  imposed 
upon  their  Jurisdiction— upon  their  Acquisition 
of  Property. — Boniface  VIII. — his  Quarrel  with 
Philip  the  Fair— its  Termination.— Gradual  De- 
cline of  Papal  Authority. — Louis  of  Bavaria. — 
Secession  to  Avignon  and  Return  to  Rome. — 
Conduct  of  Avignon  Popes— contested  Election 
of  Urban  and  Clement  produces  the  great  Schism. 
— Council  of  Pisa  —  Constance — Basle. — Meth- 
ods adopted  to  restrain  the  Papal  usurpations  in 
England,  Germany,  and  France,  —  Liberties  of 
the  Gallican  Church.— Decline  of  the  Papal  In- 
fluence in  Italy. 

AT  the  irruption  of  the  northern  inva- 
f  ders  into  the  Roman  empire, 
thVchurch  they  found  the  clergy  already 
under  the  endowed  with  extensive  posses- 
sions. Besides  the  spontaneous 
oblations  upon  which  the  ministers  of  the 
Christian  church  had  originally  subsist- 
ed, they  had  obtained,  even  under  the 
pagan  emperors,  by  concealment  or  con- 
nivance, for  the  Roman  law  did  not  per- 
mit a  tenure  of  lands  in  mortmain,  cer- 


tain immoveable  estates,  the  revenues  of 
which  were  applicable  to  their  own  main- 
tenance and  that  of  the  poor.*  These, 
indeed,  were  precarious,  and  liable  to 
confiscation  in  times  of  persecution.  But 
it  was  among  the  first  effects  of  the  con- 
version of  Constantine,  to  give  not  only 
a  security,  but  a  legal  sanction,  to  the  ter- 
ritorial acquisitions  of  the  church.  The 
edict  of  Milan,  in  313,  recognises  the 
actual  estates  of  ecclesiastical  corpora- 
tions.! Another,  published  in  321,  grants 
to  all  the  subjects  of  the  empire  the  pow- 
er of  bequeathing  their  property  to  the 
church.!  His  own  liberality  and  that  of 
his  successors  set  an  example  which  did 
not  want  imitators.  Passing  rapidly 
from  a  condition  of  distress  and  persecu- 
tion to  the  summit  of  prosperity,  the 
church  degenerated  as  rapidly  from  her 
ancient  purity,  and  forfeited  the  respect 
of  future  ages  in  the  same  proportion  as 
she  acquired  the  blind  veneration  of  her 
own.  Covetousness,  especially,  became 
almost  a  characteristic  vice.  Valentini- 
an  I.,  in  370,  prohibited  the  clergy  from 
receiving  the  bequest  of  women ;  a  modi- 
fication more  discreditable  than  any  gen- 
eral law  could  have  been.  And  several 
of  the  fathers  severely  reprobate  the  pre- 
vailing avidity  of  their  contemporaries. § 
The  devotion  of  the  conquering  na- 
tions, as  it  was  still  less  enlight-  increased 
ened  than  that  of  the  subjects  of  after  its 
the  empire,  so  was  it  still  more  subverelon- 


*  Giannone,  Istoria  di  Napoli,  1.  ii.,  c.  8.  Gib- 
bon, c.  15  and  c.  20.  F.  Paul's  Treatise  on  Bene- 
fices, c.  4.  The  last  writer  does  not  wholly  con- 
firm this  position  ;  but  a  comparison  of  the  three 
seems  to  justify  my  text. 

f  Giannone.     Gibbon,  ubi  supra.    F.  Paul,  c.  5. 

j  Idem,  Ibid. 

$  Giannone,  ubi  supra.    F.  Paul,  c.  6 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


munificent.  They  left,  indeed,  the  wor- 
ship of  Hesus  and  Taranis  in  their  for- 
ests;  but  they  retained  the  elementary 
principles  of  that,  and  of  all  barbarous 
idolatry,  a  superstitious  reverence  for  the 
priesthood,  a  credulity  that  seemed  to  in- 
vite imposture,  and  a  confidence  in  the 
efficacy  of  gifts  to  expiate  offences.  Of 
this  temper  it  is  undeniable  that  the  min- 
isters of  religion,  influenced  probably  not 
so  much  by  personal  covetousness  as  by 
zeal  for  the  interests  of  their  order,  took 
advantage.  Many  of  the  peculiar  and 
prominent  characteristics  in  the  faith  and 
discipline  of  those  ages  appear  to  have 
been  either  introduced,  or  sedulously 
promoted,  for  the  purposes  of  sordid 
fraud.  To  those  purposes  conspired  the 
veneration  for  relics,  the  worship  of  ima- 
ges, the  idolatry  of  saints  and  martyrs, 
the  religious  inviolability  of  sanctuaries, 
the  consecration  of  cemeteries,  but,  above 
all,  the  doctrine  of  purgatoiy,  and  masses 
for  the  relief  of  the  dead.  A  creed  thus 
contrived,  operating  upon  the  minds  of 
barbarians,  lavish  though  rapacious,  and 
devout  though  dissolute,  naturally  caused 
a  torrent  of  opulence  to  pour  in  upon  the 
church.  Donations  of  land  were  contin- 
ually made  to  the  bishops,  and,  in  still 
more  ample  proportion,  to  the  monastic 
foundations.  These  had  not  been  very 
numerous  in  the  west  till  the  begin- 
ning of  the  sixth  century,  when  Benedict 
established  his  celebrated  rule.*  A  more 
remarkable  show  of  piety,  a  more  abso- 
lute seclusion  from  the  world,  forms 
more  impressive  and  edifying,  prayers 
and  masses  more  constantly  repeated, 
gave  to  the  professed  in  these  institu- 
tions a  preference  over  the  secular 
clergy. 

The  ecclesiastical  hierarchy  never  re- 
ceived any  territorial  endowment  by  law, 
either  under  the  Roman  empire  or  the 
kingdoms  erected  upon  its  ruins.  But 
the  voluntary  munificence  of  princes,  as 
well  as  their  subjects,  amply  supplied  the 
place  of  a  more  universal  provision. 
Large  private  estates,  or,  as  they  were 
termed,  patrimonies,  not  only  within  their 
own  diocesses,  but  sometimes  in  distant 
countries,  sustained  the  dignity  of  the 
principal  sees,  and  especially  that  of 
Rome.f  The  French  monarchs  of  the 
first  dynasty,  the  Carlovingian  family 
and  their  great  chief,  the  Saxon  line  of 
emperors,  the  kings  of  England  and 
Leon,  set  hardly  any  bounds  to  their  lib- 

*  Giannone,  1.  iii.,  c.  6  ;  1.  iv.,  c.  12.  Treatise 
on  Benefices,  c.  8.  Fleury,  Huitieme  Discours  sur 
1'Hist.  Ecclesiastique.  Muratori,  Dissert.  65. 

f  St.  Marc,  t.  i.,p.  281.    Giannone,  1.  iv.,  c.  12. 


erality,  as  numerous  charters  still  extant 
in  diplomatic  collections  attest.  Many 
churches  possessed  seven  or  eight  thou- 
sand mansi ;  one  with  but  two  thousand 
passed  for  only  indifferently  rich.*  But 
it  must  be  remarked,  that  many  of  these 
donations  are  of  lands  uncultivated  and 
unappropriated.^  The  monasteries  ac- 
quired legitimate  riches  by  the  culture 
of  these  deserted  tracts,  and  by  the  pru- 
dent management  of  their  revenues, 
which  were  less  exposed  to  the  ordinary 
means  of  dissipation  than  those  of  the 
laity.  Their  wealth,  continually  accumu- 
lated, enabled  them  to  become  the  regular 
purchasers  of  landed  estates,  especially 
in  the  time  of  the  crusades,  when  the  fiefs 
of  the  nobility  were  constantly  in  the 
market  for  sale  or  mortgage. J 

If  the  possessions  of  ecclesiastical 
communities  had  all  been  as  Sometime8 
fairly  earned,  we  could  find  no-  improperly 
thing  in  them  to  reprehend.  acquirea. 
But  other  sources  of  wealth  were  less 
pure ;  and  they  derived  their  wealth  from 
many  sources.  Those  who  entered  into 
a  monastery  threw  frequently  their  whole 
estates  into  the  common  stock ;  and  even 
the  children  of  rich  parents  were  expect- 
ed to  make  a  donation  of  land  on  assu- 
ming the  cowl.  Some  gave  their  proper- 
ty to  the  church  before  entering  on  milita- 
ry expeditions ;  gifts  were  made  by  some 
to  take  effect  after  their  lives,  and  be- 
quests by  many  in  the  terrors  of  dissolu- 
tion. Even  those  legacies  to  charitable 
purposes,  which  the  clergy  could  with 
more  decency  and  speciousness  recom- 
mend, and  of  which  the  administration 
was  generally  confined  to  them,  were  fre- 
quently applied  to  their  own  benefit. $ 
They  failed  not,  above  all,  to  inculcate 
upon  the  wealthy  sinner,  that  no  atone- 
ment could  be  so  acceptable  to  Heaven 
as  liberal  presents  to  its  earthly  dele- 
gates.! To  die  without  allotting  a  por- 


*  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  205. 

t  Muratori,  Dissert.  65.     Du  Cange,  v.  Eremus. 

j  Heeren,  Essai  sur  les  Croisades,  p.  166. 
Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  293. 

§  Primo  sacris  pastoribus  data  est  facultas,  ut 
haereditatis  portio  in  pauperes  et  egenos  disperge- 
retur;  sed  sensim  ecclesiae  quoque  in  pauperum 
censum  venerunt,  atque  intestate  gentis  mens  cre- 
dita  est  proclivior  in  eas  futura  fuisse  :  qua  ex  re 
pinguius  illarum  patrimonium  evasit.  Immo  epis- 
copi  ipsi  in  rem  suam  ejusmodi  consuetudinem 
interdum  convertebant :  ac  tributum  evasit,  quod 
antea  pii  moris  fuit.— Muratori,  Antiquitates  Ita- 
liae,  t.  v.,  Dissert.  67. 

||  Muratori,  Dissert.  67  (Antiquit.  Italic,  t.  v., 
p.  1055),  has  preserved  a  curious  charter  of  an  Ital- 
ian count,  who  declares,  that,  struck  with  reflec- 
tions upon  his  sinful  state,  he  had  taken  counsel 
with  certain  religious  how  he  should  atone  for  his 
offences.  Accepto  consilio  ab  iis  excepto  si  re- 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


263 


tion  of  worldly  wealth  to  pious  uses, 
was  accounted  almost  like  suicide,  or  a 
refusal  of  the  last  sacraments ;  and  hence 
intestacy  passed  for  a  sort  of  fraud  upon 
the  church,  which  she  punished  by  taking 
the  administration  of  the  deceased's  ef- 
fects into  her  own  hands.  This,  howev- 
er, was  peculiar  to  England,  and  seems 
to  have  been  the  case  there  only  between 
the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward  III., 
when  the  bishop  took  a  portion  of  the  in- 
testate's personal  estate,  for  the  advan- 
tage of  the  church  and  poor,  instead  of  dis- 
tributing it  among  his  next  of  kin.*  The 
canonical  penances  imposed  upon  repent- 
ant offenders,  extravagantly  severe  in 
themselves,  were  commuted  for  money 
or  for  immoveable  possessions ;  a  fertile, 
though  scandalous  source  of  monastic 
wealth,  which  the  popes  afterward  di- 
verted into  their  own  coffers  by  the 
usage  of  dispensations  and  indulgences.! 
The  church  lands  enjoyed  an  immunity 
from  taxes,  though  not  in  general  from 
military  service,  when  of  a  feudal  tenure. 
But  their  tenure  was  frequently  in  what 
was  called  frankalmoign,  without  any 
obligation  of  service.  Hence  it  became 
a  customary  fraud  of  lay  proprietors  to 
grant  estates  to  the  church,  which  they 
received  again  by  way  of  fief  or  lease, 
exempted  from  public  burdens.  And  as 
if  all  these  means  of  accumulating  what 
they  could  not  legitimately  enjoy  were 
insufficient,  the  monks  prostituted  their 
knowledge  of  writing  to  the  purpose  of 
forging  charters  in  their  own  favour, 
which  might  easily  impose  upon  an  igno- 
rant age,  since  it  has  required  a  peculiar 
science  to  detect  them  in  modern  times. 
Such  rapacity  might  seem  incredible  in 
men  cut  off  from  the  pursuits  of  life  and 
the  hope  of  posterity,  if  we  did  not  be- 
hold every  day  the  unreasonableness  of 
avarice,  and  the  fervour  of  professional 
attachment.^ 

nunciare  saeculo  possem,  nullum  esse  melius  inter 
eleemosinarum  virtutes,  quam  si  de  propriis  meis 
substantiis  in  monasterium  concederem.  Hoc 
consilium  ab  iis  libenter,  et  ardentissimo  animo  ego 
accept. 

*  Selden,  vol.  iii.,  p.  1676.  Prynne's  Constitu- 
tions, vol.  iii.,  p.  18.  Blackstone,  vol.  ii.,  chap.  32. 
In  France,  the  lord  of  the  fief  seems  to  have  taken 
the  whole  spoil. — Du  Cange,  v.  Intestatus. 

t  Muratori,  Dissert.  68. 

j  Muratori's  65th,  67th,  and  68th  Dissertations 
on  the  antiquities  of  Italy,  have  furnished  the  prin- 
cipal materials  of  my  text,  with  Father  Paul's  trea- 
tise on  Benefices,  especially  chaps.  19  and  29 ; 
Giannone,  loc.  cit.  and  1.  iv.,  c.  12  ;  1.  v.,  c.  6 ;  1.  x., 
c.  12.  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  i.,  p.  370 ; 
t.  ii.,  p.  203,  462;  t.  iv.,  p.  202.  Fleury,  III.,  Dis- 
cours  sur  PHist.  Eccles.  Du  Cange,  voc.  Pre- 
caria. 


As  an  additional  source  of  revenue, 
and  in  imitation  of  the  Jewish  law,  the 
payment  of  tithes  was  recommended  or 
enjoined.  These,  however,  were  not  ap- 
plicable at  first  to  the  maintenance  of  a 
resident  clergy.  Parochial  divis- 
ions, as  they  now  exist,  did  not 
take  place,  at  least  in  some  countries,  till 
several  centuries  after  the  establishment 
of  Christianity.*  The  rural  churches, 
erected  successively  as  the  necessities 
of  a  congregation  required,  or  the  piety 
of  a  landlord  suggested,  were  in  fact  a 
sort  of  chapels  dependant  on  the  cathe- 
dral, and  served  by  itinerant  ministers  at 
the  bishop's  discretion.  The  bishop  him- 
self received  the  tithes,  and  apportioned 
them  as  he  thought  fit.  A  capitulary  of 
Charlemagne,  however,  regulates  their  di- 
vision into  three  parts ;  one  for  the  bish- 
op and  his  clergy,  a  second  for  the  poor, 
and  a  third  for  the  support  of  the  fabric 
of  the  church. f  Some  of  the  rural  church- 
es obtained  by  episcopal  concessions  the 
privileges  of  baptism  and  burial,  which 
were  accompanied  with  a  fixed  share  of 
tithes,  and  seem  to  imply  the  residence 
of  a  minister.  The  same  privileges  were 
gradually  extended  to  the  rest ;  and  thus 
a  complete  parochial  division  was  finally 
established.  But  this  was  hardly  the 
case  in  England  till  near  the  time  of  the 
conquest.! 

The  slow  and  gradual  manner  in  which 
parochial  churches  became  independent, 
appears  to  be  of  itself  a  sufficient  answer 
to  those  who  ascribe  a  great  antiquity  to 
the  universal  payment  of  tithes.  There 
are,  however,  more  direct  proofs  that  this 
species  of  ecclesiastical  property  was 
acquired  not  only  by  degrees,  but  with 
considerable  opposition.  We  find  the 
payment  of  tithes  first  enjoined  by  the 
canons  of  a  provincial  council  in  France 
near  the  end  of  the  sixth  century.  From 
the  ninth  to  the  end  of  the  twelfth,  or 
even  later,  it  is  continually  enforced  by 
similar  authority.  §  Father  Paul  remarks, 
that  most  of  the  sermons  preached  about 
the  eighth  century  inculcate  this  as  a 
duty,  and  even  seem  to  place  the  summit 
of  Christian  perfection  in  its  perform- 

*  Muratori,  Dissert.  74,  and  Fleury,  Institutions 
au  Droit  Ecclesiastique,  t.  i.,  p.  162,  refer  the  ori- 
gin of  parishes  to  the  fourth  century ;  but  this 
must  be  limited  to  the  most  populous  parts  of  the 
empire. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  206.  This  seems  to  have 
been  founded  on  an  ancient  canon. — F.  Paul,  c.  7. 

\  Collier's  Ecclesiastical  History,  p.  229. 

$  Selden's  History  of  Tithes,  vol.  iii.,  p.  1108, 
edit.  Wilkins.  Tithes  are  said  by  Giannone  tq 
have  been  enforced  by  some  papal  decrees  in  the 
sixth  century,  1.  iii.,  c.  6. 


264 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


ance.*  This  reluctant  submission  of  the 
people  to  a  general  and  permanent  tribute 
is  perfectly  consistent  with  the  eagerness 
displayed  by  them  in  accumulating  vol- 
untary donations  upon  the  church.  Char- 
lemagne was  the  first  who  gave  the  con- 
firmation of  a  civil  statute  to  these  ec- 
clesiastical injunctions;  no  one  at  least 
has,  so  far  as  I  know,  adduced  any  ear- 
lier law  for  the  payment  of  tithes  than 
one  of  his  capitularies,  f  But  it  would  be 
precipitate  to  infer,  either  that  the  prac- 
tice had  not  already  gained  ground  to  a 
considerable  extent,  through  the  influ- 
ence of  ecclesiastical  authority,  or,  on 
the  other  hand,  that  it  became  universal 
in  consequence  of  the  commands  of  Char- 
lemagne. |  In  the  subsequent  ages,  it 
was  very  common  to  appropriate  tithes, 
which  had  originally  been  payable  to  the 
bishop,  either  towards  the  support  of  par- 
ticular churches,  or,  according  to  the  prev- 
alent superstition,  to  monastic  founda- 
tions. §  These  arbitrary  consecrations, 
though  the  subject  of  complaint,  lasted, 
by  a  sort  of  prescriptive  right  of  the  land- 
holder, till  about  the  year  1200.  It  was 
nearly  at  the  same  time  that  the  obliga- 
tion of  paying  tithes,  which  had  been  ori- 
ginally confined  to  those  called  predial, 
or  the  fruits  of  the  earth,  was  extended, 
at  least  in  theory,  to  every  species  of 
profit,  and  to  the  wages  of  every  kind  of 
labour.  || 

Yet  there  were  many  hinderances  that 
spoliation  thwarted  the  clergy  in  their  ac- 
of  cimrch  quisition  of  opulence,  and  a  sort 
property.  Qf  reflUXj  tnat  set  sometimes  very 
strongly  against  them.  In  times  of  bar- 
barous violence,  nothing  can  thoroughly 
compensate  for  the  inferiority  of  physi- 
cal strength  and  prowess.  The  ecclesi- 
astical history  of  the  middle  ages  presents 
one  long  contention  of  fraud  against  rob- 
bery ;  of  acquisitions  made  by  the  church 

*  Treatise  on  Benefices,  c.  11. 

t  Mably  (Observations  sur  1'Hist.  de  France,  t. 
i.,  p.  238  et  438)  has,  with  remarkable  rashness, 
attacked  the  current  opinion,  that  Charlemagne 
established  the  legal  obligation  of  tithes,  and  de- 
nied that  any  of  his  capitularies  bear  such  an  inter- 
pretation- Those  which  he  quotes  have  indeed  a 
different  meaning ;  but  he  has  overlooked  an  ex- 
press enactment  in  789  (Baluzii  Capitularia,  t.  i.,  p. 
253),  which  admits  of  no  question ;  and  I  believe 
that  there  are  others  in  confirmation. 

^  The  grant  of  Ethelwolf  in  855  seems  to  be 
the  most  probable  origin  of  the  right  to  tithes  in 
England.  Whether  this  law,  for  such  it  was,  met 
with  constant  regard,  is  another  question.  It  is 
said  by  Marina,  that  tithes  were  not  legally  estab- 
lished in  Castile  till  the  reign  of  Alfonso  X.— En- 
sayo  sobre  las  siete  partidas,  c.  359. 

§  Selden,  p.  1114,  et  seq.     Coke,  2  Inst.,  p.  641. 

I!  Selden's  History  of  Tithes.  Treatise  on  Ben- 
efices, c.  28.  Giannone,  1.  x.,  c.  12. 


through  such  means  as  I  have  described, 
and  torn  from  her  by  lawless  power. 
Those  very  men  who,  in  the  hour  of 
sickness  and  impending  death,  showered 
the  gifts  of  expiatory  devotion  upon  her 
altars,  had  passed  the  sunshine  of  their 
lives  in  sacrilegious  plunder.  Notwith- 
standing the  frequent  instances  of  ex- 
treme reverence  for  religious  institutions 
among  the  nobility,  we  should  be  deceiv- 
ed in  supposing  this  to  be  their  general 
character.  Rapacity,  not  less  insatiable 
than  that  of  the  abbots,  was  commonly 
united  with  a  daring  fierceness  that  the 
abbots  could  not  resist.  In  every  coun- 
try, we  find  continual  lamentation  over 
the  plunder  of  ecclesiastical  possessions. 
Charles  Martel  is  reproached  with  having 
given  the  first  notorious  example  of  such 
spoliation.  It  was  not,  however,  com- 
monly practised  by  sovereigns.  But  the 
evil  was  not  the  less  universally  felt. 
The  parochial  tithes,  especially,  as  the 
hand  of  robbery  falls  heaviest  upon  the 
weak,  were  exposed  to  unlawful  seizure. 
In  the  tenth  and  eleventh  centuries  noth- 
ing was  more  common  than  to  see  the 
revenues  of  benefices  in  the  hands  of  lay 
impropriators,  who  employed  curates  at 
the  cheapest  rate ;  an  abuse  that  has  nev- 
er ceased  in  the  church.*  Several  at- 
tempts were  made  to  restore  these  tithes ; 
but  even  Gregory  VII.  did  not  venture  to 
proceed  in  it;f  and  indeed  it  is  highly 
probable  that  they  might  be  held  in  some 
instances  by  a  lawful  title. |  Sometimes 
the  property  of  monasteries  was  dilapida- 
ted by  corrupt  abbots,  whose  acts,  how- 
ever clandestine  and  unlawful,  it  was  not 
easy  to  revoke.  And  both  the  bishops 
and  convents  were  obliged  to  invest  pow- 
erful lay  protectors,  under  the  name  of 
advocates,  with  considerable  fiefs,  as  the 
price  of  their  assistance  against  depreda- 
tors. But  these  advocates  became  too 
often  themselves  the  spoilers,  and  oppres- 
sed the  helpless  ecclesiastics  for  whose 
defence  they  had  been  engaged. § 


*  Du  Cange,  voc.  Abbas. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  204.  At  an  assembly  held  at 
St.  Denis  in  997,  the  bishops  proposed  to  restore 
the  tithes  to  the  secular  clergy  :  but  such  a  tumult 
was  excited  by  this  attempt,  that  the  meeting  was 
broken  up. — Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi,,  praefat, 
p.  212. 

t  Selden's  Hist,  of  Tithes,  p.  1136.  The  third 
council  of  Lateran  restrains  laymen  from  transfer- 
ring their  impropriated  tithes  to  other  laymen. — 
Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  235.  This  seems 
tacitly  to  admit  that  their  possession  was  lawful,  at 
least  by  prescription. 

§  For  the  injuries  sustained  by  ecclesiastical  pro- 
prietors, see  Muratpri,  Dissert.  72.  Du  Cange,  v. 
Advocatus.  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  220,  470 ;  t.  iii.,  p. 
290 ;  t.  iv.,  p.  188,  202.  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


265 


If  it  had  not  been  for  these  drawbacks 
the  clergy  must,  one  would  imagine,  have 
almost  acquired  the  exclusive  property  of 
the  soil.  They  did  enjoy  nearly  one  half 
of  England,  and,  I  believe,  a  greater  pro- 
portion in  some  countries  of  Europe.* 
They  had  reached,  perhaps,  their  ze- 
nith in  respect  of  territorial  property 
about  the  conclusion  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury.f  After  that  time,  the  disposition 
to  enrich  the  clergy  by  pious  donations 
grew  more  languid,  and  was  put  under 
certain  legal  restraints,  to  which  I  shall 
hereafter  advert ;  but  they  became  rather 
more  secure  from  forcible  usurpations. 

The  acquisitions  of  wealth  by  the 
-„„,,  fi  church  were  hardly  so  remarka- 

HfCCIcSslaStl-  -          *  .  _  _ 

caijurisdic-  ble,  and  scarcely  contributed  so 
tion.  much  to  her  greatness,  as  those 

innovations  upon  the  ordinary  course  of 
justice,  which  fall  under  the  head  of 
ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  and  immunity. 
It  is  hardly,  perhaps,  necessary  to  cau- 
tion the  reader,  that  rights  of  territorial 
justice,  possessed  by  ecclesiastics  in  vir- 
tue of  their  fiefs,  are  by  no  means  in- 
cluded in  this  description.  Episcopal  ju- 
risdiction, properly  so  called,  may  be 
considered  as  depending  upon  the  choice 
of  litigant  parties,  upon  their  condition, 
and  upon  the  subject  matter  of  their  dif- 
ferences. 

1.  The  arbitrative  authority  of  ecclesi- 
Arbitra-  astical  pastors,  if  not  coeval  with 
tive.  Christianity,  grew  up  very  early  in 
the  church,  and  was  natural,  or  even  ne- 
cessary, to  an  insulated  and  persecuted 
society.!  Accustomed  to  feel  a  strong 
aversion  to  the  imperial  tribunals,  and 
even  to  consider  a  recurrence  to  them  as 
hardly  consistent  with  their  profession, 
the  early  Christians  retained  somewhat 
of  a  similar  prejudice  even  after  the  es- 
tablishment of  their  religion.  The  arbi- 
tration of  their  bishops  still  seemed  a  less 
objectionable  mode  of  settling  differen- 


xi.,  praefat.,  p.  184.  Martenne,  Thesaurus  Anec- 
dotorum,  t.  i..  p.  595.  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Langue- 
doc,  t.  ii.,  p.  109,  and  appendix,  passim. 

*  Turner's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  413,  from 
Avesbury,  According  to  a  calculation  founded  on 
a  passage  in  Knyghton,  the  revenue  if  the  Eng- 
lish church  in  1337  amounted  to  730,0<fr  marks  per 
annum.— Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol. 
i.,  p.  519.  Histoire  du  Droit  public  EcsJ.es.  Fran- 
cois, t.  i.,  p.  214. 

t  The  great  age  of  monasteries  in  England  was 
in  the  reigns  of  Henry  I.,  Stephen,  and  Henry  II. 
— Lyttleton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  329.  David  I.  of 
Scotland,  contemporary  with  Henry  II.,  was  also  a 
noted  founder  of  monasteries.— Dalrymple's  Annals. 

t  1  Corinth.,  c.  iv.  The  word  f^ovdevrjfifvovs,  ren- 
dered in  our  version  "  of  no  reputation,"  has  been 
interpreted  by  some  to  mean,  persons  destitute  of 
coercive  authority,  referees.  The  passage  at  least 
tends  to  discourage  suits  before  a  secular  judge. 


ces.  And  this  arbitrative  jurisdiction  was 
powerfully  supported  by  a  law  of  Con- 
stantine,  which  directed  the  civil  magis- 
trate to  enforce  the  execution  of  episco- 
pal awards.  Another  edict,  ascribed  to 
the  same  emperor,  and  annexed  to  the 
Theodosian  code,  extended  the  jurisdic- 
tion of  the  bishops  to  all  causes  which 
either  party  chose  to  refer  to  it,  even 
where  they  had  already  commenced  in  a 
secular  court,  and  declared  the  bishop's 
sentence  not  subject  to  appeal.  This 
edict  has  clearly  been  proved  to  be  a 
forgery.  It  is  evident,  by  a  novel  of  Va~ 
lentinian  III.,  about  450,  that  the  church 
had  still  no  jurisdiction  in  questions  of 
a  temporal  nature,  except  by  means  of 
the  joint  reference  of  contending  parties. 
Some  expressions,  indeed,  used  by  the 
emperor,  seem  intended  to  repress  the 
spirit  of  encroachment  upon  the  civil 
magistrates,  which  had  probably  begun 
to  manifest  itself.  Charlemagne,  how- 
ever, deceived  by  the  spurious  constitu- 
tion in  the  Theodosian  code,  repeats  all 
its  absurd  and  enormous  provisions  in  one 
of  his  capitularies.*  But  it  appears  so 
inconceivable,  that  an  enlightened  sov- 
ereign should  deliberately  place  in  the 
hierarchy  this  absolute  control  over  his 
own  magistrates,  that  one  might  be  justi- 
fied in  suspecting  some  kind  of  fraud  to 
have  been  practised  upon  him,  or,  at 
least,  that  he  was  not  thoroughly  aware  of 
the  extent  of  his  concession.  Certain  it 
is,  that  we  do  not  find  the  church,  in  her 
most  arrogant  temper,  asserting  the  full 
privileges  contained  in  this  capitulary,  f 

2.  If  it  was  considered  almost  as  a 
general  obligation  upon  the  prim-  Coercive 
itive  Christians  to  decide  their  over  the 
civil  disputes  by  internal  arbitra-  clergy  in 
tion,  much  more  would  this  be  in-  C1 
cumbent  upon  the  clergy.  The  canons 
of  several  councils,  in  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries,  sentence  a  bishop  or  priest  to 
deposition  who  should  bring  any  suit, 
civil  or  even  criminal,  before  a  secular 
magistrate.  This  must,  it  should  appear, 
be  confined  to  causes  where  the  defend- 
ant was  a  clerk,  since  the  ecclesiastical 
court  had  hitherto  no  coercive  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  laity.  It  was  not  .so  easy 
to  induce  laymen,  in  their  suits  against 
clerks,  to  prefer  the  episcopal  tribunal. 
The  emperors  were  not  at  all  disposed  to 
favour  this  species  of  encroachment  till 


*  Baluzii  Capitularia,  t.  i.,  p.  985. 

t  Gibbon,  c.  xx.  Giannone,  1.  ii.,  c.  8 ;  1.  iii.,  c,  6, 
.  vi.,  c.  7.  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  208.  Fleury,  7™ 
Discours,  and  Institutions  au  Droit  Eccl6siastique, 
t.  ii.,  p.  1.  Memoires  de  1'Academie  des  Inscrip- 
tions, t.  xxx vii.,  p.  566. 


266 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VII. 


the  reign  of  Justinian,  who  ordered  civil 
suits  against  ecclesiastics  to  be  carried 
only  before  the  bishops.  Yet  this  was 
accompanied  by  a  provision,  that  a  party 
dissatisfied  with  the  sentence  might  ap- 
ply to  the  secular  magistrate,  not  as  an 
appellant,  but  a  co-ordinate  jurisdiction ; 
for,  if  different  judgments  were  given  in 
the  two  courts,  the  process  was  ultimate- 
ly referred  to  the  emperor.*  But  the 
early  Merovingian  kings  adopted  the  ex- 
clusive jurisdiction  of  the  bishop  over 
causes  wherein  clerks  were  interested, 
without  any  of  the  checks  which  Justin- 
ian had  provided.  Many  laws  enacted 
during  their  reigns,  and  under  Charle- 
magne, strictly  prohibit  the  temporal 
magistrates  from  entertaining  complaints 
against  the  children  of  the  church. 

This  jurisdiction  over  the  civil  causes 
Andcrim-  of  clerks  was  not  immediately 
ioai  suits,  attended  with  an  equally  exclu- 
sive cognizance  of  criminal  offences  im- 
puted to  them,  wherein  the  state  is  so 
deeply  interested,  and  the  church  could 
inflict  so  inadequate  a  punishment.  Jus- 
tinian appears  to  have  reserved  such  of- 
fences for  trial  before  the  imperial  ma- 
gistrate, though  with  a  material  provision 
that  the  sentence  against  a  clerk  should 
not  be  executed  without  the  consent  of 
the  bishop,  or  the  final  decision  of  the 
emperor.  The  bishop  is  not  expressly 
invested  with  this  controlling  power  by 
the  laws  of  the  Merovingians ;  but  they 
enact  that  he  must  be  present  at  the  trial 
of  one  of  his  clerks ;  which  probably  was 
intended  to  declare  the  necessity  of  his 
concurrence  in  the  judgment.  The  epis- 
copal order  was  indeed  absolutely  ex- 
empted from  secular  jurisdiction  by  Jus- 
tinian ;  a  privilege  which  it  had  vainly 
endeavoured  to  establish  under  the  ear- 
lier emperors.  France  permitted  the 
same  immunity;  Chilperic,  one  of  the 
most  arbitrary  of  her  kings,  did  not  ven- 
ture to  charge  some  of  his  bishops  with 
treason,  except  before  a  council  of  their 
brethren.  Finally,  Charlemagne  seems 
to  have  extended  to  the  whole  body  of 
the  clergy  an  absolute  exemption  from 
the  judicial  authority  of  the  magistrate.! 

*  This  was  also  established  about  the  same  time 
by  Athalaric,  king  of  the  Ostrogoths,  and  of 
course  affected  the  popes,  who  were  his  subjects. 
—St.  Marc,  t.  i.,  p.  60.  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.,  t. 
vii.,  p.  292. 

t  Memoires  de  1'Academie,  ubi  supra.  Gian- 
none,  1.  hi.,  c.  6.  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  236.  Fleury, 
ubi  supra. 

Some  of  these  writers  do  not  state  the  law  of 
Charlemagne  so  strongly.  Nevertheless  the  words 
of  a  capitulary  in  789,  Ut  clerici  ecclesiastic!  ordi- 
nis  si  rulpam  incurrerint,  apud  ecclesiastic os  judi- 


3.  The  character  of  a  cause,  as  well 
as  of  the  parties  engaged,  might  over  panic 
bring  it  within  the  limits  of  ec-  ular  causes- 
clesiastical  jurisdiction.  In  all  questions 
simply  religious,  the  church  had  an  ori- 
ginal right  of  decision ;  in  those  of  a  tem- 
poral nature,  the  civil  magistrate  had,  by 
the  imperial  constitutions,  as  exclusive 
an  authority.*  Later  ages  witnessed 
strange  innovations  in  this  respect,  when 
the  spiritual  courts  usurped,  under  so- 
phistical pretences,  almost  the  whole  ad- 
ministration of  justice.  But  these  en- 
croachments were  not,  I  apprehend,  very 
striking  till  the  twelfth  century ;  and  as 
about  the  same  time  measures,  more  or 
less  vigorous  and  successful,  began  to  be 
adopted  in  order  to  restrain  them,  I  shall 
defer  this  part  of  the  subject  for  the 
present. 

In  this  sketch  of  the  riches  and  juris- 
diction of  the  hierarchy,  I  may  Political 
seem  to  have  implied  their  politi-  power  of 
cal  influence,  which  is  naturally  clerg>'- 
connected  with  the  two  former.  They 
possessed,  however,  more  direct  means 
of  acquiring  temporal  power.  Even  un- 
der the  Roman  emperors  they  had  found 
their  road  into  palaces ;  they  were  some- 
times ministers,  more  often  secret  coun- 
sellors, always  necessary,  but  formida- 
ble allies,  whose  support  was  to  be  con- 
ciliated, and  interference  to  be  respected. 
But  they  assumed  a  far  more  decided 
influence  over  the  new  kingdoms  of  the 
west.  They  were  entitled,  in  the  first 
place,  by  the  nature  of  those  free  gov- 
ernments, to  a  privilege  unknown  under 
the  imperial  despotism,  that  of  assisting 
in  the  deliberative  assemblies  of  the  na- 
tion. Councils  of  bishops,  such  as  had 
been  convoked  by  Constantine  and  his 
successors,  were  limited  in  their  func- 
tions to  decisions  of  faith,  or  canons  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline.  But  the  nor- 
thern nations  did  not  so  well  preserve 
the  distinction  between  secular  and  spir- 
itual legislation.  The  laity  seldom,  per- 
haps, gave  their  suffrage  to  the  canons 
of  the  church ;  but  the  church  was  not 
so  scrupulous  as  to  trespassing  upon  the 
province  of  the  laity.  Many  provisions 
are  found  in  the  canons  of  national  and 


centur,  non  apud  saeculares,  are  sufficiently  gen- 
eral (Baluz.  Capitul.,  t.  L,  p.  227):  and  the  same 
is  expressed  still  more  forcibly  in  the  collection 
published  by  Ansegisus  under  Louis  the  Debonair. 
— (Idem,  pp.  904  and  1115.)  See  other  proofs  in 
Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  ix.,p.  607. 

*  Quoties  de  religione  agitur,  episcopos  oportet 
judicare ;  alteras  vero  causas  quse  ad  ordinarios 
cognitores  vel  ad  usurn  publici  juris  pertinent,  le- 
gibus  oportet  au.diri.  Lex  Arcadii  et  Honorii,  apud 
Mem.  de  PAcademie,  t.  xxxix.,  p.  571. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


267 


even  provincial  councils,  which  relate  to 
the  temporal  constitution  of  the  state. 
Thus  one  held  at  Calcluith  (an  unknown 
place  in  England),  in  787,  enacted  that 
none  but  legitimate  princes  should  be 
raised  to  the  throne,  and  not  such  as 
were  engendered  in  adultery  or  incest. 
But  it  is  to  be  observed  that,  although 
this  synod  was  strictly  ecclesiastical, 
being  summoned  by  the  pope's  legate, 
yet  the  kings  of  Mercia  and  Northum- 
berland, with  many  of  their  nobles,  con- 
firmed the  canons  by  their  signature. 
As  for  the  councils  held  under  the  Visi- 
goth kings  of  Spain  during  the  seventh 
century,  it  is  not  easy  to  determine 
whether  they  are  to  be  considered  as  ec- 
clesiastical or  temporal  assemblies  *  No 
kingdom  was  so  thoroughly  under  the 
bondage  of  the  hierarchy  as  Spain. f  The 
first  dynasty  of  France  seem  to  have, 
kept  their  national  convention,  called 
the  Field  of  March,  more  distinct  from 
merely  ecclesiastical  councils. 

The  bishops  acquired  and  retained  a 
great  part  of  their  ascendency  by  a  very 
respectable  instrument  of  power,  intel- 
lectual superiority.  As  they  alone  were 
acquainted  with  the  art  of  writing,  they 
were  naturally  intrusted  with  political 
correspondence,  and  with  the  framing 
of  the  laws.  As  they  alone  knew  the 
elements  of  a  few  sciences,  the  educa- 
tion of  royal  families  devolved  upon  them 
as  a  necessary  duty.  In  the  fall  of  Rome, 
their  influence  upon  the  barbarians  wore 
down  the  asperities  of  conquest,  and 
saved  the  provincials  half  the  shock  of 
that  tremendous  revolution.  As  captive 
Greece  is  said  to  have  subdued  her  Ro- 
man conquerors,  so  Rome,  in  her  own 
turn  of  servitude,  cast  the  fetters  of  a 
moral  captivity  upon  the  fierce  invaders 
of  the  north.  Chiefly  through  the  exer- 
tions of  the  bishops,  whose  ambition  may 
be  forgiven  for  its  effects,  her  religion, 
her  language,  in  part  even  her  laws,  were 
transplanted  into  the  courts  of  Paris  and 
Toledo,  which  became  a  degree  less  bar- 
barous by  imitation.J 

Notwithstanding,  however,  the  great 
Supremacy  authority  and  privileges  of  the 
or  the  state,  church,  it  was  decidedly  subject 
to  the  supremacy  of  the  crown,  both 
during  the  continuance  of  the  western 
empire,  and  after  its  subversion.  The 
emperors  convoked,  regulated,  and  dis- 
solved universal  councils  ;  the  kings  of 

*  Marina,  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  i .,  p.  9. 

t  See  instances  of  the  temporal  power  of  the 
Spanish  bishops  in  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  viii.,  p. 
368,  397  ;  t.  ix.,  p.  68,  &c. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  i.,  p.  365. 


France  and  Spain  exercised  the  same 
right  over  the  synods  of  their  national 
churches.*  The  Ostrogoth  kings  of  Italy 
fixed  by  their  edicts  the  limits  within 
which  matrimony  was  prohibited  on  ac- 
count of  consanguinity,  and  granted  dis- 
pensations from  them.f  Though  the 
Roman  emperors  left  episcopal  elections 
to  the  clergy  and  people  of  the  diocess, 
in  which  they  were  followed  by  the 
Ostrogoths  and  Lombards,  yet  they  often 
interfered  so  far  as  to  confirm  a  decision, 
or  to  determine  a  contest.  The  kings  of 
France  went  farther,  and  seem  to  have 
invariably  either  nominated  the  bishops, 
or,  what  was  nearly  tantamount,  recom- 
mended their  own  candidate  to  the  elec- 
tors. 

But  the  sovereign  who  maintained  with 
the  greatest  vigour  his  ecclesi-  e8peciaiiy 
astical  supremacy  was  Charle-  ofCharie- 
magne.  Most  of  the  capitularies  ">agne- 
of  his  reign  relate  to  the  discipline  of  the 
church ;  principally,  indeed,  taken  from 
the  ancient  canons,  but  not  the  less  re- 
ceiving an  additional  sanction  from  his 
authority.^  Some  of  his  regulations, 
which  appear  to  have  been  original,  are 
such  as  men  of  high-church  principles 
would,  even  in  modern  times,  deem  in- 
fringements of  spiritual  independence ; 
that  no  legend  of  doubtful  authority 
should  be  read  in  the  churches,  but  only 
the  canonical  books,  and  that  no  saint 
should  be  honoured  whom  the  whole 
church  did  not  acknowledge.  These 
were  not  passed  in  a  synod  of  bishops, 
but  enjoined  by  the  sole  authority  of  the 
emperor,  who  seems  to  have  arrogated  a 
legislative  power  over  the  church,  which 
he  did  not  possess  in  temporal  affairs. 
Many  of  his  other  laws  relating  to  the 
ecclesiastical  constitution  are  enacted  in 
a  general  council  of  the  lay  nobility  as 
well  as  of  prelates,  and  are  so  blended 
with  those  of  a  secular  nature,  that  the 
two  orders  may  appear  to  have  equally 
consented  to  the  whole.  His  father 
Pepin,  indeed,  left  a  remarkable  prece- 
dent in  a  council  held  in  744,  where  the 
Nicene  faith  is  declared  to  be  established, 


*  Encyclopedic,  art.  Concile.  Schmidt,  t.  i., 
p.  384.  De  Marca,  De  Concordantia  Sacerdotii  et 
Imperil,  1.  ii.,  c.  9, 11 ;  et  1.  iv.,  passim. 

The  last  of  these  sometimes  endeavours  to  ex- 
tenuate the  royal  supremacy,  but  his  own  work 
furnishes  abundant  evidence  of  it ;  especially  1.  vi., 
c.  19,  &c.  For  the  ecclesiastical  independence  of 
Spain,  down  to  the  eleventh  century,  see  Marina, 
Ensayo  sobre  las  siete  partidas,  c.  322,  &c. ;  and 
De  Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  23. 

t  Giannone,  1.  iii.,  c.  6. 

I  Baluzii  Capitularia,  passim.  Schmidt,  t.  ii., 
n.  239-  Gaillard,  Vie  de  Charlemagne,  t.  iii. 


268 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


and  even  a  particular  heresy  condemned, 
with  the  consent  of  the  bishops  and  no- 
bles. But  whatever  share  we  may  ima- 
gine the  laity  in  general  to  have  had  in 
such  matters,  Charlemagne  himself  did 
not  consider  even  theological  decisions 
as  beyond  his  province ;  and,  in  more 
than  one  instance,  manifested  a  deter- 
mination not  to  surrender  his  own  judg- 
ment, even  in  questions  of  that  nature,  to 
any  ecclesiastical  authority. 

This  part  of  Charlemagne's  conduct  is 
duly  to  be  taken  into  the  account,  before 
we  censure  his  vast  extension  of  ecclesi- 
astical privileges.  Nothing  was  more  re- 
mote from  his  character  than  the  bigotry 
of  those  weak  princes  who  have  suffered 
the  clergy  to  reign  under  their  names. 
He  acted  upon  a  systematic  plan  of  gov- 
ernment, conceived  by  his  own  compre- 
hensive genius,  but  requiring  too  continual 
an  application  of  similar  talents  for  dura- 
ble execution.  It  was  the  error  of  a 
superior  mind,  zealous  for  religion  and 
learning,  to  believe  that  men,  dedicated 
to  the  functions  of  the  one,  and  posses- 
sing what  remained  of  the  other,  might, 
through  strict  rules  of  discipline,  enforced 
by  the  constant  vigilance  of  the  sovereign, 
become  fit  instruments  to  reform  and 
civilize  a  barbarous  empire.  It  was  the 
error  of  a  magnanimous  spirit  to  judge  too 
favourably  of  human  nature,  and  to  pre- 
sume that  great  trusts  would  be  fulfilled, 
and  great  benefits  remembered. 

It  is  highly  probable,  indeed,  that  an 
ambitious  hierarchy  did  not  endure  with- 
out reluctance  this  imperial  supremacy 
of  Charlemagne,  though  it  was  not  expe- 
dient for  them  to  resist,  a  prince  so  for- 
midable, and  from  whom  they  had  so 
much  to  expect.  But  their  dis- 
ofretheehTe"S  satisfaction  at  a  scheme  of 
rarchyin  government  incompatible  with 
the  ninth  their  own  objects  of  perfect  in- 
dependence, produced  a  violent 
recoil  under  Louis  the  Debonair,  who  at- 
tempted to  act  the  censor  of  ecclesias- 
tical abuses  with  as  much  earnestness 
as  his  father,  though  with  very  inferior 
qualifications  for  so  delicate  an  under- 
taking. The  bishops,  accordingly,  were 
among  the  chief  instigators  of  those  nu- 
merous revolts  of  his  children  which 
harassed  this  emperor.  They  set,  upon 
one  occasion,  the  first  example  of  a 
usurpation  which  was  to  become  very 
dangerous  to  society,  the  deposition  of 
sovereigns  by  ecclesiastical  authority. 
Louis,  a  prisoner  in  the  hands  of  his  en- 
emies, had  been  intimidated  enough  to 
undergo  a  public  penance  ;  and  the  bish- 
ops pretended  that,  according  to  a  can- 


on  of  the  church,  he  was  incapable  of 
returning  afterward  to  a  secular  life,  or 
preserving  the  character  of  sovereignty.* 
Circumstances  enabled  him  to  retain  the 
empire,  in  defiance  of  this  sentence ;  but 
the  church  had  tasted  the  pleasure  of 
trampling  upon  crowned  heads,  and  was 
eager  to  repeat  the  experiment.  Under 
the  disjointed  and  feeble  administration 
of  his  posterity  in  their  several  kingdoms, 
the  bishops  availed  themselves  of  more 
than  one  opportunity  to  exalt  their  tem- 
poral power.  Those  weak  Carlovingian 
princes,  in  their  mutual  animosities,  en- 
couraged the  pretensions  of  a  common 
enemy.  Thus,  Charles  the  Bald,  and 
Louis  of  Bavaria,  having  driven  their 
brother  Lothaire  from  his  dominions, 
held  an  assembly  of  some  bishops,  who 
adjudged  him  unworthy  to  reign,  and 
after  exacting  a  promise  from  the  two 
allied  brothers  to  govern  better  than  he 
had  done,  permitted  and  commanded 
them  to  divide  his  territories.!  After 
concurring  in  this  unprecedented  en- 
croachment, Charles  the  Bald  had  little 
right  to  complain  when,  some  years  af- 
terward, an  assembly  of  bishops  declared 
himself  to  have  forfeited  his  crown,  re- 
leased his  subjects  from  their  allegiance, 
and  transferred  his  kingdom  to  Louis  of 
Bavaria.  But,  in  truth,  he  did  not  pre- 
tend to  deny  the  principle  which  he  had 
contributed  to  maintain.  Even  in  his  own 
behalf,  he  did  not  appeal  to  the  rights  of 
sovereigns,  and  of  the  nation  whom  they 
represent.  "  No  one,"  says  this  degener- 
ate grandson  of  Charlemagne,  "  ought  to 
have  degraded  me  from  the  throne  to 
which  I  was  consecrated,  until  at  least  I 


*  Habitu  saeculi  se  exuens  habitum  poenitentis 
per  impositionem  manuum  episcoporum  suscepit ; 
ut  post  tantam  talemque  poenitentiam  nemo  ultra 
ad  militiam  sascularem  redeat.  Acta  exauctoratio- 
nis  Ludovici,  apud  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  68.  There 
was  a  sort  of  precedent,  though  not,  I  think,  very 
apposite,  for  this  doctrine  of  implied  abdication,  in 
the  case  qfWamba,  king  of  the  Visigoths  in  Spain, 
who,  having  been  clothed  with  a  monastic  dress, 
according  to  a  common  superstition,  during  a  dan- 
gerous illness,  was  afterward  adjudged  by  a  council 
incapable  of  resuming  his  crown,  to  which  he  vol- 
untarily submitted.  The  story,  as  told  by  an  ori- 
ginal writer,  quoted  in  Baronius,  ad  A.  D.  681,  is 
too  obscure  to  warrant  any  positive  'inference; 
though  I  think  we  may  justly  suspect  a  fraudulent 
contrivance  between  the  bishops  and  Ervigius,  the 
successor  of  Wamba.  The  latter,  besides  his  mo- 
nastic attire,  had  received  the  last  sacrament ;  after 
which  he  might  be  deemed  civilly  dead.— Fleury, 
3me  Discours  sur  1'Hist.  Ecclesiast.,puts  this  case 
too  strongly,  when  he  tells  us  that  the  bishops  de- 
posed Wamba ;  it  may  have  been  a  voluntary  abdi- 
cation, influenced  by  superstition,  or,  perhaps,  by 
disease. 

f  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  77.  Velly,  t.  ii.,  p.  61 ;  see 
too  p.  74. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


269 


had  been  heard  and  judged  by  the  bishops, 
through  whose  ministry  I  was  consecra- 
ted, who  are  called  the  thrones  of  God, 
in  which  God  sitteth,  and  by  whom  he 
dispenses  his  judgments ;  to  whose  pa- 
ternal chastisement  I  was  willing  to  sub- 
mit, and  do  still  submit  myself."* 

These  passages  are  very  remarkable, 
and  afford  a  decisive  proof  that  the  pow- 
er obtained  by  national  churches,  through 
the  superstitious  prejudices  then  received, 
and  a  train  of  favourable  circumstances, 
was  as  dangerous  to  civil  government 
as  the  subsequent  usurpations  of  the  Ro- 
man pontiff,  against  which  Protestant 
writers  are  apt  too  exclusively  to  direct 
their  animadversions.  Voltaire,  I  think, 
has  remarked,  that  the  ninth  century  was 
the  age  of  the  bishops,  as  the  eleventh 
and  twelfth  were  of  the  popes.  It  seem- 
ed as  if  Europe  was  about  to  pass  under 
as  absolute  a  domination  of  the  hierar- 
chy, as  had  been  exercised  by  the  priest- 
hood of  ancient  Egypt,  or  the  druids  of 
Gaul.  There  is  extant  a  remarkable  in- 
strument, recording  the  election  of  Boson, 
king  of  Aries,  by  which  the  bishops  alone 
appear  to  have  elevated  him  to  the  throne, 
without  any  concurrence  of  the  nobility. f 
But  it  is  inconceivable  that  such  could 
have  really  been  the  case  ;  and  if  the 
instrument  is  genuine,  we  must  suppose 
it  to  have  been  framed  in  order  to  counte- 
nance future  pretensions.  For  the  cler- 
gy, by  their  exclusive  knowledge  of  Latin, 
had  it  in  their  power  to  mould  the  lan- 
guage of  public  documents  for  their  own 
purposes;  a  circumstance  which  should 
be  cautiously  kept  in  mind  when  we  pe- 
ruse instruments  drawn  up  during  the 
dark  ages. 

It  was  with  an  equal  defiance  of  noto- 
rious truth,  that  the  Bishop  of  Winches- 
ter, presiding  as  papal  legate  at  an  assem- 
bly of  the  clergy  in  1141,  during  the  civil 
war  of  Stephen  and  Matilda,  asserted  the 
right  of  electing  a  king  of  England  to  ap- 
pertain principally  to  that  order ;  and,  by 
virtue  of  this  unprecedented  claim,  raised 
Matilda  to  the  throne.|  England,  indeed, 
has  been  obsequious,  beyond  most  other 
countries,  to  the  arrogance  of  her  hierar- 
chy ;  especially  during  the  Anglo-Saxon 
period,  when  the  nation  was  sunk  in  ig- 

*  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  217.  Voltaire,  Velly,  Gail- 
lard,  &c. 

t  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  ix.,  p.  304. 

j  Ventilata  est  causa,  says  the  Legate,  coram 
major!  parte  cleri  Angliae,  ad  cujus  jus  potissimum 
spectat  principem  eligere,  simulque  ordinare.  In- 
vocata  itaque  primo  in  auxilium  divinitate,  filiam 
pacific!  regis,  &c.,  in  Anglia  Normanniaeque  domi- 
nam  eligimus,  et  ei  fidem  et  manutenementum  pro- 
mittimus.— Gul.  Malmsb.  p.  188. 


norance  and  effeminate  superstition.  Ev- 
ery one  knows  the  story  of  King  Edwy, 
in  some  form  or  other,  though  I  believe 
it  impossible  to  ascertain  the  real  circum- 
stances of  that  controverted  anecdote. 
But,  upon  the  supposition  least  favoura- 
ble to  the  king,  the  behaviour  of  Arch- 
bishop Odo  and  St.  Dunstan  was  an  in- 
tolerable outrage  of  spiritual  tyranny.* 

But,  while  the  prelates  of  these  na- 
tions, each  within  his  respect-  Riseofthe 
ive  sphere,  were  prosecuting  papal  pow- 
their  system  of  encroachment  er-  J'scom- 
upon  the  laity,  a  new  scheme  m 
was  secretly  forming  within  the  bosom 
of  the  church,  to  inthral  both  that  and 
the  temporal  governments  of  the  world 
under  an  ecclesiastical  monarch.  ~  Lo~n£ 
before  the  earliest  epoch  that  can  be  fixed 
for  modern  history,  and,  indeed,  to  speak 
fairly,  almost  as  jar  back  as  ecclesiastical 
testimonies  can"carry  us,  the  bishops  of 
Rome  had  been  venerated  as  first  in  rank 
among  the  rulers  of  the  church.  The 
nature  of  this  primacy  is  doubtless  a  very 
controverted  subject.  It  is,  however, 
reduced  by  some  moderate  Catholics  to 
little  more  than  a  precedency  attached  to 
the  see  of  Rome  in  consequence  of  its 
foundation  by  the  chief  of  the  apostles, 
as  well  as  the  dignity  of  the  imperial 


*  Two  living  writers  of  the  Roman  Catholic 
communion,  Dr.  Milner,  in  his  History  of  Win- 
chester, and  Mr.  Lingard,  in  his  Antiquities  of  the 
Anglo-Saxon  church,  contend  that  Elgiva,  whom 
some  Protestant  historians  are  willing  to  represent 
as  the  queen  of  Edwy,  was  but  his  mistress  ;  and 
seem  inclined  to  justify  the  conduct  of  Odo  and 
Dunstan  towards  this  unfortunate  couple.  They 
are  unquestionably  so  far  right,  that  few,  if  any  of 
those  writers,  who  have  been  quoted  as  authorities 
in  respect  of  this  story,  speak  of  the  lady  as  a 
queen  or  lawful  wife.  I  must,  therefore,  strongly 
reprobate  the  conduct  of  Dr.  Henry,  who,  calling 
Elgiva  queen,  and  asserting  that  she  was  married, 
refers,  at  the  bottom  of  his  page,  to  William  of 
Malmsbury,  and  other  chroniclers,  who  give  a  to- 
tally opposite  account ;  especially  as  he  does  not 
intimate,  by  a  single  expression,  that  the  nature 
of  her  connexion  with  the  king  was  equivocal. 
Such  a  practice,  when  it  proceeds,  as  I  fear  it  did 
in  this  instance,  not  from  oversight,  but  from  pre- 
judice, is  a  glaring  violation  of  historical  integrity, 
and  tends  to  render  the  use  of  references,  that 
great  improvement  of  modern  history,  a  sort  of 
rraud  upon  the  reader.  But  the  fact  itself,  one  cer- 
ainly  of  little  importance,  is,  in  my  opinion,  not 
capable  of  being  proved  or  disproved.  The  author- 
ities, as  they  are  called,  that  is,  the  passages  in 
monkish  writers  which  mention  this  transaction, 
are  neither  sufficiently  circumstantial,  nor  consist- 
ent, nor  impartial,  nor  contemporaneous,  to  afford 
ground  for  rational  belief;  or,  at  least,  there  must 
always  remain  a  strong  shade  of  uncertainty.  And 
t  is  plain,  that  different  reports  of  the  story  pre- 
vailed, so  as  to  induce  some  to  imagine  that  there 
were  two  Elgivas,  one  queen,  the  other  concubine. 
But  the  monkish  chroniclers,  experto  credite,  are  not 
entitled  to  so  much  ceremony. 


270 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  VII. 


city.  *  A  sort  of  general  superintendence 
was  admitted  as  an  attribute  of  this  pri- 
macy, so  that  the  bishops  of  Rome  were 
entitled,  and  indeed  bound,  to  remon- 
strate, when  any  error  or  irregularity 
came  to  their  knowledge,  especially  in 
the  western  churches,  a  greater  part  of 
which  had  been  planted  by  them,  and 
were  connected,  as  it  were  by  filiation, 
with  the  common  capital  of  the  Roman 
empire  and  of  Christendom.!  Various 
causes  had  a  tendency  to  prevent  the 
bishops  of  Rome  from  augmenting  their 
authority  in  the  East,  and  even  to  dimin- 
ish that  which  they  had  occasionally  ex- 
ercised ;  the  institution  of  patriarchs  at 
Antioch,  Alexandria,  and  afterward  at 
Constantinople,  with  extensive  rights  of 
jurisdiction ;  the  difference  of  rituals  and 
discipline;  but,  above  all,  the  many  dis- 
gusts taken  by  the  Greeks,  which  ulti- 
mately produced  an  irreparable  schism 
between  the  two  churches  in  the  ninth 
century.  But,  within  the  pale  of  the  Lat- 
in church,  every  succeeding  age  enhan- 
ced the  power  and  dignity  of  the  Roman 
see.  By  the  constitution  of  the  church, 
such  at  least  as  it  became  in  the  fourth 
century,  its  divisions  being  arranged  in 
conformity  to  those  of  the  empire,  every 
province  ought  to  have  its  metropolitan, 
and  every  vicariate  its  ecclesiastical  ex- 
arch or  primate.  The  Bishop  of  Rome 
presided,  in  the  latter  capacity,  over  the 
Roman  vicariate,  comprehending  south- 
ern Italy,  and  the  three  chief  Mediterra- 
nean islands.  But,  as  it  happened,  none 

*  These  foundations  of  the  Roman  primacy  are 
indicated  by  Valentinian  III.,  a  great  favourer  of 
that  see,  in  a  novel  of  the  year  455  :  Cum  igitur  se- 
dis  apostolic*  primatum  B.  Petri  meritum,  qui  est 
princeps  sacerdotalis  coronae,  et  Romanes  dignitas 
civitatis,  sacrae  etiam  synodi  firmavit  auctoritas. 
The  last  words  allude  to  the  sixth  canon  of  the 
Nicene  council,  which  establishes,  or  recognises, 
the  patriarchal  supremacy,  in  their  respective  dis- 
tricts, of  the  churches  of  Rome,  Antioch,  and 
Alexandria. — De  Marca,  de  Concordantia  Sacerdo- 
tii  et  Imperii,  1.  i.,  c.  8.  At  a  much  earlier  period, 
Irenaeus  rather  vaguely,  and  Cyprian  more  posi- 
tively, admit,  or  rather  assert,  the  primacy  of  the 
church  of  Rome,  which  the  latter  seems  even  to 
have  considered  as  a  kind  of  centre  of  Catholic 
unity,  though  he  resisted  every  attempt  of  that 
church  to  arrogate  a  controlling  power.  See  his 
treatise  De  Unitate  Ecclesiae. 

t  Dupin,  De  antiqua  Ecclesiae  Disciplina,  p.  306, 
et  seqq.  Histoire  du  Droit  public  ecclesiastique 
Francois,  p.  149.  The  opinion  of  the  Roman  see's 
supremacy,  though  apparently  rather  a  vague  and 
general  notion,  as  it  still  continues  in  those  Cath- 
olics who  deny  its  infallibility,  seems  to  have  pre- 
vailed very  much  in  the  fourth  century.  Fleury 
brings  remarkable  proofs  of  this  from  the  writings 
of  Socrates,  Sozomen,  Ammianus  Marcellinus, 
and  Optatus.— Hist.  Eccl6s.,  t.  hi.,  p.  282,  320,  449  ; 
t.  iv.,  p.  227. 


of  the  ten  provinces  forming  this  division 
had  any  metropolitan ;  so  that  the  popes 
exercised  all  metropolitical  functions 
within  them,  such  as  the  consecration  of 
bishops,  the  convocation  of  synods,  the 
ultimate  decision  of  appeals,  and  many 
other  sorts  of  authority.  These  patriar- 
provinces  are  sometimes  called  the  chate  of 
Roman  patriarchate ;  the  bishops  Rome- 
of  Rome  having  always  been  reckoned 
one,  generally  indeed  the  first  of  the  patri- 
archs ;  each  of  whom  was  at  the  head  of 
all  the  metropolitans  within  his  limits, 
but  without  exercising  those  privileges 
which,  by  the  ecclesiastical  constitution, 
appertained  to  the  latter.  Though  the 
Roman  patriarchate,  properly  so  called, 
was  comparatively  very  small  in  extent, 
it  gave  its  chief,  for  the  reason  mention- 
ed, advantages  in  point  of  authority  which 
the  others  did  not  possess.* 

I  may  perhaps  appear  to  have  noticed 
circumstances  interesting  only  to  eccle- 
siastical scholars.  But  it  is  important  to 
apprehend  this  distinction  of  the  patri- 
archate from  the  primacy  of  Rome,  be- 
cause it  was  by  extending  the  boundaries 
of  the  former,  and  by  applying  the  max- 
ims of  her  administration  in  the  south  of 
Italy  to  all  the  western  churches,  that 
she  accomplished  the  first  object  of  her 
scheme  of  usurpation,  in  subverting  the 
provincial  system  of  government  under 
the  metropolitans.  Their  first  encroach- 
ment of  this  kind  was  in  the  province  of 
Illyricum,  which  they  annexed  in  a  man- 
ner to  their  own  patriarchate,  by  not  per- 
mitting any  bishops  to  be  consecrated 
without  their  consent. f  This  was  before 
the  end  of  the  fourth  century.  Their  sub- 
sequent advances  were,  however,  very 
gradual.  About  the  middle  of  the  sixth 
century,  we  find  them  confirming  the 
elections  of  archbishops  of  Milan.  J  They 
came  by  degrees  to  exercise,  though  not 
always  successfully,  and  seldom  without 
opposition,  an  appellant  jurisdiction  over 
the  causes  of  bishops,  deposed  or  cen- 


*  Dupin,  De  antiqua  Eccles.  Disciplina,  p.  39, 
&c.  Giannone,  1st.  di  Napoli,  1.  ii.,  c.  8  ;  1.  iii.,  c. 
6.  De  Marca,  1.  i.,  c.  7,  et  alibi.  There  is  some 
disagreement  among  these  writers  as  to  the  extent 
of  the  Roman  patriarchate,  which  some  suppose  to 
have  even  at  first  comprehended  all  the  western 
churches,  though  they  admit  that,  in  a  more  par- 
ticular sense,  it  was  confined  to  the  vicariate  of 
Rome. 

t  Dupin,  p.  66.  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  v.,  p. 
373.  The  ecclesiastical  province  of  Illyricum  in- 
cluded Macedonia.  Siricius,  the  author  of  this  en- 
croachment, seems  to  have  been  one  of  the  first 
usurpers.  In  a  letter  to  the  Spanish  bishops  (A.  D. 
375),  he  exalts  his  own  authority  very  high. — De 
Marca,  1.  i.,  c.  8. 

t  St.  Marc,t.  i.,  p.  139,  153. 


CHAP.  Vil.J 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


27 1 


sured  in  provincial  synods.  This,  in- 
deed, had  been  granted,  if  we  believe  the 
fact,  by  the  canons  of  a  very  early  coun- 
cil, that  of  Sardica  in  347,  so  far  as  to 
permit  the  pope  to  order  a  revision  of  the 
process,  but  not  to  annul  the  sentence.* 
Valentinian  III.,  influenced  by  Leo  the 
Great,  one  of  the  most  ambitious  of  pon- 
tiffs, had  gone  a  great  deal  farther,  and 
established  almost  an  absolute  judicial 
supremacy  in  the  Holy  See.f  But  the 
metropolitans  were  not  inclined  to  sur- 
render their  prerogatives  ;  and,  upon  the 
whole,  the  papal  authority  had  made  no 
decisive  progress  in  France,  or  perhaps 
anywhere  beyond  Italy,  till  the  pontifi- 
cate of  Gregory  I. 

[A.  D.  590-604.]  This  celebrated  person 
G  a  was  not  distinguished  by  learn- 
'  ing,  which  he  affected  to  depre- 
ciate, nor  by  his  literary  performances, 
which  the  best  critics  consider  as  below 
mediocrity,  but  by  qualities  more  neces- 
sary for  his  purpose,  intrepid  ambition  and 
unceasing  activity.  He  maintained  a 
perpetual  correspondence  with  the  em- 
perors and  their  ministers,  with  the  sov- 

*  Dupin,  p.  109.  De  Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  14.  These 
canons  have  been  questioned,  and  Dupin  does  not 
seem  to  lay  much  stress  on  their  authority,  though 
I  do  not  perceive  that  either  he  or  Fleury  (Hist. 
Eccles  ,  t.  iii.,  p.  372)  doubts  their  genuineness. 
Sardica  was  a  city  of  Illyricum,  which  the  transla- 
tor of  Mosheim  has  confounded  with  Sardes. 

Consultations  or  references  to  the  Bishop  of 
Rome,  in  difficult  cases  of  faith  or  discipline,  had 
been  common  in  early  ages,  and  were  even  made 
by  provincial  and  national  councils.  But  these 
were  also  made  to  other  bishops,  eminent  for  per- 
sonal merit  or  the  dignity  01  their  sees.  The 
popes  endeavoured  to  claim  this  as  a  matter  of 
right.  Innocent  I.  asserts  (A.  D.  402)  that  he  was 
to  be  consulted,  quoties  fidei  ratio  ventUatur  ;  and 
Gelasius  (A.  D.  492)  quantum  ad  religionem  per- 
tinet,  non  nisi  apostolic*  sedi,  juxta  canones,  de- 
betur  summa  judicii  totius.  As  the  oak  is  in  the 
acorn,  so  did  these  maxims  contain  the  system  of 
Bellarmine.— De  Marca,  1.  i.,  c.  10;  and  1.  vii.,  12. 
Dupin. 

t  Some  bishops  belonging  to  the  province  of 
Hilary,  metropolitan  of  Aries,  appealed  from  his 
sentence  to  Leo,  who  not  only  entertained  their 
appeal,  but  presumed  to  depose  Hilary.  This  as- 
sumption of  power  would  have  had  little  effect,  if 
it  had  not  been  seconded  by  the  emperor  in  very 
unguarded  language  ;  hoc  perenni  sanctione  de- 
cemimus,  ne  quid  tarn  episcopis  Gallicanis,  quam 
aliarum  provinciarum,  contra  consuetudinem  vete- 
rem  liceat  sine  auctoritate  viri  venerabilis  papae 
urbis  aeternae  tentare  ;  sed  illis  omnibusque  pro  lege 
sit,  quidquid  sanxit  vel  sanxerit  apostolicae  sedis 
auctoritas.— De  Marca,  De  Concordantia  Sacer- 
dotii  et  Imperil,  1.  i.,  c.  8.  The  same  emperor 
enacted,  that  any  bishop  who  refused  to  attend  the 
tribunal  of  the  pope  when  summoned,  should  be 
compelled  by  the  governor  of  his  province  ;  ut 
quisquis  episcoporum  ad  judicium  Romani  epis- 
copi  evocatus  venire  neglexerit,  per  moderatorem 
ejusdem  provinciae  adesse  cogatur. — Id.,  1.  vii.,  c.  13. 
Dupin,  De  Ant.  Discipl.,  p.  29  et  171. 


ereigns  of  the  western  kingdoms,  with 
all  the  hierarchy  of  the  Catholic  church ; 
employing,  as  occasion  dictated,  the  lan- 
guage of  devotion,  arrogance,  or  adula- 
tion.* Claims  hitherto  disputed,  or  half 
preferred,  assumed  under  his  hands  a 
more  definite  form;  and  nations  too  ig- 
norant to  compare  precedents  or  discrim- 
inate principles,  yielded  to  assertions  con- 
fidently made  by  the  authority  which 
they  most  respected.  Gregory  dwelt 
more  than  his  predecessors  upon  the  pow- 
er of  the  keys,  exclusively  or  at  least 
principally  committed  to  St.  Peter,  which 
had  been  supposed  in  earlier  times,  as  it 
is  now  by  the  Gallican  Catholics,  to  be 
inherent  in  the  general  body  of  bishops, 
joint  sharers  of  one  indivisible  episco- 
pacy. And  thus  the  patriarchal  rights, 
being  manifestly  of  mere  ecclesiastical 
institution,  were  artfully  confounded,  or, 
as  it  were,  merged  in  the  more  para- 
mount supremacy  of  the  papal  chair. 
From  the  time  of  Gregory,  the  popes 
appear  in  a  great  measure  to  have 
thrown  away  that  scaffolding,  and  relied 
in  preference  on  the  pious  veneration  of 
the  people,  and  on  the  opportunities 
which  might  occur  for  enforcing  their 
dominion  with  the  pretence  of  divine  au- 
thority.! 

It  cannot,  I  think,  be  said,  that  any 
material  acquisitions  of  ecclesiastical 
power  were  obtained  by  the  successors 
of  Gregory  for  nearly  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years. J  As  none  of  them  possessed 

*  The  flattering  style  in  which  this  pontiff  ad- 
dressed Brunehaut  and  Phocas,  the  most  flagitious 
monsters  of  his  time,  is  mentioned  in  all  civil  and 
ecclesiastical  histories.  Fleury  quotes  a  remark- 
able letter  to  the  patriarchs  of  Antioch  and  Alex- 
andria, wherein  he  says  that  St.  Peter  has  one  see, 
divided  into  three,  Rome,  Antioch,  and  Alexandria ; 
stooping  to  this  absurdity,  and  inconsistence  with 
his  real  system,  in  order  to  conciliate  their  alliance 
against  his  more  immediate  rival,  the  patriarch  of 
Constantinople.— Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  viii.,  p.  124. 

t  Gregory  seems  to  have  established  the  appel- 
lant jurisdiction  of  the  see  of  Rome,  which  had 
been  long  in  suspense.  Stephen,  a  Spanish  bishop, 
having  been  deposed,  appealed  to  Rome.  Gregory 
sent  a  legate  to  Spain,  with  full  powers  to  confirm 
or  rescind  the  sentence.  He  says  in  his  letter  on 
this  occasion ;  a  sede  apostolica,  qusa  omnium  ec- 
clesiarum  caput  est,  causa  haec  audienda  ac  diri- 
menda  fuerat. — De  Marca,  1.  vii.,  c.  18.  In  wri- 
ting to  the  bishops  of  France,  he  enjoins  them  to 
obey  Virgilius,  bishop  of  Aries,  whom  he  has  ap- 
pointed his  legate  in  France,  secundum  antiquam 
consuetudinem ;  so  that,  if  any  contention  should 
arise  in  the  church,  he  may  appease  it  by  his  au- 
thority, as  vicegerent  of  the  apostolic  see  :  auc- 
toritatis  suae  vigore,  vicibus  nempe  apostolicae 
sedis  functus,  discreta  moderatione  compescat.— 
Gregorii  Opera,  t.  ii.,  p.  783  (edit.  Benedict). 
Dupin,  p.  34.  Pasquier,  Recherches  de  la  France, 
1.  iii.,  c.  9. 

J  I  observe  that  some  modern  publications  annex 


272 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


vigour  and  reputation  equal  to  his  own 
it  might  even  appear  that  the  papal  influ- 
ence was  retrograde.  But,  in  effect,  the 
principles  which  supported  it  were  taking 
deep  root,  and  acquiring  strength  by  oc- 
casional, though  not  very  frequent  exer- 
cise. Appeals  to  the  pope  were  some- 


considerable  importance  to  a  supposed  concession 
of  the  title  of  universal  bishop,  made  by  the  Emperor 
Phocas  in  606  to  Boniface  III.,  and  even  appear  to 
date  the  papal  supremacy  from  this  epoch.  Those 
who  have  imbibed  this  notion  may  probably  have 
been  misled  by  a  loose  expression  in  Mosheim's 
Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  169;  though 
the  general  tenour  of  that  passage  by  no  means 
gives  countenance  to  their  opinion.  But  there  are 
several  strong  objections  to  our  considering  this  as 
a  leading  fact,  much  less  as  marking  an  era  in  the 
history  of  the  papacy.  1.  Its  truth,  as  commonly 
stated,  appears  more  than  questionable.  The 
Roman  pontiffs,  Gregory  I.  and  Boniface  III.,  had 
been  vehemently  opposing  the  assumption  of  this 
title  by  the  patriarch  of  Constantinople,  not  as  due 
to  themselves,  but  as  one  to  which  no  bishop  could 
legitimately  pretend.  There  would  be  something 
almost  ridiculous  in  the  emperor's  immediately 
conferring  an  appellation  on  themselves,  which 
they  had  just  disclaimed ;  and  though  this  objec- 
tion would  not  stand  against  evidence,  yet  when 
we  find  no  better  authority  quoted  for  the  fact 
than  Baronius,  who  is  no  authority  at  all,  it  retains 
considerable  weight.  And  indeed  the  want  of 
early  testimony  is  so  decisive  an  objection  to  any 
alleged  historical  fact,  that,  but  for  the  strange 
preposseesions  of  some  men,  one  might  rest  the 
case  here.  Fleury  takes  no  notice  of  this  part  of 
the  story,  though  he  tells  us  that  Phocas  compelled 
the  patriarch  of  Constantinople  to  resign  his  title. 
2.  But  if  the  strongest  proof  could  be  advanced  for 
the  authenticity  of  this  circumstance,  we  might  well 
deny  its  importance.  The  concession  of  Phocas 
could  have  been  of  no  validity  in  Lombardy, 
France,  and  other  western  countries,  where  nev- 
ertheless the  papal  supremacy  was  incomparably 
more  established  than  in  the  east.  3.  Even  within 
the  empire,  it  could  have  had  no  efficacy  after  the 
violent  death  of  that  usurper,  which  followed  soon 
afterward.  4.  The  title  of  universal  bishop  is 
not  very  intelligible  ;  but,  whatever  it  meant,  the 
patriarchs  of  Constantinople  had  borne  it  before, 
and  continued  to  bear  it  ever  afterward. — (Dupin, 
De  antiqua  Disciplina,  p.  329.)  5.  The  preceding 
popes,  Pelagius  II.  and  Gregory  I.,  had  constantly 
disclaimed  the  appellation,  though  it  had  been 
adopted  by  some  towards  Leo  the  Great  in  the 
council -of  Chalcedon  (Fleury,  t.  via.,  p.  95)  ;  nor 
does  it  appear  to  have  been  retained  by  the  succes- 
sors of  Boniface,  at  least  for  some  centuries.  It  is 
even  laid  down  in  the  decretum  of  Gratian,  that 
the  pope  is  not  styled  universal :  Nee  etiam  Ro- 
manus  pontifex  umversahs  appellatur  (p.  303,  edit. 
1591);  though  some  refer  its  assumption  to  the 
ninth  century. — Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique, 
t.  v.,  p.  93.  In  fact,  it  has  never  been  a  usual  title. 
6.  The  popes  had  unquestionably  exercised  a  spe- 
cies of  supremacy  for  more  than  two  centuries  be- 
fore this  time,  which  had  lately  reached  a  high 
point  of  authority  under  Gregory  I.  The  rescript 
of  Valentinian  III.,  in  455,  quoted  in  a  former  note, 
would  certainly  be  more  to  the  purpose  than  the 
letter  of  Phocas.  7.  Lastly,  there  are  no  sensible 
marks  of  this  supremacy  making  a  more  rapid 
progress  for  a  century  and  a  half  after  the  pretend- 
ed grant  of  that  emperor. 


times  made  by  prelates  dissatisfied  with 
a  local  sentence;   but  his  judgment  of 
reversal  was  not  always  executed,  as  we 
perceive  by  the  instance  of  Bishop  Wil- 
frid.*    National  councils  were  still  con- 
voked  by  princes,  and  canons   enacted 
under  their  authority  by  the  bishops  who 
attended.     Though  the  church  of  Lom- 
bardy was  under  great  subjection  during 
this  period,  yet  those  of  France,   and 
even  of  England,  planted  as  the  latter 
had  been  by  Gregory,  continued  to  pre- 
serve a  tolerable  measure  of  independ- 
ence, f     The  first  striking  infringement 
of  this  was  made  through  the  influence 
of  an  Englishman,  Winfrid,  better  known 
as  St.  Boniface,  the  apostle  of 
Germany.    Having  undertaken  St-Boniface- 
the  conversion  of  Thuringia,  and  other 
still  heathen  countries,  he  applied  to  the 
pope  for  a  commission,  and  was  conse- 
crated bishop  without  any  determinate 
see.     Upon  this  occasion  he  took  an  oath 
of  obedience,   and  became   ever   after- 
ward a  zealous  upholder  of  the  apostol- 
ical chair.     His  success  in  the  conver- 
sion of  Germany  was  great,  his  reputa- 
tion eminent,  which  enabled  him  to  ef- 
fect a  material  revolution  in  ecclesiasti- 
cal government.     Pelagius  II.  had,  about 
580,  sent  a  pallium,  or  vest  peculiar  to 
netropolitans,  to   the  Bishop  of  Aries, 
perpetual   vicar   of  the   Roman   see   in 
&aul.|     Gregory  I.  had  made  a  similar 
present  to  other  metropolitans.     But  it 
was    never    supposed    that    they   were 
obliged  to  wait  for  this  favour   before 
hey  received  consecration,  until  a  synod 
of  the  French  and  German  bish-  synod  of 
ops,  held  at  Frankfort  in  742  by  Frankfort 
Boniface,  as  legate  of  Pope  Zachary.     It 
was  here   enacted,  that,  as  a  token  of 
heir  willing  subjection  to   the   see   of 
lome,  all  metropolitans  should  request 
he  pallium  at  the  hands  of  the  pope,  and 
)bey  his  lawful  commands. §     This  was 


*  I  refer  to  the  English  historians  for  the  history 
of  Wilfrid,  which  neither  altogether  supports,  nor 
much  impeaches  the  independence,  of  our  Anglo- 
Saxon  church  in  700;  a  matter  hardly  worth  so 
much  contention  as  Usher  and  Stillingfleet  seem  to 
have  thought.  The  consecration  of  Theodore  by 
Pope  Vitalian  in  668  is  a  stronger  fact,  and  cannot 
be  got  over  by  those  injudicious  Protestants,  who 
take  the  bull  by  the  horns. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  i.,  p.  386,  394. 

j  Ut  ad  instar  suum,  in  Galliarum  partibus  primi 
sacerdotis  locum  obtineat,  et  quidquid  ad  guber- 
nationem  vel  dispensationem  ecclesiastic!  status 
gerendum  est,  servatis  patrum  regulis,  et  sedia 
apostolicss  constitutis,  faciat.  Preterea,  pallium 
illi  concedit,  &c. — Dupin,  p.  34.  Gregory  I.  con- 
firmed this  vicariat  to  Virgilius,  bishop  of  Aries, 
and  gave  him  the  power  of  convoking  synods.— De 
Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  7. 

$  Decrevimup,  says  Boniface,  in  noetro  synodali 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


273 


construed  by  the  popes  to  mean  a  prom- 
ise of  obedience  before  receiving  the 
pall,  which  was  changed  in  after  times 
by  Gregory  VII.  into  an  oath  of  fealty.* 

This  council  of  Frankfort  claims  a 
leading  place  as  an  epoch  in  the  history 
of  the  papacy*  Several  events  ensued, 
chiefly  of  a  political  nature,  which  rapid- 
ly elevated  that  usurpation  almost  to  its 
greatest  heightW^ubjects  of  the  throne 
of  Constantinople,  the  popes  had  not  as 
yet  interfered,  unless  by  mere  admoni- 
tion, with  the  temporal  magistrate.  The 
first  instance  wherein  the  civil  duties  of* 
a  nation  and  the  rights  of  a  crown  appear 
to  have  been  submitted  to  his  decision, 
was  in  that  famous  reference  as  to  the 
deposition  of  Childeric.  It  is  impossible 
to  consider  this  in  any  other  light  than  as 
a  point  of  casuistry  laid  before  the  first 
religious  judge  in  the  church.  Certainly 
the  Franks,  who  raised  the  king  of  their 
choice  upon  their  shields,  never  dreamed 
that  a  foreign  priest  had  conferred  upon 
him  the  right  of  governing.  Yet  it  was 
easy  for  succeeding  advocates  of  Rome 
to  construe  this  transaction  very  favour- 
ably for  its  usurpation  over  the  thrones 
of  the  earth.f 

I  shall  but  just  glance  at  the  subsequent 
political  revolutions  of  that  period  :  the 
invasion  of  Italy  by  Pepin,  his  donation 
of  the  exarchate  to  the  Holy  See,  the 
conquest  of  Lombardy  by  Charlemagne, 
the  patriarchate  of  Rome  conferred  upon 
both  these  princes,  and  the  revival  of  the 
Western  Empire  in  the  person  of  the  lat- 

conventu,  et  confessi  sumus  fidem  catholicam,  et 
unitatem  et  subjectionem  Romanae  ecclesiae  fine 
tenus  servare,  S.  Petro  et  vicario  ejus  velle  subjici, 
metropolitanos  pallia  ab  ilia  sede  quaerere,  et,  per 
omnia,  praecepta  S.  Petri  canonic^  sequi. — De 
Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  7.  Schmidt,  t.  i.,  p.  424,  438,  446. 
This  writer  justly  remarks  the  obligation  which 
Rome  had  to  St.  Boniface,  who  anticipated  the 
system  of  Isidore.  We  have  a  letter  from  him  to 
the  English  clergy,  with  a  copy  of  canons  passed 
in  one  of  his  synods,  for  the  exaltation  of  the  apos- 
tolic see,  but  the  church  of  England  was  not  then 
inclined  to  acknowledge  so  great  a  supremacy  in 
Rome. — Collier's  Eccles.  History,  p.  128. 

In  the  eighth  general  C9uncil,  that  of  Constanti- 
nople in  872,  this  prerogative  of  sending  the  pallium 
to  metropolitans  was  not  only  confirmed  to  the 
pope,  but  extended  to  the  other  patriarchs,  who  had 
every  disposition  to  become  as  great  usurpers  as 
their  more  fortunate  elder  brother. 

*  De  Marca,  ubi  supra.  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  262. 
According  to  the  latter,  this  oath  of  fidelity  was 
exacted  in  the  ninth  century ;  which  is  very  prob- 
able, since  Gregory  VII.  himself  did  but  fill  up  the 
sketch  which  Nicholas  I.  and  John  VIII.  had  de- 
lineated. I  have  since  found  this  confirmed  by 
Gratian,  p.  305. 

+  Eginhard  says  that  Pepin  was  made  king  per 
auGtoritatem  Romani  pontificis ;  an  ambiguous  word, 
which  may  rise  to  command,  or  sink  to  advice,  ao 
cording  to  the  disposition  of  the  interpreter. 


ter.  These  events  had  a  natural  tenden- 
cy to  exalt  the  papal  supremacy,  which 
it  is  needless  to  indicate.  But  a  circum- 
stance of  a  very  different  nature  contrib- 
uted to  this  in  a  still  greater  degree. 
About  the  conclusion  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, there  appeared,  under  the  name  of 
one  Isidore,  an  unknown  person,  a  col- 
lection of  ecclesiastical  canons,  now 
commonly  denominated  the  False  False  De- 
Decretals.*  These  purported  to  cretals- 
be  rescripts  or  decrees  of  the  early  bish- 
ops of  Rome ;  and  their  effect  was  to  di- 
minish the  authority  of  metropolitans 
over  their  suffragans,  by  establishing  an 
appellant  jurisdiction  of  the  Roman  See 
in  all  causes,  and  by  forbidding  national 
councils  to  be  holden  without  its  consent. 
Every  bishop,  according  to  the  decretals 
of  Isidore,  was  amenable  only  to  the  im- 
mediate tribunal  of  the  pope ;  by  which 
one  of  the  most  ancient  rights  of  the  pro- 
vincial synod  was  ahrncrgj.pji^  E^ry^aj^- 
cused  person  might  not  only  appeal  Irom 
an  inferior  sentence,  but  remove  an  un- 
finished process  before  the  supreme  pon- 
tiff. And  the  latter,  instead  of  directing 
a  revision  of  the  proceedings  by  the  ori- 
ginal judges,  might  annul  them  by  his  own 
authority ;  a  strain  of  jurisdiction  beyond 
the  canons  of  Sardica,  but  certainly  war- 
ranted by  the  more  recent  practice  of 
Rome.  New  sees  were  not  to  be  erect- 
ed, nor  bishops  translated  from  one  see 
to  another,  nor  their  resignations  accept- 
ed, without  the  sanction  of  the  pope. 
They  were  still  indeed  to  be  consecrated 
by  the  metropolitan,  but  in  the  pope's 
name.  It  has  been  plausibly  suspected 
that  these  decretals  were  forged  by  some 
bishop,  in  jealousy  or  resentment ;  and 
their  general  reception  may  at  least  be 
partly  ascribed  to  such  sentiments.  The 
archbishops  were  exceedingly  powerful, 
and  might  often  abuse  their  superiority 
over  inferior  prelates;  but  the  whole 

*  The  era  of  the  False  Decretals  has  not  been 
precisely  fixed  ;  they  have  seldom  been  supposed, 
however,  to  have  appeared  much  before  800,  But 
there  is  a  genuine  collection  of  canons  published 
by  Adrian  I.,  in  785,  which  contain  nearly  the  same 
principles,  and  many  of  which  are  copied  by  Isi- 
dore, as  well  as  Charlemagne  in  his  capitularies. 
— De  Marca,  1.  vii.,  c.  20.  Giannone,  1.  v.,  c.  6. 
Dupin,  de  Antiqua  Disciplina,  p.  133.  Fleury, 
Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  ix.,  p.  500,  seems  to  consider  the  de- 
cretals as  older  than  this  collection  of  Adrian  ;  but 
I  have  not  observed  the  same  opinion  in  any  other 
writer.  The  right  of  appeal  from  a  sentence  of  the 
metropolitan  deposing  a  bishop  to  the  Holy  See  is 
positively  recognised  in  the  capitularies  of  Louis 
the  Debonair  (Baluze,  p.  1000),  the  three  last 
books  of  which,  according  to  the  collection  of  An- 
segisus,  are  said  to  be  apostolica  auctoritate  robo- 
rata,  quia  his  cudendis  maxime  apoetolica  interfuit 
legatio,  p.  1132. 


274 


EUROPE  DtJRING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII, 


episcopal  aristocracy  had  abundant  rea- 
son to  lament  their  acquiescence  in  a 
system  of  which  the  metropolitans  were 
but  the  earliest  victims.  Upon  these 
spurious  decretals  was  built  the  great 
fabric  of  papal  supremacy  over  the  dif- 
ferent national  churches ;  a  fabric  which 
has  stood  after  its  foundation  crumbled 
beneath  it ;  for  no  one  has  pretended 
to  deny,  for  the  last  two  centuries,  that 
the  imposture  is  too  palpable  for  any  but 
the  most  ignorant  ages  to  credit.* 

The  Gallican  church  made  for  some 
time  a  spirited,  though  unavailing  strug- 
gle, against  this  rising  despotism.  Greg- 
ory IV.,  having  come  into  France  to  abet 
the  children  of  Louis  the  Debonair  in 
Papal  en-  their  rebellion,  and  threatened  to 
mention  excommunicate  the  bishops  who 
the  hie-  adhered  to  the  emperor,  was  re- 
rarchy.  pelled  with  indignation  by  those 
prelates.  If  he  comes  here  to  excommu- 
nicate, said  4hey,  he  shall  depart  hence 
excommunicated.!  In  the  subsequent 
reign  of  Charles  the  Bald,  a  bold  defend- 
f  er  of  ecclesiastical  independence  was 
found  in  Hincmar,  archbishop  of  Rheims, 
the  most  distinguished  statesman  of  his 
age.  Appeals  to  the  pope,  even  by 
ordinary  clerks,  had  become  common, 
and  the  provincial  councils,  hitherto  the 
supreme  spiritual  tribunal  as  well  as 
legislature,  were  falling  rapidly  into  de- 
cay. The  frame  of  church  government, 
which  had  lasted  from  the  third  or  fourth 
century,  was  nearly  dissolved ;  a  refracto- 
ry bishop  was  sure  to  invoke  the  supreme 
court  of  appeal,  and  generally  met  there 
with  a  more  favourable  judicature.  Hinc- 
mar, a  man  equal  in  ambition,  and  almost 
in  public  estimation,  to  any  pontiff,  some- 
times came  off  successfully  in  his  conten- 
tions with  Rome. |  But  time  is  fatal  to 
the  unanimity  of  coalitions  ;  the  French 

*  I  have  not  seen  any  account  of  the  decretals 
so  clear  and  judicious  as  in  Schmidt's  History  of 
Germany,  t.  ii.,  p.  249.  Indeed,  all  the  ecclesiasti- 
cal part  of  that  work  is  executed  in  a  very  superior 
manner.  See  also  De  Marca,  1.  iii.,  c.  5 ;  1.  vii.,  c.  20. 
The  latter  writer,  from  whom  I  have  derived  much 
information,  is  by  no  means  a  strenuous  adversary  of 
ultramontane  pretensions.  In  fact,  it  was  his  ob- 
ject to  please  both  in  France  and  at  Rome,  to  be- 
come both  an  archbishop  and  a  cardinal.  He  failed 
nevertheless  of  the  latter  hope ;  it  being  impossible 
at  that  time  (1650)  to  satisfy  the  papal  court,  with- 
out sacrificing  altogether  the  Gallican  church  and 
the  crown. 

t  De  Marca,  1.  iv.,  c.  11.    Velly,  &c. 

t  De  Marca,  1.  iv.,  c.  68,  &c. ;  1.  vi.,  c.  14,  28 ;  1. 
vii.,  c.  21.  Dupin,  p.  133,  &c.  Hist,  du  Droit  Ec- 
cles.  Fransois,  p.  188,  224.  Velly,  &c.  Hincmar, 
however,  was  not  consistent ;  for,  having  obtained 
the  see  of  Rheims  in  an  equivocal  manner,  he  had 
applied  for  confirmation  at  Rome,  and  in  other  re- 
spects impaired  the  Gallican  rights. — Pasquier,Re- 
cherches  de  la  France,  1.  iii.,  c.  12. 


bishops  were  accessible  to  superstitious 
prejudice,  to  corrupt  influence,  to  mutual 
jealousy.  Above  all,  they  were  con- 
scious that  a  persuasion  of  the  pope's- 
omnipotence  had  taken  hold  of  the  laity. 
Though  ihey  complained  loudly,  and  in- 
voked, like  patriots  of  *  dying  state, 
names  and  principles  of  a  freedom  that 
was  no  more,  they  submitted  almost  in 
every  instance  to  the*  continual  usurpa- 
tions of  the  Holy  See.  One  of  those, 
which  most  annoyed  their  aristocracy, 
was  the  concession  to  monasteries  of 
exemption  from  episcopal  authority. 
These  had  been  very  uncommon  till  about 
the  eighth  century,  after  which  they 
were  studiously  multiplied.*  It  was 
naturally  a  favourite  object  with  the  ab- 
bots ;  and  sovereigns,  in  those  ages  of 
blind  veneration  for  monastic  establish- 
ments, were  pleased  to  see  their  own 
foundations  rendered,  as  it  would  seem, 
more  respectable  by  privileges  of  inde- 
pendence. The  popes  had  a  closer  inter- 
est in  granting  exemptions,  which  at- 
tached to  them  the  regular  clergy,  and 
lowered  the  dignity  of  the  bishops.  In 
the  eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries,  whole 
orders  of  monks  were  declared  exempt  at 
a  single  stroke ;  and  the  abuse  began  to 
awaken  loud  complaints,  though  it  did 
not  fail  to  be  aggravated  afterward. 

The    principles    of    ecclesiastical   su- 
premacy were  readily  applied  by  And  upon 
the  popes  to  support  still  more  civil  gov- 
insolent  usurpations.     Chiefs  by  e«»nents. 
divine  commission  of  the  whole  church, 
every  earthly  sovereign  must  be 
subject  to  their  interference.   The 
bishops  indeed  had,  with  the  common 

*  The  earliest  instance  of  a  papal  exemption  i?, 
in  455,  which  indeed  is  a  respectable  antiquity. 
Others  scarcely  occur  till  the  pontificate  of  Zacha- 
ry,  in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century,  who  granted 
an  exemption  to  Monte  Casino,  ita  ut  nullius  juri 
subjaceat,  nisi  solius  Romani  pontificis.  See  this 
discussion  in  Giannone,  1.  v.,  c.  6.  Precedents  for 
the  exemption  of  monasteries  from  episcopal  juris- 
diction occur  in  Marculfus's  forms,  compiled  to- 
wards the  end  of  the  seventh  century,  but  these 
were  by  royal  authority.  The  kings  of  France 
were  supreme  heads  of  their  national  church. — 
Schmidt,  t.  i.,  p.  382.  De  Marca,  1.  iii.,  c.  16. 
Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit,  t.  i.,  p.  288.,  Murato- 
ri,  Dissert.  70  (t.  iii.,  p.  404,  Italian),  is  of  opinion 
that  exemptions  of  monasteries  from  episcopal  visi- 
tation did  not  become  frequent  in  Italy  till  the  elev- 
enth century ;  and  that  many  charters  of  this  kind 
are  forgeries.  It  is  held  also  by  some  English  an- 
tiquaries, that  no  Anglo-Saxon  monastery  was  ex- 
empt, and  that  the  first  instance  is  that  of  Battle  Ab- 
bey under  the  Conqueror ;  the  charters  of  an  earlier 
date  having  been  forged. — Hody  on  Convocations, 
p.  20  and  170.  It  is  remarkable  that  this  grant  is 
made  by  William,  and  confirmed  by  Lanfranc. — 
Collier,  p.  256.  Exemptions  became  very  usual  in 
England  afterward.— Henry,  vol.  v.,  p.  337. 


CHAP.  VII  ] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


275 


weapons  of  their  order,  kept  their  own 
sovereigns  in  cheeky    and  it  could  not 
seem  any  extraordinary  stretch  in  their 
supreme  head  to  assert  an  equal  preroga- 
tive.    Gregory  IV.,  as  I  have  mentioned, 
became  a  party  in   the  revolt   against 
Louis  I. ;  but  he  never  carried  his  threats 
of  excommunication  into  effect.     The 
first  instance  where  the  Roman  pontiffs 
actually  tried  the  force   of  their  arms 
against  a  sovereign,  was  the  excommuj, 
nication  of  Lothaire,  king  of  Lorraine,  and 
grandson  of  Louis  the  Debonair.     This 
prince  had  repudiated  his  wife  upon  un- 
just pretexts,  but  with  the  approbation 
of  a  national   council,  and   had  subse- 
quently married  his  concubine.     Nicho- 
las I.,  the  actual  pope,  despatched  two  le- 
gates to  investigate  this  business,  and  de- 
cide according  to  the  canons.    They  hold 
a  council  at  Metz,  and  confirm  the  divorce 
and  marriage.     Enraged  at  this  conduct 
of  his  ambassadors,  the  pope  summons 
a  council  at  Rome,  annuls  the  sentence, 
deposes  the  archbishops  of  Treves  and 
Cologne,  and  directs  the  king  to  discard 
his  mistress.     After  some  shuffling  on 
the  part  of  Lothaire,  he  is  excommunica- 
ted ;  and,  in  a  short  time,  we  find  both 
the  king  and  his  prelates,  who  had  begun 
with  expressions  of  passionate  contempt 
towards  the  pope,  suing  humbly  for  abso- 
lution at  the  feet  of  Adrian  II.,  successor 
of  Nicholas,  which  was  not  granted  with- 
out difficulty.     In  all  its  most  impudent 
pretensions,  the  Holy  See  has  attended 
to  the  circumstances  of  the  time.     Lo- 
thaire had  powerful  neighbours,  the  kings 
of  France  and  Germany,  eager  to  invade 
his  dominions  on  the  first  intimation  from 
Rome ;  while  the  real  scandalousness  of 
his  behaviour  must  have  intimidated  his 
conscience,  and  disgusted  his  subjects. 

Excommunication,  whatever  opinions 
Excommu-  may  be  entertained  as  to  its  re-  ^ 
nications.  Hgious  efficacy,  was  originally  | 
nothing  more  in  appearance  than  the  ex- ' 
ercise  of  a  right  which  every  society 
claims,  the  expulsion  of  refractory  mem- 
bers from  its  body.  No  direct  temporal 
disadvantages  attended  this  penalty  for 
several  ages  ;  but,  as  it  was  the  most  se- 
vere of  spiritual  censures,  and  tended  to 
exclude  the  object  of  it  not  only  from  a 
participation  in  religious  rites,  but,  in  a 
considerable  degree,  from  the  intercourse 
of  Christian  society,  it  was  used  spa- 
ringly, and  upon  the  gravest  occasions. 
Gradually,  as  the  church  became  more 
powerful  and  more  imperious,  excommu- 
nications were  issued  upon  every  provo- 
cation, rather  as  a  weapon  of  ecclesias- 
tical warfare  than  with  any  regard  to  its 
S  2 


original  intention.  There  was  certainly 
some  pretext  for  many  of  these  censures, 
as  the  only  means  of  defence  within  the 
reach  of  the  clergy,  when  their  posses- 
sions were  lawlessly  violated.*  Others 
were  founded  upon  the  necessity  of  enfor- 
cing their  contentious  jurisdiction,  which, 
while  it  was  rapidly  extending  itself  over 
almost  all  persons  and  causes,  had  not 
acquired  any  proper  coercive  process, 
The  spiritual  courts  in  England,  whose 
jurisdiction  is  so  multifarious,  and,  in 
general,  so  little  of  a  religious  nature, 
had  till  lately  no  means  even  of  compel- 
ling an  appearance,  much  less  of  enfor- 
cing a  sentence,  but  by  excommunica- 
tion.f  Princes,  who  felt  the  inadequacy 
of  their  own  laws  to  secure  obedience, 
called  in  the  assistance  of  more  formida- 
ble sanctions.  Several  capitularies  of 
Charlemagne  denounce  the  penalty  of 
excommunication  against  incendiaries,  or 
deserters  from  the  army.  Charles  the 
Bald  procured  similar  censures  against 
his  revolted  vassals.  Thus  the  boundary 
between  temporal  and  spiritual  offences 
grew  every  day  less  distinct;  and  the 
clergy  were  encouraged  to  fresh  en- 
croachments, as  they  discovered  the  se- 
cret of  rendering  them  successful. | 

The  civil  magistrate  ought  undoubted- 
ly to  protect  the  just  rights  and  lawful 
jurisdiction  of  the  church.  It  is  not  so 
vident  that  he  should  attach  temporal 
penalties  to  her  censures.  Excommu- 
nication has  never  carried  such  a  pre- 
sumption of  moral  turpitude  as  to  disable 
a  man,  upon  any  solid  principles,  from 
the  usual  privileges  of  society.  Super- 
stition and  tyranny,  however,  decided 
otherwise.  The  support  due  to  church 
censures  by  temporal  judges  is  vaguely 
declared  in  the  capitularies  of  Pepin  and 
Charlemagne.  It  became,  in  later  ages,  ' 
a  more  established  principle  in  France 
and  England,  and,  I  presume,  in  other 
countries.  By  our  common  law,  an  ex- 
communicated person  is  incapable  of  be- 
ing a  witness,  or  of  bringing  an  action  ; 
and  he  may  be  detained  in  prison  until 
he  obtains  absolution.  By  the  establish- 
ments of  St.  Louis,  his  estate  or  person 
might  be  attached  by  the  magistrate. § 


*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  217.  Fleury,  Institutions  au 
Droit,  t.  ii.,  p.  192. 

t  By  a  recent  statute,  53  G.  III.,  c.  127,  the  writ 
De  excoinmunicato  capiendo,  as  a  process  in  con- 
tempt, was  abolished  in  England,  but  retained  in 
Ireland. 

t  Mem.  de  PAcad.  des  Inscript.,  t.  xxxix.,  p.  596, 
&c. 

§  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  121.  But  an 
excommunicated  person  might  sue  in  the  lay, 
though  not  in  the  spiritual,  court.  No  law  eeem» 


276 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


These  actual  penalties  were  attended  by 
marks  of  abhorrence  and  ignominy  still 
more  calculated  to  make  an  impression 
on  ordinary  minds.  They  were  to  be 
Shunned,  like  men  infected  with  leprosy, 
by  tifcic.  servants,  their  friends,  and  their 
families?"SCwo  attendants  only,  if  we 
may  trust  a  "current  history,  remained 
with  Robert,  king  of  France,  who,  on  ac- 
count of  an  irregular  marriage,  was  put 
to  this  ban  by  Gregory  V. ;  and  these 
threw  all  the  meats  which  had  passed  his 
table  into  the  lire.*  Indeed,  the  mere  in- 
tercourse with  a  proscribed  person  incur- 
red what  was  called  the  lesser  excom- 
munication, or  privation  of  the  sacra- 
ments, and  required  penitence  and  abso- 
lution. In  some  places,  a  bier  was  set 
before  the  door  of  an  excommunicated 
individual,  and  stones  thrown  at  his  win- 
dows ;  a  singular  method  of  compelling 
his  submission.!  Everywhere  the  ex- 
communicated were  debarred  of  a  regular 
sepulture,  which,  though  obviously  a  mat- 
ter of  police,  has,  through  the  supersti- 
tion of  consecrating  burial-grounds,  been 
treated  as  belonging  to  ecclesiastical  con- 
trol. Their  carcasses  were  supposed  to 
be  incapable  of  corruption,  which  seems 
to  have  been  thought  a  privilege  unfit  for 
those  who  had  died  in  so  irregular  a  man- 
ner.J 

But   as   excommunication,  which   at- 
tacked only  one  and  perhaps  a 
8'  hardened  sinner,  was  not  always 
efficacious,  the  church  had  recourse  to 
a  more  comprehensive  punishment.     For 
the   offence  of  a  nobleman,  she  put  a 
county,  for  that  of  a  prince,  his  entire 
J  kingdom,  under  an  interdict,  or  suspen- 
\  sion  of  religious  offices.     No  stretch  of 
her  tyranny  was  perhaps  so  outrageous 
as  this.     During  an  interdict,  the  church- 
es were  closed,  the  bells  silent,  the  dead 
unburied,  no  rite  but  those  of  baptism 
and  extreme  unction  performed.     The 
penalty  fell  upon  those  who  had  neither 
partaken  nor  could  have  prevented  the 
offence ;  and  the  offence  was  often  but  a 
private  dispute,  in  which  the  pride  of  a 
pope  or  bishop  had  been  wounded.     In- 
terdicts were  so  rare  before  the  time  of 

to  have  been  so  severe  in  this  respect  as  that  of 
England  ;  though  it  is  not  strictly  accurate  to  say 
with  Dr.  Cosens  (Gibson's  Codex,  p.  1102),  that 
the  writ  De  excommun.  capiendo  is  a  privilege  pe- 
culiar to  the  English  church. 

*  Velly,  t.  ii. 

t  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  hi.  Appendix, 
p.  350.  Du  Cange,  v.  Excommunicatio. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Imblocatus  :  where  several  au- 
thors are  referred  to,  for  the  constant  opinion 
among  the  members  of  the  Greek  church,  that  the 
bodies  of  excommunicated  persons  remain  in  sta- 
tu  quo. 


Gregory  VII.,  that  some  have  referred 
them  to  him  as  their  author;  instances 
may  however  be  found  of  an  earlier  date, 
and  especially  that  which  accompanied 
the  abovementioned  excommunication  of 
Robert,  king  of  France.  They  were  af- 
terward issued  not  unfrequently  against 
kingdoms  ;  but  in  particular  districts  they 
continually  occurred.* 

This  was  the  mainspring  of  the  ma- 
ghinery  that  the  clergy  set  in  motion,  the 
lever  by  which  they  moved  the  world. 
From  the  moment  that  these  interdicts 
and  excommunications  had  been  tried, 
the  powers  of  the  earth  might  be  said  to 
have  existed  only  by  sufferance.  Nor 
was  the  validity  of  such  denunciations 
supposed  to  depend  upon  their  justice. 
The  imposer  indeed  of  an  unjust  excom- 
munication was  guilty  of  a  sin ;  but  the 
party  subjected  to  it  had  no  remedy  but 
submission.  He  who  disregards  such  a 
sentence,  says  Beaumanoir,  renders  his 
good  cause  bad.f  And  indeed,  without 
annexing  so  much  importance  to  the  di- 
re^ct  consequences  of  an  ungrounded  cen- 
sure, it  is  evident  that  the  received  the- 
ory of  religion  concerning  the  indispen- 
sable obligation  and  mysterious  efficacy 
of  the  rites  of  communion  and  confession, 
must  have  induced  scrupulous  minds  to 
make  any  temporal  sacrifice  rather  than 
incur  their  privation.  One  is  rather  sur- 
prised at  the  instances  of  failure,  than 
of  success,  in  the  employment  of  these 
spiritual  weapons  against  sovereigns,  or 
the  laity  in  general.  It  was  perhaps 
a  fortunate  circumstance  for  Europe, 
that  they  were  not  introduced,  upon  a 
large  scale,  during  the  darkest  ages  of 
superstition.  In  the  eighth  or  ninth  cen- 
turies they  would  probably  have  met  with 
a  more  implicit  obedience.  But  after 
Gregory  VII.,  as  the  spirit  of  ecclesi- 
astical usurpation  became  more  violent, 
there  grew  up  by  slow  degrees  an  op- 
posite feeling  in  the  laity,  which  ripened 
into  an  alienation  of  sentiment  from  the 
church,  and  a  conviction  of  that  sacred 
truth,  which  superstition  and  sophistry 
have  endeavoured  to  eradicate  from  the 
heart  of  man,  that  no  tyrannical  govern- 
ment can  be  founded  on  a  divine  commis- 
sion. 

Excommunications  had  very  seldom,  if 
ever,  been  levelled  at  the  head  Further 
of  a  sovereign   before  the  in-  usurpation 
stance  of  Lothaire.     His  igno-  ofthe 
millions  submission,  and  the  gen-  l 


*  Giannone,  1.  vii.,  c.  1.  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  220- 
Dupin,  De  antiqua  Eccl.  Disciplina,  p.  288.  St. 
Marc,  t.  ii.,  p.  535.  Fleury,  Institutions,  t,  ii.,  p. 
200.  fP.261. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


277 


eral  feebleness  of  the  Carlovingian  line 
produced  a  repetition  of  the  menace  a 
least,  and  in  cases  more  evidently  be 
yond  the  cognizance  of  a  spiritual  au 
thority.     Upon  the  death  of  this  Lothaire 
his  uncle,  Charles  the  Bald,  having  pos 
sessed  himself  of  Lorraine,  to  which  the 
Emperor  Louis  II.  had  juster  pretensions 
the  pope,  Adrian  II.,  warned  him  to  desist 
declaring   that  any  attempt   upon   thai 
country  would  bring  down  the  penalty  of 
excommunication.     Sustained  by  the  in- 
trepidity of  Hincmar,  the  king  did  not  ex- 
hibit his  usual  pusillanimity,  and  the  pope 
in  this  instance  failed  of  success.*     But 
John  VIII.,   the  next   occupier  of  the 
chair  of  St.  Peter,  carried  his  pretension 
to  a  height  which  none  of  his  predeces- 
sors  had   reached.      The    Carlovingian 
princes  had  formed  an  alliance  against 
Boson,  the  usurper  of  the  kingdom  of 
Aries.     The  pope  writes  to  Charles  the 
Fat :  I  have  adopted  the  jllusirious_prince 
Boson  as  my  son ;  BcTcontent  therefore 
with  your  own  kingdom ;  for  I  shall  in- 
stantly excommunicate  all  who  attempt 
to  injure  my  son.f     In  another  letter  to 
the  same  king,  who  had  taken  some  prop- 
erty from  a  convent,  he  enjoins  him  to 
restore  it  within  sixty  days,  and  to  cer- 
tify by  £ri  envoy  that  he  had  obeyed  the 
command ;    else    an    excommunication 
would    immediately    ensue,  to    be    fol- 
lowed by  still  severer  castigation,  if  the 
king  'should  not  repent  upon  the   first 
punishment.J    These  expressions  seem 
to  intimate  a  sentence  of  deposition  from 
his  throne,  and  thus  anticipate  by  two 
hundred  years  the  famous  era  of  Grego- 
ry VII.,  at  which  we  shall  soon  arrive. 
In  some  respects,  John  VIII.  even  ad- 
vanced pretensions  beyond  those  of  Greg- 
ory.    He  asserts  very  plainly  a  right  of 
choosing  the   emperor,  and  may  seem 
indirectly  to  have   exercised  it  in  the 
election  of  Charles  the  Bald,  who  had 
not  primogeniture  in  his  favour.  $    This 
prince,  whose  restless  ambition  was  uni- 
ted with  meanness  as  well  as  insincerity, 
consented  to  sign  a  capitulation,  on  his 
coronation   at   Rome,  in  favour  of  the 
pope  and  church,  a  precedent  which  was 
improved    upon    in    subsequent    ages.|| 
Rome  was  now  prepared  to  rivet  her  fet- 
ters upon  sovereigns,  and  at  no  period 
have  the  condition  of  society  and  the 
circumstances  of  civil  government  been 

*  DeMarca,  1.  iv.,  c.  11. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  260. 

i  Durioribus  deinceps  scienste  verberibus  erudi- 
endurn. — Schmidt,  p.  261. 

<j  Baluz.  Capitularia,  t.  ii.,  p.- 251.  Schmidt,  t. 
ii.,  p.  197. 

i!  Id.,  p.  199. 


so  favourable  for  her  ambition.  But  the 
consummation  was  still  sus-  Theirde_ 
pended,  and  even  her  progress  generacy'in 
arrested,  for  more  than  a  him-  the  tcnt& 
dred  and  fifty  years.  This  cemury' 
dreary  interval  is  filled  up,  in  the  annals 
of  the  papacy,  by  a  series  of  revolutions 
and  crimes.  Six  popes  were  deposed, 
two  murdered,  and  one  mutilated.  Fre- 
quently two  or  even  three  competitors, 
among  whom  it  is  not  always  possible  by 
any  genuine  criticism  to  distinguish  the 
true  shepherd,  drove  each  other  alter- 
nately from  the  city.  A  few  respectable 
names  appear  thinly  scattered  through 
this  darkness;  and  sometimes,  perhaps, 
a  pope,  who  had  acquired  estimation  by 
his  private  virtues,  may  be  distinguished 
by  some  encroachment  on  the  rights  of 
princes,  or  the  privileges  of  national 
churches.  But,  in  general,  the  pontiffs  of 
that  age  had  neither  leisure  nor  capacity 
to  perfect  the  great  system  of  temporal 
supremacy,  and  looked  rather  to  a  vile 
profit  from  the  sale  of  episcopal  confirm- 
ations, or  of  exemptions  to  monaster- 
ies.* 

The  corruption  of  the  head  extended 
naturally  to  all  other  members  corruption 
of  the  church.     All  writers  con-  of  morals, 
cur  in  stigmatizing  the  dissoluteness  and 
neglect  of  decency  that  prevailed  among 
,he   clergy.     Though  several  codes  of 
ecclesiastical  discipline  had  been  compi- 
ed  by  particular  prelates,  yet  neither 
hese  nor  the  ancient  canons  were  much 
regarded.   The  bishops,  indeed,  who  were 
to  enforce  them,  had  most  occasion  to 
dread  their  severity.     They  were  obtru- 
ded upon  their  sees,  as  the  supreme  pon- 
iffs  were  upon  that  of  Rome,  by  force  or 
corruption.     A  child  of  five  years  old 
was  made  archbishop  of  Rheims.     The 
see  of  Narbonne  was  purchased  for  an- 
other at  the  age  of  ten.f    By  this  relax- 
Uion  of  morals  the  priesthood  began  to 
ose  its  hold  upon  the  prejudices  of  inan- 
cind.     These  are  nourished  chiefly,  in- 
deed, by  shining  examples  of  piety  and 
irtue,  but  also,  in  a  superstitious  age,  by 
ascetic  observances,  by  the  fasting  and 
matching  of  monks  and  hermits;   who 
lave  obviously  so  bad  a  lot  in  this  life, 
hat  men  are  induced  to  conclude  that 
hey  must  have  secured  a  better  rever- 
fion  in  futurity.     The  regular  clergy,  ac- 
cordingly, or  monastic  orders,  who  prac- 


Schmidt,  t.  ii^p.  414.    Mosheim.     St.  Marc. 
Huratori,  Ann.  d'ltalia,  passim. 

f  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  252.    It 

was  almost  general  in  the  church  to  have  bishops 

nder  twenty  years  old. — Idem,  p.  149.    Even  the 

'ope  Benedict  IX.  is  said  to  have  been  only 

welve,  but  this  has  been  doubted. 


278 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VII. 


tised,  at  least  apparently,  the  specious 
impostures  of  self-mortification,  retained 
at  all  times  a  far  greater  portion  of  re- 
spect than  ordinary  priests,  though  de- 
generated themselves,  as  was  admitted, 
from  their  primitive  strictness. 

Two  crimes,  or  at  least  violations  of 
Neglect  of  ecclesiastical  law,  had  become 
rules  of  almost  universal  in  the  eleventh 
celibacy.  century?  an<}  excited  general  in- 
dignation ;  the  marriage  or  concubinage 
of  priests,  and  the  sale  of  benefices.  By 
an  effect  of  those  prejudices  in  favour  of\ 
austerity  to  which  I  have  just  alluded, 
celibacy  had  been,  from  very  early  times, 
enjoined  as  an  obligation  upon  the  cler- 
gy. Some  of  the  fathers  permitted  those 
already  married  for  the  first  time,  and  to 
a  virgin,  to  retain  their  wives  after  ordi- 
nation, as  a  kind  of  indulgence,  of  which 
it  was  more  laudable  not  to  take  advan- 
tage ;  and  this,  after  prevailing  for  a 
length  of  time  in  the  Greek  church,  was 
sanctioned  by  the  council  of  Trullo  in 
691,*  and  had  ever  since  continued  one 
of  the  distinguishing  features  of  its  dis- 
cipline. The  Latin  church,  however,  did 
not  receive  these  canons ;  and  has  uni- 
formly persevered  in  excluding  the  three 
orders  of  priests,  deacons,  and  subdea- 
cons,  not  only  from  contracting  matri- 
mony, but  from  cohabiting  with  wives 
espoused  before  their  ordination.  The 
prohibition,  however,  during  some  ages, 
existed  only  in  the  letter  of  her  canons. f 
In  every  country,  the  secular  or  parochial 
clergy  kept  women  in  their  houses,  upon 
more  or  less  acknowledged  terms  of  in- 
tercourse, by  a  connivance  of  their  eccle- 
siastical superiors,  which  almost  amount- 
ed to  a  positive  toleration.  The  sons  of 
priests  were  capable  of  inheriting  by  the 
law  of  France  and  also  of  Castile.!  Some 

*  This  council  was  held  at  Constantinople  in 
the  dome  of  the  palace,  calledTrullus,  by  the  Lat- 
ins. The  word  Trullo,  though  soloecistical,  is 
used,  I  believe,  by  ecclesiastical  writers  in  Eng- 
lish.— St.  Marc,  t.  i.,  p.  294.  Art  de  verifier  les 
Dates,  t.  i,,  p.  157.  Fleury,  Hist.  Eceles,,  t.  ix.,  p. 
110.  Bishops  are  not  within  this  permission,  and 
cannot  retain  their  wives  by  the  discipline  of  the 
Greek  church. 

t  This  prohibition  is  sometimes  repeated  in 
Charlemagne's  capitularies;  but  I  have  not  ob- 
served that  he  notices  its  violation  as  a  notorious 
abuse.  It  is  probable,  therefore,  that  the  open  con- 
cubinage or  marriage  of  the  clergy  was  not  general 
until  a  later  period.  And  Fleury  declares,  that  he 
has  found  no  instance  of  it  before  893,  in  the  case 
of  a  parish  priest  at  Chalons,  who  gave  great  scan- 
dal by  publicly  marrying. — Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  xi.,  p. 
594. 

J  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  xi.,  preface.  Mari- 
na, Ensayo  sobre  las  siete  partidas,  c.  221,  223. 
This  was  by  virtue  of  the  general  indulgence 
shown  by  the  customs  of  that  country  to  concubi- 
nage, or  barragania ;  the  children  of  such  a  union 


vigorous  efforts  had  been  made  in  England 
by  Dunstan,  with  the  assistance  of  King 
Edgar,  to  dispossess  the  married  canons, 
if  not  the  parochial  clergy,  of  their  bene- 
fices ;  but  the  abuse,  if  such  it  is  to  be 
considered,  made  incessant  progress,  till 
the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century. 
There  was  certainly  much  reason  for  the 
rulers  of  the  church  to  restore,  this  part 
of  their  discipline,  since  it  is  by  cutting 
off  her  members  from  the  charities  of 
domestic  life  that  she  secures  their  en- 
tire affection  to  her  cause,  and  renders 
them,  like  veteran  soldiers,  independent 
of  every  feeling  but  that  of  fidelity  to 
their  commander,  and  regard  to  the  in- 
terests of  their  body.  Leo  IX.,  accord- 
ingly, one  of  the  first  pontiffs  who  retriev- 
ed the  honour  of  the  apostolic  chair,  after 
its  long  period  of  ignominy,  began  in 
good  earnest  the  difficult  work  of  enfor- 
cing celibacy  among  the  clergy.*  His 
successors  never  lost  sight  of  this  essen- 
tial point  of  discipline.  It  was  a  struggle 
against  the  natural  rights  and  strongest 
affections  of  mankind,  which  lasted  for 
several  ages,  and  succeeded  only  by  the 
toleration  of  greater  evils  than  those  it 
was  intended  to  remove.  The  laity,  in 
general,  took  part  against  the  married 
priests,  who  were  reduced  to  infamy  and 
want,  or  obliged  to  renounce  their  dear- 
est connexions.  In  many  parts  of  Ger- 
many, no  ministers  were  left  to  perform 
divine  services.!  But  perhaps  there  was 
no  country  where  the  rules  of  celibacy 
met  with  so  little  attention  as  in  England. 
It  was  acknowledged,  in  the  reign  of  Hen- 
ry I.,  that  the  greater  and  better  part  of 
the  clergy  were  married  ;  and  that  prince 
is  said  to  have  permitted  them  to  retain 
their  wives. |  But  the  hierarchy  never 


always  inheriting  in  default  of  those  born  in  sol- 
emn wedlock. — Ibid. 

*  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  152,  164,  219,  602,  &c. 

f  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  279.  Martenne,  Thesaurus 
Anecdotorum,  t.  i.,  p.  230.  A  Danish  writer  draws 
a  still  darker  picture  of  the  tyranny  exercised  to- 
wards the  married  clergy,  which,  if  he  does  not  ex- 
aggerate, was  severe  indeed  :  alii  membris  trunca- 
bantur,  alii  occidebantur,  alii  de  patria  expelleban- 
tur,  pauci  sua  retinuere. — Langebek,  Script.  Re- 
rum  Danicarum,  t,  i.,  p.  380.  The  prohibition  was 
repeated  by  Waldemar  II.  in  1222,  so  that  there 
seems  to  have  been  much  difficulty  found. — Idem, 
p.  287  and  p.  272. 

J  Wilkins,  Concilia,  p.  387.  Chronicon  Saxon. 
Collier,  p.  248,  286,  294.  Lyttleton,  vol.  iii.,  p. 
328.  The  third  Lateran  council,  fifty  years  after- 
ward, speaks  of  the  detestable  custom  of  keeping 
concubines,  long  used  by  the  English  clergy.  Cum 
in  Anglia  prava  et  detestabili  consuetudine  et  longo 
tempore  fuerit  obtentum,  ut  clerici  in  domibus  suis 
fornicarias  habeant. — Labbe,  Concilia,  t.  x.,  p, 
1633.  Eugenius  IV.  sent  a  legate  to  impose  celi- 
bacy on  the  Irish  clergy. — Lyttleton's  Henry  II- , 
vol.  ii.,  p.  42. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


279 


relaxed  in  their  efforts ;  and  all  the  coun- 
cils, general  or  provincial,  of  the  twelfth 
century,  utter  denunciations  against  con- 
cubinary  priests.*  After  that  age  we  do 
not  find  them  so  frequently  mentioned 
and  the  abuse  by  degrees,  though  not 
suppressed,  was  reduced  within  limits  at 
which  the  church  might  connive. 
/Simony,  or  the  corrupt  purchase  of 
Vjsimon  spiritual  benefices,  was  the  second 
characteristic  reproach  of  the  cler- 
gy in  the  eleventh  century.  The  meas- 
ures  taken  to  repress  it  deserve  particu- 
lar consideration,  as  they  produced  effects 
of  the  highest  importance  in  the  history 
Episcopal  of  the  middle  ages.  According 
elections.  to  fae  primitive  custom  of  the 
church,  an  episcopal  vacancy  was  filled 
up  by  election  of  the  clergy  and  people 
belonging  to  the  city  or  diocess.  The 
subject  of  their  choice  was,  after  the 
establishment  of  the  federate  or  provin- 
cial system,  to  be  approved  or  rejected 
by  the  metropolitan  and  his  suffragans ; 
and,  if  approved,  he  was  consecrated  by 
them.f  It  is  probable  that,  in  almost 
every  case,  the  clergy  took  a  leading 
part  in  the  selection  of  their  bishops ; 
but  the  consent  of  the  laity  was  abso- 
lutely necessary  to  render  it  valid. J 
They  were,  however,  by  degrees  ex- 
cluded from  any  real  participation,  first 
in  the  Greek,  and  finally  in  the  western 
church.  But  this  was  not  effected  till 
pretty  late  times ;  the  people  fully  pre- 
served their  elective  rights  at  Milan  in 
the  eleventh  century ;  and  traces  of  their 
concurrence  may  be  found  both  in  France 
and  Germany  in  the  next  age.§ 

*  Quidam  sacerdotes  Latini,  says  Innocent  III., 
in  domibus  suis  habent  concubinas,  et  nonnulli  ali- 
quas  sibi  non  metuunt  desponsare. — Opera  Inno- 
cent III.,  p.  558.  See  also  p.  300  and  407.  The 
latter  cannot  be  supposed  a  very  common  case, 
after  so  many  prohibitions ;  the  more  usual  prac- 
tice was  to  keep  a  female  in  their  houses,  under 
some  pretence  of  relationship  or  servitude,  as  is 
still  said  to  be  usual  in  Catholic  countries. — Du 
Cange,  v.  Focaria.  A  writer  of  respectable  au- 
thority asserts,  that  the  clergy  frequently  obtained 
a  bishop's  license  to  cohabit  with  a  mate. — Har- 
mer's  [Wharton's]  Observations  on  Burnet,  p.  11. 
I  find  a  passage  in  Nicholas  de  Clemangis,  about 
1400,  quoted  in  Lewis's  life  of  Pecock,  p.  30.  Pie- 
risque  in  diocesibus,  rectores  parochiarum  ex  certo 
et  conducto  cum  his  praelatis  pretio,  passim  et  pub- 
lice  concubinas  tenent.  This,  however,  does  not 
amount  to  a  direct  license. 

The  marriages  of  English  clergy  are  noticed  and 
condemned  in  some  provincial  constitutions  of 
1237. — Matt.  Paris,  p.  381.  And  there  is,  even  so 
late  as  1404,  a  mandate  by  the  Bishop  of  Exeter 
against  married  priests. — Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  hi., 
p.  277. 

•\  Marca,  De  Concordantia,  &c.,  1.  vi.,  c.  2. 
Father  Paul  on  Benefices,  c.  7. 

<j  De  Marca,  ubi  supi^.    Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  173. 


It  does  not  appear  that  the  early  Chris- 
tian emperors  interposed  with  the  free- 
dom of  choice  any  farther  than  to  make 
their  own  confirmation  necessary  in  the 
great  patriarchal  sees,  such  as  Rome  and 
Constantinople,  which  were  frequently 
the  objects  of  violent  competition,  and  to 
decide  in  controverted  elections.*  The 
Gothic  and  Lombard  kings  of  Italy  fol- 
lowed the  same  line  of  conduct.f  But  in 
the  French  monarchy  a  more  extensive 
authority  was  assumed  by  the  sovereign. 
Though  the  practice  was  subject  to  some 
variation,  it  may  be  said  generally  that 
the  Merovingian  kings,  the  line  of  Char- 
lemagne, and  the  German  emperors  of 
the  house  of  Saxony,  conferred  bishoprics 
either  by  direct  nomination,  or,  as  was 
more  regular,  by  recommendatory  letters 
to  the  electors.^  In  England  also,  before 
the  conquest,  bishops  were  appointed  in 
the  wittenagemot ;  and  even  in  the  reign 
of  William,  it  is  said  that  Lanfranc  was 
raised  to  the  see  of  Canterbury  by  con- 
sent of  parliament. $  But,  independently 
of  this  prerogative,  which  length  of  time 
and  the  tacit  sanction  of  the  people  have 
rendered  unquestionably  legitimate,  the 
sovereign  had  other  means  of  controlling 
the  election  of  a  bishop.  Those  estates 
and  honours  which  compose  the  tempo- 
ralities of  the  see,  and  without  which  the 
naked  spiritual  privileges  would  not  have 
tempted  an  avaricious  generation,  had 


The  form  of  election  of  a  bishop  of  Puy,  in  1053, 
runs  thus  :  clerus,  populus,  et  militia  elegimus. — 
Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.  Appendix,  p. 
220.  Even  Gratian  seems  to  admit  in  one  place 
that  the  laity  had  a  sort  of  share,  though  no  deci- 
sive voice,  in  filling  up  an  episcopal  vacancy. 
Electio  clericorum  est,  petitio  plebis.— Decret.,1.  i., 
distinctio  62,  And  other  subsequent  passages  con- 
irm  this. 

*  Gibbon,  c.  20.  St.  Marc,  Abrege  Chronolo- 
gique,  t.  i.,  p.  7. 

t  Fra  Paolo  on  Benefices,  c.  ix.  Giannone,  1. 
ii.,  c.  6 ;  1.  iv.,  c.  12.  St.  Marc,  t.  i.,  p.  37. 

J  Schmidt,  t.  i.,  p.  386;  t.  ii.,  p.  245,  487.  This 
nterference  of  the  kings  was  perhaps  not  quite 
lonformable  to  their  own  laws,  wnich  only  reserved 
o  them  the  confirmation.  Episcopo  decedente, 
ays  a  constitution  of  Clotaire  II.  in  615,  in  loco 
psius,  qui  a  metropolitario  ordinari  debet,  a  provin- 
:ialibus,  a  clero  et  populo  eligatur  :  et  si  persona 
ondigna  fuerit,  per  ordinationem  principis  ordine- 
ur. — Baluz.  Capitul.,  t.  i.,  p.  21.  Charlemagne  is 
aid  to  have  adhered  to  this  limitation,  leaving 
Sections  free,  and  only  approving  the  person,  and 
onferring  investiture  on  him. — F.  Paul,  on  Bene- 
ices,  c.  xv.  But  a  more  direct  influence  was  re- 
tored  afterward.  Ivon,  bishop  of  Chartres,  about 
he  year  1100,  thus  concisely  expresses  the  several 
iarties  concurring  in  the  creation  of  a  bishop  :  eli- 
;ente  clero,  suffragante  populo,  dono  regis,  per 
nanum  metropolitan!,  approbante  Romano  ponti- 
fice. — Du  Chesne,  Script.  Rerum  Gallicarum,  t.  iv., 
.174. 

§  Lyttleton's  Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  144, 


280 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


chiefly  been  granted  by  former  kings, 
and  were  assimilated  to  lands  held  on  a 
beneficiary  tenure.  As  they  seemed  to 
partake  of  the  nature  of  fiefs,  they  re- 
quired similar  formalities;  in- 

Investitures.  vestiture   by   the    lord?    and   an 

oath  of  fealty  by  the  tenant.  Charle- 
magne  is  said  to  have  introdueeUTEis 
practice ;  and,  by  way  of  visible  symbol, 
as  usual  in  feudal  institutions,  to  have 
put  the  ring:  and  crosier  into  the  hands  of 
the  newly-consecrated  bishop.  And  this 
continued  for  more  than  two  centuries 
afterward  without  exciting  any  scandal 
or  resistance.* 

The  church  has  undoubtedly  surren- 
dered part  of  her  independence  in  return 
for  ample  endowments  and  temporal 
power ;  nor  could  any  claim  be  more  rea- 
sonable than  that  of  feudal  superiors  to 
grant  the  investiture  of  dependant  fiefs. 
But  the  fairest  right  may  be  sullied  by 
abuse  ;  and  the  sovereigns,  the  lay-pa- 
trons, the  prelates  of  the  tenth  and  elev- 
enth centuries,  made  their  powers  of 
nomination  and  investiture  subservient 
to  the  grossest  rapacity. f  According  to 
the  ancient  canons,  a  benifice  was  avoid- 
ed by  any  simoniacal  payment  or  stipu- 
lation. If  these  were  to  be  enforced,  the 
church  must  almost  be  cleared  of  its  min- 
isters. Either  through  bribery  in  places 
where  elections  still  prevailed,  or  through 
corrupt  agreements  with  princes,  or,  at 
least,  customary  presents  to  their  wives 
and  ministers,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
bishops  had  no  valid  tenure  in  their  sees. 
The  case  was  perhaps  worse  with  inferior 
clerks ;  in  the  church  of  Milan,  which  was 
notorious  for  this  corruption,  not  a  single 
ecclesiastic  could  stand  the  test,  the  arch- 
bishop exacting  a  price  for  the  collation 
of  every  benefice. :£ 

The  bishops  of  Rome,  like  those  of  in- 
im  eriai  ^TIOT  sees>  were  regularly  elected 
confirm-  by  the  citizens,  laymen  as  well  as 
ationof  ecclesiastics.  But  their  conse- 
popes.  cration  was  deferred  until  the 
popular  choice  had  received  the  sov- 
ereign's sanction.  The  Romans  regu- 
larly despatched  letters  to  Constanti- 
nople or  to  the  exarchs  of  Ravenna, 

*  De  Marca,  p.  416.    Giannone,  1.  vi.,  c.  7. 

t  Boniface,  marquis  of  Tuscany,  father  of  the 
Countess  Matilda,  and  by  far  the  greatest  prince  in 
Italy,  was  flogged  before  the  altar  by  an  abbot  for 
selling  benefices. — Muratori,  ad  ann.  1046.  The 
offence  was  much  more  common  than  the  punish- 
ment, but  the  two  combined  furnish  a  good  speci- 
men of  the  eleventh  century. 

t  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  65,  188,  219,  296,  230,  568. 
Muratori,  A.  D.  958,  1057,  &c.  Fleury,  Hist.  Ec- 
cles.,  t.  xiii.,  p.  73.  The  sum,  however,  appears  to 
have  been  very  small:  rather  like  a  fee  than  a 
bribe. 


praying  that  their  election  of  a  pope 
might  be  confirmed.  Exceptions,  if  any, 
are  infrequent  while  Rome  was  subject 
to  the  eastern  empire.*  This,  among 
other  imperial  prerogatives,  Charlemagne 
might  consider  as  his  own.  He  posses- 
sed the  city,  especially  after  his  corona- 
tion as  emperor,  in  full  sovereignty ;  and, 
even  before  that  event,  had  investigated, 
as  supreme  chief,  some  accusations  pre- 
ferred against  the  Pope  Leo  III.  No  va- 
cancy of  the  papacy  took  place  after 
Charlemagne  became  emperor;  and  it 
must  be  confessed,  that,  in  the  first  which 
happened  under  Louis  the  Debonair,  Ste- 
phen IV.  was  consecrated  in  haste  without 
that  prince's  approbation.!  But  Gregory 
IV.,  his  successor,  waited  till  his  elec- 
tion had  been  confirmed;  and,  upon 
the  whole,  the  Carlovingian  emperors, 
though  less  uniformly  than  their  pred- 
ecessors, retained  that  mark  of  sov- 
ereignty. |  But  during  the  disorderly 
state  of  Italy  which  followed  the  last 
reigns  of  Charlemagne's  posterity,  while 
the  sovereignty  and  even  the  name  of  an 
emperor  were  in  abeyance,  the  supreme 
dignity  of  Christendom  was  conferred 
only  by  the  factious  rabble  of  its  capital. 
Otho  the  Great,  in  receiving  the  imperial 
crown,  took  upon  him  the  prerogatives 
of  Charlemagne.  There  is  even  extant  a 
decree  of  Leo  VIII.,  which  grants  to  him 
and  his  successors  the  right  of  naming 
future  popes.  But  the  authenticity  of 
this  instrument  is  denied  by  the  Italians. § 
It  does  not  appear  that  the  Saxon  em- 
perors went  to  such  a  length  as  nomina- 
tion, except  in  one  instance  (that  of 
Gregory  V.  in  996) ;  but  they  sometimes, 
not  uniformly,  confirmed  the  election  of 
a  pope,  according  to  ancient  custom. 
An  explicit  right  of  nomination  was  how- 
ever conceded  to  the  Emperor  Henry  III. 
in  1047,  as  the  only  means  of  rescuing 
the  Roman  church  from  the  disgrace  and 
depravity  into  which  it  had  fallen.  Henry 


*  Le  Blanc,  Dissertation  sur  1'Autorite  des  Em- 
pereurs.  This  is  subjoined  to  his  Traite  des 
Monnoyes;  but  not  in  all  copies,  which  makes 
those  that  want  it  less  valuable. — St.  Marc  and 
Muratori,  passim. 

t  Muratori,  A.  D.  817.     St.  Marc. 

t  Le  Blanc.  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  186.  St.  Marc,  t. 
i.,  p.  387,  393,  &c.  , 

§  St.  Marc  had  defended  the  authenticity  of  this 
instrument  in  a  separate  dissertation,  t.  iv.,  p.  1167, 
though  admitting  some  interpolations.  Pagi  in 
Baronium,  t.  iv.,  p.  8,  seemed  to  me  to  have  urged 
some  weighty  objections ;  and  Muratori,  Annali 
d'ltalia,  A.  D.  962,  speaks  of  it  as  a  gross  impos- 
ture, in  which  he  probably  goes  too  far.  It  obtain- 
ed credit  rather  early,  and  is  admitted  into  the  de- 
cretum  of  Gratian,  notwithstanding  its  obvious 
tendency,  p.  211,  edit.  1591. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER, 


281 


appointed  two  or  three  very  good  popes : 
acting  in  this  against  the  warnings  of  a 
selfish  policy,  as  fatal  experience  soon 
proved  to  his  family.* 

This  high  prerogative  was  perhaps  not 
designed  to  extend  beyond  Henry  him- 
self. But,  even  if  it  had  been  transmis- 
sible to  his  successors,  the  infancy  of  his 
son  Henry  IV.,  and  the  factions  of  that 
minority,  precluded  the  possibility  of  its 
Decree  of  exercise.  Nicolas  II.,  in  1059, 
Nicolas  published  a  decree,  which  resto- 
red the— rrgtrT"of  election  to"  the 
Romans,  but  with  a  remarkable  varia- 
tion from  the  original  form.  The  car- 
dinal bishops  (seven  in  number,  holding 
sees  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome,  and 
consequently  suffragans  of  the  pope  as 
patriarch  or  metropolitan)  were  to  choose 
the  supreme  pontiff,  with  the  concur- 
rence first  of  the  cardinal  priests  and 
deacons  (or  ministers  of  the  parish 
churches  of  Rome),  and  afterward  of 
the  laity.  Thus  elected,  the  new  pope 
was  to  be  presented  for  confirmation  to 
Henry,  "  now  king  and  hereafter  to  be- 
come emperor,"  and  to  such  of  his  suc- 
cessors as  should  personally  obtain  that 
privilege.!  This  decree  is  the  founda- 
tion of  that  celebrated  mode  of  election 
in  a  conclave  of  cardinals,  which  has  ever 
since  determined  the  headship  of  the 
church.  It  was  intended  not  only  to  ex- 
clude the  citizens,  who  had  indeed  justly 
forfeited  their  primitive  right,  but  as  far 
as  possible  to  prepare  the  way  for  an  ab- 
solute emancipation  of  the  papacy  from 
the  imperial  control;  reserving  only  a 
precarious  and  personal  concession  to 
the  emperors,  instead  of  their  ancient 
legal  prerogative  of  confirmation. 

The  real  author  of  this  decree,  and 
Gregory  of  all  other  vigorous  measures 
vii.  JOTS,  adopted  by  the  popes  of  that 
age,  whether  for  the  assertion  of  their 
independence,  or  the  restoration  of  dis- 
cipline, was  Hildebrand,  archdeacon  of 
the  church  of  Rome,  by  far  the  most 
conspicuous  person  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury. Acquiring  by  his  extraordinary 
qualities  an  unbounded  ascendency  over 
the  Italian  clergy,  they  regarded  him  as 
their  chosen  leader,  and  the  hope  of  their 
common  cause.  He  had  been  empower- 
ed singly  to  nominate  a  pope,  on  the  part 
of  the  Romans,|  after  the  death  of  Leo 
IX.,  and  compelled  Henry  III.  to  acqui- 

*  St.  Marc.    Muratori.     Schmidt .    Struvius. 

t  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  276.  The  first  canon  of  the 
third  Lateran  council  makes  the  consent  of  two 
thirds  of  the  college  necessary  for  a  pope's  elec- 
tion.—Labb6,  Concilia,  t.  x.,  p.  1508. 

t  St.  Marc,  p.  97. 


esce  in  his  choice  of  Victor  II.  No 
man  could  proceed  more  fearlessly  to-* 
wards  his  object  than  Hildebrand,  nor 
with  less  attention  to  TeetteetenTTous  im- 
pediments. Though  the  decree  of  Nic- 
olas II.,  his  own  work,  had  expressly 
reserved  the  right  of  confirmation  of  the 
young  King  of  Germany,  yet,  on  the  death 
of  that  pope,  Hildebrand  procured  the 
election  and  consecration  of  Alexander 
II.  without  waiting  for  any  authority.* 
During  this  pontificate  he  was  considered 
as  something  greater  than  the  pope,  who 
acted  entirely  by  his  counsels.  On  Alex- 
ander's decease,  Hildebrand,  long  since 
the  real  head  of  the  church,  was  raised 
with  enthusiasm  to  its  chief  dignity,  and 
assumed  the  name  of  Gregory  VII. 

Notwithstanding  the  late  precedent  at 
the  election  of  Alexander  II.,  it  Hig  differ. 
appears  that  Gregory  did  not  yet  ences  with 
consider  his  plans  sufficiently  Henry  iv. 
mature  to  throw  off  the  yoke  altogether, 
but  declined  to  receive  consecration  un- 
til he  had  obtained  the  consent  of  the 
King  of  Germany. f  This  moderation 
was  not  of  long  continuance.  The  situa- 
tion of  Germany  speedily  afforded  him 
an  opportunity  of  displaying  his  ambitious 
views.  Henry  IV.,  through  a  very  bad 
education,  was  arbitrary  ajid  dissotete  ; 
the  Saxons  were  engaged  fn  a  desperate 
rebellion ;  and  secret  disaffection  had 
spread  among  the  princes  to  an  extent 
of  which  the  pope  was  much  better  aware 
than  the  king.J  He  began  by  excommu- 
nicating some  of  Henry's  ministers  on 
pretence  of  simony,  and  made  it  a  ground 
of  remonstrance  that  they  were  not  in- 
stantly dismissed.  His  next  step  was  to 
publish  a  decree,  or  rather  to  renew  one 
of  Alexander  II.,  against  lay  investitures. § 
The  abolition  of  these  was  a  favourite  ob- 
ject of  Gregory,  and  formed  an  essential 
part  of  his  general  scheme  for  emancipa- 
ting the  spiritual,  and  subjugating  the 
temporal  power.  The  ring  and  crosier, 
it  was  asserted  by  the  papal  advocates, 
were  the  emblems  of  that  power  which 
no  monarch  could  bestow;  but  even  if  a 
less  offensive  symbol  were  adopted  in 
investitures,  the  dignity  of  the  church 
was  lowered,  and  her  purity  contamina- 
ted, when  her  highest  ministers  were 
compelled  to  solicit  the  patronage  or 
the  approbation  of  laymen.  Though  the 


*  St.  Marc,  p.  306. 

t  Ibid.,  p.  552.  He  acted  however  as  pope,  cor- 
responding in  that  character  with  bishops  of  all 
countries,  from  the  day  of  his  election,  p.  554. 

t  Schmidt.  St.  Marc.  These  two  are  my  prin- 
cipal authorities  for  the  contest  between  the  church, 
and  the  empire. 

$  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  670. 


282 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


estates  of  bishops  might  strictly  be  of 
temporal  right,  yet,  as  they  had  been  in- 
separably annexed  to  their  spiritual  of- 
fice, it  became  just  that  what  was  first  in 
dignity  and  importance  should  carry  with 
it  those  accessory  parts.  And  this  was 
more  necessary  than  in  former  times,  on 
account  of  the  notorious  traffic  which 
sovereigns  made  of  their  usurped  nomi- 
nation to  benefices,  so  that  scarcely  any 
prelate  sat  by  their  favour  whose  pos- 
session was  not  invalidated  by  simony. 

The  contest  about  investitures,  though 
begun  by  Gregory  VII.,  did  not  occupy  a 
very  prominent  place  during  his  pontifi- 
cate ;  its  interest  being  suspended  by 
other  more  extraordinary  and  important 
dissensions  between  the  church  and  em- 
pire. The  pope,  after  tampering  some 
time  with  the  disaffected  party  in  Ger- 
many, summoned  Henry  to  appear  at 
Rome,  and  vindicate  himself  from  the 
charges  alleged  by  his  subjects.  Such 
an  outrage  naturally  exasperated  a  young 
and  passionate  monarch.  Assembling  a 
number  of  bishops  and  other  vassals  at 
Worms,  he  procured  a  sentence  that 
Gregory  should  no  longer  be  obeyed  as 
lawful  pope.  But  the  time  was  past  for 
those  arbitrary  encroachments,  or  at  least 
high  prerogatives  of  former  emperors. 
The  relations  of  dependance  between 
church  and  state  were  now  about  to  be 
reversed.  Gregory  had  no  sooner  re- 
ceived accounts  of  the  proceedings  at 
Worms,  than  he  summoned  a  council  in 
the  Lateran  palace,  and,  by  a  solemn  sen- 
tence, not  only  excommunicated  Henry, 
but  deprived  him  of  the  kingdoms  of  Ger- 
many and  Italy,  releasing  his  subjects 
from  their  allegiance,  and  forbidding  them 
to  obey  him  as  sovereign.  Thus  Grego- 
ry VII.  obtained  the  glory  of  leaving  all 
his  predecessors  behind,  and  astonishing 
mankind  by  an  act  of  audacity  and  ambi- 
tion which  the  most  emulous  of  his  suc- 
cessors could  hardly  surpass.* 

*  The  sentence  of  Gregory  VII.  against  the  Em- 
peror Henry  was  directed,  we  should  always  re- 
member, to  persons  already  well  disposed  to  reject 
his  authority.  Men  are  glad  to  be  told  that  it  is 
their  duty  to  resist  a  sovereign  against  whom  they 
are  in  rebellion,  and  will  not  be  very  scrupulous  in 
examining  conclusions  which  fall  in  with  their  in- 
clinations and  interests.  Allegiance  was  in  those 
turbulent  ages  easily  thrown  off,  and  the  right  of 
resistance  was  in  continual  exercise.  To  the  Ger- 
mans of  the  eleventh  century,  a  prince  unfit  for 
Christian  communion  would  easily  appear  unfit  to 
reign  over  them  ;  and  though  Henry  had  not  given 
much  real  provocation  to  the  pope,  his  vices  and 
tyranny  might  seem  to  challenge  any  spiritual  cen- 
sure, or  temporal  chastisement.  A  nearly  contem- 
porary writer  combines  the  two  justifications  of 
the  rebellious  party.  Nemo  Romanorum  pontifi- 


The  first  impulses  of  Henry's  mind  on 
hearing  this  denunciation  were  indigna- 
tion and  resentment.  But,  like  other  in- 
experienced and  misguided  sovereigns, 
he  had  formed  an  erroneous  calculation 
of  his  own  resources.  A  conspiracy  long 
prepared,  of  which  the  dukes  of  Svvabia 
and  Carinthia  were  the  chiefs,  began  to 
manifest  itself;  some  were  alienated  by 
his  vices,  and  others  jealous  of  his  fami- 
ly ;  the  rebellious  Saxons  took  courage ; 
the  bishops,  intimidated  by  excommuni- 
cations, withdrew  from  his  side ;  and  he  .? 
suddenly  found  himself  almost  insulated  "", 
in  the  midst  of  his  dominions.  In  this- 
desertion  he  had  recourse,  through  panic, 
to  a  miserable  expedient.  He  crossed 
the  Alps  with  the  avowed  determination 
of  submitting,  and  seeking  absolution  from 
the  pope.  Gregory  was  at  Canossa,  a 
fortress  near  Reggio,  belonging  to  his 
faithful  adherent,  the  Countess  Matilda. 
[A.  D.  1077.]  It  was  in  a  winter  of  un- 
usual severity.  The  emperor  was  ad- 
mitted, without  his  guards,  into  an  outer 
court  of  the  castle,  and  three  successive 
days  remained  from  morning  till  evening, 
in  a  woollen  shirt  and  with  naked  feet, 
while  Gregory,  shut  up  with  the  countess, 
refused  to  admit  him  to  his  presence. 
On  the  fourth  day  he  obtained  absolution  ; 
but  only  upon  condition  of  appearing  on 
a  certain  day  to  learn  the  pope's  decis- 
ion, whether  or  no  he  should  be  restored 
to  his  kingdom,  until  which  time  he 
promised  not  to  assume  the  ensigns  of 
royalty. 

This  base  humiliation,  instead  of  con- 
ciliating Henry's  adversaries,  forfeited  the 
attachment  of  his  friends.  In  his  contest 
with  the  pope,  he  had  found  a  zealous 
support  in  the  principal  Lombard  cities, 
among  whom  the  married  and  simoniacal 
clergy  had  great  influence.*  Indignant 


cem  reges  a  regno  deponere  posse  denegabit,  qui- 
cunque  decreta  sanctissimi  Papae  Gregorii  non 
proscribenda  judicabit.  Ipse  enim  vir  apostolicus 
.  .  .  .  Pneterea,  liberi  homines  Henricum  eo  pacto 
sibi  praeposuerunt  in  regem,  ut  electores  suos  juste 
judicare  et  regali  providentia  gubernare  satageret, 
quod  pactum  ille  postea  praevaricari  et  contem- 
nere  non  cessavit,  &c.  Ergo,  et  absque  sedis 
apostolicae  judicio  principes  eum  pro  rege  merito 
refutare  possent,  cum  pactum  adimplere  contem- 
serit,  quod  iis  pro  electione  sua  promiserat ;  quo 
non  adimpleto,  nee  rex  esse  poterat. — Vita  Greg. 
VII.  in  Muratori,  Script.  Rer.  ItaL,  t.  iii.,  p.  342. 

Upon  the  other  hand,  the  friends  and  supporters 
of  Henry,  though  ecclesiastics,  protested  against 
this  novel  stretch  of  prerogative  in  the  Roman  see. 
Several  proofs  of  this  are  adduced  by  Schmidt,  t. 
iii.,  p.  315. 

*  There  had  been  a  kind  of  civil  war  at  Milan 
for  about  twenty  years  before  this  time,  excited  by 
the  intemperate  zeal  of  some  partisans  who  en- 
deavoured to  execute  the  papal  decrees  against  ir- 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


283 


at  his  submission  to  Gregory,  whom  they 
affected  to  consider  as  a  usurper  of  the 
papal  chair,  they  now  closed  their  gates 
against  the  emperor,  and  spoke  openly 
of  deposing  him.  In  this  singular  posi- 
tion between  opposite  dangers,  Henry 
retrod  his  late  steps,  and  broke  off  his 
treaty  with  the  pope;  preferring,  if  he 
must  fall,  to  fall  as  the  defender  rather 
than  the  betrayer  of  his  imperial  rights. 
The  rebellious  princes  of  Germany  chose 
another  king,  Rodolph,  duke  of  Swabia, 
on  whom  Gregory,  after  some  delay,  be- 
stowed the  crown,  with  a  Latin  verse, 
importing  that  it  was  given  by  virtue  of 
the  original  commission  of  St.  Peter.* 
But  the  success  of  this  pontiff  in  his 
immediate  designs  was  not  answerable 
to  his  intrepidity.  Henry  both  subdued 
the  German  rebellion,  and  carried  on  the 
war  with  so  much  vigour,  or  rather  so 
little  resistance,  in  Italy,  that  he  was 
crowned  in  Rome  by  the  antipope  Gui- 
bert,  whom  he  had  raised  in  a  council  of 
his  partisans  to  the  government  of  the 
church  instead  of  Gregory.  The  latter 
found  an  asylum  under  the  protection  of 
Roger  Guiscard  at  Salerno,  where  he 
Dispute  died  an  exile.  His  mantle,  how- 
aboutin-  ever,  descended  upon  his  suc- 
vestitures.  cessorSj  especially  Urban  II.  and 
Paschal  II.,  who  strenuously  persevered 
in  the  great  contest  for  ecclesiastical  in- 
dependence ;  the  former  with  a  spirit  and 
policy  worthy  of  Gregory  VII.,  the  latter 
with  steady  but  disinterested  prejudice. f 

regular  clerks  by  force.  The  history  of  these  feuds 
has  been  written  by  two  contemporaries,  Arnulf 
and  Landulf,  published  in  the  fourth  volume  of 
Muratori's  Scriptores  Rerum  Italicarum;  suffi- 
cient extracts  from  which  will  be  found  in  St. 
Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  230,  dec.,  and  in  Muratori's  Annals. 
The  Milanese  clergy  set  up  a  pretence  to  retain 
wives,  under  the  authority  of  their  great  archbishop, 
St.  Ambrose,  who,  it  seems,  has  spoken  with  more 
indulgence  of  this  practice  than  most  of  the  fa- 
thers. Both  Arnulf  and  Landulf  favour  the  mar- 
ried clerks ;  and  were  perhaps  themselves  of  that 
description.— Muratori. 

Petra  dedit  Petro,  Petrus  diadema  Rodolpho. 
f  Paschal  II.  was  so  conscientious  in  his  abhor- 
rence of  investitures,  that  he  actually  signed  an 
agreement  with  Henry  V.,  in  1110,  whereby  the 
prelates  were  to  resign  all  the  lands  and  other 
possessions  which  they  held  in  fief  of  the  em- 
peror, on  condition  of  the  latter  renouncing  the 
right  of  investiture,  which  indeed,  in  such  circum- 
stances, would  fall  of  itself.  This  extraordinary 
concession,  as  may  be  imagined,  was  not  very  sat- 
isfactory to  the  cardinals  and  bishops  about  Pas- 
chaPs  court,  more  worldly-minded  than  himself, 
nor  to  those  of  the  emperor's  party,  whose  joint 
clamours  soon  put  a  stop  to  the  treaty. — St.  Marc, 
t.  iv.,  p.  976.  A  letter  of  Paschal  to  Anselm 
(Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  304),  seems  to  imply  that  he 
thought  it  better  for  the  church  to  be  without  riches, 
than  to  enjoy  them  on  condition  of  doing  homage 
to  laymen. 


They  raised  up  enemies  against  Henry 
IV.  out  of  the  bosom  of  his  family,  insti- 
gating the  ambition  of  two  of  his  sons 
successively,  Conrad  and  Henry,  to  min- 
gle 'in  the  revolts  of  Germany.  But 
Rome,  under  whose  auspices  the  latter 
had  not  scrupled  to  engage  in  an  almost 
parricidal  rebellion,  was  soon  disappoint- 
ed by  his  unexpected  tenaciousness  of 
that  obnoxious  prerogative  which  had 
occasioned  so  much  of  his  father's  mis- 
ery. He  steadily  refused  to  part  with 
the  right  of  investiture  ;  and  the  empire 
was  still  committed  in  open  hostility  with 
the  church  for  fifteen  years  of  his  reign. 
But  Henry  V.  being  stronger  in  the  sup- 
port of  his  German  vassals  than  his  father 
had  been,  none  of  the  popes  with  whom 
he  was  engaged  had  the  boldness  to  re- 
peat the  measures  of  Gregory  VII.  [A. 
D.  1122.]  At  length,  each  party 
grown  weary  of  this  ruinous  tiSty 
contention,  a  treaty  was  agreed  concordat 
upon  between  the  emperor  and  ofCallxtus 
Calixtus  II.,  which  put  an  end  by  com- 
promise to  the  question  of  ecclesiastical 
investitures.  By  this  compact,  the  em- 
peror resigned  for  ever  all  pretence  to 
invest  bishops  by  the  ring  and  crosier, 
and  recognised  the  liberty  of  elections. 
But,  in  return,  it  was  agreed  that  elec- 
tions should  be  made  in  his  presence  or 
that  of  his  officers;  and  that  the  new 
bishop  should  receive  his  temporalities 
from  the  emperor  by  the  sceptre.* 

Both  parties  in  the  concordat  at  Worms 
receded  from  so  much  of  their  preten- 
sions, that  we  might  almost  hesitate  to 
determine  which  is  to  be  considered  as 
victorious.  On  the  one  hand,  in  resto- 
ring the  freedom  of  episcopal  elections, 
the  emperors  lost  a  prerogative  of  very 
long  standing,  and  almost  necessary  to 
the  maintenance  of  authority  over  not 
the  least  turbulent  part  of  their  subjects. 
And  though  the  form  of  investiture  by 
the  ring  and  crosier  seemed  in  itself  of 
no  importance,  yet  it  had  been  in  effect 
a  collateral  security  against  the  election 
of  obnoxious  persons.  For  the  empe- 
rors, detaining  this  necessary  part  of  the 
pontificals  until  they  should  confer  inves- 
titure, prevented  a  hasty  consecration  of 
the  new  bishop,  after  which,  the  vacancy 
being  legally  filled,  it  would  not  be  decent 
for  them  to  withhold  the  temporalities. 
But  then,  on  the  other  hand,  they  pre- 
served by  the  concordat  their  feudal  sov- 
ereignty over  the  estates  of  the  church, 
in  defiance  of  the  language  which  had 
recently  been  held  by  its  rulers.  Greg- 

*  St.  Marc,  t.  iv.,  p.  1093.  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p. 
178.  The  latter  quotes  the  Latin  words. 


284 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VII. 


ory  VII.  had  positively  declared,  in  the 
Lateran  council  of  1080,  that  a  bishop  or 
abbot  receiving  investiture  from  a  lay- 
man should  not  be  reckoned  as  a  prelate.* 
The  same  doctrine  had  been  maintained 
by  all  his  successors,  without  any  limita- 
tion of  their  censures  to  the  formality  of 
the  ring  and  crosier.  But  Calixtus  II. 
himself  had  gone  much  farther,  and  ab- 
solutely prohibited  the  compelling  eccle- 
siastics to  render  any  service  to  laymen 
on  account  of  their  benefices. f  It  is  evi- 
dent, that  such  a  general  immunity  from 
feudal  obligations  for  an  order  who  pos- 
sessed nearly  half  the  lands  in  Europe, 
struck  at  the  root  of  those  institutions 
by  which  the  fabric  of  society  was  prin- 
cipally held  together.  This  complete  in- 
dependence had  been  the  aim  of  Grego- 
ry's disciples ;  and,  by  yielding  to  the 
continuance  of  lay  investitures  in  any 
shape,  Calixtus  may,  in  this  point  of 
view,  appear  to  have  relinquished  the 
principal  object  of  contention.  But  as 
there  have  been  battles,  in  which  though 
immediate  success  may  seem  pretty 
equally  balanced,  yet  we  learn  from 
subsequent  effects  to  whom  the  intrinsic 
advantages  of  victory  belonged,  so  it  is 
manifest  from  the  events  that  followed 
the  settlement  of  this  great  controversy 
about  investitures^  that  the  see  of  Rome 
had  conquered. 

The  emperors  were  not  the  only  sov- 
*  ereigns  whose  practice  of  investiture  ex- 
cited the  hostility  of  Rome,  although  they 
sustained  the  principal  brunt  of  the  war. 
A  similar  contest  broke  out  under  the 
pontificate  of  Paschal  II.  with  Henry  I. 
of  England ;  for  the  circumstances  of 
which,  as  they  contain  nothing  peculiar, 
I  refer  to  our  own  historians.  It  is  re- 
markable, that  it  ended  in  a  compromise 
not  unlike  that  adjusted  at  Worms ;  the 
king  renouncing  all  sort  of  investitures, 
while  the  pope  consented  that  the  bishop 
should  do  homage  for  his  temporalities. 
This  was  exactly  the  custom  of  France, 
where  investiture  by  the  ring  and  cro- 
sier is  said  not  to  have  prevailed  ;J  and 
it  answered  the  main  end  of  sovereigns 
by  keeping  up  the  feudal  dependance  of 
ecclesiastical  estates.  But  the  kings  of 

*  St.  Marc,  t.  iv.,  p.  774.  A  bishop  of  Placentia 
asserts  that  prelates  dishonoured  their  order  by 
putting  their  hands,  which  held  the  body  and  blood 
of  Christ,  between  those  of  impure  laymen,  p.  956. 
The  same  expressions  are  used  by  others,  and  are 
levelled  at  the  form  of  feudal  homage,  which,  ac- 
cording to  the  principles  of  that  age,  ought  to  have 
been  as  obnoxious  as  investiture. 

t  Id.,  p.  1061,  1067. 

i  Histoire  du  Droit  public  ecclesiastique  Fran- 
5ois,  p.  261.  I  do  not  fully  rely  on  this  authority. 


Castile  were  more  fortunate  than  the 
rest ;  discreetly  yielding  to  the  pride  of 
Rome,  they  obtained  what  was  essential 
to  their  own  authority,  and  have  always 
possessed,  by  the  concession  of  Urban 
II.,  an  absolute  privilege  of  nomination 
to  bishoprics  in  their  dominions.*  An 
early  evidence  of  that  indifference  of  the 
popes  towards  the  real  independence  of 
national  churches,  to  which  subsequent 
ages  were  to  lend  abundant  confirmation. 
When  the  emperors  had  surrendered 
their  pretensions  to  interfere  in  infroduction 
episcopal  elections,  the  primi-  of  capitular 
tive  mode  of  collecting  the  suf-  electio"s- 
frages  of  clergy  and  laity  in  conjunction, 
or  at  least  of  the  clergy  with  the  laity's 
assent  and  ratification,  ought  naturally  to 
have  revived.  But  in  the  twelfth  centu- 
ry, neither  the  people,  nor  even  the  gen- 
eral body  of  the  diocesan  clergy,  were 
considered  as  worthy  to  exercise  this 
function.  It  soon  devolved,  altogether 
upon  the  chapters  of  cathedral  churches. f 
The  original  of  these  may  be  traced  very 
high.  In  the  earliest  ages,  we  find  a 
college  of  presbytery  consisting  of  the 
priests  and  deacons,  assistants  as  a  coun- 
cil of  advice,  or  even  a  kind  of  parliament 
to  their  bishops.  Parochial  divisions, 
and  fixed  ministers  attached  to  them, 
were  not  established  till  a  later  period. 
But  the  canons,  or  cathedral  clergy,  ac- 
quired afterward  a  more  distinct  charac- 
ter. They  were  subjected  by  degrees  to 
certain  strict  observances,  little  differing, 
in  fact,  from  those  imposed  on  monastic 
orders.  They  lived  at  a  common  table, 
they  slept  in  a  common  dormitory,  their 
dress  and  diet  were  regulated  by  peculiar 
laws.  But  they  were  distinguished  from 
monks  by  the  right  of  possessing  individ- 
ual property,  which  was  afterward  ex- 
tended to  the  enjoyment  of  separate  preb- 


*  F.  Paul  on  Benefices,  c.  24.  Zurita,  Anales 
de  Aragon,  t.  iv.,  p.  305.  Fleury  says  that  the 
kings  of  Spain  nominate  to  bishoprics  by  virtue  of 
a  particular  indulgence,  renewed  by  the  pope  for 
the  life  of  each  prince. — Institutions  au  Droit,  t.  i., 
p.  106. 

t  Fra  Paolo  (Treatise  on  Benefices,  c.  24)  says, 
that  between  1122  and  1145,  it  became  a  rule  al- 
most everywhere  established,  that  bishops  should 
be  chosen  by  the  chapter.  Schmidt,  however, 
brings  a  few  instances  where  the  consent  of  the 
nobility  and  other  laics  is  expressed,  though  per- 
haps little  else  than  a  matter  of  form.  Innocent 
II.  seems  to  have  been  the  first  who  declared,  that 
whoever  had  the  majority  of  the  chapter  in  his  fa- 
vour should  be  deemed  duly  elected  ;  and  this  was 
confirmed  by  Otho  IV.  in  the  capitulation  upon  his 
accession. — Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  iv.,  p.  175. 
Fleury  thinks  that  chapters  had  not  an  exclusive 
election  till  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century.  The 
second  Latefan  council,  in  1139,  represses  their  at- 
tempts to  engross  it.— Institutions  au  Droit  EC- 
cles.,  t.  i.,  p.  100. 


CHAP.  VII. 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


285 


ends  or  benefices.  These  strict  regula- 
tions, chiefly  imposed  by  Louis  the  De- 
bonair, went  into  disuse  through  the  re- 
laxation of  discipline ;  nor  were  they  ever 
effectually  restored.  Meantime  the  chap- 
ters became  extremely  rich ;  and  as  they 
monopolized  the  privilege  of  electing 
bishops,  it  became  an  object  of  ambition 
with  noble  families  to  obtain  canonries 
for  their  younger  children,  as  the  surest 
road  to  ecclesiastical  honours  and  opu- 
lence. Contrary,  therefore,  to  the  gen- 
eral policy  of  the  church,  persons  of  in- 
ferior birth  have  been  rigidly  excluded 
from  these  foundations.* 

The  object  of  Gregory  VII. ,  in  attempt- 
General  con-  ing  to  redress  those  more  fla- 
duct  of  Gre-  grant  abuses  which  for  two  cen- 
turies had  deformed  the  face  of 
the  Latin  church,  is  not  incapable,  per- 
haps, of  vindication,  though  no  sufficient 
apology  can  be  offered  for  the  means  he 
employed.  But  the  disinterested  love  of 
reformation,  to  which  candour  might  as- 
cribe the  contention  against  investitures, 
is  belied  by  the  general  tenour  of  his  con- 
duct, exhibiting  an  arrogance  without 
parallel,  and  an  ambition  that  grasped  at 
universal  and  unlimited  monarchy.  He 
may  be  called  the  common  enemy  of  all 
sovereigns,  whose  dignity  as  well  as  in- 
dependence mortified  his  infatuated  pride. 
Thus  we  find  him  menacing  Philip  I.  of 
France,  who  had  connived  at  the  pillage 
of  some  Italian  merchants  and  pilgrims, 
not  only  with  an  interdict,  but  a  sentence 
of  deposition.f  Thus  too  he  asserts,  as 
a  known  historical  fact,  that  the  kingdom 
of  Spain  had  formerly  belonged,  by  spe- 
cial right,  to  St.  Peter  ;  and  by  virtue  of 
this  imprescriptible  claim,  he  grants  to  a 
certain  Count  de  Rouci  all  territories 
which  he  should  reconquer  from  the 
Moors,  to  be  held  in  fief  from  the  Holy 
See  by  a  stipulated  rent.}:  A  similar  pre- 

*  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  224,  473  ;  t.  iii.,  p.  281.  En- 
cyclopedic, Art.  Chanoine.  F.  Paul  on  Benefices, 
c.  16.  Fleury,  8me  Discours  sur  1'Hist.  EcclSs. 

t  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  628.  Fleury,  Hist.  Eccles., 
t.  xiii.,  p.  281,  284. 

t  The  language  he  employs  is  worth  quoting,  as 
a  specimen  of  his  style  :  Non  latere  vos  credimus, 
regnum  Hispaniae  ab  antiquo  juris  sancti  Petri 
fuisse,  et  adhuc  licet  diu  a  paganis  sit  occupatum, 
lege  tamen  justitiae  non  evacuata,  nulli  mortalium, 
sed  soli  apostolicae  sedi  ex  aequo  pertinere.  Quod 
enim  auctore  Deo  semel  in  proprietates  ecclesia- 
rum  just&  pervenerit,  manente  Eo,  ab  usu  quidem, 
sed  ab  eafum  jure,  occasione  transeuntis  temporis, 
sine  legitima*  concessione  divelli  non  poterit.  Ita- 
que  Comes  Evalus  de  Roceio,  cujus  famam  apud 
vos  haud  obscuram  esse  putamus,  terram  illam  ad 
honorem  Sti.  Petri  ingredi,  et  a  paganorum  manibus 
eripere  cupiens,  hanc  concessionem  ab  apostolica 
sede  obtinuit,  ut  partem  illam,  unde  paganos  suo 
etudio  et  adjuncto  sibi  aliorum  auxilio  expellere 


tension  he  makes  to  the  kingdom  of  Hun- 
gary, and  bitterly  reproaches  its  sover- 
eign Solomon,  who  had  done  homage  to 
the  emperor,  in  derogation  of  St.  Peter, 
his  legitimate  lord.*  It  was  convenient 
to  treat  this  apostle  as  a  great  feudal  su- 
zerain, and  the  legal  principles  of  that  age 
were  dexterously  applied  to  rivet  more 
forcibly  the  fetters  of  superstition.! 

While  temporal  sovereigns  were  op- 
posing so  inadequate  a  resistance  to  a 
system  of  usurpation  contrary  to  all  pre- 
cedent, and  to  the  common  principles  of 
society,  it  was  not  to  be  expected  that 
national  churches  should  persevere  in 
opposing  pretensions  for  which  several 
ages  had  paved  the  way.  Gregory  VII. 
completed  the  destruction  of  their  lib- 
erties. The  principles  contained  in  the 
decretals  of  Isidore,  hostile  as  they  were 
to  ecclesiastical  independence,  were  set 
aside  as  insufficient  to  establish  the  ab- 
solute monarchy  of  Rome.  By  a  con- 
stitution of  Alexander  II.,  during  whose 
pontificate  Hildebrand  himself  was  deein- 
ed  the  effectual  pope,  no  bishop  in  the 
Catholic  church  was  permitted  to  exer- 
cise his  functions  until  he  had  received 
the  confirmation  of  the  Holy  See  :  J  a  pro- 
vision of  vast  importance,  through  which, 
beyond  perhaps  any  other  means,  Rome 
has  sustained,  and  still  .sustains,  her  tem- 
poral influence,  as  well  as  her  ecclesias- 
tical supremacy.  The  national  churches, 
long  abridged  of  their  liberties  by  gradual 
encroachments,  now  found  themselves 
subject  to  an  undisguised  and  irresistible 
despotism.  Instead  of  affording  protec- 
tion to  bishops  against  their  metropoli- 
tans, under  an  insidious  pretence  of  which 
the  popes  of  the  ninth  century  had  sub- 
verted the  authority  of  the  latter,  it  be- 
came the  favourite  policy  of  their  succes- 
sors to  harass  all  prelates  with  citations  to 
Rome.§  Gregory  obliged  the  metropoli- 
tans to  attend  in  person  for  the  pallium.  || 
Bishops  were  summoned  even  from  Eng- 
land and  the  northern  kingdoms  to  receive 
the  commands  of  the  spiritual  monarch. 
William  the  Conqueror  having  made  a 


possit,  sub  conditions  inter  nos  factae  pactionis  ex 
parte  Sti.  Petri  possideret. — Labbe*,  Concilia,  t.  x., 
p.  10.  Three  instances  occur  in  the  Corps  Diplo- 
matique of  Dumont,  where  a  duke  of  Dalmatia  (t. 
i.,  p.  53),  a  count  of  Provence  (p.  58),  and  a  count 
of  Barcelona  (ibid.),  put  themselves  under  the  feu- 
dal superiority  and  protection  of  Gregory  VII. 
The  motive  was  sufficiently  obvious. 

*  St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  624,  674.     Schmidt,  p.  73. 

t  The  character  and  policy  of  Gregory  VII.  are 
well  discussed  by  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p  307. 

t  St.  Marc,  p.  460. 

$  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  80,  322. 

II  Id.,  t.  iv.,  p.  170. 


286 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII, 


difficulty  about  permitting  his  prelates  to 
obey  these  citations,  Gregory,  though  in 
general  on  good  terms  with  that  prince, 
and  treating  him  with  a  deference  which 
marks  the  effect  of  a  firm  character  in 
repressing  the  ebullitions  of  overbearing 
pride,*  complains  of  this  as  a  persecution 
unheard  of  among  pagans.  |  The  great 
quarrel  between  Archbishop  Anselm  and 
his  two  sovereigns,  William  Rufus  and 
Henry  I.,  was  originally  founded  upon  a 
similar  refusal  to  permit  his  departure 
for  Rome. 

This  perpetual  control  exercised  by 
Authority  tne  P°Pes  over  ecclesiastical,  and, 
of  papal  in  some  degree,  over  temporal 
legates,  affairs,  was  maintained  by  means 
of  their  legates,  at  once  the  ambassa- 
dors and  the  lieutenants  of  the  Holy  See. 
Previously  to  the  latter  part  of  the  tenth 
age,  these  had  been  sent  not  frequently 
and  upon  special  occasions.  The  lega- 
tine  or  vicarial  commission  had  generally 
been  intrusted  to  some  eminent  me- 
tropolitan of  the  nation  within  which  it 
was  to  be  exercised ;  as  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury  was  perpetual  legate  in 
England.  But  the  special  commission- 
ers, or  legates  a  latere,  suspending  the 
pope's  ordinary  vicars,  took  upon  them- 
selves an  unbounded  authority  over  the 
national  churches,  holding  councils,  pro- 
mulgating canons,  deposing  bishops,  and 
issuing  interdicts  at  their  discretion. 
They  lived  in  splendour  at  the  expense 
of  the  bishops  of  the  province.  This 
was  the  more  galling  to  the  hierarchy, 
because  simple  deacons  were  often  in- 
vested with  this  dignity,  which  set  them 
above  primates.  As  the  sovereigns  of 
France  and  England  acquired  more  cour- 
age, they  considerably  abridged  this  pre- 
rogative of  the  Holy  See,  and  resisted  the 
entrance  of  any  legates  into  their  domin- 
ions without  their  consent.^ 

From  the  time  of  Gregory  VII.,  no  pon- 
tiff thought  of  awaiting  the  confirmation 
of  the  emperor,  as  in  earlier  ages,  before 
he  was  installed  in  the  throne  of  St.  Pe.- 
ter.  On  the  contrary,  it  was  pretended 
that  the  emperor  was  himself  to  be  con- 
firmed by  the  pope.  This  had  indeed 
been  broached  by  John  VIII.  two  hundred 
years  before  Gregory.^  It  was  still  a  doc- 

*  St.  Marc,  p.  628,  781.     Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  82. 

t  Idem,  t.  iv.,  p.  768.    Collier,  p.  252. 

i  De  Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  28,  30,  31.  Schmidt,  t.  ii., 
p.  498 ;  t.  iii.,  p.  312,  320.  Hist,  du  Droit  Public 
Eccl.  Francois,  p.  250.  Fleury,  4me  Discours  sur 
1'Hist.  Eccles.,  c.  10. 

<)  Vide  supra.  It  appears  manifest,  that  the 
scheme  of  temporal  sovereignty  was  only  suspend- 
ed by  the  disorders  of  the  Roman  see  in  the  tenth 
century.  Peter  Damian,  a  celebrated  writer  of 


trine  not  calculated  for  general  reception ; 
but  the  popes  availed  themselves  of  every 
opportunity  which  the  temporizing  policy, 
the  negligence,  or  bigotry  of  sovereigns 
threw  into  their  hands.  Lothaire  coming 
to  receive  the  imperial  crown  at  Rome, 
this  circumstance  was  commemorated  by 
a  picture  in  the  Lateran  palace,  in  which, 
and  in  two  Latin  verses  subscribed,  he 
was  represented  as  doing  homage  to  the 
pope.*  When  Frederick  Barbarossa  came 
upon  the  same  occasion,  he  omitted  to 
hold  the  stirrup  of  Adrian  IV., 
who,  in  his  turn,  refused  to  give 
him  the  usual  kiss  of  peace  ;  nor  was  the 
contest  ended  but  by  the  emperor's  ac- 
quiescence, who  was  content  to  follow 
the  precedents  of  his  predecessors.  The 
same  Adrian,  expostulating  with  Freder- 
ick upon  some  slight  grievance,  remind- 
ed him  of  the  imperial  crown  which  he 
had  conferred,  and  declared  his  willing- 
ness to  bestow,  if  possible,  still  greater 
benefits.  But  the  phrase  employed  (ma- 
jora  beneficia)  suggested  the  idea  of  a 
fief;  and  the  general  insolence  which 
pervaded  Adrian's  letter  confirming  this 
interpretation,  a  ferment  arose  among 
the  German  princes,  in  a  congress  of 
whom  this  letter  was  delivered.  "  From 
whom  then,"  one  of  the  legates  was  rash 
enough  to  say,  "  does  the  emperor  hold 
his  crown,  except  from  the  pope  V  which 
so  irritated  a  prince  of  Wittelsbach,  that 
he  was  with  difficulty  prevented  from 
cleaving  the  priest's  head  with  his  sabre. f 
Adrian  IV.  was  the  only  Englishman  that 
ever  sat  in  the  papal  chair.  It  might, 
perhaps,  pass  for  a  favour  bestowed  on 
his  natural  sovereign,  when  he  granted 
to  Henry  II.  the  kingdom  of  Ireland; 
yet  the  language  of  this  donation,  where- 
in he  asserts  all  islands  to  be  the  exclu- 
sive property  of  St.  Peter,  should  not 
have  had  a  very  pleasing  sound  to  an  in- 
sular monarch. 
I  shall  not  wait  to  comment  on  the  sup- 

the  age  of  Hildebrand,  and  his  friend,  puts  these 
words  into  the  mouth  of  Jesus  Christ,  as  addressed 
to  Pope  Victor  II.  Ego  claves  totius  universalis 
ecclesise  meae  tuis  manibus  tradidi,  et  super  earn 
te  mini  vicarium  posui,  quam  proprii  sanguinis  ef- 
fusione  redemi.  Et  si  pauca  sunt  ista,  etiam  mo- 
narchias  addidi :  immo  sublato  rege  de  medip  to- 
tius Romani  imperil  vacantis  tibi  jura  permisi. — 
Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  78. 

*  Rex  venit  ante  fores,  jurans  prius  urbis  ho- 

nores : 

Post  homo  fit  papae,  sumit  quo  dante  coronam. 
Muratori,  Annali,  A.  D.  1157. 

There  was  a  pretext  for  this  artful  line.  Lo- 
thaire had  received  the  estate  of  Matilda  in  fief 
from  the  pope,  with  a  reversion  to  Henry  the 
Proud,  his  son-in-law. — Schmidt,  p.  349. 

f  Muratori,  ubi  supra.    Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  393. 

•? 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


287 


port  given  to  Becket  by  Alex- 
innocent  m.  ^nder&IIL  [A.  D.  H94-1216], 

which  must  be  familiar  to  the  English 
reader,  nor  on  his  speedy  canonization ; 
a  reward  which  the  church  has  always 
held  out  to  its  most  active  friends,  and 
which  may  be  compared  to  titles  of  no- 
bility granted  by  a  temporal  sovereign.* 
But  the  epoch  when  the  spirit  of  papal 
usurpation  was  most  strikingly  displayed 
was  the  pontificate  of  Innocent  III.  In 
each  of  the  three  leading  objects  which 
Rome  has  pursued,  independent  sovereign- 
ty, supremacy  over  the  Christian  church, 
control  over  the  princes  of  the  earth,  it 
was  the  fortune  of  this  pontiff  to  conquer. 
He  realized,  as  we  have  seen  in  another 
place,  that  fond  hope  of  so  many  of  his 
predecessors,  a  dominion  over  Rome  and 
the  central  parts  of  Italy.  During  his 
pontificate,  Constantinople  was  taKeii  by 
the  Latins ;  and,  however  he  might  seem 
to  regret  a  diversion  of  the  crusaders, 
which  impeded  the  recovery  of  the  Holy 
Land,  he  exulted  in  the  obedience  of  the 
new  patriarch,  and  the  reunion  of  the 
Greek  church.  Never,  perhaps,  either 
before  or  since,  was  the  great  eastern 
schism  in  so  fair  a  way  of  being  healed ; 
even  the  kings  of  Bulgaria  and  of  Arme- 
nia acknowledged  the  supremacy  of  In- 
nocent, and  permitted  his  interference 
with  their  ecclesiastical  institutions. 

The  maxims  of  Gregory  VII.  were  now 
Hisextraor-  matured  by  more  than  a  hun- 
dinary  pre-  dred  years,  and  the  right  of 
tensions.  trampling  upon  the  necks  of 
kings  had  been  received,  at  least  among 
churchmen,  as  an  inherent  attribute  of 
the  papacy.  "  As  the  sun  and  the  moon 
are  placed  in  the  firmament"  (such  is  the 
language  of  Innocent),  "  the  greater  as  the 
light  of  the  day,  and  the  lesser  of  the 
night ;  thus  are*  there  two  powers  in  the 
church  ;  the  pontifical,  which,  as  having 
the  charge  of  souls,  is  the  greater ;  and 
the  royal,  which  is  the  less,  and  to  which 
the  bodies  of  men  only  are  intrusted,  "f 
Intoxicated  with  these  conceptions  (if 
we  may  apply  such  a  word  to  successful 
ambition),  he  thought  no  quarrel  of  princes 
beyond  the  sphere  of  his  jurisdiction. 
"  Though  I  cannot  judge  of  the  right  to  a 

*  The  first  instance  of  a  solemn  papal  canoniza- 
tion is  that  of  St.  Udalric  by  John  XVI.,  iu  993. 
However,  the  metropolitans  continued  to  meddle 
with  this  sort  of  apotheosis  till  the  pontificate  of 
Alexander  III.,  who  reserved  it,  as  a  choice  prerog- 
ative, to  the  Holy  See. — Art  de  verifier  les  Dates, 
t.  i.,  p.  247  and  290. 

t  Vita  Innocentii  Tertii  in  Muraton,  Scriptores 
Rerum  Ital.,  t.  hi.,  pars  i.,  p.  488.  This  life  is  writ- 
ten by  a  contemporary. — St.  Marc,  t.  v.,  p.  325. 
Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  227. 


fief,"  said  Innocent  to  the  kings  of  France 
and  England,  "  yet  it  is  my  province  to 
judge  where  sin  is  committed,  and  my 
duty  to  prevent  all  public  scandals."  Phil- 
ip Augustus,  who  had  at  that  time  the 
worse  in  his  war  with  Richard,  acquies- 
ced in  this  sophism  ;  the  latter  was  more 
refractory,  till  the  papal  legate  began 
to  menace  him  with  the  rigour  of  the 
church.*  But  the  King  of  England,  as 
well  as  his  adversary,  condescended  to 
obtain  temporary  ends  by  an  impolitic 
submission  to  Rome.  We  have  a  letter 
from  Innocent  to  the  King  of  Navarre, 
directing  him,  on  pain  of  spiritual  censure, 
to  restore  some  castles  which  he  detain- 
ed from  Richard.f  And  the  latter  appears 
to  have  entertained  hopes  of  recovering 
his  ransom  paid  to  the  emperor  and  Duke 
of  Austria,  through  the  pope's  interfe- 
rence. |  By  such  blind  sacrifices  of  the 
greater  to  the  less,  of  the  future  to  the 
present,  the  sovereigns  of  Europe  played 
continually  into  the  hands  of  their  subtle 
enemy. 

Though  I  am  not  aware  that  any  pope 
before  Innocent  III.  had  thus  announced 
himself  as  the  general  arbiter  of  differen- 
ces and  conservator  of  the  peace  through- 
out Christendom,  yet  the  scheme  had 
been  already  formed,  and  the  public  mind 
was  in  some  degree  prepared  to  admit  it. 
Gerohus,  a  writer  who  lived  early  in  the 
twelfth  century,  published  a  theory  of 
perpetual  pacification,  as  feasible  cer- 
tainly as  some  that  have  been  planned  in 
later  times.  All  disputes  among  princes 
were  to  be  referred  to  the  pope.  If  either 
party  refused  to  obey  the  sentence  of 
Rome,  he  was  to  be  excommunicated 
and  deposed.  Every  Christian  sovereign 
was  to  attack  the  refractory  delinquent, 
under  pain  of  a  similar  forfeiture. § 
A  project  of  this  nature  had  not  only  a 
magnificence  flattering  to  the  ambition 
of  the  church,  but  was  calculated  to  im- 
pose upon  benevolent  minds,  sickened 
by  the  cupidity  and  oppression  of  princes. 


*  Philippus  rex  Francise  in  manu  ejus  data  fide 
promisit  se  ad  mandatum  ipsius  pacem  vel  treugas 
cum  rege  Anglise  initurum.  Ricnardus  autem  rex 
Angliae  se  difficilem  ostendebat.  Sed  cum  idem 
legatus  ei  cepit  rigor  em  ecdesiasticum  intentare,  sanio- 
ri  ductus  consilio  acquievit. — Vita  Innocentii  Ter- 
tii, t.  iii.,  pars  i.,  p.  503. 

t  Innocentii  Opera  (Coloniae,  1574),  p.  124. 

t  Id.,  p.  134.  Innocent  actually  wrote  some  let- 
ters for  this  purpose,  but  without  any  effect,  nor 
was  he  probably  at  all  solicitous  about  it. — P.  139 
and  141.  Nor  had  he  interfered  to  procure  Rich- 
ard's release  from  prison  :  though  Eleanor  wrote 
him  a  letter,  in  which  she  asks,  "  Has  not  God  giv- 
en you  the  power  to  govern  nations  and  kings  ?" — 
Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  382. 

9  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  232. 


288 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIL 


No  control  but  that  of  religion  appeared 
sufficient  to  restrain  the  abuses  of  society ; 
while  its  salutary  influence  had  already 
been  displayed  both  in  the  Truce  of  God, 
which  put  the  first  check  on  the  custom 
of  private  war,  and  more  recently  in  the 
protection  afforded  to  crusaders  against 
all  aggression  during  the  continuance  of 
their  engagement.  But  reasonings  from 
the  excesses  of  liberty  in  favour  of  arbi- 
trary government,  or  from  the  calamities 
of  national  wars  in  favour  of  universal 
monarchy,  involve  the  tacit  fallacy,  that 
perfect,  or  at  least  superior,  wisdom  and 
virtue  will  be  found  in  the  restraining 
power.  The  experience  of  Europe  was 
not  such  as  to  authorize  so  candid  an  ex- 
pectation in  behalf  of  the  Roman  see. 

There  were  certainly  some  instances, 
where  the  temporal  supremacy  of  Inno- 
cent III.,  however  usurped,  may  appear 
to  have  been  exerted  beneficially.  He  di- 
rects one  of  his  legates  to  compel  the  ob- 
servance of  peace  between  the  kings  of 
Castile  and  Portugal,  if  necessary,  by  ex- 
communication and  interdict.*  He  en- 
joins the  King  of  Aragon  to  restore  his 
coin  which  he  had  lately  debased,  and  of 
which  great  complaint  had  arisen  in  his 
kingdom.f  Nor  do  I  question  his  sin- 
cerity in  these,  or  in  many  other  cases 
of  interference  with  civil  government. 
A  great  mind,  such  as  Innocent  III.  un- 
doubtedly possessed,  though  prone  to 
sacrifice  every  other  object  to  ambition, 
can  never  be  indifferent  to  the  beauty  of 
social  order,  and  the  happiness  of  man- 
kind. But,  if  we  may  judge  by  the  cor- 
respondence of  this  remarkable  person, 
his  foremost  gratification  was  the  display 
of  unbounded  power  His  letters,  espe- 
cially to  ecclesiastics,  are  full  of  unpro- 
voked rudeness.  As  impetuous  as  Greg- 
ory VIL,  he  is  unwilling  to  owe  any 
thing  to  favour;  he  seems  to  anticipate 
denial,  heats  himself  into  anger  as  he 
proceeds,  and  where  he  commences  with 
solicitation,  seldom  concludes  without  a 
menace. 1  An  extensive  learning  in  ec- 
clesiastical law,  a  close  observation  of 
whatever  was  passing  in  the  world,  an 
unwearied  diligence,  sustained  his  fear- 
less ambition.  §  With  such  a  temper,  and 

*  Innocent.  Opera,  p.  146.  t  P.  378. 

J  Idem,  p.  31,  73,  76,  &c.  &c. 

§  The  following  instance  may  illustrate  the  char- 
acter of  this  pope,  and  his  spirit  of  governing  the 
whole  world,  as  much  as  those  of  a  more  public 
nature.  He  writes  to  the  chapter  of  Pisa,  that 
one  Rubeus,  a  citizen  of  that  place,  had  complain- 
ed to  him,  that  having  mortgaged  a  house  and 
garden  for  two  hundred  and  fifty-two  pounds,  on 
condition  that  he  might  redeem  it  before  a  fixed 
day,  within  which  time  he  had  been  unavoidably 


with  such  advantages,  he  was  formidable 
beyond  all  his  predecessors,  and  perhaps 
beyond  all  his  successors.  On  every 
side  the  thunder  of  Rome  broke  over  the 
heads  of  princes.  A  certain  Swero  is 
excommunicated  for  usurping  the  crown 
of  Norway.  A  legate,  in  passing  through 
Hungary,  is  detained  by  the  king  :  Inno- 
cent writes  in  tolerably  mild  terms  to 
this  potentate,  but  fails  not  to  intimate 
that  he  might  be  compelled  to  prevent  his 
son's  succession  to  the  throne .  The  King 
of  Leon  had  married  his  cousin,  a  princess 
of  Castile.  Innocent  subjects  the  king- 
dom to  an  interdict.  When  the  clergy 
of  Leon  petition  him  to  remove  it,  be- 
cause, when  they  ceased  to  perform  their 
functions,  the  laity  paid  no  tithes,  and 
listened  to  heretical  teachers  when  or- 
thodox mouths  were  mute,  he  consented 
that  cnvine  service  with  closed  doors, 
but  not  the  rites  of  burial,  might  be  per- 
formed.* The  king  at  length  gave  way, 
and  sent  back  his  wife.  But  a  more  il- 
lustrious victory  of  the  same  kind  was 
obtained  over  Philip  Augustus,  who,  hav- 
ing repudiated  Isemburga  of  Denmark, 
had  contracted  another  marriage.  The 
conduct  of  the  king,  though  not  without 
the  usual  excuse  of  those  times,  near- 
ness of  blood,  was  justly  condemned; 
and  Innocent  did  not  hesitate  to  visit  his 
sins  upon  the  people  by  a  general  in- 
terdict. This,  after  a  short  demur  from 
some  bishops,  was  enforced  throughout 
France ;  the  dead  lay  unburied,  and  the 
living  were  cut  off  from  the  offices  of 
religion,  till  Philip,  thus  subdued,  took 
back  his  divorced  wife.  The  submission 
of  such  a  prince,  not  feebly  supersti- 
tious like  his  predecessor  Robert,  nor 
vexed  with  seditions  like  the  Emperor 
Henry  IV.,  but  brave,  firm,  and  victo- 
rious, is  perhaps  the  proudest  trophy  in 
the  scutcheon  of  Rome.  Compared  with 
this,  the  subsequent  triumph  of  Inno- 
cent over  our  pusillanimous  John  seems 
cheaply  gained,  though  the  surrender  of 
a  powerful  kingdom  into  the  vassalage 
of  the  pope  may  strike  us  as  a  proof  of 


prevented  from  raising  the  money,  thq  creditor 
had  now  refused  to  accept  it ;  and  directs  them  to 
inquire  into  the  facts,  and  if  they  prove  truly 
stated,  to  compel  the  creditor  by  spiritual  censures 
to  restore  the  premises,  reckoning  their  rent  during 
the  time  of  the  mortgage  as  part  of  the  debt,  and  to 
receive  the  remainder. — Id.,  t.  ii.,  p.  17.  It  must 
be  admitted,  that  Innocent  III.  discouraged  in  gen- 
eral those  vexatious  and  dilatory  appeals  from  in- 
ferior ecclesiastical  tribunals  to  the  court  of  Rome, 
which  had  gained  ground  before  his  time,  and  es- 
pecially in  the  pontificate  of  Alexander  III. 

*  Innocent.  Opera,  t.  ii.,  p.  411.    Vita  Inno- 
cent III. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


289 


stupendous  baseness  on  one  side,  and 
audacity  on  the  other.*  Yet,  under  this 
very  pontificate,  it  was  not  unparallel- 
ed. Peter  II.,  king  of  Aragon,  received 
at  Rome  the  belt  of  knighthood  and  the 
royal  crown  from  the  hands  of  Inno- 
cent III. ;  he  took  an  oath  of  perpetual 
fealty  and  obedience  to  him  and  his  suc- 
cessors; he  surrendered  his  kingdom, 
and  accepted  it  again,  to  be  held  by  an 
annual  tribute,  in  return  for  the  protec- 
tion of  the  apostolic  see.f  This  strange 
conversion  of  kingdoms  into  spiritual 
fiefs  was  intended  as  the  price  of  se- 
curity from  ambitious  neighbours,  and 
may  be  deemed  analogous  to  the  change 
of  allodial  into  feudal,  or,  more  strictly, 
to  that  of  lay  into  ecclesiastical  tenure, 
which  was  frequent  during  the  turbu- 
lence of  the  darker  ages. 

I  have  mentioned  already,  that  among 
the  new  pretensions  advanced  by  the  Ro- 
man see  was  that  of  confirming  the 
election  of  an  emperor.  It  had,  however, 
been  asserted  rather  incidentally  than  in 
a  peremptory  manner.  But  the  doubtful 
elections  of  Philip  and  Otho,  after  the 
death  of  Henry  VI.,  gave  Innocent  III. 
an  opportunity  of  maintaining  more  pos- 
itively this  pretended  right.  In  a  decre- 
tal epistle  addressed  to  the  Duke  of  Zah- 
ringen,  the  object  of  which  is  to  direct 
him  to  transfer  his  allegiance  from  Phil- 
ip to  the  other  competitor,  Innocent,  after 
stating  the  mode  in  which  a  regular  elec- 
tion ought  to  be  made,  declares  the 
pope's  immediate  authority  to  examine, 
confirm,  anoint,  crown,  and  consecrate 
the  elect  emperor,  provided  he  shall  be 
worthy ;  or  to  reject  him  if  rendered  un- 
fit by  great  crimes,  such  as  sacrilege,  her- 
esy, perjury,  or  persecution  of  the  church ; 
in  default  of  election,  to  supply  the  va- 
cancy ;  or,  in  the  event  of  equal  suffrages, 
to  bestow  the  empire  upon  any  person  at 
his  discretion.^  The  princes  of  Germany 


*  The  stipulated  annual  payment  of  1000  marks 
Was  seldom  made  by  the  kings  of  England;  but 
one  is  almost  ashamed  that  it  should  ever  have 
been  so.  Henry  III.  paid  it  occasionally,  when  he 
had  any  object  to  attain,  and  even  Edward  I.  for 
some  years  :  the  latest  payment  on  record  is  in  the 
seventeenth  of  his  reign.  After  a  long  discontin- 
uance, it  was  demanded  in  the  fortieth  of  Edward 
III.  (A.  D.  1366),  but  the  parliament  unanimously 
declared  that  John  had  no  right  to  subject  the  king- 
dom to  a  superior  without  their  consent ;  which 
put  an  end  for  ever  to  the  applications.— Pry nne's 
Constitutions,  vol.  lii. 

t  Zurita,  Anales  de  Aragon,  t.  i.,  f.  91.  This 
was  not  forgotten  towards  the  latter  part  of  the 
same  century,  when  Peter  III.  was  engaged  in  the 
Sicilian  war,  and  served  as  a  pretence  for  the 
pope's  sentence  of  deprivation. 

t  Decretal.,  1.  i.,  tit.  6,  c.  34,  commonly  cited 
Venerabitem.  The  rabric  cr  synopsis  of  this  epis- 


were  not  much  influenced  by  this  hardy 
assumption,  which  manifests  the  temper 
of  Innocent  III.  and  of  his  court  rather 
than  their  power.  But  Otho  IV.,  at  his 
coronation  by  the  pope,  signed  a  capitula- 
tion, which  cut  oft"  several  privileges  en-* 
joyed  by  the  emperors,  even  since  the 
concordat  of  Calixtus,  in  respect  of  epis-^ 
copal  elections  and  investitures.* 

The  noonday  of  papal  dominion  ex- 
tends from  the  pontificate  of 
Innocent  III.  inclusively  to  j^KS 
that  of  Boniface  VIII. ;  or,  teenth  cen^ 
in  other  words,  through  the  tury> 
thirteenth  century.  Rome  inspired  du- 
ring this  age  all  the  terror  of  her  ancient 
name.  She  was  once  more  the  mistress 
of  the  world,  and  kings  were  her  vassals* 
I  have  already  anticipated  the  two  most 
conspicuous  instances  when  her  tempo- 
ral ambition  displayed  itself,  both  of 
which  are  inseparable  from  the  civil  his- 
tory of  Italy. f  In  the  first  of  these,  her 
long  contention  with  the  house  of  Swa- 
bia,  she  finally  triumphed.  After  his  de* 
position  by  the  council  of  Lyons,  the  af- 
fairs of  Frederick  II.  went  rapidly  into 
decay.  With  every  allowance  for  the 
enmity  of  the  Lombards,  and  the  jealous- 
ies of  Germany,  it  must  be  confessed 
that  the  proscription  of  Innocent  IV.  and 
Alexander  IV.  was  the  main  cause  of 
the  ruin  of  his  family.  There  is,  how- 
ever, no  other  instance,  to  the  best  of  my 
judgment,  where  the  pretended  right  of 
deposing  kings  has  been  successfully  ex- 
ercised. Martin  IV.  absolved  the  sub* 
jects  of  Peter  of  Aragon  from  their  alle^ 
giance,  and  transferred  his  crown  to  a 
prince  of  France  ;  but  they  did  not  cease 
to  obey  their  lawful  sovereign.  This  is 
the  second  instance  which  the  thirteenth 
century  presents  of  interference  on  the 
part  of  the  popes  in  a  great  temporal 
quarrel.  As  feudal  lords  of  Naples  and 
Sicily,  they  had  indeed  some  pretext  for 
engaging  in  the  hostilities  between  the 
houses  of  Anjou  and  Aragon,  as  well  as 
for  their  contest  with  Frederick  II.  But 
the  pontiffs  of  that  age,  improving  upon 
the  system  of  Innocent  III.,  and  san- 
guine with  past  succesSj  aspired  to  ren- 


tle  asserts  the  pope's  right  electum  imperatorem 
examinare,  approbare,  et  inungere,  cohsecrare  et 
coronare,  si  est  dignus ;  vel  rejicere  si  est  indignus, 
ut  quia  sacrilegus,  excommumcatus,  tyrannus,  fa- 
tuus  et  haereticus,  paganus,  perjurus,  vel  ecclesiae 
persecutor.  Et  electoribus  nolentibus  eligere,  Pa- 
pa supplet.  Et  data  paritate  vocum  eligentium, 
nee  accedente  maipre  concordia,  Papa  potest  grati- 
ficari  cui  vult.  The  epistle  itself  is,  if  possible, 
more  strongly  expressed. 

*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  149,  175. 

t  8ee  above,  chapter  Hi, 


290 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


der  every  European  kingdom  formally 
dependant  upon  the  See  of  Rome.  Thus 
Boniface  VIII.,  at  the  instigation  of  some 
emissaries  from  Scotland,  claimed  that 
monarchy  as  paramount  lord,  and  inter- 
posed, though  vainly,  the  sacred  panoply 
of  ecclesiastical  rights  to  rescue  it  from 
the  arms  of  Edward  I.* 

This  general  supremacy  effected  by  the 
„  .  Roman  church  over  mankind  in 
v>  the  twelfth  and  thirteenth  cen- 
turies, derived  material  support  from  the 
promulgation  of  the  canon  law.  The 
foundation  of  this  jurisprudence  is  laid 
in  the  decrees  of  councils,  and  in  the  re- 
scripts or  decretal  epistles  of  popes  to 
questions  propounded  upon  emergent 
doubts  relative  to  matters  of  discipline 
and  ecclesiastical  economy.  As  the  ju- 
risdiction of  the  spiritual  tribunals  in- 
creased, and  extended  to  a  variety  of  per- 
sons and  causes,  it  became  almost  neces- 
sary to  establish  a  uniform  system  for 
the  regulation  of  their  decisions.  After 
several  minor  compilations  had  appeared, 
Gratian,  an  Italian  monk,  published,  about 
the  year  1140,  his  Decretum,  or  general 
collection  of  canons,  papal  epistles,  and 
sentences  of  fathers,  arranged  and  digest- 
ed into  titles  and  chapters,  in  imitation  of 
the  Pandects,  which  very  little  before  had 
begun  to  be  studied  again  with  great  dili- 
gence. This  work  of  Gratian,  though  it 
seems  rather  an  extraordinary  perform- 
ance for  the  age  when  it  appeared,  has 
been  censured  for  notorious  incorrect- 
ness as  well  as  inconsistency,  and  espe- 
cially for  the  authority  given  in  it  to  the 
false  decretals  of  Isidore,  and  conse- 
quently to  the  papal  supremacy.  It  fell, 
however,  short  of  what  was  required  in 
the  progress  of  that  usurpation.  Greg- 
ory IX.  caused  the  five  books  of  Decre- 
tals to  be  published  by  Raimond  de  Pen- 
nafort  in  1234.  These  consist  almost 
entirely  of  rescripts  issued  by  the  later 
popes,  especially  Alexander  III.,  Inno- 
cent III.,  Honorius  III.,  and  Gregory  him- 
self. They  form  the  most  essential  part 
of  the  canon  law,  the  Decretum  of  Gra- 
tian being  comparatively  obsolete.  In 
these  books  we  find  a  regular  and  co- 
pious system  of  jurisprudence,  derived 
in  a  great  measure  from  the  civil  law, 
but  with  considerable  deviation,  and  pos- 
sibly improvement.  Boniface  VIII.  add- 
ed a  sixth  part,  thence  called  the  Sext, 
itself  divided  into  five  books,  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  supplement  to  the  other  five, 
of  which  it  follows  the  arrangement, 
and  composed  of  decisions  promulgated 

*  Dalrymple's  Annals  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  267. 


since  the  pontificate  of  Gregory  IX. 
New  constitutions  were  subjoined  by 
Clement  V.  and  John  XXII.,  under  the 
name  of  Clementines  and  Extravagantes 
Joannis ;  and  a  few  more  of  later  pontiffs 
are  included  in  the  body  of  canon  law, 
arranged  as  a  second  supplement  after 
the  manner  of  the  Sext,  and  called  Ex- 
travagantes Communes. 

The  study  of  this  code  became  of 
course  obligatory  upon  ecclesiastical 
judges.  It  produced  a  new  class  of 
legal  practitioners,  or  canonists ;  of 
whom  a  great  number  added,  like  their 
brethren  the  civilians,  their  illustrations 
and  commentaries,  for  which  the  obscu- 
rity and  discordance  of  many  passages, 
more  especially  in  the  Decretum,  gave 
ample  scope.  From  the  general  analogy 
of  the  canon  law  to  that  of  Justinian,  the 
two  systems  became,  in  a  remarkable 
manner,  collateral  and  mutually  inter- 
twined, the  tribunals  governed  by  either 
of  them  borrowing  their  rules  of  decision 
from  the  other  in  cases  where  their  pecu- 
liar jurisprudence  is  silent  or  of  dubious 
interpretation.*  But  the  canon  law  was 
almost  entirely  founded  upon  the  legisla- 
tive authority  of  the  pope ;  the  decretals 
are  in  fact  but  a  new  arrangement  of  the 
bold  epistles  of  the  most  usurping  pon- 
tiffs, and  especially  of  Innocent  III.,  with 
titles  or  rubrics,  comprehending  the  sub- 
stance of  each  in  the  compiler's  language. 
The  superiority  of  ecclesiastical  to  tem- 
poral power,  or  at  least  the  absolute  in- 
dependence of  the  former,  may  be  con- 
sidered as  a  sort  of  key-note  which  regu- 
lates every  passage  in  the  canon  law.f 
It  is  expressly  declared,  that  subjects 
owe  no  allegiance  to  an  excommunica- 
ted lord,  if  after  admonition  he  is  not  rec- 
onciled to  the  church.}:  And  the  rubric 
prefixed  to  the  declaration  of  Frederick 
II. 's  deposition  in  the  council  of  Lyons 
asserts  that  the  pope  may  dethrone  the 
emperor  for  lawful  causes. $  These  ru- 


*  Duck,  De  Usu  Juris  Civilis,  1.  i.,  c.  8. 

f  Constitutiones  principum  ecclesiasticis  con- 
stitutionibus  non  preeminent,  sed  obsequuntur. — 
Decretum,  distinct.  10.  Statutum  generale  laico- 
rum  ad  ecclesias  vel  ad  ecclesiasticas  personas,  vel 
eorum  bonain  earum  praejudicium  non  extehditur. — 
Decretal.,  1.  i.,  tit.  2,  c.  10.  Quaecunquea  principi- 
bus  in  ordinibus  vel  in  ecclesiasticis  rebus  decreta 
inveniuntur,  nullius  auctoritatis  esse  monstrantur. 
— Decretum,  distinct.  96. 

J  Domino  excommunicato  manente,  subditrfidel- 
itatem  non  debent ;  et  si  longo  tempore  in  ea  per- 
stiterint,  et  monitus  non  pareat  ecclesise,  ab  ejus 
debito  absolvuntur. — Decretal.,  1.  v.,  tit.  37,  c.  13. 
I  must  acknowledge,  that  the  decretal  epistle  of 
Honorius  III.  scarcely  warrants  this  general  propo- 
sition of  the  rubric,  though  it  seems  to  lead  to  it 

§  Papa  imperatorem  deponere  potest  ex  causfs 
legitimis,  1.  ii.,  tit.  13,  c.  2. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


291 


brics  to  the  decretals  are  not  perhaps  o 
direct  authority  as  part  of  the  law ;  bu 
they  express  its  sense,  so  as  to  be  fairl 
cited  instead  of  it.*     By  means  of  he 
new  jurisprudence,  Rome  acquired  in  ev 
ery  country  a  powerful  body  of  advocates 
who,  though  many  of  them  were  laymen 
would,  with  the  usual  bigotry  of  lawyers 
defend    every    pretension    or   abuse    t 
which  their  received  standard  of  authori 
ty  gave  sanction. f 
I /Next  to  the  canon  law,  I  should  reck 
Mendicant  on  the  institution  of  the  mendi 
orders.       cant  orders  among  those  circum 
stances  which  principally  contributed  tc 
the  aggrandizement  of  Rome.     By  the 
acquisition,   and  in   some   respects  the 
enjoyment,   or  at  least  ostentation  of 
immense  riches,   the   ancient  monastic 
orders  had  forfeited  much  of  the  public 
esteem. J    Austere  principles  as  to  the 
obligation  of  evangelical  poverty  were 
inculcated  by  the  numerous  sectaries  of 
that    age,  and  eagerly  received  by  the 
people,  already  much  alienated  from  an 
established   hierarchy.     No   means   ap- 
peared so  efficacious  to  counteract  this 
effect,  as  the  institution  of  religious  so- 
cieties, strictly  debarred  from  the  insidi- 
ous temptations  of  wealth.     Upon  this 
principle   were   founded   the    orders   of 
Mendicant  Friars,  incapable,  by  the  rules 
of  their  foundation,  of  possessing  estates, 
and  maintained  only  by  alms  and  pious 
remunerations.     Of  these  the  two  most 
celebrated  were  formed  by  St.  Dominic 
and  St.  Francis  of  Assisa,  and  established 
by  the  authority  of  Honorius  III.  in  1216 
and  1223.     These  great  reformers,  who 
have  produced  so  extraordinary  an  effect 
upon  mankind,  were   of  very  different 


*  If  I  understand  a  bull  of  Gregory  XIII.,  pre- 
fixed to  his  recension  of  the  canon  law,  he  con- 
firms the  rubrics  or  glosses  along  with  the  text ; 
but  I  cannot  speak  with  certainty  as  to  his  mean- 
ing. 

t  For  the  canon  law,  I  have  consulted,  besides 
the  Corpus  Juris  Canonici,  Tiraboschi,  Storia 
d'ella  Litteratura,  t.  iv.  and  v. ;  Giannone,  1.  xiv., 
c.  3 ;  1.  xix.,  c.  3 ;  1.  xxii.,  c.  8.  Fleury,  Institu- 
tions au  Droit  Ecclesiastique,  t.  i.,  p.  10,  and  5me 
Discours  sur  1'Histoire  Eccles.  Duck,  De  Usu 
Juris  Civilis,  1.  i.,  c.  8.  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  39.  F. 
Paul,  Treatise  of  Benefices,  c.  31.  I  fear  that  my 
few  citations  from  the  canon  law  are  not  made  scien- 
tifically ;  the  proper  mode  of  reference  is  to  the  first 
word  ;  but  the  book  and  title  are  rather  more  con- 
venient ;  and  there  are  not  many  readers  in  Eng- 
land who  will  detect  this  impropriety. 

t  It  would  be  easy  to  bring  evidence  from  the 
writings  of  every  successive  century  to  the  general 
yiciousness  of  the  regular  clergy,  whose  memory 
it  is  sometimes  the  fashion  to  treat  with  respect. 
See  particularly  Muratori,  Dissert.  65,  and  Fleury, 
8me  Discours.  The  latter  observes  that  their  great 
wealth  was  the  cause  cf  this  relaxation  in  disci- 
pline. 

T2 


characters ;  the  one,  active  and  ferocious, 
had  taken  a  prominent  part  in  the  crusade 
against  the  unfortunate  Albigeois,  and 
was  among  the  first  who  bore  the  terrible 
name  of  inquisitor;  while  the  other,  a 
harmless  enthusiast,  pious  and  sincere, 
but  hardly  of  sane  mind,  was  much  rather 
accessary  to  the  intellectual  than  to  the 
moral  degradation  of  his  species.  Vari- 
ous other  mendicant  orders  were  insti- 
tuted in  the  thirteenth  century ;  but  most 
of  them  were  soon  suppressed,  and  be- 
sides the  two  principal,  none  remain  but 
the  Augustin  and  the  Carmelites.* 

These  new  preachers  were  received 
with  astonishing  approbation  by  the  laity, 
whose  religious  zeal  usually  depends  a 
good  deal  upon  their  opinion  of  sincerity 
and  disinterestedness  in  their  pastors. 
And  the  progress  of  the  Dominican  and 
Franciscan  friars  in  the  thirteenth  centu- 
ry bears  a  remarkable  analogy  to  that  of 
our  English  Methodists.  Not  deviating 
from  the  faith  of  the  church,  but  profes- 
sing rather  to  teach  it  in  greater  puri- 
ty, and  to  observe  her  ordinances  with 
greater  regularity,  while  they  imputed 
supineness  and  corruption  to  the  secular 
clergy,  they  drew  round  their  sermons  a 
multitude  of  such  listeners  as  in  all  ages 
are  attracted  by  similar  means.  They 
Dractised  all  the  stratagems  of  itinerancy, 
Dreaching  in  public  streets,  and  adminis- 
ering  the  communion  on  a  portable  al- 
,ar.  Thirty  years  after  their  institution, 
an  historian  complains  that  the  parish 
'hurches  were  deserted  ;  that  none  con- 
essed  except  to  these  friars;  in  short, 
hat  the  regular  discipline  was  subverted. f 
This  uncontrolled  privilege  of  performing 
acerdotal  functions,  which  their  modern 
antitypes  assume  for  themselves,  was 
3onceded  to  the  mendicant  orders  by  the 
"avow  of  Rome.  Aware  of  the  powerful 
upport  they  might  receive  in  turn,  the 
>ontiffs  of  the  thirteenth  century  accu- 
nulated  benefits  upon  the  disciples  of 
Francis  and  Dominic.  They  were  ex- 
mpted  from  episcopal  authority;  they 
vere  permitted  to  preach  or  hear  confes- 
ions  without  leave  of  the  ordinary,!  to 
ccept  of  legacies,  and  to  inter  in  their 
marches.  Such  privileges  could  not  be 


*  Mosheim's  Ecclesiastical  History.  Fleury, 
ne  Discours.  Crevier,  Histoire  de  1'Universite  de 
aris,  t.  i.,  p.  318. 

t  Matt.  Paris,  p.  607. 

i  Another  reason  for  preferring  the  friars  is  given 
y  Archbishop  Peckham ;  quoniam  casus  episco- 
ales  reservati  episcopis  ab  homine,  yel  a  jure, 
ommuniter  a  Deum  timentibus  episcopis  ipsis  fra- 
ibus  committuntur,  et  non  presbyteris,  quorum  sim* 
'ioitas  non  sufficit  aliia  dirieendif. — Wilkins,  Con- 

lia,  t.  ii.,  p.  169. 


292 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VII. 


granted  without  resistance  from  the  other 
clergy;  the  bishops  remonstrated,  the 
university  of  Paris  maintained  a  stren- 
uous opposition;  but  their  reluctance 
served  only  to  protract  the  final  decision. 
Boniface  VIII.  appears  to  have  peremp- 
torily established  the  privileges  and  im- 
munities of  the  mendicant  orders  in 
1295.* 

It  was  naturally  to  be  expected  that 
the  objects  of  such  extensive  favours 
would  repay  their  benefactors  by  a  more 
than  usual  obsequiousness  and  alacrity 
in  their  service.  Accordingly,  the  Do- 
minicans and  Franciscans  vied  with  each 
other  in  magnifying  the  papal  supremacy. 
Many  of  these  monks  became  eminent 
in  canon  law  and  scholastic  theology. 
The  great  lawgiver  of  the  schools, 
Thomas  Aquinas,  whose  opinions  the 
Dominicans  especially  treat  as  almost 
infallible,  went  into  the  exaggerated  prin- 
ciples of  his  age  in  favour  of  the  see  of 
Rome.f  And  as  the  professors  of  those 
sciences  took  nearly  all  the  learning  and 
logic  of  the  times  to  their  own  share,  it 
was  hardly  possible  to  repel  their  argu- 
ments by  any  direct  reasoning.  But  this 
partiality  of  the  new  monastic  orders  to 
the  popes  must  chiefly  be  understood  to 
apply  to  the  thirteenth  century,  circum- 
stances occurring  in  the  next  which 
gave  in  some  degree  a  different  complex- 
ion to  their  dispositions  in  respect  of  the 
Holy  See. 

We  should  not  overlook,  among  the 
Papal  dis-  causes  that  contributed  to  the 
pensations  dominion  of  the  popes,  their 
mage.  prerOgative  of  dispensing  with 
ecclesiastical  ordinances.  The  most  re- 
markable exercise  of  this  was  as  to  the 
canonical  impediments  of  matrimony. 
Such  strictness  as  is  prescribed  by  the 
Christian  religion  with  respect  to  divorce 
was  very  unpalatable  to  the  barbarous 
nations.  They,  in  fact,  paid  it  little  re- 
gard; under  the  Merovingian  dynasty, 
even  private  men  put  away  their  wives! 

*  ^Crevier,  Hist,  de  1'Universite  de  Paris,  t.  i.  et 
t.  ii.,  passim.  -sFleury,  ubi  supra.  Hist,  du  Droit 
EccUsiastique  Francois,  t.  i.,  p.  394,  396,  446. 
Collier's  Ecclesiastical  History,  vol.  i.,  p.  437,  448. 
452.  Wood's  Antiquities  of  Oxford,  vol.  i.,  p.  376, 
480  (Gutch's  edition). 

t  It  was  maintained  by  the  enemies  of  the  men- 
dicants, especially  William  St.  Amour,  that  the 
pope  could  not  give  them  a  privilege  to  preach  or 
perform  the  other  duties  of  the  parish  priests. 
Thomas  Aquinas  answered,  that  a  bishop  might 
perform  any  spiritual  functions  within  his  diocess, 
or  commit  the  charge  to  another  instead,  and  that 
the  pope  being  to  the  whole  church  what  a  bishop 
is  to  his  diocess,  might  do  the  same  everywhere. — 
Crevier,  t.  i.,  p.  474. 

t  Marculfi  Formula,  1.  ii.,  c  30 


at  pleasure.  In  many  capitularies  of 
Charlemagne,  we  find  evidence  of  the 
prevailing  license  of  repudiation  and 
even  polygamy.*  The  principles  which 
the  church  inculcated  were  in  appearance 
the  very  reverse  of  this  laxity ;  yet  they 
led  indirectly  to  the  same  effect.  Mar- 
riages were  forbidden,  not  merely  within 
the  limits  which  nature,  or  those  inveter- 
ate associations  which  we  call  nature, 
have  rendered  sacred,  but  as  far  as  the 
seventh  degree  of  collateral  consanguin- 
ity, computed  from  a  common  ancestor.f 
Not  only  was  affinity,  or  relationship  by 
marriage,  put  upon  the  same  footing  as 
that  by  blood,  but  a  fantastical  connex- 
ion, called  spiritual  affinity,  was  invented, 
in  order  to  prohibit  marriage  between  a 
sponsor  and  godchild.  A  union,  however 
innocently  contracted,  between  parties 
thus  circumstanced,  might  at  anytime  be 
dissolved,  and  their  subsequent  cohabita- 
tion forbidden ;  though  their  children,  I 
believe,  in  cases  where  there  had  been 
no  knowledge  of  the  impediment,  were 
not  illegitimate.  One  readily  apprehends 
the  facilities  of  abuse  to  which  all  this 
led  ;  and  history  is  full  of  dissolutions  of 
marriage,  obtained  by  fickle  passion  or 
cold-hearted  ambition,  to  which  the 
church  has  not  scrupled  to  pander  on 
some  suggestion  of  relationship.  It  is 
so  difficult  to  conceive,  I  do  not  say  any 
reasoning,  but  any  honest  superstition, 
which  could  have  produced  those  mon- 
strous regulations,  that  I  was  at  first  in- 
clined to  suppose  them  designed  to  give, 
by  a  side  wind,  that  facility  of  divorce 
which  a  licentious  people  demanded,  but 


*  Although  a  man  might  not  marry  again  when 
his  wife  had  taken  the  veil,  he  was  permitted  to  do 
so  if  she  was  infected  with  the  leprosy.  Compare 
Capitularia  Pippini,  A.  D.  752  and  755.  If  a  wom- 
an conspired  to  murder  her  husband,  he  might  re- 
marry.— Idem,  A.  D.  753.  A  large  proportion  of 
Pepin's  laws  relate  to  incestuous  connexions  and 
divorces.  One  of  Charlemagne  seems  to  imply 
that  polygamy  was  not  unknown  even  among 
priests.  Si  sacerdotes  plures  uxores  habuerint, 
sacerdotio  priventur;  quia  ssecularibus  deteriores 
sunt. — Capitul.,  A.  D.  769.  This  seems  to  imply 
that  their  marriage  with  one  was  allowable,  which 
nevertheless  is  contradicted  by  other  passages  in 
the  Capitularies. 

t  See  the  canonical  computation  explained  in 
St.  Marc,  t.  iii.,  p.  376.  Also  in  Blackstone's  Law 
Tracts,  Treatise  on  Consanguinity.  In  the  elev- 
enth century,  an  opinion  began  to  gain  ground  in 
Italy  that  third  cousins  might  marry,  being  in  the 
seventh  degree  according  to  the  civil  law.  Peter 
Damian,  a  passionate  abetter  of  Hildebrand  and 
his  maxims,  treats  this  with  horror,  and  calls  it  a 
heresy. — Fleury,  t.  xiii.,  p.  152.  St.  Marc,  ubi  su- 
pra. This  opinion  was  supported  by  a  reference 
to  the  Institutes  of  Justinian  ;  a  proof,  among  sev- 
eral others,  how  much  earlier  that  book  was  known 
than  is  vulgarly  supposed. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


293 


the  church  could  not  avowedly  grant. 
This  refinement  would  however  be  un- 
supported by  facts.  The  prohibition  is 
very  ancient,  and  was  really  derived  from 
the  ascetic  temper  which  introduced  so 
many  other  absurdities.*  It  was  not  un- 
til the  twelfth  century  that  either  this  or 
any  other  established  rules  of  discipline 
were  supposed  liable  to  arbitrary  dispen- 
sation; at  least  the  stricter  churchmen 
had  always  denied  that  the  pope  could 
infringe  canons,  nor  had  he  asserted  any 
right  to  do  so.f  But  Innocent  III.  laid 
down  as  a  maxim,  that  out  of  the  pleni- 
tude of  his  power  he  might  lawfully  dis- 
pense with  the  law ;  and  accordingly 
granted,  among  other  instances  of  this 
prerogative,  dispensations  from  impedi- 
ments of  marriage  to  the  Emperor  Otho 
I  V.J  Similar  indulgences  were  given  by 
his  successors,  though  they  did  not  be- 
come usual  for  some  ages.  The  fourth 
Lateran  Council,  in  1215,  removed  a  great 
part  of  the  restraint,  by  permitting  mar- 
riages beyond  the  fourth  degree,  or  what 
we  call  third  cousins  ;§  and  dispensations 
have  been  made  more  easy,  when  it  was 
discovered  that  they  might  be  converted 
into  a  source  of  profit.  They  served  a 
more  important  purpose  by  rendering  it 
necessary  for  the  princes  of  Europe,  who 
seldom  could  marry  into  one  another's 
houses  without  transgressing  the  canon- 
ical limits,  to  keep  on  good  terms  with 
the  court  of  Rome,  which,  in  several  in- 
stances  that  have  been  mentioned,  ful- 
minated its  censures  against  sovereigns 
who  lived  without  permission  in  what 
was  considered  an  incestuous  union. 

The  dispensing  power  of  the  popes 
Disoensa-  was  exerted  m  several  cases  of 
tionsenfro"m  a  temporal  nature,  particularly 
promissory  in  the  legitimation  of  children, 
for  purposes-even  of  succession. 
This  Innocent  III.  claimed  as  an  indirect 
consequence  of  his  right  to  remove  the 
canonical  impediment  which  bastardy  of- 

*  Gregory  I.  pronounces  matrimony  to  be  un- 
lawful as  far  as  the  seventh  degree ;  and  even,  if  I 
understand  his  meaning,  as  long  as  any  relation- 
ship could  be  traced ;  which  seems  to  have  been 
the  maxim,  of  strict  theologians,  though  not  abso- 
lutely enforced. — Du  Cange,  v.  Generatio.  Fleu- 
ry,  Hist.  Eccles.,  t.  ix.,  p.  211. 

f  De  Marca,  1.  iii.,  cc.  7,  8,  14.  Schmidt,  t.  iv., 
p.  235.  Dispensations  were  originally  granted  only 
as  to  canonical  penances,  but  not  prospectively  to 
authorize  a  breach  of  discipline.  Gratian  asserts 
that  the  pope  is  not  bound  by  the  canons ;  in 
which,  Fleury  observes,  he  goes  beyond  the  False 
Decretals. — Septieme  Discours,  p.  291. 

t  Secundilm  plenitudinem  potestatis  de  jurepos- 
sumus  supra  jus  dispensare. — Schmidt,  t,  iv,,  p, 
235. 

$  Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit  Ecclesiastique,  t. 
i.,  p.  296. 


fered  to  ordination;  since  it  would  be 
monstrous,  he  says,  that  one  who  is  le- 
gitimate for  spiritual  functions  should 
continue  otherwise  in  any  civil  matter.* 
But  the  most  important  and  mischievous 
species  of  dispensations,  was  from  the 
observance  of  promissory  oaths.  Two 
principles  are  laid  down  in  the  decretals ; 
that  an  oath  disadvantageous  to  the 
church  is  not  binding ;  and  that  one  ex- 
torted by  force  was  of  slight  obligation, 
and  might  be  annulled  by  ecclesiastical 
authority.!  As  the  first  of  these  maxims 
gave  the  most  unlimited  privilege  to  the 
popes  of  breaking  all  faith  Of  treaties 
which  thwarted  their  interest  or  passion, 
a  privilege  which  they  continually  exer- 
cised,! so  tfte  second  was  equally  con- 
venient to  princes,  weary  of  observing 
engagements  towards  their  subjects  or 
their  neighbours.  They  reclaimed  with 
a  bad  grace  against  the  absolution  of  their 
people  from  allegiance  by  an  authority  to 
which  they  did  not  scruple  to  repair  in 
order  to  bolster  up  their  own  perjuries. 


*  Decretal.,  1.  iv.,  tit.  17,  c.  13. 

t  Juramentum  contra  utilitatem  ecclesiasticam 
praestitum  non  tenet. — Decretal.,  1.  ii.,  tit.  24,  c.  27, 
et  Sext.,1.  i.,  tit.  11,  c.  1.  A  juramento  per  metum 
extorto  ecclesia  solet  absolvere,  et  ejus  transgres- 
sores  ut  peccantes  mortaliter  non  punientur. — Eo- 
dem  lib.  et  tit.,  c.  15.  The  whole  of  this  title  in 
the  decretals  upon  oaths  seems  to  have  given  the 
first  opening  to  the  lax  casuistry  of  succeeding 
times. 

t  Take  one  instance  out  of  many.  Piccinino, 
the  famous  condottiere  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
had  promised  not  to  attack  Francis  Sforza,  at  that 
time  engaged  against  the  pope.  Eugenius  IV.  (the 
same  excellent  person  who  had  annulled  the  com- 
pactata  with  the  Hussites,  releasing  those  who 
had  sworn  to  them,  and  who  afterward  made  the 
King  of  Hungary  break  his  treaty  with  Amurath 
II.),  absolves  him  from  this  promise,  on  the  express 
ground  that  a  treaty  disadvantageous  to  the  church 
ought  not  to  be  kept. — Sismondi,  t.  ix.,  p.  196.  The 
church,  in  that  age,  was  synonymous  with  the  pa- 
pal territories  in  Italy. 

It  was  in  conformity  to  this  sweeping  principle 
of  ecclesiastical  utility,  that  Urban  VI.  made  the 
following  solemn  and  general  declaration  against 
keeping  faith  with  heretics.  Attendentes  quod  hu- 
jusmodi  confoederationes,  colligationes,  et  ligae  seu 
conventiones  factae  cum  hujusmodi  haereticis  seu 
schismaticis  postquam  tales  effect!  erant,  sunt  te- 
merariae;  illicitae,  et  ipso  jure  nullae  (etsi  forte 
ante  ipsorum  lapsum  in  schisma,  seu  haeresin  ini- 
tae,  seu  factae  fuissent),  etiam  si  forent  juramento 
vel  fide  data  firimtae,  aut  confirmations  apostolicd 
vel  quacunque  firmitate  alia  roboratse,  postquam 
tales,  ut  praemittitur,  sunt  effecti, — Rymer,  t.  vii., 
p.  352. 

It  was  of  little  consequence  that  all  divines  arid 
sound  interpreters  of  canon  law  maintain  that  the 
pope  cannot  dispense  with  the  divine  or  moral  law, 
as  De  Marca  tells  us,  1.  iii.,  c.  15,  though  he  ad- 
mits that  others  of  less  sound  judgment  assert  the 
contrary ;  as  was  common  enough,  I  believe, 
among  the  Jesuits  at  the  beginning  of  the  seven- 
teenth  century.  His  power  of  interpreting  the  law 
was  of  itself  a  privilege  of  dispensing  with  it. 


294 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


>.  VII. 


Thus  Edward  I.,  the  strenuous  asserter 
of  his  temporal  rights,  and  one  of  the  first 
who  opposed  a  barrier  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  clergy,  sought  at  the  hands 
of  Clement  V.  a  dispensation  from  his 
oath  to  observe  the  great  statute  against 
arbitrary  taxation. 

In  all  the  earlier  stages  of  papal  domin- 
ion, the  supreme  head  of  the  church  had 
Encroach-  been  her  guardian  and  protec- 
iwDMontiM  tor;  and  this  beneficent  charac- 
freedom  of  e  ter  appeared  to  receive  its  con- 
elections,  summation  in  the  result  of  that 
arduous  struggle  which  restored  the  an- 
cient practice  of  free  election  to  ecclesi- 
astical dignities.  Not  long  however  after 
this  triumph  had  been  obtained,  the  popes 
began  by  little  and  little  to  interfere  with 
the  regular  constitution.  Their  first  step 
was  conformable  indeed  to  the  prevailing 
system  of  spiritual  independence.  By 
the  concordat  of  Calixtus,  it  appears  that 
the  decision  of  contested  elections  was 
reserved  to  the  emperor,  assisted  by  the 
metropolitans  and  suffragans.  In  a  few 
cases  during  the  twelfth  century,  this  im- 
perial prerogative  was  exercised,  though 
not  altogether  undisputed.*  But  it  was 
consonant  to  the  prejudices  of  that  age 
to  deem  the  supreme  pontiff  a  more  nat- 
ural judge,  as  in  other  cases  of  appeal. 
The  point  was  early  settled  in  England, 
where  a  doubtful  election  to  the  arch- 
bishopric of  York,  under  Stephen,  was 
referred  to  Rome,  and  there  kept  five 
years  in  litigation.!  Otho  IV.  surrender- 
ed this  among  other  rights  of  the  empire 
to  Innocent  III.  by  his  capitulation  ;|  and 
from  that  pontificate  the  papal  jurisdic- 
tion over  such  controversies  became 
thoroughly  recognised.  But  the  real  aim 
of  Innocent,  and  perhaps  of  some  of  his 
predecessors,  was  to  dispose  of  bishop- 
rics, under  pretext  of  determining  con- 
tests, as  a  matter  of  patronage.  So  many 
And  on  rules  were  established,  so  many 
rights  of  pat-  formalities  required  by  their 
constitutions,  incorporated  af- 
terward into  the  canon  law,  that  the  court 
of  Rome  might  easily  find  means  of  annul- 


*  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  299  ;  t.  iv.,  p.  149.  Accord- 
ing to  the  concordat,  elections  ought  to  be  made  in 
the  presence  of  the  emperor  or  his  officers  ;  but 
the  chapters  contrived  to  exclude  them  by  degrees, 
though  not  perhaps  till  the  thirteenth  century.  — 
Compare  Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  296  ;  t.  iv.,  p.  146. 

f  Henry's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  v.,  p.  324.  Lyt- 
tleton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  i.,  p.  356. 

J  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  149.  One  of  these  was  the 
spolium,  or  moveable  estate  of  a  bishop,  which  the 
emperor  was  used  to  seize  upon  his  decease,  p.  154. 
It  was  certainly  a  very  leonine  prerogative  ;  but  the 
popes  did  not  fail  at  a  subsequent  time  to  claim  it 
for  themselves.  —  Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit,  t.  i., 
p.  425."  J<enfant,  Concede  Constance,  t.  ii.,p.  130. 


ling  what  had  been  done  by  the  chapter, 
and  bestowing  the  see  on  a  favourite 
candidate.*  The  popes  soon  assumed 
not  only  a  right  of  decision,  but  of  devo- 
lution ;  that  is,  of  supplying  the  want  of 
election,  or  the  unfitness  of  the  elected, 
by  a  nomination  of  their  own.f  Thus, 
Archbishop  Langton,  if  not  absolutely 
nominated,  was  at  least  chosen  in  an  in- 
valid and  compulsory  manner,  by  the 
order  of  Innocent  III. ;  as  we  may  read 
in  our  English  historians.  And  several 
succeeding  archbishops  of  Canterbury 
equally  owed  their  promotion  to  the  pa- 
pal prerogative.  Some  instances  of  the 
same  kind  occurred  in  Germany,  and  it 
became  the  constant  practice  in  Naples. ;£ 
While  the  popes  were  thus  artfully  de- 
priving the  chapters  of  their  right  of  elec- 
tion to  bishoprics,  they  interfered  in  a 
more  arbitrary  manner  with  the 
collation  of  inferior  benefices. 
This  began,  though  in  so  insensible  a  man- 
ner as  to  deserve  no  notice  but  for  its  con- 
sequences, with  Adrian  IV., who  request- 
ed some  bishops  to  confer  the  next  bene- 
fice that  should  become  vacant  on  a  par- 
ticular clerk.§  Alexander  III.  used  to 
solicit  similar  favours.  ||  These  recom* 
mendatory  letters  were  called  mandats. 
But  though  such  requests  grew  more  fre- 
quent than  was  acceptable  to  patrons, 
they  were  preferred  in  moderate  lan- 
guage, and  could  not  decently  be  refused 
to  the  apostolic  chair.  Even  Innocent 
III.  seems  in  general  to  be  aware  that  he 
is  not  asserting  a  right ;  though  in  one  in- 
stance I  have  observed  his  violent  tem- 
per break  out  against  the  chapter  of  Poi- 
tiers, who  had  made  some  demur  to  the 
appointment  of  his  clerk,  and  whom  he 
threatens  with  excommunication  and  in- 
terdict.^ But,  as  we  find  in  the  history 
of  all  usurping  governments,  time  changes 
anomaly  into  system,  and  injury  into 
right;  examples  beget  custom,  and  cus- 
tom ripens  into  law ;  and  the  doubtful  pre- 
cedent of  one  generation  becomes  the  fun- 
damental maxim  of  another.  Honorius 


*  F.  Paul,  c.  30.     Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  177,  247. 

t  Thus  we  find  it  expressed,  as  captiously  as 
words  could  be  devised,  in  the  decretals,- 1.  i.,  tit. 
6,  c.  22.  Electus  a  majori  et  saniori  parte  capituli, 
si  est,  et  erat  idoneus  tempore  electionis,  confirma- 
bitur :  si  autem  erit  indignus  in  ordinibus  scienti& 
vel  aetate,  et  fuit  scienter  electus,  electus  a  minori 
parte,  si  est  dignus,  confirmabitur. 

A  person  canonically  disqualified  when  presented 
to  the  pope  for  confirmation  was  said  to  be  postula- 
tiis,  not  electus. 

J  Giannone,  1.  xiv.,  c.  6 ;  1.  xix.,  c.  5. 

<j  St.  Marc,  t.  v.,  p.  41.  Art  de  verifier  les  Dates, 
t.  i.,  p.  288.  Encyclopedic,  Art.  Mandats. 

I!  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  239. 

IT  Innocent  III.,  Opera,  p.  50?. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


295 


III.  requested  that  two  prebends  in  eve- 
ry church  might  be  preserved  for  the 
Holy  See;  but  neither  the  bishops  of 
France  nor  England,  to  whom  he  pre- 
ferred this  petition,  were  induced  to  com- 
ply with  it.*  Gregory  IX.  pretended  to 
act  generously  in  limiting  himself  to  a 
single  expectative,  or  letter  directing  a 
particular  clerk  to  be  provided  with  a 
benefice  in  every  church.f  But  his  prac- 
tice went  much  farther.  No  country 
was  so  intolerably  treated  by  this  pope 
and  his  successors  as  England,  through- 
out the  ignominious  reign  of  Henry  III. 
Her  church  seemed  to  have  been  so 
richly  endowed  only  as  the  free  pasture 
of  Italian  priests,  who  were  placed,  by 
the  mandatory  letters  of  Gregory  IX.  and 
Innocent  IV.,  in  all  the  best  benefices. 
If  we  may  trust  a  solemn  remonstrance  in 
the  name  of  the  whole  nation,  they  drew 
from  England,  in  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  sixty  or  seventy  thou- 
sand marks  every  year;  a  sum  far  ex- 
ceeding the  royal  revenue. J  This  was 
asserted  by  the  English  envoys  at  the 
council  of  Lyons.  But  the  remedy  was 
not  to  be  sought  in  remonstrances  to  the 
court  of  Rome,  which  exulted  in  the 
success  of  its  encroachments.  There 
was  no  defect  of  spirit  in  the  nation  to 
oppose  a  more  adequate  resistance ;  but 
the  individual  upon  the  throne  sacrificed 
the  public  interest  sometimes  through 
habitual  timidity,  sometimes  through  silly 
ambition.  If  England,  however,  suffered 
more  remarkably,  /et  other  countries 
were  far  from  being  untouched.  A  Ger- 
man writer,  about  the  beginning  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  mentions  a  cathedral 
where,  out  of  about  thirty-five  vacancies 
of  prebends  that  had  occurred  within 
twenty  years,  the  regular  patron  had 
filled  only  two.§  The  case  was  not  very 
different  in  France,  where  the  continual 
usurpations  of  the  popes  are  said  to  have 
produced  the  celebrated  Pragmatic  Sanc- 
tion of  St.  Louis.  This  edict,  which  is 
not  of  undisputed  authority,  contains 
three  important  provisions ;  namely,  that 
all  prelates  and  other  patrons  shall  enjoy 
their  full  rights  as  to  the  collation  of 
benefices,  according  to  the  canons ;  that 
churches  shall  possess  freely  their  rights 
of  election ;  and  that  no  tax  or  pecuniary 
exaction  shall  be  levied  by  the  pope, 
without  consent  of  the  king  and  of  the 
national  church.  ||  We  do  not  find,  how- 

*  Matt.  Paris,  p.  267.     De  Marca,  1.  iv.,  c.  9. 

t  F.  Paul  on  Benefices,  c.  30. 

t  M.  Paris,  p.  579,  740. 

6  Schmidt,  t.  vi.,  p.  104. 

II  Ordonnances  des  Rois  de  France,  t.  i.,  p.  97. 


ever,  that  the  French  government  acted 
up  to  the  spirit  of  this  ordinance,  if  it  be 
genuine ;  and  the  Holy  See  continued  to 
invade  the  rights  of  collation  with  less 
ceremony  than  they  had  hitherto  used. 
Clement  IV.  published  a  bull  in  1266, 
which,  after  asserting  an  absolute  pre- 
rogative of  the  supreme  pontiff  to  dispose 
of  all  preferments,  whether  vacant  or  in 
reversion,  confines  itself  in  the  enacting 
words  to  the  reservation  of  such  benefi- 
ces as  belong  to  persons  dying  at  Rome 
(vacantes  in  curia).*  These  had  for 
some  time  been  reckoned  as  a  part  of 
the  pope's  special  patronage ;  and  their 
number,  when  all  causes  of  importance 
were  drawn  to  his  tribunal,  when  metro- 
politans were  compelled  to  seek  their 
pallium  in  person,  and  even  by  a  recent 
constitution,  exempt  abbots  to  repair  to 
Rome  for  confirmation,!  not  to  mention 
the  multitude  who  flocked  thither  as  mere 
courtiers  and  hunters  after  promotion, 
must  have  been  very  considerable.  Bon- 
iface VIII.  repeated  this  law  of  Clement 
IV.  in  a  still  more  positive  tone;}:  and 
Clement  V.  laid  down  as  a  maxim,  that 
the  pope  might  freely  bestow,  as  univer- 
sal patron,  all  ecclesiastical  benefices. $ 
In  order  to  render  these  tenable  by  their 
Italian  courtiers,  the  canons  against  plu- 
ralities and  nonresidence  were  dispensed 
with;  so  that  individuals  were  said  to 
have  accumulated  fifty  or  sixty  prefer- 
ments. ||  It  was  a  consequence  provisions, 
from  this  extravagant  princi-  reserves,  &c. 
pie,  that  the  pope  might  prevent  the  or- 
dinary collator  upon  a  vacancy ;  and  as 
this  could  seldom  be  done  with  sufficient 
expedition  in  places  remote  from  his 
court,  that  he  might  make  reversionary 
grants  during  the  life  of  an  incumbent, 


There  are  several  material  objections  to  the  au- 
thenticity of  this  edict,  and  in  particular  that  we  do 
not  find  the  king  to  have  had  any  previous  differ* 
ences  with  the  see  of  Rome ;  on  the  contrary,  he 
was  just  indebted  to  Clement  IV.  for  bestowing 
the  crown  of  Naples  on  his  brother,  the  Count  of 
Provence.  Velly  has  defended  it,  Hist,  de  France, 
t.  vi.,  p.  57,  and  in  the  opinion  of  the  learned  Ben- 
edictine editors  of  L'Art  de  verifier  les  Dates,  t.  i., 
p.  585,  cleared  up  all  difficulties  as  to  its  genuine- 
ness. In  fact,  however,  the  Pragmatic  Sanction 
of  St.  Louis  stands  by  itself,  and  can  only  be  con- 
sidered as  a  protestation  against  abuses  which  it 
was  still  impossible  to  suppress. 

*  Sext.  Decretal.,  1.  iii.,  t.  iv.,  c.  2.  F.  Paul  on 
Benefices,  c.  35.  This  writer  thinks  the  privilege 
of  nominating  benefices  vacant  in  curia  to  have 
been  among  the  first  claimed  by  the  popes,  even 
before  the  usage  of  mandats,  c.  30. 

t  Matt.  Paris,  p.  817. 

J  Sext.  Decretal.,  1.  iii.,  t.  iv.,  c.  3.  He  extend- 
ed the  vacancy  in  curia  to  all  places  within  two 
days'  journey  of  the  papal  court. 

$  F.  Paul,  c.  35. 

||  Id.,  c.  33,  34,  35.    Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  104, 


296 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VII. 


or  reserve  certain  benefices  specifically 
for  his  own  nomination. 

The  persons  as  well  as  estates  of  eccle- 
Papaitaxa-  siastics  were  secure  from  arbi- 
tion  of  the  trary  taxation  in  all  the  king- 
clergy,  doms  founded  upon  the  ruins  of 
the  empire,  both  by  the  common  liberties 
of  freemen,  and  more  particularly  by  their 
own  immunities  and  the  horror  of  sacri- 
lege.* Such  at  least  was  their  legal  secu- 
rity, whatever  violence  might  occasion- 
ally be  practised  by  tyrannical  princes. 
But  this  exemption  was  compensated  by 
annual  donatives,  probably  to  a  large 
amount,  which  the  bishops  and  monaste- 
ries were  accustomed,  and  as  it  were 
compelled,  to  make  to  their  sovereigns.! 
They  were  subject  also,  generally  speak- 
ing, to  the  feudal  services  and  prestations. 
Henry  I.  is  said  to  have  extorted  a  sum 
of  money  from  the  English  church.! 
But  the  first  eminent  instance  of  a  gen- 
eral tax  required  from  the  clergy  was 
the  famous  Saladine  tithe  ;  a  tenth  of  all 
moveable  estate,  imposed  by  the  kings 
of  France  and  England  upon  all  their 
subjects,  with  the  consent  of  their  great 
councils  of  prelates  and  barons,  to  de- 
fray the  expense  of  their  intended  cru- 
sade. Yet  even  this  contribution,  though 
called  for  by  the  imminent  peril  of  the 
Holy  Land  after  the  capture  of  Jerusa- 
lem, was  not  paid  without  reluctance ;  the 
clergy  doubtless  anticipating  the  future 
extension  of  such  a  precedent.  §  Many 
years  had  not  elapsed  when  a  new  de- 
mand was  made  upon  them,  but  from 
a  different  quarter.  Innocent  III.  (the 
name  continually  recurs  when  we  trace 
the  commencement  of  a  usurpation)  im- 
posed, in  1199,  upon  the  whole  church,  a 
tribute  of  one  fortieth  of  moveable  estate, 
to  be  paid  to  his  own  collectors;  but 
strictly  pledging  himself  that  the  money 
should  only  be  applied  to  the  purposes 
of  a  crusade. ||  This  crusade  ended,  as 
is  well  known,  in  the  capture  of  Con- 
stantinople. But  the  word  had  lost  much 
of  its  original  meaning;  or  rather  that 
meaning  had  been  extended  by  ambition 
and  bigotry.  Gregory  IX.  preached  a 
crusade  against  the  Emperor  Frederick, 
in  a  quarrel  which  only  concerned  his 
temporal  principality  ;  and  the  church  of 
England  was  taxed  by  his  authority  to 
carry  on  this  holy  war.^f  After  some  op- 


*  Muratpri,  Dissert.  70.     Schmidt,  t.  iii.,  p.  211. 
t  Id.,  Ibid.     Du  Cange,  v.  Dona, 
j  Eadmer,  p.  83. 

$  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  212.    Lyttleton's  Henry  II., 
vol.  iii.,  p.  472.     Velly,  t.  iii.,  p.  316. 
I!  Innocent.  Opera,  p.  266. 
IT  M.  Paris,  p.  47t).    It  was  hardly  possible  for 


position  the  bishops  submitted ;  and  from 
that  time  no  bounds  were  set  to  the  rapa- 
city of  papal  exactions.  The  usurers  of 
Cahors  and  Lombardy,  residing  in  Lon- 
don, took  up  the  trade  of  agency  for  the 
pope ;  and  in  a  few  years  he  is  said, 
partly  by  levies  of  money,  partly  by  the 
revenues  of  benefices,  to  have  plundered 
the  kingdom  of  950,000  marks;  a  sum 
equivalent,  I  think,  to  not  less  than  fif- 
teen millions  sterling  at  present.  Inno- 
cent IV.,  during  whose  pontificate  the 
tyranny  of  Rome,  if  we  consider  her  tem- 
poral and  spiritual  usurpations  together, 
reached  perhaps  its  zenith,  hit  upon  the 
device  of  ordering  the  English  prelates 
to  furnish  a  certain  number  of  men-at- 
arms  to  defend  the  church  at  their  ex- 
pense.  This  would  soon  have  been  com- 
muted into  a  standing  escuage  instead  of 
military  service.*  But  the  demand  was 
perhaps  not  complied  with,  and  we  do 
not  find  it  repeated.  Henry  III.'s  pu- 
sillanimity would  not  permit  any  effect- 
ual measure  to  be  adopted ;  and  indeed  he 
sometimes  shared  in  the  booty,  and  was 
indulged  with  the  produce  of  taxes  im- 
posed upon  his  own  clergy  to  defray  the 
cost  of  his  projected  war  against  Sicily,  t 
A  nobler  example  was  set  by  the  kingdom 
of  Scotland :  Clement  IV.  having,  in 
1267,  granted  the  tithes  of  its  ecclesias- 
tical revenues  for  one  of  his  mock  cru- 
sades, King  Alexander  III.,  with  the  con- 
currence of  the  church,  stood  up  against 
this  encroachment,  and  refused  the  legate 
permission  to  enter  his  dominions.  J  Tax- 


the  clergy  to  make  any  effective  resistance  to  the 
pope,  without  unravelling  a  tissue  which  they  had 
been  assiduously  weaving.  One  English  prelate 
distinguished  himself  in  this  reign  by  his  strenu- 
ous protestation  against  all  abuses  of  the  church. 
This  was  Robert  Grosstete,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  who 
died  in  1253,  the  most  learned  Englishman  of  his 
time,  and  the  first  who  had  any  tincture  of  Greek 
literature.  Matthew  Paris  gives  him  a  high  char- 
acter, which  he  deserved  for  his  learning  and  in- 
tegrity ;  one  of  his  commendations  is  for  keeping 
a  good  table.  But  Grosstete  appears  to  have  been 
imbued  in  a  great  degree  with  the  spirit  of  his  age 
as  to  ecclesiastical  power,  though  unwilling  to 
yield  it  up  to  the  pope :  and  it  is  a  strange  thing  to 
reckon  him  among  the  precursors  of  the  Reforma- 
tion.— M.  Paris,  p.  754.  Berington's  Literary  His- 
tory of  the  Middle  Ages,  p.  378. 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  613.  It  would  be  endless  to  mul- 
tiply proofs  from  Matthew  Paris,  which  indeed 
occur  in  almost  every  page.  His  laudable  zeal 
against  papal  tyranny,  on  which  some  Protestant 
writers  have  been  so  pleased  to  dwell,  was  a  little 
stimulated  by  personal  feelings  for  the  abbey  of  St. 
Alban's ;  and  the  same  remark  is  probably  applica- 
ble to  his  love  of  civil  liberty. 

t  Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  599,  &c.  The  substance  of 
English  ecclesiastical  history  during  the  reign  of 
Henry  III.  may  be  collected  from  Henry,  and  still 
better  from  Collier. 

J  Dalryniple's  Annala  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.  o  179. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


297 


ation  of  the  clergy  was  not  so  outra- 
geous in  other  countries  ;  but  the  popes 
granted  a  tithe  of  benefices  to  St.  Louis 
for  each  of  his  own  crusades,  and  also 
for  the  expedition  of  Charles  of  Anjou 
against  Manfred.*  In  the  council  of 
Lyons,  held  by  Gregory  X.  in  1274,  a 
general  tax  of  the  same  proportion  was 
imposed  on  all  the  Latin  church,  for  the 
pretended  purpose  of  carrying  on  a  holy 
war.f 
These  gross  invasions  of  ecclesiastical 

property,  however  submissively 
toward^  the  endured,  produced  a  very  gen- 
court  of  eral  disaffection  towards  the 

court  of  Rome.  The  reproach 
of  venality  and  avarice  was  not  indeed 
cast  for  the  first  time  upon  the  sovereign 
pontiffs  ;  but  it  had  been  confined  in  ear- 
lier ages  to  particular  instances,  not 
affecting  the  bulk  of  the  Catholic  church. 
But,  pillaged  upon  every  slight  pretence, 
without  law  and  without  redress,  the 
clergy  came  to  regard  their  once  pater- 
nal monarch  as  an  arbitrary  oppressor. 
All  writers  of  the  thirteenth  and  follow- 
ing centuries  complain  in  terms  of  un- 
measured indignation,  and  seem  almost 
ready  to  reform  the  general  abuses  of 
the  church.  They  distinguished,  how- 
ever, clearly  enough  between  the  abuses 
which  oppressed  them  and  those  which 
it  was  their  interest  to  preserve,  nor  had 
the  least  intention  of  waiving  their  own 
immunities  and  authority.  But  the  laity 
came  to  more  universal  conclusions.  A 
spirit  of  inveterate  hatred  grew  up  among 
them,  not  only  towards  the  papal  tyranny, 
but  the  whole  system  of  ecclesiastical 
independence.  The  rich  envied  and 
longed  to  plunder  the  estates  of  the  su- 
perior clergy  ;  the  poor  learned  from  the 
Waldenses  and  other  sectaries  to  deem 
such  opulence  incompatible  with  the 
character  of  evangelical  ministers.  The 
itinerant  minstrels  invented  tales  to  sat- 
irise vicious  priests,  which  a  predis- 
posed multitude  eagerly  swallowed.  If 
the  thirteenth  century  was  an  age  of 
more  extravagant  ecclesiastical  preten- 
sions than  any  which  had  preceded,  it 
was  certainly  one  in  which  the  disposi- 
tion to  resist  them  acquired  great  con- 
sistence. 

To  resist  had  indeed  become  strictly 
Process  of  necessaiTi  if  tne  temporal  gov- 

ernments  of  Christendom  would 
-  occupy  any  better  station  than 

that  of  officers  to  the  hierarchy. 
I  have  traced  already  the  first  stage  of 


*  Velly,  t.  iv.,  p.  343  ;  t.  v.,  p.  343 ;  t.  vi.,  p.  47. 
t  Idem,  t.  vi.,  p.  3O8.    St.  Marc,  t  vi.,  p.  347. 


that  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction,  which, 
through  the  partial  indulgence  of  sover- 
eigns, especially  Justinian  and  Charle- 
magne, had  become  nearly  independent 
of  the  civil  magistrate.  Several  ages  of 
confusion  and  anarchy  ensued,  during 
which  the  supreme  regal  authority  was 
literally  suspended  in  France,  and  not 
much  respected  in  some  other  countries. 
It  is  natural  to  suppose  that  ecclesiasti- 
cal jurisdiction,  so  far  as  even  that  was 
regarded  in  such  barbarous  times,  would 
be  esteemed  the  only  substitute  for  coer- 
cive law,  and  the  best  security  against 
wrong.  But  I  am  not  aware  that  it  ex- 
tended itself  beyond  its  former  limits  till 
about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury. From  that  time  it  rapidly  en- 
croached upon  the  secular  tribunals,  and 
seemed  to  threaten  the  usurpation  of  an 
exclusive  supremacy  over  all  persons  and 
causes.  The  bishops  gave  the  tonsure 
indiscriminately,  in  order  to  swell  the 
list  of  their  subjects.  This  sign  of  a 
clerical  state,  though  below  the  lowest 
of  their  seven  degrees  of  ordination,  im- 
plying no  spiritual  office,  conferred  the 
privileges  and  immunities  of  the  profes- 
sion on  all  who  wore  an  ecclesiastical 
habit,  and  had  only  once  been  married.* 
Orphans  and  widows,  -the  stranger  and 
the  poor,  the  pilgrim  and  the  leper,  under 
the  appellation  of  persons  in  distress 
(miserabiles  personae),  came  within  the 
peculiar  cognizance  and  protection  of  the 
church;  nor  could  they  be  sued  before 
any  lay  tribunal.  And  the  whole  body 
of  crusaders,  or  such  as  merely  took  the 
vow  of  engaging  in  a  crusade,  enjoyed 
the  same  clerical  privileges. 

But  where  the  character  of  the  litigant 
parties  could  not,  even  with  this  large 
construction,  be  brought  within  their  pale, 
the  bishops  found  a  pretext  for  their  juris- 
diction in  the  nature  of  the  dispute.  Spir- 
itual causes  alone,  it  was  agreed,  could 
appertain  to  the  spiritual  tribunal.  But 
the  word  was  indefinite;  and  according 
to  the  interpreters  of  the  twelfth  century, 
the  church  was  always  bound  to  prevent 
and  chastise  the  commission  of  sin.  By 
this  sweeping  maxim,  which  we  have 


*  Clerici  qui  cum  unicis  et  virginibus  contraxe- 
mnt,  si  tonsuram  et  vestes  deferant  clericales,  privi- 

legium  retineant praesenti  declaramus  edicto, 

hujusmodi  clericos  conjugates  pro  commissis  ab  iis 
excessibus  veldelictis,  trahi  non  posse  criminaliter 
aut  civiliter  ad  judicium  saeculare. — Bpnifacius 
Octavus,  in  Sext.  Decretal.,  1.  iii.,  tit.  ii.,  c.  i.  Philip 
the  Bold,  however,  had  subjected  these  married 
clerks  to  taxes,  and  later  ordinances  of  the  French 
kings  rendered  them  amenable  to  temporal  juris- 
diction ;  from  which,  in  Naples,  by  various  provis- 
ions of  the  Angevin  line,  they  always  continued 
free — Giannone,  1.  xix.,  c.  5. 


298 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


seen  Innocent  III.  apply  to  vindicate  his 
control  over  national  quarrels,  the  com- 
mon differences  of  individuals,  which  gen- 
erally involve  some  charge  of  wilful  inju- 
ry, fell  into  the  hands  of  a  religious  judge. 
One  is  almost  surprised  to  find  that  it  did 
not  extend  more  universally,  and  might 
praise  the  moderation  of  the  church. 
Real  actions,  or  suits  relating  to  the  prop- 
erty of  land,  w'ere  always  the  exclusive 
province  of  the  lay  court,  even  where  a 
clerk  was  the  defendant.*  But  the  ec- 
clesiastical tribunals  took  cognizance  of 
breaches  of  contract,  at  least  where  an 
oath  had  been  pledged,  and  of  personal 
trusts. f  They  had  not  only  an  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  questions  immediately 
matrimonial,  but  a  concurrent  one  with 
the  civil  magistrate  in  France,  though 
never  in  England,  over  matters  incident 
to  the  nuptial  contract,  as  claims  of  mar- 
riage portion  and  of  dower.|  They  took 
the  execution  of  testaments  into  their 
hands,  on  account  of  the  legacies  to  pious 
uses  which  testators  were  advised  to  be- 
queath. §  In  process  of  time,  and  under 
favourable  circumstances,  they  made  still 
greater  strides.  They  pretended  a  right 
to  supply  the  defects,  the  doubts,  or  the 
negligence  of  temporal  judges ;  and  in- 
vented a  class  of  mixed  causes,  whereof 
the  lay  or  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  took 
possession  according  to  priority.  Besides 
this  extensive  authority  in  civil  disputes, 
they  judged  of  some  offences,  which  natu- 
rally belong  to  the  criminal  law,  as  well  as 
of  some  others,  which  participate  of  a  civ- 
il and  criminal  nature.  Such  were  perju- 
ry, sacrilege,  usury,  incest,  and  adultery  ;|| 
from  the  punishment  of  all  which  the  sec- 
ular magistrate  refrained,  at  least  in  Eng- 
land, after  they  had  become  the  prov- 
ince of  a  separate  jurisdiction.  Excom- 

*  Decretal.,  1.  ii.,  t.  ii.  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t. 
i.,  p.  40  (A.  D.  1189).  In  the  council  of  Lambeth, 
in  1261,  the  bishops  claim  a  right  to  judge  inter 
clericos  suos,  vel  inter  laicos  conquerentes  et  cler- 
icos  defendentes,  in  personalibus  actionibus  super 
contractibus,  aut  delictis,  aut  quasi,  i.  e.  quasi  de- 
lictis.—Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  i.,  p.  747. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  p.  319  (A.  D.  1290). 

%  Idem,  p.  40,  121,  220,  319. 

$  Id.,  p.  319.  Glanvil,  1.  vii.,  c.  7.  Sancho  IV. 
gave  the  same  jurisdiction  to  the  clergy  of  Castile, 
Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  iii.,  p.  20 ;  and  in  other  re- 
spects followed  the  example  of  his  father  Alfonso 
X.  in  favouring  their  encroachments.  The  church 
of  Scotland  seems  to  have  had  nearly  the  same  ju- 
risdiction as  that  of  England. — Pinkerton's  Histo- 
ry of  Scotland,  vol.  i,,  p.  173. 

I!  It  was  a  maxim  of  the  canon,  as  well  as  the 
common  law,  that  no  person  should  be  punished 
twice  for  the  same  offence ;  therefore,  if  a  clerk  had 
been  degraded,  or  a  penance  imposed  on  a  lay- 
man, it  was  supposed  unjust  to  proceed  against 
him  in  a  temporal  court, 


munication  still  continued  the  only  chas- 
tisement which  the  church  could  directly 
inflict.  But  the  bishops  acquired  a  right 
of  having  their  own  prisons  for  lay  of- 
fenders,* and  the  monasteries  were  the 
appropriate  prisons  of  clerks.  Their 
sentences  of  excommunication  were  en- 
forced by  the  temporal  magistrate  by 
imprisonment  or  sequestration  of  ef- 
fects; in  some  cases  by  confiscation  or 
death.f 

The  clergy  did  not  forget  to  secure 
along  with  this  jurisdiction  their  And  immu- 
own  absolute  exemption  from  nitv- 
the  criminal  justice  of  the  state.  This, 
as  I  have  above  mentioned,  had  been 
conceded  to  them  by  Charlemagne ;  but 
how  far  the  same  privilege  existed  in 
countries  not  subject  to  his  empire,  such 
as  England,  or  even  in  France  and  Ger- 
many during  the  three  centuries  after  his 
reign,  is  what  I  am  not  able  to  assert. 
The  False  Decretals  contain  some  pas- 
sages in  favour  of  ecclesiastical  immuni- 
ty, which  Gratian  repeats  in  his  collec- 
tion.J  About  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century  the  principle  obtained  general 
reception,  and  Innocent  III.  decided  it  to 
be  an  inalienable  right  of  the  clergy, 
whereof  they  could  not  be  divested  even 
by  their  own  consent. $  Much  less  were 
any  constitutions  of  princes,  or  national 
usages,  deemed  of  force  to  abrogate  such 
an  important  privilege. ||  These,  by  the 
canon  law,  were  invalid  when  they  affect- 
ed the  rights  and  liberties  of  holy  church.'ff 
But  the  spiritual  courts  were  charged 
with  scandalously  neglecting  to  visit  the 
most  atrocious  offences  of  clerks  with 
^__ 

*  Charlemagne  is  said  by  Giannone  to  have  per- 
mitted the  bishops  to  have  prisons  of  their  own,  1. 
vi.,  c.  7. 

t  Giannone,  1.  xix.,  c.  5,  t.  iii.  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p. 
195 ;  t.  vi.,  p.  125.  Fleury,  7™  Discours,  Mem.  de 
1'Acad.  des  Inscript,  t.  xxxix.,  p.  603.  Ecclesiasti- 
cal jurisdiction  not  having  been  uniform  in  differ 
ent  ages  and  countries,  it  is  difficult,  without  much 
attention,  to  distinguish  its  general  and  permanent 
attributes  from  those  less  completely  established. 
Its  description,  as  given  in  the  Decretals,  lib.  ii.,  tit. 
ii.,  De  foro  competenti,  does  not  support  the  pre- 
tensions made  by  the  canonists,  nor  come  up  to 
the  sweeping  definition  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdic- 
tion by  Boniface  VIII.  in  the  Sext.,  1.  iii.,  tit.  xxiii., 
c.  40,  sive  ambae  partes  hoc  voluerint,  sive  una 
super  causis  ecclesiasticis,  sive  quae  ad  forum  ec- 
clesiasticum  ratione  personarum,  negotiorum,  vel 
rerum  de  jure  vel  de  antiqua  consuetudine  perti- 
nere  noscuntur. 

J  Fleury,  7me  Discours. 

<j  Idem.    Institutions  au  Droit  Eccles.,  t.  ii.,  p.  8. 

||  In  criminalibus  causis  in  nullo  casu  possunt 
clerici  ab  aliquo  quam  ab  ecclesiastico  judice  con- 
demnari,  etiamsi  consuetudo  regia  habeat  ut  fures 
a  judicibus  sascularibus  judicentur. — Decretal.,,  1,  i., 
tit.  i.,  c.  8. 

V  Decret.,  distinct.  9a 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


299 


such  punishment  as  they  could  inflict. 
The  church  could  always  absolve  from  her 
own  censures  ;  and  confinement  in  a  mon- 
astery, the  usual  sentence  upon  crimi- 
nals, was  frequently  slight  and  temporary. 
Several  instances  are  mentioned  of  hei- 
nous outrages  tfrat  remained  nearly  un- 
punished through  the  shield  of  ecclesias- 
tical privilege.*  And  as  the  temporal 
courts  refused  their  assistance  to  a  rival 
jurisdiction,  the  clergy  had  no  redress  for 
their  own  injuries,  and  even  the  murder 
of  a  priest  at  one  time,  as  we  are  told, 
was  only  punishable  by  excommunica- 
tion, f 

Such  an  incoherent  medley  of  laws 
Endeavours  and  magistrates,  upon  the  sym- 
made  to  re-  metrical  arrangement  of  which 
£rnSiVndn  a11  social  economy  mainly  de- 
pends, could  not  fail  to  produce 
a  violent  collision.  Every  sovereign  was 
interested  in  vindicating  the  authority 
of  the  constitutions  which  had  been 
formed  by  his  ancestors,  or  by  the  people 
whom  he  governed.  But  the  first  who 
undertook  this  arduous  work,  the  first 
who  appeared  openly  against  ecclesias- 
tical tyranny,  was  our  Henry  II.  The 
Anglo-Saxon  church,  not  so  much  con- 
nected as  some  others  with  Rome,  and 
enjoying  a  sort  of  barbarian  immunity 
from  the  thraldom  of  canonical  discipline, 
though  rich,  and  highly  respected  by  a 
devout  nation,  had  never,  perhaps,  de- 
sired the  thorough  independence  upon 
secular  jurisdiction  at  which  the  con- 
tinental hierarchy  aimed.  William  the 
Conqueror  first  separated  the  ecclesias- 
tical from  the  civil  tribunal,  and  forbade 
the  bUfcops  to  judge  of  spiritual  causes 
in  the  hundred  court. |  His  language  is, 
however,  too  indefinite  to  warrant  any 

*  Collier,  vol.  i.,  p.  351.  It  is  laid  down  in  the 
canon  laws  that  a  layman  cannot  be  a  witness  in  a 
criminal  case  against  a  clerk.— Decretal.,  1.  ii.,  tit. 
xx.,  c.  14. 

t  Lyttleton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  332.  This 
must  be  restricted  to  that  period  of  open  hostility 
between  the  church  and  state. 

$.  Ut  nullus  episcopus  vel  archidiaconus  de  legi- 
bus  episcopalibus  amplius  in  Hundret  placita  ten- 
cant,  nee  causam  quae  ad  regimen  animarum  perti- 
net,  ad  judicium  saecularium  hominum  adducant. 
— Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  230. 

Before  the  conquest,  the  bishop  and  earl  sat  to- 
gether in  the  court  of  the  county  or  hundred  ;  and, 
as  we  may  infer  from  the  tenour  of  this  charter,  ec- 
clesiastical matters  were  decided  loosely,  and  rather 
by  the  common  law  than  according  to  the  canons. 
This  practice  had  been  already  forbidden  by  some 
canons  enacted  under  Edgar,  id.,  p.  83  ;  but  appa- 
rently with  little  effect,  The  separation  of  the  civil 
and  ecclesiastical  tribunals  was  not  made  in  Den- 
mark till  the  reign  of  Nicolas,  who  ascended  the 
throne  in  1105.— Langebek,  Script.  Rer.  Danic., 
t.  iv.,  p.  380.  Others  refer  the  law  to  St.  Canut, 
about  1080,  t.  ii.,  p.  209, 


decisive  proposition  as  to  the  nature  of 
such  causes ;  probably  tlrey  had  not  yet 
been  carried  much  beyond  their  legiti- 
mate extent.  Of  clerical  exemption  from 
the  secular  arm,  we  find  JIG  earlier  notice 
than  in  the  coronation  oath  of  Stephen ; 
which,  though  vaguely  expressed,  may 
be  construed  to  include  it.*  But  I  am 
not  certain  that  the  law  of  England  had 
unequivocally  recognised  that  claim  at 
the  time  of  the  constitutions  of  Cla- 
rendon. It  was  at  least  an  innova- 
tion, which  the  legislature  might  with- 
out scruple  or  transgression  of  justice 
abolish.  Henry  II.,  in  that  famous  stat- 
ute, attempted  in  three  respects  to  limit 
the  jurisdiction  assumed  by  the  church; 
asserting  for  his  own  judges  the  cogni- 
zance of  contracts,  however  confirmed 
by  oath,  and  of  rights  of  advowson,  and 
also  that  of  offences  committed  by  clerks, 
whom,  as  it  is  gently  expressed,  after 
conviction  or  confession  the  church  ought 
not  to  protect.f  These  constitutions 
were  the  leading  subject  of  difference 
between  the  king  and  Thomas  Becket. 
Most  of  them  were  annulled  by  the 
pope,  as  derogatory  to  ecclesiastical 
liberty.  It  is  not  improbable,  however, 
that  if  Louis  VII.  had  played  a  more 
dignified  part,  the  See  of  Rome,  which 
an  existing  schism  rendered  dependant 
upon  the  favour  of  those  two  monarchs, 
might  have  receded  in  some  measure 
from  her  pretensions.  But  France  im- 
plicitly giving  way  to  the  encroachments 
of  ecclesiastical  power,  it  became  impos- 
sible for  Henry  completely  to  withstand 
them. 

The  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  how- 
ever, produced  some  effect,  and,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.,  more  unremitted  and 
successful  efforts  began  to  be  made  to 
maintain  the  independence  of  temporal 
government.  The  judges  of  the  king's 
court  had  until  that  time  been  them- 
selves principally  ecclesiastics,  and  con- 
sequently tender  of  spiritual  privileges. t 
But  now,  abstaining  from  the  exercise  of 
temporal  jurisdiction,  in  obedience  to  the 
strict  injunctions  of  their  canons,^  the 
clergy  gave  place  to  common  lawyers, 
professors  of  a  system  very  discordant 
from  their  own.  These  soon  began  to 


*  Ecclesiasticarum  personarum  et  omnium  cleri- 
cprum,  et  rerum  eorum  justitiam  et  potestatem,  et 
distributionem  honorum  ecclesiasticorum,  in  manu 
episcoporum  esse  perhibeo,  et  confirmo. — Wilkins, 
Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  310. 

t  Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  323.  Lyttle- 
ton's Henry  II.,  Collier,  &c. 

J  Dugdale's  Origines  Juridicales,  c.  8. 

$  Decretal.,  1.  i.,  tit.  xxxvii.,  c.  1.  Wilkins,  Coju 
cilia,  t.  ii.,  p.  4. 


300 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


assert  the  supremacy  of  their  jurisdiction 
by  issuing  writs  of  prohibition,  when- 
ever the  ecclesiastical  tribunals  passed 
the  boundaries  which  approved  use  had 
established.*  Little  accustomed  to  such 
control,  the  proud  hierarchy  chafed  under 
the  bit;  several  provincial  synods  re- 
claim against  the  pretensions  of  laymen 
to  judge  the  anointed  ministers,  whom 
they  were  bound  to  obey;f  the  cogni- 
zance of  rights  of  patronage  and  breaches 
of  contract  is  boldly  asserted  ;J  but  firm 
and  cautious,  favoured  by  the  nobility, 
though  not  much  by  the  king,  the  judges 
receded  not  a  step,  and  ultimately  fixed 
a  barrier  which  the  church  was  forced 
to  respect.^  In  the  ensuing  reign  of 
Edward  I.,  an  archbishop  acknowledges 
the  abstract  right  of  the  king's  bench  to 
issue  prohibitions  ;||  and  the  statute  en- 
titled Circumspecte  agatis,  in  the  thir- 
teenth year  of  that  prince,  while  by  its 
mode  of  expression  it  seems  designed  to 
guaranty  the  actual  privileges  of  spirit- 
ual jurisdiction,  had  a  tendency,  espe- 
cially with  the  disposition  of  the  judges, 
to  preclude  the  assertion  of  some  which 
are  not  therein  mentioned.  Neither  the 
right  of  advowson  nor  any  temporal  con- 
tract is  specified  in  this  act  as  pertain- 
ing to  the  church  ;  and  accordingly  the 
temporal  courts  have  ever  since  main- 
tained an  undisputed  jurisdiction  over 
them.^[  They  succeeded  also  partially 

*  Prynne  has  produced  several  extracts  from  the 
pipe-rolls  of  Henry  II.,  where  a  person  has  been 
fined  quia  placitavit  de  laico  feodo  in  curia  chris- 
tianitatis.  And  a  bishop  of  Durham  is  fined  five 
hundred  marks  quia  tenuit  placitum  de  advocatione 
cujusdam  ecclesias  in  curia  christianitatis. — Epistle 
dedicatory  to  Prynne's  Records,  vol.  iii.  Glanvil 
gives  the  form  of  a  writ  of  prohibition  to  the  spirit- 
ual court  for  inquiring  de  feodo  laico;  for  it  had 
jurisdiction  over  lands  in  frankalmoign.  This  is 
conformable  to  the  constitutions  of  Clarendon,  and 
shows  that  they  were  still  in  force ;  though  Col- 
lier has  the  assurance  to  say,  that  they  were  re- 
pealed soon  after  Becket's  death,  supporting  this 
also  by  a  false  quotation  from  Glanvil. — Ecclesi- 
ast.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p.  380.  Lyttleton's  Henry  II., 
vol.  iii.,  p.  97. 

1  Cum  judicandi  Christos  domini  nulla  sit  laicis 
attributa  potestas,  apud  quos  manet  necessitas  ob- 
sequendi. — Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  i.,  p.  747. 

I  Id.  ibid. ;  et  t.  ii.,  p.  90. 

<)  Vide  Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  ii.,  passim. 

II  Licet  prohibitions  hujusmodi  a  curia  chris- 
tianissimi  regis  nostri  just&  proculdubio,  ut  dixi- 
mus,  concedantur.— Idem,  t.  ii.,  p.  100,  and  p.  115. 
Yet  after  such  an  acknowledgment  by  Archbishop 
Peckham,  in  the  height  of  ecclesiastical  power, 
and  after  a   practice  deducible  from  the  age  of 
Henry  II.,  some  Protestants,  as  Archbishop  Ban- 
croft  (2  Inst.,   609) ;    Gibson   (preface  to   Codex 
Jut.  Eccl.);  Collier  (Ecclesiast.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p. 
522),  have  complained  that   the  court  of  king's 
bench  should  put  any  limits  to  their  claims  of  spir- 
itual jurisdiction. 

f  The  statute  Circumspect^  agatis,  for  it  is  ac- 


in  preventing  the  impunity  of  crimes 
perpetrated  by  clerks.  It  was  enacted 
by  the  statute  of  Westminster,  in  1275, 
or  rather  a  construction  was  put  upon 
that  act,  which  is  obscurely  worded,  that 
clerks  endicted  for  felony  should  not  be 
delivered  to  their  ordinary  until  an  in- 
quest had  been  taken  of  the  matter  of  ac- 
cusation ;  and  if  they  were  found  guilty, 
that  their  real  and  personal  estate  should 
be  forfeited  to  the  crown.  In  later  times, 
the  clerical  privilege  was  not  allowed  till 
the  party  had  pleaded  to  the  endictment, 
and  been  duly  convict,  as  is  the  practice 
at  present.* 

The  civil  magistrates  of  France  did  not 
by  any  means  exert  themselves  Lesg  Vjg. 
so  vigorously  for  their  emancipa-  orons  m 
tion.  The  same,  or  rather  worse  France> 
usurpations  existed,  and  the  same  com- 
plaints were  made,  under  Philip  Augus- 
tus, St.  Louis,  and  Philip  the  Bold ;  but 
the  laws  of  those  sovereigns  tend  much 
more  to  confirm  than  to  restrain  eccle- 
siastical encroachments.!  Some  limita- 
tions were  attempted  by  the  secular 
courts;  and  an  historian  gives  us  the 
terms  of  a  confederacy  among  the  French 
nobles,  in  1246,  binding  themselves  by 
oath  not  to  permit  the  spiritual  judges  to 
take  cognizance  of  any  matter,  except 
heresy,  marriage,  and  usury. J  Unfortu- 
nately, Louis  IX.  was  almost  as  little 
disposed  as  Henry  III.  to  shake  off  the 
yoke  of  ecclesiastical  dominion.  But 
other  sovereigns  in  the  same  period,  from 
various  motives,  were  equally  submis- 
sive. Frederick  II.  explicitly  adopts  fhe 
exemption  of  clerks  from  criminal  as 


knowledged  as  a  statute,  though  not  drawn  up  in 
the  form  of  one,  is  founded  upon  an  answer  of  Ed- 
ward I.  to  the  prelates  who  had  petitioned  for  some 
modification  of  prohibitions.  Collier,  always  prone 
to  exaggerate  church  authority,  insinuates  that  the 
jurisdiction  of  the  spiritual  court  over  breaches  of 
contract,  even  without  oath,  is  preserved  by  this 
statute  ;  but  the  express  words  of  the  king  show 
that  none  whatever  was  intended  ;  and  the  arch- 
bishop complains  bitterly  of  it  afterward. — Wil- 
kins, Concilia,  t.  ii.,  p.  118.  Collier's  Ecclesiast. 
History,  vol.  i.,  p.  487.  So  far  from  having  any 
cognizance  of  civil  contracts  not  confirmed  by 
oath,  to  which  I  am  not  certain  that  the,  church 
ever  pretended  in  any  country,  the  spiritual  court 
had  no  jurisdiction  at  all  even  where  an  oath  had 
intervened,  unless  there  was  a  deficiency  of  proof 
by  writing  or  witnesses. — Glanvil,  1.  x.,  c.  12. 
Constitut.  Clarendon.,  art.  15. 

*  2  Inst.,  p.  163. 

t  It  seems  deducible  from  a  law  of  Philip  Au- 
gustus, Ordonnances  des  Rois,  t.  i.,  p.  39,  that  a 
clerk  convicted  of  some  heinous  offences  might  be 
capitally  punished  after  degradation  ;  yet  a  subse- 
quent ordinance,  p.  43,  renders  this  doubtful ;  and 
the  theory  of  clerical  immunity  became  afterward 
more  fully  established. 

t  Matt.  Paris,  p.  629. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER 


301 


well  as  civil  jurisdiction  of  seculars.* 
And  Alfonso  X.  introduced  the  same  sys- 
tem in  Castile  ;  a  kingdom  where  neither 
the  papal  authority  nor  the  independence 
of  the  church  had  obtained  any  legal  rec- 
ognition until  the  promulgation  of  his 
code,  which  teems  with  all  the  principles 
of  the  canon  law.f  It  is  almost  needless 
to  mention  that  all  ecclesiastical  powers 
and  privileges  were  incorporated  with 
the  jurisprudence  of  the  kingdom  of  Na- 
ples, which,  especially  after  the  acces- 
sion of  the  Angevin  line,  stood  in  a  pe- 
culiar relation  of  dependance  upon  the 
Holy  See.J 

The  vast  acquisitions  of  landed  wealth 

Restraints  made  f°r  many  a£6S  ^  bish°Ps' 

on  aiiena-  chapters,  and  monasteries,  began 
tionsin  at  length  to  excite  the  jealousy 
n-  of  sovereigns.  They  perceived 
that,  although  the  prelates  might  send 
their  stipulated  proportion  of  vassals  into 
the  field,  yet  there  could  not  be  that  ac- 
tive co-operation  which  the  spirit  of  feu- 
dal tenures  required,  and  that  the  nation- 
al arm  was  palsied  by  the  diminution  of 
military  nobles.  Again,  the  reliefs  upon 
succession,  and  similar  dues  upon  aliena- 
tion, incidental  to  fiefs,  were  entirely  lost 
when  they  came  into  the  hands  of  these 
undying  corporations,  to  the  serious  in- 
jury of  the  feudal  superior.  Nor  could 
it  escape  reflecting  men,  during  the  con- 
test about  investitures,  that,  if  the  church 
peremptorily  denied  the  supremacy  of  the 
state  over  her  temporal  wealth,  it  was 
but  a  just  measure  of  retaliation,  or  rather 
self-defence,  that  the  state  should  restrain 
her  further  acquisitions.  Prohibitions  of 
gifts  in  mortmain,  though  unknown  to 
the  lavish  defbtion  of  the  new  kingdoms, 
had  been  established  by  some  of  the  Ro- 


*  Statuimus,  ut  nullus  ecclesiasticam  personam, 
in  criminali  quaestione  vel  civili,  trahere  ad  judici- 
umsaeculare  praesumat. — Ordonnances  des  Rois  de 
France,  t.  i.,  p.  611,  where  this  edict  is  recited  and 
approved  by  Louis  Hutin.  Philip  the  Bold  had 
obtained  leave  from  the  pope  to  arrest  clerks  ac- 
cused of  heinous  crimes,  on  condition  of  remitting 
them  to  the  bishop's  court  for  trial. — Hist,  du 
Droit.  Eccl.  Franc..,  t.  i.,  p.  426.  A  council  at 
Bourges,  held  in  1276,  had  so  absolutely  condemned 
all  interference  of  the  secular  power  with  clerks, 
that  the  king  was  obliged  to  solicit  this  moderate 
favour,  p.  421. 

t  Marina,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico  sobre  las 
siete  partidas,  c.  320,  &c.  Hist,  du  Droit  Eccles. 
Francj.,  t.  :L  p.  442. 

t  GiannOTie,  1.  xix.,  c.  v. ;  1.  xx.,  c.  8.  One  provis- 
ion of  Robert,  king  of  Naples,  is  remarkable  :  it  ex- 
tends the  immunity  of  clerks  to  their  concubines. 
—Ibid. 

Villani  strongly  censures  a  law  made  at  Flor- 
ence, in  1345,  taking  away  the  personal  immunity 
of  clerks  in  criminal  cases.  Though  the  state  could 
make  such  a  law,  he  says,  it  had  no  right  to  do  so 
againat  the  liberties  of  holy  church,  1.  xii.,  c.  43. 


man  emperors,  to  check  the  overgrown 
wealth  of  the  hierarchy.*  The  first  at- 
tempt at  a  limitation  of  this  description 
in  modern  times  was  made  by  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  who,  in  1158,  enacted  that  no 
fief  should  be  transferred  either  to  the 
church  or  otherwise,  without  the  permis- 
sion of  the  superior  lord.  Louis  IX.  in- 
serted a  provision  of  the  same  kind  in  his 
establishments.!  Castile  had  also  laws  of 
a  similar  tendency.!  A  license  from  the 
crown  is  said  to  have  been  necessary  in 
England  before  the  conquest  for  aliena- 
tions in  mortmain ;  but,  however  that  may 
be,  there  seems  no  reason  to  imagine 
that  any  restraint  was  put  upon  them  by 
the  common  law  before  Magna  Charta  ; 
a  clause  of  which  statute  was  construed 
to  prohibit  all  gifts  to  religious  houses 
without  the  consent  of  the  lord  of  the  fee. 
And  by  the  7th  Edward  L,  alienations  in 
mortmain  are  absolutely  taken  away; 
though  the  king  might  always  exercise 
his  prerogative  of  granting  a  license, 
which  was  not  supposed  to  be  effected  by 
the  statute. $ 

It  must  appear,  I  think,  to  every  care- 
ful inquirer,  that  the  papal  author-  Boniface 
ity,  though  manifesting  outward-  vm- 
ly  more  show  of  strength  every  year,  had 
been  secretly  undermined,  and  lost  a 
great  deal  of  its  hold  upon  public  opinion, 
before  the  accession  of  Boniface  VIII., 
in  1294,  to  the  pontifical  throne.  The 
clergy  were  rendered  sullen  by  demands 
of  money,  invasions  of  the  legal  right  of 
patronage,  and  unreasonable  partiality  to 
the  mendicant  orders ;  a  part  of  the  men- 
dicants themselves  had  begun  to  de- 
claim against  the  corruptions  of  the  pa- 
pal court ;  while  the  laity,  subjects  alike 
and  sovereigns,  looked  upon  both  the 
head  and  the  members  of  the  hierarchy 
with  j'ealousy  and  dislike.  Boniface,  full 
of  inordinate  arrogance  and  ambition, 
and  not  sufficiently  sensible  of  this  grad- 
ual change  in  human  opinion,  endeavour- 
ed to  strain  to  a  higher  pitch  the  despot- 
ic pretensions  of  former  pontiffs.  As 
Gregory  VII.  appears  the  most  usurping 
of  mankind  till  we  read  the  history  of  In- 
nocent ILL,  so  Innocent  III.  is  thrown 
into  shade  by  the  superior  audacity  of 
Boniface  VIII.  But  independently  of  the 
less  favourable  dispositions  of  the  public, 
he  wanted  the  most  essential  quality  for 
an  ambitious  pope,  reputation  for  integri- 


*  Giannone,  1.  iii. 

t  Ordonnances  des  Rois,  p.  213.  See  too  p.  303 
and  alibi.  Du  Cange,  v.  Manus  morta.  Amortis- 
siment,  in  Denisart,  and  other  French  law-books. 
Fleury,  Instit.  au  Droit.,  t.  i.,  p.  350. 

t  Marina,  Ensayo  sobre  las  siete  partidas,  c.  235. 

<j  2  Inst.,  p.  74.    Blackstone,  vol.  ii.,  c.  18. 


302 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


ty.  He  was  suspected  of  having  procu- 
red through  fraud  the  resignation  of  his 
predecessor  Celestine  V.,  and  his  harsh 
treatment  of  that  worthy  man  afterward 
seems  to  justify  the  reproach.  His  ac- 
tions, however,  display  the  intoxication 
of  extreme  self-confidence.  If  we  may 
credit  some  historians,  he  appeared  at 
the  Jubilee  in  1300,  a  festival  successful- 
ly instituted  by  himself  to  throw  lustre 
around  his  court  and  fill  his  treasury,* 
dressed  in  imperial  habits,  with  the  two 
swords  borne  before  him,  emblems  of  his 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  dominion 
over  the  earth.f 

It  was  not  long  after  his  elevation  to 
His  disputes  ^e  pontificate  before  Boniface 
with  the  displayed  his  temper.  The  two 
King  of  most  powerful  sovereigns  of 
Europe,  Philip  the  Fair  and  Ed- 
ward the  First,  began  at  the  same  mo- 
ment to  attack  in  a  very  arbitrary  man- 
ner the  revenues  of  the  church.  The  Eng- 
lish clergy  had,  by  their  own  voluntary 
grants,  or  at  least  those  of  the  prelates 
in  their  name,  paid  frequent  subsidies  to 
the  crown,  from  the  beginning  of  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.  They  had  nearly,  in 
effect,  waived  the  ancient  exemption,  and 
retained  only  the  common  privilege  of 
English  freemen  to  tax  themselves  in  a 
constitutional  manner.  But  Edward  I. 
came  upon  them  with  demands  so  fre- 
quent and  exorbitant,  that  they  were  com- 
pelled to  take  advantage  of  a  bull  issued 
by  Boniface,  forbidding  them  to  pay  any 
contribution  to  the  state.  The  king  dis- 
regarded every  pretext,  and,  seizing  their 
goods  into  his  hands,  with  other  tyran- 
nical proceedings,  ultimately  forced  them 
to  acquiesce  in  his  extortion.  It  is  re- 
markable, that  the  pope  appears  to  have 
been  passive  throughout  this  contest  of 
Edward  I.  with  his  clergy.  But  it  was 
And  of  far  otherwise  in  France.  Philip 
France.  tne  Fajr  ha(j  imposed  a  tax  on  the 


*  The  Jubilee  was  a  centenary  commemoration, 
in  honour  of  St.  Peter  and  St.  Paul,  established 
by  Boniface  VIII.  on  the  faith  of  an  imaginary  pre- 
cedent a  century  before.  The  period  was  soon  re- 
duced to  fifty  years,  and  from  thence  to  twenty- 
five,  as  it  still  continues.  The  court  of  Rome,  at 
the  next  jubilee,  will,  however,  read  with  a  sigh  the 
description  given  of  that  in  1300.  Papa  innumera- 
bilem  pecuniam  ab  iisdem  recepit,  quiadie  et  nocte 
duo  clerici  stabant  ad  altare  Sancti  Pauli,  tenentes 
in  eorum  manibus  rastellos,  rastellantes  pecuniam 
infinitarn. — Muratori.  Plenary  indulgences  were 
granted  by  Boniface  to  all  who  should  keep  their 
jubilee  at  Rome,  and  I  suppose  are  still  to  be  had 
on  the  same  terms.  Matteo  Villam  gives  a  curi- 
ous account  of  the  throng  at  Rome  in  1350. 

t  Giannone,  1.  xxi.,  c.  3.  Velly,  t.  vii.,  p.  149. 
I  have  not  observed  any  good  authority  referred  to 
for  this  fact,  which  is  however  in  the  character  of 
Boniface. 


ecclesiastical  order  without  their  consent, 
a  measure  perhaps  unprecedented,  yet 
not  more  odious  than  the  similar  exac- 
tions of  the  King  of  England.  Irritated 
by  some  previous  differences,  the  pope 
issued  his  bull,  known  by  the  initial  words 
Clericis  laicos,  absolutely  forbidding  the 
clergy  of  every  kingdom  to  pay,  under 
whatever  pretext  of  voluntary  grant,  gift, 
or  loan,  any  sort  of  tribute  to  their  gov- 
ernment without  his  especial  permission. 
Though  France  was  not  particularly  na- 
med, the  king  understood  himself  to  be 
intended,  and  took  his  revenge  by  a  pro- 
hibition to  export  money  from  the  king- 
dom. This  produced  angry  remonstran- 
ces on  the  part  of  Boniface  ;  but  the  Gal- 
lican  church  adhered  so  faithfully  to  the 
crown,  and  showed  indeed  so  much  wil- 
lingness to  be  spoiled  of  their  money,  that 
he  could  not  insist  upon  the  most  unrea- 
sonable propositions  of  his  bull,  and  ulti- 
mately allowed  that  the  French  clergy 
might  assist  their  sovereign  by  voluntary 
contributions,  though  not  by  way  of  tax. 
For  a  very  few  years  after  these  cir- 
cumstances, the  pope  and  King  of  France 
appeared  reconciled  to  each  other ;  and 
the  latter  even  referred  his  disputes  with 
Edward  I.  to  the  arbitration  of  Boniface, 
"  as  a  private  person,  Benedict  of  Gaeta 
(his  proper  name),  and  not  as  pontiff;1'  an 
almost  nugatory  precaution  against  his 
encroachment  upon  temporal  authority.* 
But  a  terrible  storm  broke  out  in  the  first 
year  of  the  fourteenth  century.  A  bish- 
op of  Pamiers,  who  had  been  sent  as  le- 
gate from  Boniface  with  some  complaint, 
displayed  so  much  insolenc^~ahd  such 
disrespect  towards  the  kin^  that  Philip, 
considering  him  as  his  own  subject,  was 
provoked  to  put  him  under  arrest  with 
a  view  to  institute  a  criminal  process. 
Boniface,  incensed  beyond  measure  at 
this  violation  of  ecclesiastical  and  lega- 
tine  privileges,  published  several  bulls 
addressed  to  the  king  and  clergy  of 


*  Walt.  Hemingford,  p.  150.  The  award  of 
Boniface,  which  he  expresses  himself  to  make  both 
as  pope  and  Benedict  of  Gaeta,  is  published  in  Ry- 
mer,  t.  ii.,  p.  819,  and  is  very  equitable.  Never- 
theless, the  French  historians  agree  to  charge  him 
with  partiality  towards  Edward,  and  mention  sev- 
eral proofs  of  it,  which  do  not  appear  in  the  bull  it- 
self. Previous  to  its  publication,  it  was  allowable 
enough  to  follow  common  fame  ;  but  Velly,  a  wri- 
ter always  careless  and  not  always  honest,  has  re- 
peated mere  falsehoods  from  Mezeray  and  Baillet, 
while  he  refers  to  the  instrument  itself  in  Rymer, 
which  disproves  them. — Hist,  de  France,  t.  vii.,  p. 
139.  M.  Gaillard,  one  of  the  most  candid  critics  in 
history  that  France  ever  produced,  pointed  out  the 
error  of  her  common  historians  in  the  Mem.  de 
l'Acade"mie  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xxxix  ,  p.  642 ;  end 
the  editors  of  L'Art  de  verifier  le*  Dates  have  also 
rectified  it 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


303 


France,  charging  the  former  with  a  vari- 
ety of  offences,  some  of  them  not  at  all 
concerning  the  church,  and  commanding 
the  latter  to  attend  a  council  which  he 
had  summoned  to  meet  at  Rome.  In  one 
of  these  instruments,  the  genuineness  of 
which  does  not  seem  liable  to  much  ex- 
ception, he  declares  in  concise  and  clear 
terms  that  the  king  was  subject  to  him  in 
temporal  as  well  as  spiritual  matters. 
This  proposition  had  not  hitherto  been 
explicitly  advanced,  and  it  was  now  too 
late  to  advance  it.  Philip  replied  by  a 
short  letter  in  the  rudest  language,  and 
ordered  his  bulls  to  be  publicly  burnt  at 
Paris.  Determined,  however,  to  show 
the  real  strength  of  his  opposition,  he 
summoned  representatives  from  the  three 
orders  of  his  kingdom.  This  is  common- 
ly reckoned  the  first  assembly  of  the 
States-General.  The  nobility  and  com- 
mons disclaimed  with  firmness  the  tem- 
poral authority  of  the  pope,  and  conveyed 
their  sentiments  to  Rome  through  letters 
addressed  to  the  college  of  cardinals. 
The  clergy  endeavoured  to  steer  a  mid- 
dle course,  and  were  reluctant  to  enter 
into  an  engagement  not  to  obey  the 
pope's  summons ;  yet  they  did  not  hesi- 
tate unequivocally  to  deny  his  temporal 
jurisdiction. 

The  council,  however,  opened  at  Rome ; 
and,  notwithstanding  the  king's  absolute 
prohibition,  many  French  prelates  held 
themselves  bound  to  be  present.  In  this 
assembly  Boniface  promulgated  his  fa- 
mous constitution,  denominated  Unam 
Sanctam.  The  church  is  one  body,  he 
therein  declares,  and  has  one  head.  Un- 
der its  command  are  two  swords,  the  one 
spiritual,  and  the  other  temporal ;  that  to 
be  used  by  the  supreme  pontiff  himself; 
this  by  kings  and  knights,  by  his  license, 
and  at  his  will.  But  the  lesser  sword 
must  be  subject  to  the  greater,  and  the 
temporal  to  the  spiritual  authority.  He 
concludes  by  declaring  the  subjection  of 
every  human  being  to  the  See  of  Rome 
to  be  an  article  of  necessary  faith.*  An- 
other bull  pronounces  all  persons  of  what- 
ever rank  obliged  to  appear  when  person- 
ally cited  before  the  audience  or  apostol- 
ical tribunal  of  Rome ;  "  since  such  is  our 
pleasure,  who,  by  divine  permission,  rule 

*  Uterque  est  in  potestate  ecclesiae,  spiritalis, 
scilicet  gladius  et  materials.  Sed  is  quidem  pro 
ecclesia,  ille  vero  ab  ecclesia.  exercendus  :  ille  sa- 
cerdotis,  is  manu  regum  ac  militum,  sed  ad  nutum 
et  patientiam  sacerdotis.  Oportet  autem  gladium 
esse  sub  gladio,  et  temporalem  auctoritatem  spiri- 
tali  subjici  potestati.  Porro  subesse  Romano  pon- 
tifici  omni  humanae  creaturae  declaramus,  dicimus, 
defmimus  et  pronunciamus  omnino  esse  de  neces- 
sitate fidei.— Extravagant.,  1.  i.,  tit.  viii.,  c.  1. 


the  world."  Finally,  as  the  rupture  with 
Philip  grew  more  evidently  irreconcila- 
ble, and  the  measures  pursued  by  that 
monarch  more  hostile,  he  not  only  ex- 
communicated him,  but  offered  the  crown 
of  France  to  the  Emperor  Albert  I.  This 
arbitrary  transference  of  kingdoms  was, 
like  many  other  pretensions  of  that  age, 
an  improvement  upon  the  right  of  depo- 
sing excommunicated  sovereigns.  Greg- 
ory VII.  would  not  have  denied  that  a 
nation,  released  by  his  authority  from  its 
allegiance,  must  re-enter  upon  its  origi- 
nal right  of  electing  a  new  sovereign.  But 
Martin  IV.  had  assigned  the  crown  of  Ar- 
agon  to  Charles  of  Valois ;  the  first  in- 
stance, I  think,  of  such  a  usurpation  of 
power,  but  which  was  defended  by  the 
homage  of  Peter  II.,  who  had  rendered 
his  kingdom  feudally  dependant,  like  Na- 
ples, upon  the  Holy  See.*  Albert,  felt  no 
eagerness  to  realize  the  liberal  promises 
of  Boniface ;  who  was  on  the  point  of  is- 
suing a  bull,  absolving  the  subjects  of 
Philip  from  their  allegiance,  and  declaring 
his  forfeiture,  when  a  very  unexpected 
circumstance  interrupted  all  his  projects. 
It  is  not  surprising,  when  we  consider 
how  unaccustomed  men  were  in  those 
ages  to  disentangle  the  artful  sophisms, 
and  detect  the  falsehoods  in  point  of  fact, 
whereon  the  papal  supremacy  had  been 
established,  that  the  King  of  France 
should  not  have  altogether  pursued  the 
course  most  becoming  his  dignity  and  the 
goodness  of  his  cause.  He  gave  too 
much  the  air  of  a  personal  quarrel  with 
Boniface  to  what  should  have  been  a  res- 
olute opposition  to  the  despotism  of 
Rome.  Accordingly,  in  an  assembly  of 
his  states  at  Paris,  he  preferred  virulent 
charges  against  the  pope,  denying  him  to 
have  been  legitimately  elected,  imputing 
to  him  various  heresies,  and  ultimately 
appealing  to  a  general  council  and  a  law- 
ful head  of  the  church.  These  measures 
were  not  very  happily  planned  :  and  ex- 


*  Innocent  IV.  had,  however,  in  1245,  appointed 
one  Bolon,  brother  to  Sancho  II.,  king  of  Portugal, 
to  be  a  sort  of  coadjutor  in  the  government  of 
that  kingdom,  enjoining  the  barons  to  honour  him 
as  their  sovereign,  at  the  same  time  declaring  that 
he  did  not  intend  to  deprive  the  king,  or  his  lawful 
issue,  if  he  should  have  any,  of  the  kingdom.  But 
this  was  founded  on  the  request  of  the  Portuguese 
nobility  themselves,  who  were  dissatisfied  with 
Sancho's  administration.— Sext.  Decretal.,  1.  i.,  tit. 
viii.,  c.  2.  Art  de  Verifier  les  Dates,  t.  i.,  p.  778. 

Boniface  invested  James  II.  of  Aragon  with  the 
crown  of  Sardinia,  over  which,  however,  the  See 
of  Rome  had  always  pretended  to  a  superiority  by 
virtue  of  the  concession  (probably  spurious)  of  Lou- 
is the  Debonair.  He  promised  Frederick,  king  of 
Sicily,  the  empire  of  Constantinople,  which,  I  sup- 
pose, was  not  a  fief  of  the  Holy  Seo.— Giannone, 
1.  xxi.,  c.  3. 


304 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIL 


perience  had  always  shown,  that  Europe 
would  not  submit  to  change  the  common 
chief  of  her  religion  for  the  purposes  of 
a  single  sovereign.  But  Philip  succeed- 
ed in  an  attempt  apparently  more  bold 
and  singular.  Nogaret,  a  minister  who 
had  taken  an  active  share  in  all  the  pro- 
ceedings against  Boniface,  was  secretly 
despatched  into  Italy,  and,  joining  with 
some  of  the  Colonna  family,  proscribed 
as  Ghibelins,  and  rancorously  persecuted 
by  the  pope,  arrested  him  at  Anagnia,  a 
town  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome,  to 
which  he  had  gone  without  guards.  This 
violent  action  was  not,  one  would  ima- 
gine, calculated  to  place  the  king  in  an 
advantageous  light ;  yet  it  led  accidental- 
ly to  a  favourable  termination  of  his  dis- 
pute. Boniface  was  soon  rescued  by  the 
inhabitants  of  Anagnia ;  but  rage  bro'ught 
on  a  fever,  which  ended  in  his  death ;  and 
the  first  act  of  his  successor,  Benedict 
XL,  was  to  reconcile  the  King  of  France 
to  the  Holy  See.* 

The  sensible  decline  of  the  papacy  is 
to  be  dated  from  the  pontificate  of  Bon- 
iface VIII. ,  who  had  strained  its  author- 
ity to  a  higher  pitch  than  any  of  his  pre- 
decessors. There  is  a  spell  wrought  by 
uninterrupted  good  fortune,  which  cap- 
tivates men's  understanding,  and  per- 
suades them,  against  reasoning  and  anal- 
ogy, that  violent  power  is  immortal  and 
irresistible.  The  spell  is  broken  by  the 
first  change  of  success.  We  have  seen 
the  working  and  the  dissipation  of  this 
charm  with  a  rapidity  to  which  the  events 
of  former  times  bear  as  remote  a  rela- 
tion as  the  gradual  processes  of  nature  to 
her  deluges  and  her  volcanoes.  In  tra- 
cing the  papal  empire  over  mankind,  we 
have  no  such  marked  and  definite  crisis 
of  revolution.  But  slowly,  like  the  re- 
treat of  waters,  or  the  stealthy  pace  of 
old  age,  that  extraordinary  power  over 
human  opinion  has  been  subsiding  for 
five  centuries.  I  have  already  observed, 
that  the  symptoms  of  internal  decay  may 
be  traced  farther  back.  But  as  the  re- 
trocession of  the  Roman  terminus  under 
Adrian  gave  the  first  overt  proof  of  de- 
cline in  the  ambitious  energies  of  that 
empire,  so  the  tacit  submission  of  the 
successors  of  Boniface  VIII.  to  the  King 
of  France  might  have  been  hailed  by 
Europe  as  a  token  that  their  influence 
was  beginning  to  abate.  Imprisoned,  in- 
sulted, deprived  eventually  of  life  by  the 
violence  of  Philip,  a  prince  excommuni- 
cated, and  who  had  gone  all,  lengths  in 

*  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  vil,  p.  109-258.  Cre- 
vier,  Hist,  de  rUniv*rsit6  d«  Paris,  t.  ii.,  p.  170> 


defying  and  despising  the  papal  jurisdic- 
tion, Boniface  had  every  claim  to  be 
avenged  by  the  inheritors  of  the  same 
spiritual  dominion.  When  Benedict  XL 
rescinded  the  bulls  of  his  predecessor, 
and  admitted  Philip  the  Fair  to  commu- 
nion without  insisting  on  any  concessions, 
he  acted  perhaps  prudently,  but  gave  a 
fatal  blow  to  the  temporal  authority  of 
Rome. 

[A.  D.  1305.]  Benedict  XL  lived  but  a 
few  months,  and  his  successor,  Removal  of 
Clement  V.,  at  the  instigation,  papal  court 
as  is  commonly  supposed,  of  toAvignon- 
the  King  of  France,  by  whose  influence 
he  had  been  elected,  took  the  extraordi- 
nary step  of  removing  the  papal  chair  to 
Avignon.  In  this  city  it  remained  for 
more  than  seventy  years  ;  a  period  which 
Petrarch  and  other  writers  of  Italy  com- 
pare to  that  of  the  Babylonish  captivity. 
The  majority  of  the  cardinals  was  always 
French,  and  the  popes  were  uniformly 
of  the  same  nation.  Timidly  dependant 
upon  the  court  of  France,  they  neglected 
the  interests,  and  lost  the  affections  of 
Italy.  Rome,  forsaken  by  her  sovereign, 
nearly  forgot  her  allegiance;  what  re- 
mained of  papal  authority  in  the  ecclesi- 
astical territories  was  exercised  by  car- 
dinal legates,  little  to  the  honour  or  ad- 
vantage of  the  Holy  See.  Yet  the  series 
of  Avignon  pontiffs  were  far  from  in- 
sensible to  Italian  politics.  These  occu- 
pied, on  the  contrary,  the  greater  part  of 
their  attention.  But  engaging  in  them 
from  motives  too  manifestly  selfish,  and 
being  regarded  as  a  sort  of  foreigners 
from  birth  and  residence,  they  aggra- 
vated that  unpopularity  and  bad  reputa- 
tion which  from  various  other  causes 
attached  itself  to  their  court. 

Though  none  of  the  supreme  pontiffs 
after  Boniface  VIII.  ventured 
upon  such  explicit  assumptions  pope*  with 
of  a  general  jurisdiction  over  Louis  of 
sovereigns  by  divine  right  as  he 
had  made  in  his  controversy  with  Philip, 
they  maintained  one  memorable  struggle 
for  temporal  power  against  the  Emperor 
Louis  of  Bavaria.  Maxims  long  boldly 
repeated  without  contradiction,  and  in- 
grafted upon  the  canon  law,  passed  al- 
most for  articles  of  faith  among  the 
clergy,  and  those  who  trusted  in  them ; 
and,  in  despite  of  all  ancient  authorities, 
Clement  V.  laid  it  down,  that  the  popes, 
having  transferred  the  Roman  empire 
from  the  Greeks  to  the  Germans,  and 
delegated  the  right  of  nominating  an 
emperor  to  certain  electors,  still  reserved 
the  prerogative  of  approving  the  choice, 
and  of  receiving  from  its  subject  upon  his- 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER, 


805 


coronation  an  oath  of  fealty  and  obedi- 
ence.* This  had  a  regard  to  Henry  VII. 
who  denied  that  his  oath  bore  any  such 
interpretation,  and  whose  measures,  much 
to  the  alarm  of  the  court  of  Avignon, 
were  directed  towards  the  restoration  of 
his  imperial  rights  in  Italy.  Among  other 
things,  he  conferred  the  rank  of  vicar  of 
the  empire  upon  Matteo  Visconti,  lord 
of  Milan.  The  popes  had  for  some  time 
pretended  to  possess  that  vicariate,  du- 
ring a  vacancy  of  the  empire  ;  and  after 
Henry's  death,  insisted  upon  Visconti's 
surrender  of  the  title.  Several  circum- 


stances, for  which  I  refer  to  the  political  |^iave  been  reconciled,  if  he  had  not  feared 


historians  of  Italy,  produced  a  war  be- 
tween the  pope's  legate  and  the  Visconti 
family.  The  Emperor  Louis  sent  assist- 
ance to  the  latter,  as  heads  of  the  Ghib- 
elin  or  imperial  party.  This  interference 
cost  him  above  twenty  years  of  trouble. 
John  XXII.,  a  man  as  passionate  and 
ambitious  as  Boniface  himself,  immedi- 
ately published  a  bull,  in  which  he  assert- 
ed the  right  of  administering  the  empire 
during  its  vacancy  (even  in  Germany,  as 
it  seems  from  the  generality  of  his  ex- 
pression), as  well  as  of  deciding  in  a 
doubtful  choice  of  the  electors,  to  apper- 
tain to  the  Holy  See ;  and  commanded 
Louis  to  lay  down  his  pretended  author- 
ity, until  the  supreme  jurisdiction  should 
determine  upon  his  election.  Louis's 
election  had  indeed  been  questionable ; 
but  that  controversy  was  already  settled 
in  the  field  of  Muhldorf,  where  he  had 
obtained  a  victory  over  his  competitor 
the  Duke  of  Austria ;  nor  had  the  pope 
ever  interfered  to  appease  a  civil  war 
during  several  years  that  Germany  had 
been  internally  distracted  by  the  dispute. 
[A.  D.  1323.]  The  emperor,  not  yielding 
to  this  peremptory  order,  was  excommu- 
nicated ;  his  vassals  were  absolved  from 
their  oath  of  fealty,  and  all  treaties  of 
alliance  between  him  and  foreign  princes 
annulled.  Germany,  however,  remained 
firm  ;  and  if  Louis  himself  had  manifest- 
ed more  decision  of  mind  and  uniformity 
in  his  conduct,  the  court  of  Avignon  must 
have  signally  failed  in  a  contest,  from 

*  Roman!  principes,  &c Romano  ponti- 

fici,  a  quo  approbationern  personae  ad  imperialis 
celsitudmis  apicetn  assumendae,  necnonunctionem, 
consecrationem  et  imperil  coronam  accipiunt,  sua 
submittere  capita  non  reputarunt  indignum,  seque 
illi  et  eidem  ecclesiae,  quae  a  Graecis  imperium  tran- 
stulit  in  Germanos,  et  a  qua,  ad  certos  eorum  prin- 
cipes jus  et  potestas  eligendi  regem,  in  imperato- 
rem  postmodum  promovendum,  pertinet,  adstrin- 
gere  vinculo  juramenti,  &c. — Clement.,  1.  ii.,  tit.  ix. 
The  terms  of  the  oath,  as  recited  in  this  constitu- 
tion, do  not  warrant  the  pope's  interpretation,  but 
imply  only  that  the  emperor  shall  be  the  advocate 
cr  defender  of  the  church. 

u 


which  it  did  not  in  fact  come  out  very 
successful.  But  while  at  one  time  he 
went  intemperate  lengths  against  John 
XXII.,  publishing  scandalous  accusations 
in  an  assembly  of  the  citizens  of  Rome, 
and  causing  a  Franciscan  friar  to  be 
chosen  in  his  room,  after  an  irregular 
sentence  of  deposition,  he  was  always 
anxious  to  negotiate  terms  of  accommo- 
dation, to  give  up  his  own  active  parti- 
sans, and  to  make  concessions  the  most 
derogatory  to  his  independence  and  dig- 
nity. From  John,  indeed,  he  had  nothing 
to  expect ;  but  Benedict  XII.  would  gladly 


the  kings  of  France  and  Naples,  political 
adversaries  of  the  emperor,  who  kept 
the  Avignon  popes  in  a  sort  of  servitude. 
His  successor,  Clement  VI.,  inherited  the 
implacable  animosity  of  John  XXII.  to- 
wards Louis,  who  died  without  obtaining 
the  absolution  he  had  long  abjectly  soli- 
cited.* 

Though  the  want  of  firmness  in  this 
emperor's  character  gave  some-  g  iritofrei 
times  a  momentary  triumph  to  sistance  to* 
the  popes,  it  is  evident  that  their  PaP.al  usur- 
authority  lost  ground  during  the  Patlons- 
continuance  of  this  struggle.  Their  right 
of  confirming  imperial  elections  was  ex- 
pressly denied  by  a  diet  held  at  Frank- 
fort, in  1338,  which  established  as  a  fun- 
damental principle  that  the  imperial  dig- 
nity depended  upon  God  alone,  and  that 
whoever  should  be  chosen  by  a  majority 
of  the  electors  became  immediately  both 
king  and  emperor,  with  all  prerogatives 
of  that  station,  and  did  not  require  the 
approbation  of  the  pope.f  This  law,  con- 
firmed as  it  was  by  subsequent  usage, 
emancipated  the  German  empire,  which 
was  immediately  concerned  in  opposing 
the  papal  claims.  But  some  who  were 
actively  engaged  in  these  transactions 
took  more  extensive  views,  and  assailed 
the  whole  edifice  of  temporal  power 
which  the  Roman  see  had  been  con- 
structing for  more  than  two  centuries. 


•  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  iv,,  p.  446, 
536,  seems  the  best  modern  authority  for  this  con- 
.est  between  the  empire  and  papacy. — See  also 
Struvius,  Corp.  Hist.  German.,  p.  591. 
f  Quod  imperialis  dignitas  et  potestas  immediate 

x  solo  Deo,  et  quod  de  jure  et  imperil  consuetudi- 
ne  antiquitus  approbate  postquam  aliquis  eligitur 

n  imperatorem  sive  regem  ab  electonbus  imperil 
concorditer,  vel  major!  parte  eorundem,  statim  ex 
sold  electione  est  rex  verus  et  imperator  Roman- 
orum  censendus  et  npminandus,  et  eidem  debet  ab 
omnibus  imperio  subjectis  obediri,  et  administrandi 
jura  imperil,  et  caetera  faciendi,  quae  ad  imperato- 
rem verum  pertinent,  plenariam  habet  potestatem, 
nee  Papae  sive  sedis  apostolicae  aut  alicujus  alteri- 
us  approbatione,  confirmatione,  auctoritate  indiget 
vel  consensu.— Schmidt,  p.  513. 


306 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP,  V1L 


Several  men  of  learning,  among  whom 
Dante,  Ockham,  and  Marsilius  of  Padua, 
are  the  most  conspicuous,  investigated 
the  foundations  of  this  superstructure, 
and  exposed  their  insufficiency,*  Liter- 
ature, too  long  the  passive  handmaid  of 
spiritual  despotism,  began  to  assert  her 
nobler  birthright  of  ministering  to  liberty 
and  truth.  Though  the  writings  of  these 
opponents  of  Rome  are  not  always  rea- 
soned upon  very  solid  principles,  they  at 
least  taught  mankind  to  scrutinize  what 
had  been  received  with  implicit  respect, 
and  prepared  the  way  for  more  philosoph- 
ical discussions.  About  this  time  a  new 
class  of  enemies  had  unexpectedly  risen 
up  against  the  rulers  of  the  church. 
These  were  a  part  of  the  Franciscan  or- 
der, who  had  seceded  from  the  main 
body  on  account  of  alleged  deviations 
from  the  rigour  of  their  primitive  rule. 
Their  schism  was  chiefly  founded  upon 
a  quibble  about  the  right  of  property  in 
things  consumable,  which  they  maintain- 
ed to  be  incompatible  with  the  absolute 
poverty  prescribed  to  them.  This  friv- 
olous sophistry  was  united  with  the  wild- 
est fanaticism;  and  as  John  XXII.  at- 
tempted to  repress  their  follies  by  a  cruel 
persecution,  they  proclaimed  aloud  the 
corruption  of  the  church,  fixed  the  name 
of  antichrist  upon  the  papacy,  and  warm- 
ly supported  the  Emperor  Louis  through- 
out all  his  contention  with  the  Holy  See.f 
Meanwhile  the  popes  who  sat  at  Avig- 
Rapacity  of  non  continued  to  invade  with 
Avignon  surprising  rapaciousness  the 
popes.  patronage  and  revenues  of  the 
church.  The  mandats  or  letters  directing 
a  particular  clerk  to  be  preferred  seems 
to  have  given  place  in  a  great  degree  to 
the  more  effectual  method  of  appropria- 
ting benefices  by  reservation  or  provis- 
ion, which  was  carried  to  an  enormous 
extent  in  the  fourteenth  century.  John 
XXIL,  the  most  insatiate  of  pontiffs,  re- 

*  Giannone,  1.  xxii.,  c.  8.  Schmidt,  t.  vi.,  p.  152. 
Dante  was  dead  before  these  events,  but  his  prin- 
ciples were  the  same.  Ockham  had  already  ex- 
erted his  talents  in  the  same  cause  by  writing,  in 
behalf  of  Philip  IV.  against  Boniface,  a  dialogue 
between  a  knight  and  a  clerk  on  the  temporal  su- 
premacy of  the  church.  This  is  published  among 
other  tracts  of  the  same  class  in  Goldastus,  Monar- 
chia  Imperil,  p.  13.  This  dialogue  is  translated 
entire  in  the  Songe  du  Vergier,  a  more  celebrated 
performance,  ascribed  to  Raoul  de  Presles  under 
Charles  V. 

t  The  schism  of  the  rigid  Franciscans  or  Fratri- 
celli  is  one  of  the  most  singular  parts  of  ecclesias- 
tical history,  and  had  a  material  tendency  both  tc 
depress  the  temporal  authority  of  the  papacy,  anc 
to  pave  the  way  for  the  Reformation.  It  is  full) 
treated  by  Mosheim,  cent.  13  and  14 ;  and  by  Cre 
vier,  Hist,  de  I'Universit^  de  Paris,  t.  ii.,  p.  233- 
264,  &c. 


served  to  himself  all  the  bishoprics  in 
Christendom.*  Benedict  XII.  assumed 
he  privilege  for  his  own  life  of  disposing 
)f  all  benefices  vacant  by  cession,  depri- 
vation, or  translation.  Clement  VI.  nat- 
urally thought  that  his  title  was  equally 
good  with  his  predecessor's,  and  contin- 
ued the  same  right  for  his  own  time; 
which  soon  became  a  permanent  rule  of 
he  Roman  chancery.f  Hence  the  ap- 
)ointment  of  a  prelate  to  a  rich  bishopric 
was  generally  but  the  first  link  in  a  chain 
f  translation,  which  the  pope  could  reg- 
ulate according  to  his  interest.  Another 
Capital  innovation  was  made  by  John 
XXII.  in  the  establishment  of  the  famous 
ax  called  annates,  or  first  fruits  of  ec- 
clesiastical benefices,  which  he  imposed 
for  his  own  benefit.  Thes^  were  one 
year's  value,  estimated  according  to  a- 
ixed  rate  in  the  books  of  the  Roman 
chancery,  and  payable  to  the  papal  col- 
ectors  throughout  Europe. J  .Various 
other  devices  were  invented  to  obtain 
money,  which  these  degenerate  popes^ 
abandoning  the  magnificent  schemes  of 
heir  predecessors,  were  content  to  seek 
as  their  principal  object.  John  XXII.  is 
said  to  have  accumulated  an.  almost  in- 
credible treasure,  exaggerated  perhaps 
}y  the  ill-will  of  his  contemporaries  ;^ 
but  it  may  be  doubted  whether  even  his- 
avarice  reflected  greater  dishonour  011 
the  church  than  the  licentious  profuse- 
ness  of  Clement  VI.  |[ 

These  exactions  were  too  much  en- 
couraged by  the  kings  of  France,  who 
participated  in  the  plunder,  or  at  least  re- 
quired the  mutual  assistance  of  the  popes 
for  their  own  imposts  on  the  clergy. 
John  XXII.  obtained  leave  of  Charles 


*  Fleury,  Institutions,  &c.,  t.i.,  p.  368.  F.  Paul 
on  Benefices,  c.  37. 

t  F.  Paul,  c.  38.  Translations  of  bishops  had 
been  made  by  the  authority  of  the  metropolitan, 
till  Innocent  III.  reserved  this  prerogative  to  the 
Holy  See.— De  Marca,  1.  vi.,  c.  8. 

t  F.  Paul,  c.  38.  Fleury,  p.  424.  De  Marca,  1. 
vi.,  c.  10.  Pasquier,  1.  iii.,  c.  28.  The  popes  had 
long  been  in  the  habit  of  receiving  a  pecuniary  gra- 
tuity when  they  granted  the  pallium  to  an  archbish- 
op, though  this  was  reprehended  by  strict  men,  and 
even  condemned  by  themselves. — De  Marca,  ibid. 
It  is  noticed  as  a  remarkable  thing  of  Innocent  IV., 
that  he  gave  the  pall  to  a  German  archbishop 
without  accepting  any  thing. — Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p. 
172.  The  original  and  nature  of  annates  is  co- 
piously treated  in  Lenfant,  Concile  de  Constance, 


t.  ii.,  p.  133. 

G.  Villani  pt 
wh'ich  it  is  hardly  possible  to  believe.    The  Ital- 


Villani  puts  this  at  25,000,000  of  florins, 


ians  were  credulous  enough  to  listen  to  any  report 
against  the  popes  of  Avignon.— L.  xi.,  c.  20.  Gian- 
none, 1.  xxii.,  c.  8. 

||  For  the  corruption  of  morals  at  Avignon  during 
the  secession,  see  De  Sade,  Vie  de  Petrarque,  t. 
i.,  p.  70,  and  several  other  passages. 


CttAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


307 


the  Fair  to  levy  a  tenth  of  ecclesiastical 
revenues;*  and  Clement  VI.,  in  return, 
granted  two  tenths  to  Philip  of  Valoi 
for  the  expenses  of  his  war.  A  similar 
tax  was  raised  by  the  same  authority 
towards  the  ransom  of  John.f  These 
were  contributions  for  national  purposes 
unconnected  with  religion,  which  the 
popes  had  never  before  pretended  to 
impose,  and  which  the  king  might  prop- 
erly have  levied  with  the  consent  of  his 
clergy,  according  to  the  practice  of  Eng- 
land. But  that  consent  might  not  always 
be  obtained  with  ease,  and  it  seemed  a 
more  expeditious  method  to  call  in  the 
authority  of  the  pope.  A  manlier  spirit 
was  displayed  by  our  ancestors.  It  was 
the  boast  of  England  to  have  placed  the 
first  legal  barrier  to  the  usurpations  of 
Rome,  if  we  except  the  dubious  and  insu- 
lated Pragmatic  Sanction  of  St.  Louis, 
from  which  the  practice  of  succeeding 
ages  in  France  entirely  deviate.  The 
English  barons  had,  in  a' letter  addressed 
to  Boniface  VIII.,  absolutely  disclaimed 
his  temporal  supremacy  over  their  crown, 
which  he  had  attempted  to  set  up  by  in- 
termeddling in  the  quarrel  of  Scotland. J 
This  letter,  it  is  remarkable,  is  nearly 
co-incident  in  point  of  time  with  that  of 
the  French  nobility;  and  the  two  com- 
bined may  be  considered  as  a  joint  pro- 
testation of  both  kingdoms,  and  a  testi- 
mony to  the  general  sentiment  among 
the  superior  ranks  of  the  laity.  A  very 
few  years  afterward,  the  parliament  of 
Carlisle  wrote  a  strong  remonstrance  to 
Clement  V.  against  the  system  of  pro- 
visions and  other  extortions,  including 
that  of  first  fruits,  which  it  was  rumour- 
ed, they  say,  he  was  meditating  to  de- 
mand.§  But  the  court  of  Avignon  was 
not  to  be  moved  by  remonstrances ;  and 
the  feeble  administration  of  Edward  II. 
gave  way  to  ecclesiastical  usurpations  at 
home  as  well  as  abroad. ||  His  magnani- 
mous son  took  a  bolder  line.  After  com- 


*  Continuator  Gul.  de  Nangis,  in  Spicilegio 
d'Achery,  t.  iii.,  p.  86  (folio  ed.),  ita  miseram  eccle- 
siam,  says  this  monk,  unus  tondet,  alter  excoriat. 

f  Fleury,  Institut.  au  Droit  eecle'siastique,  t.  ii., 
p.  245.  Villaret,  t.  ix.,  p.  431.  It  became  a  regular 
practice  for  the  king  to  obtain  the  pope's  consent 
to  lay  a  tax  on  his  clergy  ;  though  he  sometimes 
applied  first  to  themselves. — Gamier,  t.  xx.,  p.  141. 

t  Rymer,  t.  ii.,  p.  373.     Collier,  vol.  i.,  p.  725. 

<j  Rotuli  Parliamenti,  vol.  i.,  p.  204.  This  pas- 
sage, hastily  read,  has  led  Collier  and  other  English 
writers,  such  as  Henry  and  Blackstone,  into  the 
supposition  that  annates  were  imposed  by  Clem- 
ent V.  But  the  concurrent  testimony  of  foreign 
authors  refers  this  tax  to  John  XXII.,  as  the  canon 
law  also  shows. — Extravagant.  Communes,  1.  iii., 
tit.  ii.,  c.  11. 

I!  The  statute  called  Articuli  cleti,  in  1316,  was 
U2 


plaining  ineffectually  to  Clement  VI.  of 
the  enormous  abuse  which  reserved 
almost  all  English  benefices  to  the  pope, 
and  generally  for  the  benefit  of  aliens,* 
he  passed  in  1350  the  famous  statute  of 
provisors.  This  act,  reciting  one  suppo- 
sed to  have  been  made  at  the  parliament 
of  Carlisle,  which,  however,  does  not  ap- 
pear,! and  complaining  in  strong  language 
of  the  mischief  sustained  through  con- 
tinual reservations  of  benefices,  enacts 
that  all  elections  and  collations  shall  be 
free,  according  to  law,  and  that,  in  case 
any  provision  or  reservation  should  be 
made  by  the  court  of  Rome,  the  king 
should  for  that  turn  have  the  collation 
of  such  benefice,  if  it  be  of  ecclesiastical 
election  or  patronage. J  This  devolution 
to  the  crown,  which  seems  a  little  arbi- 
trary, was  the  only  remedy  that  could  be 
effectual  against  the  connivance  and  ti- 
midity of  chapters  and  spiritual  patrons. 
We  cannot  assert  that  a  statute  so  nobly 
planned  was  executed  with  equal  stead- 
iness. Sometimes  by  royal  dispensa- 
tion, sometimes  by  neglect  or  evasion, 
the  papal  bulls  of  provision  were  still 
obeyed,  though  fresh  laws  were  enacted 
to  the  same  effect  as  the  former.  It  was 
found  on  examination  in  1367,  that  some 
clerks  enjoyed  more  than  twenty  benefi- 
ces by  the  pope's  dispensation. §  And 
the  parliaments  both  of  this  and  of  Rich- 
ard II. 's  reign  invariably  complain  of  the 
disregard  shown  to  the  statutes  of  provi- 
sors. This  led  to  other  measures,  which 
I  shall  presently  mention. 

The  residence  of  the  popes  at  Avignon 
gave  very  general  offence  to  Eu-  Return  of 
rope,  and  they  could  not  them-  Popea  to 
selves  avoid  perceiving  the  dis-  Rome- 
advantage  of  absence  from  their  proper 
diocess,  the  city  of  St.  Peter,  the  source 
of  all  their  claims  to  sovereign  authority. 
But  Rome,   so  long  abandoned,  offered 
but  an  inhospitable  reception ;  Urban  V. 


directed  rather  towards  confirming  than  limiting 
the  clerical  immunity  in  criminal  cases. 

*  Collier,  p.  546. 

t  It  is  singular  that  Sir  E.  Coke  should  assert 
that  this^act  recites,  and  is  founded  upon  the  stat- 
ute 35  E.  L,  De  asportatis  religiosorum  (2  Inst., 
580) ;  whereas  there  is  not  the  least  resemblance 
"n  the  words,  and  very  little,  if  any,  in  the  sub- 
stance. Blackstone,  in  consequence,  mistakes  the 
nature  of  that  act  of  Edward  I.,  and  supposes  it 
to  have  been  made  against  papal  provisions,  to 
which  I  do  not  perceive  even  an  allusion.  Whether 
any  such  statute  was  really  made  in  the  Carlisle 
parliament  of  35  E.  I.,  as  is  asserted  both  in 
25  E.  III.,  and  in  the  roll  of  another  parliament, 
17  E.  III.  (Rot.  Par!.,  t.  ii.,  p.  144),  is  hard  to  de- 
cide ;  and  perhaps  those  who  examine  this  point 
will  have  to  choose  between  wilful  suppression 
and  wilful  interpolation. 

t  25  E.  HI.,  etat.  6.  $  Collier,  p.  568. 


308 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Vtt, 


returned  to  Avignon,  after  a  short  exper- 
iment of  the  capital ;  and  it  was  not  till 
1376  that  the  promise,  often  repeated 
and  long  delayed,  of  restoring  the  papal 
chair  to  the  metropolis  of  Christendom, 
was  ultimately  fulfilled  by  Gregory  XI. 
His  death,  which  happened  soon  after- 
ward, prevented,  it  is  said,  a  second 
flight  that  he  was  preparing.  This  was 
followed  by  the  great  schism,  one  of  the 
most  remarkable  events  in  ecclesiastical 
history.  It  is  a  difficult  and  by  no  means 
Contested  an  interesting  question  to  deter- 
eiection  of  mme  the  validity  of  that  contest- 
andcie-  ed  election  which  distracted  the 
ment  vii.  Latin  church  for  so  many  years. 
[A.  D.  1377.]  All  contemporary  testimo- 
nies are  subject  to  the  suspicion  of  partial- 
ity in  a  cause  where  no  one  was  permitted 
to  be  neutral.  In  one  fact,  however,  there 
is  a  common  agreement,  that  the  cardinals, 
of  whom  the  majority  were  French,  hav- 
ing assembled  in  conclave  for  the  elec- 
tion of  a  successor  to  Gregory  XL,  were 
disturbed  by  a  tumultuous  populace,  who 
demanded  with  menaces  a  Roman,  or,  at 
least,  an  Italian  pope.  This  tumult  ap- 
pears to  have  been  sufficiently  violent  to 
excuse,  and  in  fact  did  produce,  a  con- 
siderable degree  of  intimidation.  After 
some  time,  the  cardinals  made  choice  of 
the  Archbishop  of  Bari,  a  Neapolitan,  who 
assumed  the  name  of  Urban  VI.  His 
election  satisfied  the  populace,  and  tran- 
quillity was  restored.  The  cardinals  an- 
nounced their  choice  to  the  absent  mem- 
bers of  their  college,  and  behaved  to- 
wards Urban  as  their  pope  for  several 
weeks.  But  his  uncommon  harshness 
of  temper  giving  them  offence,  they 
withdrew  to  a  neighbouring  town,  and 
protesting  that  his  election  had  been 
compelled  by  the  violence  of  the  Roman 
populace,  annulled  the  whole  proceeding, 
and  chose  one  of  their  own  number,  who 
took  the  pontifical  name  of  Clement  VII. 
Such  are  the  leading  circumstances  which 
produced  the  famous  schism.  Constraint 
is  so  destructive  of  the  essence  of  elec- 
tion, that  suffrages  given  through  actual 
intimidation  ought,  I  think,  to  be  held  in- 
valid, even  without  minutely  inquiring 
whether  the  degree  of  illegal  force  was 
such  as  might  reasonably  overcome  the 
constancy  of  a  firm  mind.  It  is  improb- 
able that  the  free  votes  of  the  cardinals 
would  have  been  bestowed  on  the  Arch- 
bishop of  Bari;  and  I  should  not  feel 
much  hesitation  in  pronouncing  his  elec- 
tion to  have  been  void.  But  the  sacred 
college  unquestionably  did  not  use  the 
earliest  opportunity  of  protesting  against 
the  violence  they  had  suffered ;  and  we 


may  infer  almost  with  certainty,  that  if 
Urban's  conduct  had  been  more  accepta- 
ble to  that  body,  the  world  would  have 
heard  little  of  the  transient  riot  at  his 
election.  This  however  opens  a  deli- 
cate question  in  jurisprudence  ;  namely, 
under  what  circumstance  acts,  not  only 
irregular,  but  substantially  invalid,  are 
capable  of  receiving  a  retro-active  con- 
firmation by  the  acquiescence  and  ac- 
knowledgment of  parties  concerned  to 
oppose  them.  And  upon  this,  I  con- 
ceive, the  great  problem  of  legitimacy 
between  Urban  and  Clement  will  be 
found  to  depend.* 

Whatever  posterity  may  have  judged 
about  the  pretensions  of  these  The  Great 
competitors,  they  at  that  time  schism. 
shared  the  obedience  of  Europe  in  near- 
ly equal  proportions.  Urban  remained  at 
Rome ;  Clement  resumed  the  station  of 
Avignon.  To  the  former  adhered  Italy, 
the  empire,  England,  and  the  nations  of 
the  north ;  the  latter  retained  in  his  alle- 
giance France,  Spain,  Scotland,  and  Si- 
cily. Fortunately  for  the  church,  no 
question  of  religious  faith  intermixed  it- 
self with  this  schism ;  nor  did  any  other 
impediment  to  reunion  exist,  than  the 
obstinacy  and  selfishness  of  the  contend- 
ing parties.  As  it  was  impossible  to 
come  to  any  agreement  on  the  original 
merits,  there  seemed  to  be  no  means  of 
healing  the  wound  but  by  the  abdication 
of  both  popes  and  a  fresh  undisputed 
election.  This  was  the  general  wish  of 
Europe,  but  urged  with  particular  zeal  by 
the  court  of  France,  and,  above  all,  by  the 
university  of  Paris,  which  esteems  this 
period  the  most  honourable  in  her  annals. 
The  cardinals  however  of  neither  obedi- 
ence would  recede  so  far  from  their  par- 
ty as  to  suspend  the  election  of  a  succes- 
sor upon  a  vacancy  of  the  pontificate, 
which  would  have  at  least  removed  one 
half  of  the  obstacle.  The  Roman  con- 
clave accordingly  placed  three  pontiffs 
successively,  Boniface  IX.,  Innocent  VI. , 
and  Gregory  XII.,  in  the  seat  of  Urban 
VI. ;  and  the  cardinals  at  Avignon,  upon 
the  death  of  Clement,  in  1394,  elected 
Benedict  XIII.  (Peter  de  Luna),  famous 
for  his  inflexible  obstinacy  in  prolonging 
the  schism.  He  repeatedly  promised  to 


*  Lenfant  has  collected  all  the  original  testimo- 
nies on  both  sides  in  the  first  book  of  his  Concile 
de  Pise.  No  positive  decision  has  ever  been  made 
on  the  subject,  but  the  Roman  popes  are  numbered 
in  the  commonly  received  list,  and  those  of  Avignon 
are  not.  The  modern  Italian  writers  express  no 
doubt  about  the  legitimacy  of  Urban  ;  the  French 
at  most  intimate  that  Clement's  pretensions  were 
not  to  be  wholly  rejected.  But  I  am  saying  too 
much  on  a  question  so  utterly  unimportant. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


309 


sacrifice  his  dignity  for  the  sake  of  union. 
But  there  was  no  subterfuge  to  which 
this  crafty  pontiff  had  not  recourse  in  or- 
der to  avoid  compliance  with  his  word, 
though  importuned,  threatened,  and  even 
besieged  in  his  palace  at  Avignon.  Fa- 
tigued by  his  evasions,  France  withdrew 
her  obedience,  and  the  Gallican  church 
continued  for  a  few  years  without  ac- 
knowledging any  supreme  head.  But  this 
step,  which  was  rather  the  measure  of 
the  university  at  Paris  than  of  the  nation, 
it  seemed  advisable  to  retract ;  and  Ben- 
edict was  again  obeyed,  though  France 
continued  to  urge  his  resignation.  A 
second  subtraction  of  obedience,  or  at 
least  declaration  of  neutrality,  was  re- 
solved upon,  as  preparatory  to  the  con- 
vocation of  a  general  council.  On  the 
other  hand,  those  who  sat  at  Rome  dis- 
played not  less  insincerity.  Gregory 
XII.  bound  himself  by  oath  on  his  acces- 
sion to  abdicate  when  it  should  appear 
necessary.  But  while  these  rivals  were 
loading  each  other  with  the  mutual  re- 
proach of  schism,  they  drew  on  them- 
selves the  suspicion  of  at  least  a  virtual 
collusion  in  order  to  retain  their  respect- 
ive stations.  At  length  the  cardinals  of 
both  parties,  wearied  with  so  much  dis- 
simulation, deserted  their  masters,  and 
summoned  a  general  council  to  meet  at 
Pisa.* 

[A.  D.  1409.]  The  council  assembled  at 
Council  Pisa  deposed  both  Gregory  and 
of  Pisa;  Benedict,  without  deciding  in  any 
respect  as  to  their  pretensions,  and  elect- 
ed Alexander  V.  by  its  own  supreme  au- 
thority. This  authority,  however,  was 
not  universally  recognised ;  the  schism, 
instead  of  being  healed,  became  more 
desperate ;  for,  as  Spain  adhered  firmly 
to  Benedict,  and  Gregory  was  not  with- 
out supporters,  there  were  now  three 
contending  pontiffs  in  the  church.  A 
general  council  was  still,  however,  the 
favourite,  and  indeed  the  sole  remedy; 
and  John  XXIII.,  successor  of  Alexander 
of  con-  V.,  was  reluctantly  prevailed  upon, 
stance;  or  perhaps  trepanned  into  convo- 
king one  to  meet  at  Constance.  [A.  D. 
1414.]  In  this  celebrated  assembly  he 
was  himself  deposed ;  a  sentence  which 
he  incurred  by  that  tenacious  clinging  to 
his  dignity,  after  repeated  promises  to 
abdicate,  which  had  already  proved  fatal 
to  his  competitors.  The  deposition  of 
John,  confessedly  a  legitimate  pope,  may 
strike  us  as  an  extraordinary  measure. 
But,  besides  the  opportunity  it  might  af- 


*  Villaret.    Lenfant,  Concile  de  Pise.    Crevier, 
Hist,  de  TUniversite  de  Paris,  t.  iii. 


ford  of  restoring  union,  the  council  found 
a  pretext  for  this  sentence  in  his  enor- 
mous vices,  which  indeed  they  seem  to 
have  taken  upon  common  fame  without 
any  judicial  process.  The  true  motive, 
however,  of  their  proceedings  against 
him,  was  a  desire  to  make  a  signal  dis- 
play of  a  new  system,  which  had  rapidly 
gained  ground,  and  which  I  may  venture 
to  call  the  whig  principles  of  the  Catholic 
church.  A  great  question  was  at  issue, 
whether  the  polity  of  that  establishment 
should  be  an  absolute,  or  an  exceedingly 
limited  monarchy.  The  papal  tyranny, 
long  endured  and  still  increasing,  had  ex- 
cited an  active  spirit  of  reformation  which 
the  most  distinguished  ecclesiastics  of 
France  and  other  countries  encouraged. 
They  recurred,  as  far  as  their  knowledge 
allowed,  to  a  more  primitive  discipline 
than  the  canon  law,  and  elevated  the  su- 
premacy of  general  councils.  But  in  the 
formation  of  these  they  did  not  scruple 
to  introduce  material  innovations.  The 
bishops  have  usually  been  considered  the 
sole  members  of  ecclesiastical  assem- 
blies. At  Constance,  however,  sat  and 
voted  not  only  the  chiefs  of  monasteries, 
but  the  ambassadors  of  all  Christian 
princes,  the  deputies  of  universities,  with 
a  multitude  of  inferior  theologians,  and 
e^%n  doctors  of  law.*  These  were  nat- 
urally accessible  to  the  pride  of  sudden 
elevation,  which  enabled  them  to  con- 
trol the  strong,  and  humiliate  the  lofty. 
In  addition  to  this,  the  adversaries  of  the 
court  of  Rome  carried  another  not  less 
important  innovation.  The  Italian  bish- 
ops, almost  universally  in  the  papal  inter- 
ests, were  so  numerous,  that,  if  suffrages 
had  been  taken  by  the  head,  their  pre- 
ponderance would  have  impeded  any 
measures  of  transalpine  nations  towards 
reformation.  It  was  determined,  there- 
fore, that  the  council  should  divide  itself 
into  four  nations,  the  Italian,  the  German, 
the  French,  and  the  English ;  each  with 
equal  rights,  and  that  every  proposition 
having  been  separately  discussed,  the 
majority  of  the  four  should  prevail,  f  This 


*  Lenfant,  Concile  de  Constance,  t.  i.,  p.  107 
(edit.  1727).  Crevier,  t.  iii.,  p.  405.  It  was  agreed 
that  the  ambassadors  could  not  vote  upon  articles 
of  faith,  but  only  on  questions  relating  to  the  set- 
tlement of  the  church.  But  the  second  order  of 
ecclesiastics  were  allowed  to  vote  generally. 

t  This  separation  of  England,  as  a  coequal  limb 
of  the  council,  gave  great  umbrage  to  the  French, 
who  maintained  that,  like  Denmark  and  Sweden, 
it  ought  to  have  been  reckoned  along  with  Germa- 
ny. The  English  deputies  came  down  with  a  pro- 
fusion of  authorities  to  prove  the  antiquity  of  their 
monarchy,  for  which  they  did  not  fail  to  put  in  re 
quisition  the  immeasurable  pedigrees  of  Ireland. 
Joseph  of  Arimathea,  who  planted  Christianity  and 


310 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


revolutionary  spirit  was  very  unaccepta- 
ble to  the  cardinals,  who  submitted  re- 
luctantly, and  with  a  determination  that 
did  not  prove  altogether  unavailing,  to 
save  their  papal  monarchy  by  a  dexter- 
ous policy.  They  could  not,  however, 
prevent  the  famous  resolutions  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  sessions,  which  declare 
that  the  council  has  received  by  divine 
right  an  authority  to  which  every  rank, 
even  the  papal,  is  obliged  to  submit,  in 
matters  of  faith,  in  the  extirpation  of  the 
present  schism,  and  in  the  reformation  of 
the  church  both  in  its  head  and  its  mem- 
bers ;  and  that  every  person,  even  a  pope, 
who  shall  obstinately  refuse  to  obey  that 
council,  or  any  other  lawfully  assembled, 
is  liable  to  such  punishment  as  shall  be 
necessary.*  These  decrees  are  the  great 
pillars  of  that  moderate  theory  with  re- 
spect to  the  papal  authority  which  dis- 
tinguished the  Gallican  church,  and  is 
embraced,  I  presume,  by  almost  all  lay- 
men and  the  major  part  of  ecclesiastics 
on  this  side  of  the  Alps.  They  embar- 
rass the  more  popish  churchmen  as  the 
Revolution  does  our  English  tories ; 
some  boldly  impugn  the  authority  of  the 
council  of  Constance,  while  others  chi- 
cane upon  the  interpretation  of  its  de- 
crees. Their  practical  importance  is  not, 
indeed,  direct;  universal  councils  exist 
only  in  possibility  ;  but  the  acknowledg- 
ment of  a  possible  authority  paramount 
to  the  see  of  Rome  has  contributed, 
among  other  means,  to  check  its  usur- 
pations. 

The  purpose  for  which  these  general 
councils  had  been  required,  next  to  that  of 
healing  the  schism,  was  the  reformation 
of  abuses.  All  the  rapacious  exactions, 
all  the  scandalous  venality  of  which  Eu- 
rope had  complained,  while  unquestioned 
pontiffs  ruled  at  Avignon,  appeared  light 
in  comparison  of  the  practices  of  both 
rivals  during  the  schism.  Tenths  repeat- 
edly levied  upon  the  clergy,  annates  rig- 
orously exacted  and  enhanced  by  new 
valuations,  fees  annexed  to  the  complica- 
ted formalities  of  the  papal  chancery, 
were  the  means  by  which  each  half  of 
the  church  was  compelled  to  reimburse 

his  stick  at  Glastonbury,  did  his  best  to  help  the 
cause.  The  recent  victory  of  Azincourt,  I  am  in- 
clined to  think,  had  more  weight  with  the  council. 
— Lenfant,  t.  ii.,  p.  46. 

At  a  time  when  a  very  different  spirit  prevailed, 
the  English  bishops  under  Henry  II.  and  Henry 
III.  had  claimed  as  a  right,  that  no  more  than  four 
of  their  number  should  be  summoned  to  a  general 
council.— Hoveden,  p.  320;  Carte,  vol.  ii.,  p.  84. 
This  was  like  boroughs  praying  to  be  released  from 
sending  members  to  parliament. 

*  Idem,  p.  164.    Crevier,  t.  iii.,  p.  417. 


its  chief  for  the  subtraction  of  the  other's 
obedience.  Boniface  IX.,  one  of  the  Ro- 
man line,  whose  fame  is  a  little  worse 
than  that  of  his  antagonists,  made  a  gross 
traffic  of  his  patronage  ;  selling  the  privi- 
leges of  exemption  from  ordinary  juris- 
diction, of  holding  benefices  in  commen- 
dam,  and  other  dispensations  invented  for 
the  benefit  of  the  Holy  See.*  Nothing 
had  been  attempted  at  Pisa  towards  ref- 
ormation. At  Constance  the  majority 
were  ardent  and  severe ;  the  representa- 
tives of  the  French,  German,  and  English 
churches  met  with  a  determined  and,  as 
we  have  seen,  not  always  unsuccessful 
resolution  to  assert  their  ecclesiastical 
liberties.  They  appointed  a  committee 
of  reformation,  whose  recommendations, 
if  carried  into  effect,  would  have  annihi- 
lated almost  entirely  that  artfully  con- 
structed machinery  by  which  Rome  had 
absorbed  so  much  of  the  revenues  and 
patronage  of  the  church.  But  men  in- 
terested in  perpetuating  these  abuses,  es- 
pecially the  cardinals,  improved  the  ad- 
vantages which  a  skilful  government  al- 
ways enjoys  in  playing  against  a  popular 
assembly.  They  availed  themselves  of 
the  jealousies  arising  out  of  the  division 
of  the  council  into  nations,  which  exteri- 
or political  circumstances  had  enhanced. 
France,  then  at  war  with  England,  whose 
pretensions  to  be  counted  as  a  fourth  na- 
tion she  had  warmly  disputed,  and  not 
well  disposed  towards  the  Emperor  Si- 
gismund,  joined  with  the  Italians  against 
the  English  and  German  members  of  the 
council  in  a  matter  of  the  utmost  impor- 
tance, the  immediate  election  of  a  pope 
before  the  articles  of  reformation  should 
be  finally  concluded.  These  two  nations, 
in  return,  united  with  the  Italians  to 
choose  the  Cardinal  Colpnna,  against  the 
advice  of  the  French  divines,  who  object- 
ed to  any  member  of  the  sacred  college. 
The  court  of  Rome  were  gainers  in  both 
questions.  Martin  V.,  the  new  pope, 
soon  evinced  his  determination  to  elude 
any  substantial  reform.  After  publishing 
a  few  constitutions  tending  to  redress 
some  of  the  abuses  that  had  arisen  during 
the  schism,  he  contrived  to  make -separate 
conventions  with  the  several  nations,  and 
as  soon  as  possible  dissolved  the  council. f 
By  one  of  the  decrees  passed  at  Con- 
stance, another  general  council  was  to  be 

*  Lenfant,  Hist,  du  Concile  de  Pise,  passim. 
Crevier,  Villaret,  Schmidt,  Collier. 

f  Lenfant,  Concile  de  Constance.  The  copious- 
ness as  well  as  impartiality  of  this  work  justly  ren- 
der it  an  almost  exclusive  authority.  Crevier 
(Hist,  de  1'Universite  de  Paris,  t.  iii.)  has  given  a 
good  abridgment ;  and  Schmidt  (Hist,  des  Alle- 
mands,  t,  v.)  is  worthy  of  attention. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


311 


assembled  in  five  years,  a  second  at  the 
end  of  seven  more,  and  from  that  time  a 
similar  representation  of  the  church  was 
to  meet  every  ten  years.  Martin  V.  ac- 
cordingly convoked  a  council  at  Pavia, 
which,  on  account  of  the  plague,  was 
transferred  to  Siena ;  but  nothing  of  im- 
portance was  transacted  by  this  assem- 

of  Basle    bly<*      tA'    D      1433-1   That  which 

he  summoned  seven  years  after- 
ward to  the  city  of  Basle  had  very  differ- 
ent results.  The  pope,  dying  before  the 
meeting  of  this  council,  was  succeeded 
by  Eugenius  IV.,  who,  anticipating  the 
spirit  of  its  discussions,  attempted  to 
crush  its  independence  in  the  outset  by 
transferring  the  place  of  session  to  an 
Italian  city.  No  point  was  reckoned  so 
material  in  the  contest  between  the 
popes  and  reformers,  as  whether  a  coun- 
cil should  sit  in  Italy  or  beyond  the  Alps. 
The  council  of  Basle  began,  as  it  pro- 
ceeded, in  open  enmity  to  the  court  of 
Rome.  Eugenius,  after  several  years 
had  elapsed  in  more  or  less  hostile  dis- 
eussions,  exerted  his  prerogative  of  remo- 
ving the  assembly  to  Ferrara,  and  from 
thence  to  Florence.  For  this  he  had  a 
specious  pretext  in  the  negotiation,  then 
apparently  tending  to  a  prosperous  issue, 
for  the  reunion  of  the  Greek  church ;  a 
triumph,  however  transitory,  of  which  his 
council  at  Florence  obtained  the  glory. 
On  the  other  hand,  the  assembly  at  Basle, 
though  much  weakened  by  the  defection 
of  those  who  adhered  to  Eugenius,  enter- 
ed into  compacts  with  the  Bohemian  in- 
surgents m^re  essential  to  the  interests 
of  the  church  than  any  union  with  the 
Greeks,  and  completed  the  work  begun 
at  Constance  by  abolishing  the  annates, 
the  reservations  of  benefices,  and  other 
abuses  of  papal  authority.  In  this  it  re- 
ceived the  approbation  of  most  princes  ; 
but  when,  provoked  by  the  endeavours  of 
the  pope  to  frustrate  its  decrees,  it  pro- 
ceeded so  far  as  to  suspend  and  even  to 
depose  him,  neither  France  nor  Germany 
concurred  in  the  sentence.  Even  the 
council  of  Constance  had  not  absolutely 
asserted  a  right  of  deposing  a  lawful 
pope,  except  in  case  of  heresy,  though 
their  conduct  towards  John  could  not 
otherwise  be  justified.!  This  question 


*  Lenfant,  Guerre  des  Hussites,  t.  i.,  p.  223. 

t  The  council  of  Basle  endeavoured  to  evade  this 
difficulty  by  declaring  Eugenius  a  relapsed  heretic. 
— Lenfant,  Guerre  des  Hussites,  t.  ii.,  p.  98.  But 
as  the  church  could  discover  no  heresy  in  his  disa- 
greement with  that  assembly,  the  sentence  of  de- 
position gained  little  strength  by  this  previous  de- 
cision. The  bishops  were  unwilling  to  take  this 
violent  step  against  Eugenius ;  but  the  minor  theo» 


indeed  of  ecclesiastical  public  law  seems 
to  be  still  undecided.  The  fathers  of  Basle 
acted  however  with  greater  intrepidity 
than  discretion,  and  not  perhaps  sensible 
of  the  change  that  was  taking  place  in 
public  opinion,  raised  Amadeus,  a  retired 
duke  of  Savoy,  to  the  pontifical  dignity, 
by  the  name  of  Felix  V.  They  thus  re- 
newed the  schism,  and  divided  the  obe- 
dience of  the  Catholic  church  for  a  few 
years.  The  empire,  however,  as  well  as 
France,  observed  a  singular  and  not  very 
consistent  neutrality  respecting  Eugenius 
as  lawful  pope,  and  the  assembly  at  Basle 
as  a  general  council.  England  warmly 
supported  Eugenius,  and  even  adhered 
to  his  council  at  Florence ;  Aragon  and 
some  countries  of  smaller  note  acknowl- 
edged Felix.  But  the  partisans  of  Basle 
became  every  year  weaker ;  and  Nicolas 
V.,  the  successor  of  Eugenius,  found  no 
great  difficulty  in  obtaining  the  cession  of 
Felix,  and  terminating  this  schism.  This 
victory  of  the  court  of  Rome  over  the 
council  of  Basle  nearly  counterbalanced 
the  disadvantageous  events  at  Constance, 
and  put  an  end  to  the  project  of  fixing 
permanent  limitations  upon  the  head  of 
the  church  by  means  of  general  coun- 
cils. Though  the  decree  that  prescribed 
the  convocation  of  a  council  every  ten 
years  was  still  unrepealed,  no  absolute 
monarchs  have  ever  more  dreaded  to 
meet  the  representatives  of  their  people, 
than  the  Roman  pontiffs  have  abhorred 
the  name  of  those  ecclesiastical  synods ; 
once  alone,  and  that  with  the  utmost  re- 
luctance, has  the  Catholic  church  been 
convoked  since  the  council  of  Basle ;  but 
the  famous  assembly  to  which  I  allude 
does  not  fall  within  the  scope  of  my  pres- 
ent undertaking.* 

It  is  a  natural  subject  of  speculation, 
what  would  have  been  the  effects  of  these 
universal  councils,  which  were  so  popu- 
lar in  the  fifteenth  century,  if  the  decree 
passed  at  Constance  for  their  periodical 
assembly  had  been  regularly  observed? 
Many  Catholic  writers,  of  the  moderate 
or  cisalpine  school,  have  lamented  their 
disuse,  and  ascribed  to  it  that  irreparable 


logians,  the  democracy  of  the  Catholic  church, 
whose  right  of  suffrage  seems  rather  an  anomalous 
infringement  of  episcopal  authority,  pressed  it  with 
much  heat  and  rashness.  See  a  curious  passage 
on  this  subject  in  a  speech  of  the  Cardinal  of  Aries. 
— Lenfant,  t.  ii.,  p.  225. 

*  There  is  not,  I  believe,  any  sufficient  history  of 
the  council  of  Basle.  Lenfant  designed  to  write  it 
from  the  original  acts,  but,  finding  his  health  de- 
cline, intermixed  some  rather  imperfect  notices  of 
its  transactions  with  his  history  of  the  Hussite  war, 
which  is  commonly  quoted  under  the  title  of  His- 
tory  of  the  Council  of  Basle.  Schmidt,  Crevier, 
Villaret,  are  still  my  other  authorities. 


312 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


breach  which  the  Reformation  has  made 
in  the  fabric  of  their  church.  But  there 
is  almost  an  absurdity  in  conceiving  their 
permanent  existence.  What  chymistry 
could  have  kept  united  such  heterogene- 
ous masses,  furnished  with  every  prin- 
ciple of  mutual  repulsion  ?  Even  in  early 
times,  when  councils,  though  nominally 
general,  were  composed  of  the  subjects 
of  the  Roman  empire,  they  had  been 
marked  by  violence  and  contradiction: 
what  then  could  have  been  expected 
from  the  delegates  of  independent  king- 
doms, whose  ecclesiastical  polity,  what- 
ever may  be  said  of  the  spiritual  unity 
of  the  church,  had  long  been  far  too  inti- 
mately blended  with  that  of  the  state,  to 
admit  of  any  general  control  without  its 
assent?  Nor,  beyond  the  zeal,  unques- 
tionably sincere,  which  animated  their 
members,  especially  at  Basle,  for  the  ab- 
olition of  papal  abuses,  is  there  any  thing 
to  praise  in  their  conduct,  or  to  regret 
in  their  cessation.  The  statesman,  who 
dreaded  the  encroachments  of  priests  upon 
the  civil  government,  the  Christian,  who 
panted  to  see  his  rites  and  faith  purified 
from  the  corruption  of  ages,  found  no 
hope  of  improvement  in  these  councils. 
They  took  upon  themselves  the  preten- 
sions of  the  popes  whom  they  attempt- 
ed to  supersede.  By  a  decree  of  the  fa- 
thers at  Constance,  all  persons,  including 
princes,  who  should  oppose  any  obstacle 
to  a  journey  undertaken  by  the  Emperor 
Sigismund,  in  order  to  obtain  the  cession 
of  Benedict,  are  declared  excommuni- 
cated, and  deprived  of  their  dignities, 
whether  secular  or  ecclesiastical.*  Their 
condemnation  of  Huss  and  Jerome  of 
Prague,  and  the  scandalous  breach  of 
faith  which  they  induced  Sigismund  to 
commit  on  that  occasion,  are  notorious. 
But  perhaps  it  is  not  equally  so,  that  this 
celebrated  assembly  recognised  by  a 
solemn  decree  the  flagitious  principle 
which  it  had  practised,  declaring  that 
Huss  was  unworthy,  through  his  obsti- 
nate adherence  to  heresy,  of  any  privi- 
lege ;  nor  ought  any  faith  or  promise  to 
be  kept  with  him,  by  natural,  divine,  or 
human  law,  to  the  prejudice  of  the  Cath- 
olic religion.f  It  will  be  easy  to  esti- 

*  Lenfant,  t.  i.,  p.  439. 

t  Nee  aliqua  sibi  fides  aut  promissio,  de  jure 
natural!,  divinp,  et  humano  fuerit  in  prejudicium 
Catholicse  fidei  obseryanda. — Lenfant,  t.  i.,  p.  491. 

This  proposition  is  the  great  disgrace  of  the 
council  in  the  affair  of  Huss.  But  the  violation 
of  his  safe-conduct  being  a  famous  event  in  eccle- 
siastical history,  and  which  has  been  very  much 
disputed  with  some  degree  of  erroneous  statement 
on  both  sides,  it  may  be  proper  to  give  briefly  an 
impartial  summary.  1.  Huss  came  to  Constance 


mate  the  claims  of  this  congress  of  theo- 
logians to  our  veneration,  and  to  weigh  the 
retrenchment  of  a  few  abuses  against  the 
formal  sanction  of  an  atrocious  maxim. 

It  was  not,  however,  necessary  for  any 
government  of  tolerable  energy  to  seek 
the  reform  of  those  abuses  which  affected 
the  independence  of  national  churches, 
and  the  integrity  of  their  regular  disci- 
pline, at  the  hands  of  a  general  council. 
Whatever  difficulty  there  might  be  in 
overturning  the  principles  founded  on  the 
decretals  of  Isidore,  and  sanctioned  by  the 
prescription  of  many  centuries,  the  more 
flagrant  encroachments  of  papal  tyranny 
were  fresh  innovations,  some  within  the 
actual  generation,  others  easily  to  be 
traced  up,  and  continually  disputed.  The 
principal  European  nations  determined, 
with  different  degrees  indeed  of  energy, 
to  make  a  stand  against  the  despotism 
of  Rome.  In  this  resistance  England 
was  not  only  the  first  engaged,  but  the 
most  consistent ;  her  free  parliament  pre- 
venting, as  far  as  the  times  permitted, 
that  wavering  policy  to  which  a  court  is 
liable.  We  have  already  seen  that  a 
foundation  was  laid  in  the  statute  of  pro- 
visors  under  Edward  III.  In  the  next 
reign,  many  other  measures  tending  to 
repress  the  interference  of  Rome  were 
adopted ;  especially  the  great  statute  of 
premunire,  which  subjects  all  persons 
bringing  papal  bulls  for  translation  of 
bishops  and  other  enumerated  purposes 
into  the  kingdom  to  the  penalties  of 


with  a  safe-conduct  of  the  emperof,  very  loosely 
worded,  and  not  directed  to  any  individuals. — 
Lenfant,  t.  i.,  p.  59.  2.  This  pass,  however,  was 
binding  upon  the  emperor  himself,  and  was  so 
considered  by  him,  when  he  remonstrated  against 
the  arrest  of  Huss.— Id.,  p.  73,  83.  3.  It  was  not 
binding  on  the  council,  who  possessed  no  tempo- 
ral power,  but  had  a  right  to  decide  upon  the  ques- 
tion of  heresy.  4.  It  is  not  manifest  by  what  civil 
authority  Huss  was  arrested,  nor  can  I  determine 
how  far  the  imperial  safe-conduct  was  a  legal  pro- 
tection within  the  city  of  Constance.  5.  Sigis- 
mund was  persuaded  to  acquiesce  in  the  capital 
punishment  of  Huss,  and  even  to  make  it  his  own 
act  (Lenfant,  p.  409) ;  by  which  he  manifestly 
broke  his  engagement.  6.  It  is  evident  that  in 
this  he  acted  by  the  advice  and  sanction  of  the 
council,  who  thus  became  accessary  to  the  guilt 
of  his  treachery. 

The  great  moral  to  be  drawn  from  the  story  of 
John  Huss's  condemnation  is,  that  no  breach  of 
faith  can  be  excused  by  our  opinion  of  ill  desert  in 
the  party,  or  by  a  narrow  interpretation  of  our  own 
engagements.  Every  capitulation  ought  to  be  con- 
strued favourably  for  the  weaker  side.  In  such 
cases  it  is  emphatically  true,  that  if  the  letter 
killeth,  the  spirit  should  give  life, 

Gerson,  the  most  eminent  theologian  of  his  age, 
and  the  coryphaeus  of  the  party  that  opposed  the 
transalpine  principles,  was  deeply  concerned  in 
this  atrocious  business.— Crevier,  p.  432, 


CHAP,  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


313 


forfeiture  and  perpetual  imprisonment 
This  act  received,  and  probably  was  de- 
signed to  receive,  a  larger  interpretation 
than  its  language  appears  to  warrant. 
Combined  with  the  statute  of  provisors, 
it  put  a  stop  to  the  pope's  usurpation  of 
patronage,  which  had  empoverished  the 
church  and  kingdom  of  England  for  nearly 
two  centuries.  Several  attempts  were 
made  to  overthrow  these  enactments; 
the  first  parliament  of  Henry  IV.  gave  a 
very  large  power  to  the  king  over  the 
statute  of  provisors,  enabling  him  even 
to  annul  it  at  his  pleasure. f  This,  how- 
ever, does  not  appear  in  the  statute-book. 
Henry,  indeed,  like  his  predecessors,  ex- 
ercised rather  largely  his  prerogative  of 
dispensing  with  the  law  against  papal 
provisions;  a  prerogative  which,  as  to 
this  point,  was  itself  taken  away  by  an 
act  of  his  own,  and  another  of  his  son 
Henry  V.J  But  the  statute  always  stood 
unrepealed ;  and  it  is  a  satisfactory  proof 
of  the  ecclesiastical  supremacy  of  the 
legislature,  that  in  the  concordat  made 
by  Martin  V.  at  the  council  of  Constance 
with  the  English  nation,  we  find  no  men- 
tion of  reservation  of  benefices,  of  anna- 
tes,  and  the  other  principal  grievances 
of  that  age  ;fy  our  ancestors  disdaining  to 
accept  by  compromise  with  the  pope  any 
modification  or  even  confirmation  of  their 
statute  law.  They  had  already  restrain- 
ed another  flagrant  abuse,  the  increase 
of  first  fruits  by  Boniface  IX. ;  an  act  of 
Henry  IV.  forbidding  any  greater  sum  to 
be  paid  on  that  account  than  had  been 
formerly  accustomed.  || 

It  will  appear  evident  to  every  person 
influence  of  acquainted  with  the  contempo- 
Wiciiffe's  rary  historians  and  the  pro- 
ceedings of  parliament,  that  be- 
sides partaking  in  the  general  resentment 
of  Europe  against  the  papal  court,  Eng- 
land was  under  the  influence  of  a  pecu- 
liar hostility  to  the  clergy,  arising  from 
the  dissemination  of  the  principles  of 
Wicliffe.^]"  All  ecclesiastical  possessions 
were  marked  for  spoliation  by  the  system 

*  16  Ric.  II.,  c.  5. 

t  Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  428. 

J  7  H.  IV.,  c.  8 ;  3  H.  V.,  c.  4.  Martin  V.  pub- 
lished an  angry  bull  against  the  "  execrable  stat- 
ute" of  premunire,  enjoining  Archbishop  Chiche- 
ley  to  procure  its  repeal. — Collier,  p.  653.  Chi- 
cheley  did  all  in  his  power  ;  but  the  commons  were 
always  inexorable  on  this  head,  p.  636:  and  the 
archbishop  even  incurred  Martin's  resentment  by 
it.— Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  iii.,  p.  483. 

$  Lenfant,  t.  ii.,  p.  444.  ||  6  H.  IV.,  c.  1. 

IT  See,  among  many  other  passages,  the  articles 
exhibited  by  the  Lollards  to  parliament  against  the 
clergy,  in  1394.  Collier  gives  the  substance  of 
them,  and  they  are  noticed  by  Henry  :  but  they 
are  at  full  length  in  Wilkins,  t.  iii.,  p.  221. 


of  this  reformer ;  and  the  House  of  Com- 
mons more  than  once  endeavoured  to 
carry  it  into  effect,  pressing  Henry  IV. 
to  seize  the  temporalities  of  the  church 
for  public  exigences.*  This  recommend- 
ation, besides  its  injustice,  was  not  likely 
to  move  Henry,  whose  policy  had  been 
to  sustain  the  prelacy  against  their  new 
adversaries.  Ecclesiastical  jurisdiction 
was  kept  in  better  control  than  former- 
ly by  the  judges  of  common  law,  who, 
through  rather  a  strained  construction  of 
the  statute  of  premunire,  extended  its 
penalties  to  the  spiritual  courts  when 
they  transgressed  their  limits. f  The 
privilege  of  clergy  in  criminal  cases  still 
remained ;  but  it  was  acknowledged  not 
to  comprehend  high  treason.! 

Germany,  as  well  as  England,  was  dis- 
appointed of  her  hopes  of  gen-  concordats 
eral  reformation  by  the  Italian  ofAschaf- 
party  at  Constance  ;  but  she  did  fen^r&- 
not  supply  the  want  of  the  council's  de- 
crees with  sufficient  decision.  A  con- 
cordat with  Martin  V.  left  the  pope  in 
possession  of  too  great  a  part  of  his  re- 
cent usurpations. §  This,  however,  was 
repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  Germany,  which 
called  for  a  more  thorough  reform  with 
all  the  national  roughness  and  honesty. 
The  diet  of  Mentz,  during  the  continuance 


*  Walsingham,  p.  371, 379.  Rot.  Parl.,  11  H.  IV., 
vol.  iii.,  p.  645.  The  remarkable  circumstances 
detailed  by  Walsingham  in  the  former  passage  are 
not  corroborated  by  any  thing  in  the  records.  But 
as  it  is  unlikely  that  so  particular  a  narrative 
should  have  no  foundation,  Hume  has  plausibly 
conjectured  that  the  roll  has  been  wilfully  mutila- 
ted. As  this  suspicion  occurs  in  other  instances, 
it  would  be  desirable  to  ascertain,  by  examination 
of  the  original  rolls,  whether  they  bear  any  exter- 
nal marks  of  injury.  The  mutilators,  however,  if 
such  there  were,  have  left  a  great  deal.  The  rolls 
of  Henry  IV.  and  V.'s  parliaments  are  quite  full  of 
petitions  against  the  clergy. 

t  3  Inst.,  p.  121.    Collier,  vol.  i.,  p.  668. 

i  2  Inst.,  p.  634,  where  several  instances  of  priests 
executed  for  coining  and  other  treasons  are  addu- 
ced. And  this  may  also  be  inferred  from  25  E.  III., 
stat.  3,  c.  4  ;  and  from  4  H.  IV.,  c.  3.  Indeed,  the 
benefit  of  clergy  has  never  been  taken  away  by 
statute  from  high  treason.  This  renders  it  improb- 
able that  Chief-justice  Gascoyne  should,  as  Carte 
tells  us,  vol.  ii.,  p.  664,  have  refused  to  try  Arch- 
bishop Scrope  for  treason,  on  the  ground  that  no 
one  could  lawfully  sit  in  judgment  on  a  bishop  for 
his  life.  Whether  he  might  have  declined  to  try 
him  as  a  peer,  is  another  question.  The  pope  ex- 
communicated all  who  were  concerned  in  Scrope's 
death,  and  it  cost  Henry  a  large  sum  to  obtain  ab- 
solution. But  Boniface  IX.  was  no  arbiter  of  the 
English  law.  Edward  IV.  granted  a  strange  char- 
ter to  the  clergy,  not  only  dispensing  with  the  stat- 
utes of  premunire,  but  absolutely  exempting  them 
from  temporal  jurisdiction  in  cases  of  treason  as 
well  as  felony. — Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  iii.,  p.  583. 
Collier,  p.  678.  This,  however,  being  an  illegal 
grant,  took  no  effect,  at  least  after  his  death. 

<j  Lenfant,  t.  ii.,  p.  428.    Schmidt,  t.  v.,  p.  131. 


314 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


of  the  council  of  Basle,  adopted  all  those 
regulations  hostile  to  the  papal  interests 
which  occasioned  the  deadly  quarrel  be- 
tween that  assembly  and  the  court  of 
Rome.*  But  the  German  empire  was  be- 
trayed by  Frederick  III.,  and  deceived 
by  an  accomplished  but  profligate  states- 
man, his  secretary,  ^Eneas  Sylvius.  Fresh 
concordats,  settled  at.  Aschaffenburg,  in 
1448,  nearly  upon  the  footing  of  those 
concluded  with  Martin  V.,  surrendered 
great  part  of  the  independence  for  which 
Germany  had  contended.  The  pope  re- 
tained his  annates,  or  at  least  a  sort  of 
tax  in  their  place  ;  and  instead  of  reserv- 
ing benefices  arbitrarily,  he  obtained  the 
positive  right  of  collation  during  six  al- 
ternate months  of  every  year.  Episco- 
pal elections  were  freely  restored  to  the 
chapters,  except  in  case  of  translation, 
when  the  pope  still  continued  to  nomi- 
nate ;  as  he  did  also,  if  any  person,  ca- 
nonically  unfit,  were  presented  to  him 
for  confirmation.!  Such  is  the  concordat 
of  Aschaffenburg,  by  which  the  Catholic 
principalities  of  the  empire  have  always 
been  governed,  though  reluctantly  ac- 
quiescing in  its  disadvantageous  provis- 
ions. Rome,  for  the  remainder  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  not  satisfied  with  the 
terms  she  had  imposed,  is  said  to  have 
continually  encroached  upon  the  right  of 
election. J  But  she  purchased  too  dearly 
her  triumph  over  the  weakness  of  Fred- 
erick III.,  and  the  hundred  grievances  of 
Germany,  presented  to  Adrian  VI.  by  the 
diet  of  Nuremberg,  in  1522,  manifested 
the  workings  of  a  long-treasured  resent- 
ment, that  had  made  straight  the  path 
before  the  Saxon  reformer. 

I  have  already  taken  notice  that  the 

Castilian  church  was  in  the  first 
croach-""  ages  °f tnat  monarchy  nearly  in- 
ments  on  dependent  of  Rome.  But,  after 
Castile  °f  many  gradual  encroachments,  the 

code  of  laws  promulgated  by  Al- 
fonso X.  had  incorporated  a  great  part 
of  the  decretals,  and  thus  given  the  papal 


*  Schmidt,  t.  v.,  p.  221.    Lenfant. 

t  Schmidt,  t.  v.,  p.  250;  t.  vi,  p.  94,  &c.  He 
observes  that  there  is  three  times  as  much  money 
at  present  as  in  the  fifteenth  century ;  if,  therefore, 
the  annates  are  now  felt  as  a  burden,  what  must 
they  have  been  ?  p.  113.  To  this  Rome  would  an- 
swer: if  the  annates  were  but  sufficient  for  the 
pope's  maintenance  at  that  time,  what  must  they 
be  now  ? 

\  Schmidt,  p.  98.  ^neas  Sylvius,  Epist.  369 
and  371 ;  and  De  Moribus  Germanorum,  p.  1041, 
1061.  Several  little  disputes  with  the  pope  indi- 
cate the  spirit  that  was  fermenting  in  Germany 
throughout  the  fifteenth  century.  But  this  is  the 
proper  subject  of  a  more  detailed  ecclesiastical  his- 
tory, and  should  form  an  introduction  to  that  of 
the  Reformation. 


jurisprudence  an  authority  which  it  no- 
where else  possessed  in  national  tribu- 
nals.* That  richly-endowed  hierarchy 
was  a  tempting  spoil.  The  popes  filled 
up  its  benefices  by  means  of  expectatives 
and  reserves  with  their  own  Italian  de- 
pendants. We  find  the  cortes  of  Palen- 
cia,  in  1388,  complaining  that  strangers 
are  beneficed  in  Castile,  through  which 
the  churches  are  ill  supplied,  and  native 
scholars  cannot  be  provided,  and  re- 
questing the  king  to  take  such  measures 
in  relation  to  this  as  the  kings  of  France, 
Aragon,  and  Navarre,  who  do  not  permit 
any  but  natives  to  hold  benefices  in  their 
kingdoms.  The  king  answered  to  this 
petition  that  he  would  use  his  endeavours 
to  that  end.f  And  this  is  expressed  with 
greater  warmth  by  a  cortes  of  1473,  who 
declare  it  to  be  the  custom  of  all  Chris- 
tian nations  that  foreigners  should  not  be 
promoted  to  benefices,  urging  the  dis- 
couragement of  native  learning,  the  de- 
cay of  charity,  the  bad  performance  of  re- 
ligious rites,  and  other  evils  arising  from 
the  nonresidence  of  beneficed  priests, 
and  request  the  king  to  notify  to  the  court 
of  Rome  that  no  expectative  or  provis- 
ion in  favour  of  foreigners  can  be  receiv- 
ed in  future.J  This  petition  seems  to 
have  passed  into  a  law ;  but  I  am  ignorant 
of  the  consequences.  Spain  certainly 
took  an  active  part  in  restraining  the 
abuses  of  pontifical  authority  at  the  coun- 
cils of  Constance  and  Basle ;  to  which  I 
might  add  the  name  of  Trent,  if  that  as- 
sembly were  not  beyond  my  province. 

France,  dissatisfied  with  the  abortive 
termination  of  her  exertions  du-  Checks  on 
ring  the  schism,  rejected  the  con-  papai  au- 
cordat  offered  by  Martin  V. ,  which  "»°>j]y  in 
held  out  but  a  promise  of  im- 
perfect reformation. $  She  suffered  in 
consequence  the  papal  exactions  for  some 
years,  till  the  decrees  of  the  council  of 
Basle  prompted  her  to  more  vigorous  ef- 
forts for  independence,  and  Charles  VII. 
enacted  the  famous  Pragmatic  Sanction 
of  Bourges.JI  This  has  been  deemed  a 
sort  of  Magna  Charta  of  the  Gallican 
church ;  for  though  the  law  was  speedily 
abrogated,  its  principle  has  remained  fixed 
as  the  basis  of  ecclesiastical  liberties. 
By  the  Pragmatic  Sanction  a  general 
council  was  declared  superior  to  the  pope ; 

*  Marina,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico,  c.  320,  &c. 

t  Idem,  Teoria  de  las  Cortes,  t.  iii.,  p.  126. 

t  Idem,  t.  ii.,  p.  364.  Mariana,  Hist.  Hispan., 
1.  xix.,  c.  1. 

6  Villaret,  t.  xv.,  p.  126. 

||  Idem,  p.  263.  Hist,  du  Droit  Public  Eccle"s. 
Francois,  t.  ii.,  p.  234.  Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit. 
Crevier,  t.  iy.,  p.  100.  Pasquier,  Recherches  de  la 
France,  1.  iii.,  c.  27. 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER. 


315 


elections  of  bishops  were  made  free  from 
all  control;  mandats  or  grants  in  ex- 
pectancy, and  reservations  of  benefices 
were  taken  away ;  first  fruits  were  abol- 
ished. This  defalcation  of  wealth,  which 
had  now  become  dearer  than  power, 
could  not  be  patiently  borne  at  Rome. 
Pius  II.,  the  same  ./Eneas  Sylvius  who 
had  sold  himself  to  oppose  the  council 
of  Basle,  in  whose  service  he  had  been 
originally  distinguished,  used  every  en- 
deavour to  procure  the  repeal  of  this  or- 
dinance. With  Charles  VII.  he  had  no 
success ;  but  Louis  XL,  partly  out  of 
blind  hatred  to  his  father's  memory, 
partly  from  a  delusive  expectation  that 
the  pope  would  support  the  Angevin  fac- 
tion in  Naples,  repealed  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction.*  This  may  be  added  to  other 
proofs  that  Louis  XL,  even  according  to 
the  measures  of  worldly  wisdom,  was 
not  a  wise  politician.  His  people  judged 
from  better  feelings;  the  parliament  of 
Paris  constantly  refused  to  enregister  the 
revocation  of  that  favourite  law,  and  it 
continued  in  many  respects  to  be  acted 
upon  until  the  reign  of  Francis  I.f  At 
the  States-General  of  Tours,  in  1484,  the 
inferior  clergy,  seconded  by  the  two  other 
orders,  earnestly  requested  that  the  Prag- 
matic Sanction  might  be  confirmed ;  but 
the  prelates  were  timid  or  corrupt,  and 
the  Regent  Anne  was  unwilling  to  risk  a 
quarrel  with  the  Holy  See.J  This  un- 
settled state  continued,  the  Pragmatic 
Sanction  neither  quite  enforced  nor  quite 
repealed,  till  Francis  L,  having  accom- 
modated the  differences  of  his  predeces- 
sor with  Rome,  agreed  upon  a  final  con- 
cordat with  Leo  X.,  the  treaty  that  sub- 
sisted for  almost  three  centuries  between 
the  papacy  and  the  kingdom  of  France. § 
Instead  of  capitular  election  or  papal  pro- 
vision, a  new  method  was  devised  for 
filling  the  vacancies  of  episcopal  sees. 
The  king  was  to  nominate  a  fit  person, 
whom  the  pope  was  to  collate.  The 
one  obtained  an  essential  patronage,  the 
other  preserved  his  theoretical  suprem- 
acy. Annates  were  restored  to  the  pope  ; 
a  concession  of  great  importance.  He 
gave  up  his  indefinite  prerogative  of  re- 
serving benefices,  and  received  only  a 
small  stipulated  patronage.  This  con- 
vention met  with  strenuous  opposition  in 
France ;  the  parliament  of  Paris  yielded 

*  Villaret  and  Gamier,  t.  xvi.  Crevier,  t.  iv.,  p. 
256,  274. 

t  Gamier,  t.  xvi.,  p.  432 ;  t.  xvii.,  p.  222,  et  alibi. 
Crevier,  t.  iv.,  p.  318,  et  alibi. 

t  Gamier,  t.  xix.,  p.  216  and  321. 

$  Idem,  t.  xxiii.,  p.  151.  Hist,  du  Droit  Public 
Eccle"s.  Fr.,  t.  ii.,  p.  243.  Fleury,  Institutions  au 
Droit,  t.  i.,  p.  107. 


only  to  force  ;  the  university  hardly  stop- 
ped short  of  sedition ;  the  zealous  Galil- 
eans have  ever  since  deplored  it  as  a 
fatal  wound  to  their  liberties.  There  is 
much  exaggeration  in  this,  as  far  as  the 
relation  of  the  Gallican  church  to  Rome 
is  concerned;  but  the  royal  nomination 
to  bishoprics  impaired  of  course  the  in- 
dependence of  the  hierarchy.  Whether 
this  prerogative  of  the  crown  were  upon 
the  whole  beneficial  to  France,  is  a  prob- 
lem that  I  cannot  affect  to  solve ;  in  this 
country  there  seems  little  doubt  that 
capitular  elections,  which  the  statute  of 
Henry  VIII.  had  reduced  to  a  name, 
would  long  since  have  degenerated  into 
the  corruption  of  close  boroughs;  but 
the  circumstances  of  the  Gallican  estab- 
lishment may  not  have  been  entirely  sim- 
ilar, and  the  question  opens  a  variety  of 
considerations  that  do  not  belong  to  my 
present  subject. 

From  the  principles  established  during 
the  schism,  and  in  the  Pragmatic  Liberties 
Sanction  of  Bourges,  arose  the  of  the 
far-famed  liberties  of  the  Gallican  ^JSn 
church,  which  honourably  distin- 
guished her  from  other  members  of  the 
Roman  communion.  These  have  been 
referred  by  French  writers  to  a  much  ear- 
lier era ;  but,  except  so  far  as  that  coun- 
try participated  in  the  ancient  ecclesias- 
tical independence  of  all  Europe,  before 
the  papal  encroachments  had  subverted 
it,  I  do  not  see  that  they  can  be  properly 
traced  above  the  fifteenth  century.  Nor 
had  they  acquired,  even  at  the  expiration 
of  that  age,  the  precision  and  consistency 
which  was  given  in  later  times  by  the 
constant  spirit  of  the  parliaments  and 
universities,  as  well  as  by  the  best  ec- 
clesiastical authors,  with  little  assistance 
from  the  crown,  which,  except  in  a  few 
periods  of  disagreement  with  Rome,  has 
rather  been  disposed  to  restrain  the  more 
zealous  Gallicans.  These  liberties,  there- 
fore, do  not  strictly  fall  within  my  limits  ; 
and  it  will  be  sufficient  to  observe  that 
they  depended  upon  two  maxims ;  one, 
that  the  pope  does  not  possess  any  direct 
or  indirect  temporal  authority ;  the  other, 
that  his  spiritual  jurisdiction  can  only  be 
exercised  in  conformity  with  such  parts 
of  the  canon  law  as  are  received  by  the 
kingdom  of  France.  Hence  the  Gallican 
church  rejected  a  great  part  of  the  Sext 
and  Clementines,  and  paid  little  regard  to 
modern  papal  bulls,  which  in  fact  obtain- 
ed validity  only  by  the  king's  approba- 
tion.* 


*  Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit,  t.  ii.,p.  226,  &c., 
and  Discours  sur  les  Liberia's  de  PEglise  Galli- 
cane.  The  last  editors  of  this  dissertation  go  far 


316 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VII. 


The  pontifical  usurpations  which  were 
Ecclesiastical  thus  restrained,  affected,  at 
jurisdiction  least  in  their  direct  operation, 
ned-  rather  the  church  than  the 
state  ;  and  temporal  governments  would 
only  have  been  half  emancipated,  if  their 
national  hierarchies  had  preserved  their 
enormous  jurisdiction.*  England,  in  this 
also,  began  the  work,  and  had  made  a 
considerable  progress,  while  the  mistaken 
piety  or  policy  of  Louis  IX.  and  his  suc- 
cessors had  laid  France  open  to  vast  en- 
croachments. The  first  method  adopted 
in  order  to  check  them  was  rude  enough  ; 
by  seizing  the  bishop's  effects  when  he 
exceeded  his  jurisdiction.!  This  jurisdic- 
tion, according  to  the  construction  of 
churchmen,  became  perpetually  larger: 
even  the  reforming  council  of  Constance 
give  an  enumeration  of  ecclesiastical 
causes  far  beyond  the  limits  acknowledg- 
ed in  England,  or  perhaps  in  France. J 
But  the  parliament  of  Paris,  instituted  in 
1304,  gradually  established  a  paramount 
authority  over  ecclesiastical  as  well  as 
civil  tribunals.  Their  progress  was  in- 
deed very  slow.  At  a  famous  assembly 
in  1329  before  Philip  of  Valois,  his  advo- 
cate-general, Peter  de  Cugnieres,  pro- 
nounced a  long  harangue  against  the  ex- 
cesses of  spiritual  jurisdiction.  This  is  a 
curious  illustration  of  that  branch  of  legal 
and  ecclesiastical  history.  It  was  an- 

beyqnd  Fleury,  and  perhaps  reach  the  utmost  point 
in  limiting  the  papal  authority  which  a  sincere 
member  of  that  communion  can  attain. — See  notes, 
p.  417  and  445. 

*  It  ought  always  to  be  remembered,  that  ecclesi- 
astical, and  not  merely  papal,  encroachments  are 
what  civil  governments  and  the  laity  in  general 
have  had  to  resist ;  a  point  which  some  very  zeal- 
ous opposers  of  Rome  have  been  willing  to  keep 
out  of  sight.  The  latter  arose  out  of  the  former, 
and,  perhaps,  were  in  some  respects  less  objection- 
able. But  the  true  enemy  is  what  are  called  High- 
church  principles  ;  be  they  maintained  by  a  pope, 
a  bishop,  or  a  presbyter.  Thus  Archbishop  Strat- 
ford writes  to  Edward  III. :  Duo  sunt,  quibus  prin- 
cipaliterregitur  mundus,  sacra  pontifical's  auctori- 
tas,  et  regalis  ordinata  potestas  :  in  quibus  est  pon- 
dus  tanto  gravius  et  sublimius  sacerdotum,  quanto 
et  de  regibus  illi  in  divino  reddituri  sunt  examine 
rationem :  et  ideo  scire  debet  regia  celsitudo  ex  il- 
lorum  vos  dependere  judicio,  non  illos  ad  vestram 
dirigi  posse  voluntatem. — Wilkins,  Concilia,  t.  ii., 
p.  663.  This  amazing  impudence  towards  such  a 
prince  as  Edward  did  not  succeed;  but  it  is  in- 
teresting to  follow  the  track  of  the  star  which  was 
now  rather  receding,  though  still  fierce. 

f  De  Marca,  De  Concordantia,  1.  iv.,  c.  18. 

J  Id.,  c.  15.    Lenfant,  Cone,  de  Constance,  t.  ii., 

E.  331.  De  Marca,  1.  iv.,  c.  15,  gives  us  passages 
rom  one  Durandus,  about  1309.  complaining  that 
the  lay  judges  invaded  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction, 
and  reckoning  the  cases  subject  to  the  latter,  un- 
der which  he  includes  feudal  and  criminal  causes 
in  some  circumstances,  and  also  those  in  which 
the  temporal  judges  are  in  doubt ;  si  quid  ambigu- 
um  inter  judices  saeculares  oriatur. 


swered  at  large  by  some  bishops,  and  the 
king  did  not  venture  to  take  any  active 
measures  at  that  time.*  Several  regula- 
tions were  however  made  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  which  took  away  the  ec- 
clesiastical cognizance  of  adultery,  of  the 
execution  of  testaments,  and  other  causes 
which  had  been  claimed  by  the  clergy,  f 
Their  immunity  in  criminal  matters  was 
straitened  by  the  introduction  of  privileged 
cases,  to  which  it  did  not  extend ;  such 
as  treason,  murder,  robbery,  and  other 
heinous  offences.:};  The  parliament  began 
to  exercise  a  judicial  control  over  episco- 
pal courts.  It  was  not,  however,  till  the 
beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century,  ac- 
cording to  the  best  writers,  that  it  devised 
its  famous  form  of  procedure,  the  appeal 
because  of  abuse. §  This,  in  the  course 
of  time,  and  through  the  decline  of  eccle- 
siastical power,  not  only  proved  an  ef- 
fectual barrier  against  encroachments  of 
spiritual  jurisdiction,  but  drew  back  again 
to  the  lay  court  the  greater  part  of  those 
causes  which  by  prescription,  and  indeed 
by  law,  had  appertained  to  a  different  cog- 
nizance. Thus  testamentary,  and  even 
in  a  great  degree  matrimonial  causes, 
were  decided  by  the  parliament ;  and  in 
many  other  matters,  that  body,  being  the 
judge  of  its  own  competence,  narrowed, 
by  means  of  the  appeal  because  of  abuse, 
the  boundaries  of  the  opposite  jurisdic- 
tion.! This  remedial  process  appears  to 
have  been  more  extensively  applied  than 
our  English  writ  of  prohibition.  The  latter 
merely  restrains  the  interference  of  the 
ecclesiastical  courts  in  matters  which  the 
law  has  not  committed  to  them.  But  the 
parliament  of  Paris  considered  itself,  I 
apprehend,  as  conservator  of  the  liberties 
and  discipline  of  the  Gallican  church ;  and 
interposed  the  appeal  because  of  abuse, 
whenever  the  spiritual  court,  even  in  its 
proper  province,  transgressed  the  canoni- 
cal rules  by  which  it  ought  to  be  govern- 
ed.l 


*  Velly,  t.  via.,  p.  234.  Fleury,  Institutions,  t. 
ii.,  p.  12.  Hist,  du  Droit  Eccles.  Fran?.,  t.  ii.,  p.  86. 

t  Villaret,  t.  xi.,  p.  182. 

j  Fleury,  Institutions  au  Droit,  t.  ii.,  p.  138.  In 
the  famous  case  of  Balue,  a  bishop  and  cardinal, 
whom  Louis  XI.  detected  in  a  treasonable  intrigue, 
it  was  contended  by  the  king  that  he  had  a  right  to 
punish  him  capitally. — Du  Clos,  Vie  de  Louis  XI., 
t.  i.,  p.  422.  Gamier,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xvii.,  p. 
330.  Balue  was  confined  for  many  years  in  a  small 
iron  cage,  which  till  lately  was  shown  in  the  castle 
of  Loches. 

§  Pasquier,  1.  iii.,  c.  33.  Hist,  du  Droit  EccliSs. 
Francois,  t.  ii.,  p.  119.  Fleury,  Institutions  au 
Droit  Eccles.  Francois,  t.  ii.,  p.  221.  De  Marca, 
De  Concordantia  Sacerdotii  et  Imperii,  1.  iv.,  c.  19. 
The  last  author  seems  to  carry  it  rather  higher. 

il  Fleury,  Institutions,  t.  ii.,  p,  42,  &c. 

^  De  Marca,  De  Concordantifc,  1.  iv.,  c.  9.    Fleu- 


CHAP.  VII.] 


ECCLESIASTICAL  POWER, 


317 


While  the  bishops  of  Rome  were  losing 
their  general  influence  over  Eu- 
paeSnfnfli.  rope,  they  did  not  gain  more  es- 
ence  in  ita-  timation  in  Italy.  It  is  indeec 
a  problem  of  some  difficulty 
whether  they  derived  any  substantial 
advantage  from  their  temporal  principali- 
ty. For  the  last  three  centuries,  it  has 
certainly  been  conducive  to  the  mainte- 
nance of  their  spiritual  supremacy,  which 
in  the  complicated  relations  of  policy 
might  have  been  endangered  by  their  be- 
coming the  subjects  of  any  particular 
sovereign.  But  I  doubt  whether  their 
real  authority  over  Christendom  in  the 
middle  ages  was  not  better  preserved  by 
a  state  of  nominal  dependance  upon  the 
empire,  without  much  effective  control 
on  one  side,  or  many  temptations  to 
worldly  ambition  on  the  other.  That 
covetousness  of  temporal  sway  which, 
having  long  prompted  their  measures  of 
usurpation  and  forgery,  seemed,  from  the 
time  of  Innocent  III.  and  Nicolas  III., 
to  reap  its  gratification,  impaired  the 
more  essential  parts  of  the  papal  author- 
ity. In  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies, the  popes  degraded  their  character 
by  too  much  anxiety  about  the  politics  of 
Italy.  The  veil  woven  by  religious  awe 
was  rent  asunder,  and  the  features  of  or- 
dinary ambition  appeared  without  dis- 
guise. For  it  was  no  longer  that  magnif- 
icent and  original  system  of  spiritual 
power,  which  made  Gregory  VII.,  even 
in  exile,  a  rival  of  the  emperor,  which 
held  forth  redress  where  the  law  could 
not  protect,  and  punishment  where  it 
could  not  chastise,  which  fell  in  some- 
times with  superstitious  feeling,  and 
sometimes  with  political  interest.  Many 
might  believe  that  the  pope  could  depose 
a  schismatic  prince,  who  were  disgusted 
at  his  attacking  an  unoffending  neighbour. 
As  the  cupidity  of  the  clergy  in  regard  to 
worldly  estate  had  lowered  their  charac- 
ter everywhere,  so  the  similar  conduct 
of  their  head  undermined  the  respect  felt 
for  him  in  Italy.  The  censures  of  the 
church,  those  excommunications  and  in- 
terdicts which  had  made  Europe  trem- 
ble, became  gradually  despicable  as  well 
as  odious,  when  they  were  lavished  in 
every  squabble  for  territory  which  the 
pope  was  pleased  to  make  his  own.* 


ry,  t.  ii.,  p.  224.  In  Spain,  even  now,  says  De  Mar- 
ca,  bishops  or  clerks  not  obeying  royal  mandates 
that  inhibit  the  excesses  of  ecclesiastical  courts, 
are  expelled  from  the  kingdom  and  deprived  of  the 
rights  of  denizenship. 

*  In  1290,  Pisa  was  put  under  an  interdict  for 
having  conferred  the  signiory  on  the  Count  of 
Montefeltro,  and  he  was  ordered,  on  pain  of  excom- 
munication, to  lay  down  the  government  within  a 


Even  the  crusades,  which  had  already 
been  tried  against  the  heretics  of  Lan- 
guedoc,  were  now  preached  against  all 
who  espoused  a  different  party  from  the 
Roman  see  in  the  quarrels  of  Italy.  Such 
were  those  directed  at  Frederick  II. ,  at 
Manfred,  and  at  Matteo  Visconti,  accom- 
panied by  the  usual  bribery,  indulgences 
and  remission  of  sins.  The  papal  inter- 
dicts of  the  fourteenth  century  wore  a 
different  complexion  from  those  of  for- 
mer times.  Though  tremendous  to  the 
imagination,  they  had  hitherto  been  con- 
fined to  spiritual  effects,  or  to  such  as 
were  connected  with  religion,  as  the  pro- 
hibition of  marriage  and  sepulture.  But 
Clement  V.,  on  account  of  an  attack 
made  by  the  Venetians  upon  Ferrara,  in 
1309,  proclaimed  the  whole  people  infa- 
mous, and  incapable  for  three  genera- 
tions of  any  office  ;  their  goods,  in  every 
part  of  the  world,  subject  to  confiscation, 
and  every  Venetian,  wherever  he  might 
be  found,  liable  to  be  reduced  into  slave- 
ry.* A  bull  in  the  same  terms  was  pub- 
lished by  Gregory  XL,  in  1376,  against 
the  Florentines. 

From  the  termination  of  the  schism, 
as  the  popes  found  their  ambition  thwart- 
ed beyond  the  Alps,  it  was  diverted  more 
and  more  towards  schemes  of  temporal 
sovereignty.  In  these  we  do  not  per- 
ceive that  consistent  policy,  which  re- 
markably actuated  their  conduct  as  su- 
preme heads  of  the  church.  Men  gener- 
ally advanced  in  years,  and  born  of  no- 
ble Italian  families,  made  the  papacy 
subservient  to  the  elevation  of  their  kin- 
dred, or  to  the  interests  of  a  local  fac- 
tion. For  such  ends  they  mingled  in  the 
dark  conspiracies  of  that  bad  age,  distin- 
guished only  by  the  more  scandalous  tur- 
pitude of  their  vices  from  the  petty  ty- 
rants and  intriguers  with  whom  they 
were  engaged.  In  the  latter  part  of  the 
fifteenth  century,  when  all  favourable 
prejudices  were  worn  away,  those  who 
occupied  the  most  conspicuous  station  in 
Europe  disgraced  their  name  by  more  no- 
torious profligacy  than  could  be  parallel- 
ed in  the  darkest  age  that  had  preceded  ; 
and  at  the  moment  beyond  which  this 
work  is  not  carried,  the  invasion  of  Italy 
ay  Charles  VIII.,  I  must  leave  the  pon- 
tifical throne  in  the  possession  of  Alex- 
ander VI. 

It  has  been  my  object  in  the  present 


month. — Muratori  ad  ann.  A  curious  style  for  the 
sope  to  adopt  towards  a  free  city !  Six  years  be- 
~ore  the  Venetians  had  been  interdicted,  because 
hey  would  not  allow  their  galleys  to  be  hired  by 
the  King  of  Naples.  But  it  would  be  almost  end- 


ess  to  quote  every  instance. 
*  Muratori. 


318 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


Vllf. 


chapter  to  bring  within  the  compass  of 
a  few  hours'  perusal  the  substance  of  a 
great  and  interesting  branch  of  history  ; 
not  certainly  with  such  extensive  reach 
of  learning  as  the  subject  might  require, 
but  from  sources  of  unquestioned  credi- 
bility. Unconscious  of  any  partialities 
that  could  give  an  oblique  bias  to  my 
mind,  I  have  not  been  very  solicitous  to 
avoid  offence  where  offence  is  so  easily 
taken.  Yet  there  is  one  misinterpreta- 
tion of  my  meaning  which  I  would  gladly 
obviate.  I  have  not  designed,  in  exhibit- 
ing without  disguise  the  usurpations  of 
Rome  during  the  middle  ages,  to  furnish 
materials  for  unjust  prejudice  or  unfound- 
ed distrust.  It  is  an  advantageous  cir- 
cumstance for  the  philosophical  inquirer 
into  the  history  of  ecclesiastical  domin- 
ion, that,  as  it  spreads  itself  over  the 
vast  extent  of  fifteen  centuries,  the  de- 
pendance  of  events  upon  general  causes, 
rather  than  on  transitory  combinations 
or  the  character  of  individuals,  is  made 
more  evident,  and  the  future  more  prob- 
ably foretold  from  a  consideration  of  the 
past,  than  we  are  apt  to  find  in  political 
history.  Five  centuries  have  now  elap- 
sed, during  every  one  of  which  the  au- 
thority of  the  Roman  see  has  succes- 


sively declined,  Slowly  and  silently  re- 
ceding from  their  claims  to  temporal 
power,  the  pontiffs  hardly  protect  their 
dilapidated  citadel  from  the  revolution- 
ary concussions  of  modern  times,  the  ra- 
pacity of  governments,  and  the  grow- 
ing averseness  to  ecclesiastical  influence. 
But,  if  thus  bearded  by  unmannerly  and 
threatening  innovation,  they  should  occa- 
sionally forget  that  cautious  policy  which 
necessity  has  prescribed,  if  they  should 
attempt,  an  unavailing  expedient !  to  re- 
vive institutions  which  can  be  no  longer 
operative,  or  principles  that  have  died 
away,  their  defensive  efforts  will  not  be 
unnatural,  nor  ought  to  excite  either 
indignation  or  alarm.  A  calm,  compre- 
hensive study  of  ecclesiastical  history, 
not  in  such  scraps  and  fragments  as  the 
ordinary  partisans  of  our  ephemeral  lit- 
erature obtrude  upon  us,  is  perhaps  the 
best  antidote  to  extravagant  apprehen- 
sions. Those  who  know  what  Rome  has 
once  been  are  best  able  to  appreciate 
what  she  is ;  those  who  have  seen  the 
thunderbolt  in  the  hands  of  the  Gregories 
and  the  Innocents,  will  hardly  be  intimi- 
dated at  the  sallies  of  decrepitude,  the 
impotent  dart  of  Priam  amid  the  crack- 
ling ruins  of  Troy. 


CHAPTER  VIIL 


THE  CONSTITUTIONAL  HISTORY  OF  ENGLAND. 


PART  I. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  Constitution. — Sketch  of  An- 
glo-Saxon History. — Succession  to  the  Crown. 
—Orders  of  Men.— Thanes  and  Ceqrls—  Wit- 
tenagemot. — Judicial  System.  —  Division  into 
Hundreds. — County-Court. — Trial  by  Jury — its 
Antiquity  investigated. — Law  of  Frank-pledge — 
its  several  Stages. — Question  of  Feudal  Ten- 
ures before  the  Conquest. 

No  unbiased  observer,  who  derives 
pleasure  from  the  welfare  of  his  species, 
can  fail  to  consider  the  long  and  uninter- 
ruptedly increasing  prosperity  of  England 
as  the  mjost  beautiful  phenomenon  in  the 
history  of  mankind.  Climates  more  pro- 
pitious may  impart  more  largely  the 
mere  enjoyments  of  existence ;  but  in  no 
other  region  have  the  benefits  that  polit- 
ical institutions  can  confer  been  diffused 
over  so  extended  a  population  ;  nor  have 
any  people  so  well  reconciled  the  dis- 
cordant elements  of  wealth,  order,  and 
liberty.  These  advantages  are  surely 


not  owing  to  the  soil  of  this  island,  nor 
to  the  latitude  in  which  it  is  placed ;  but 
to  the  spirit  of  its  laws,  from  which, 
through  various  means,  the  characteristic 
independence  and  industriousness  of  our 
nation  have  been  derived.  The  consti- 
tution, therefore,  of  England  must  be  to 
inquisitive  men  of  all  countries,  far  more 
to  ourselves,  an  object  of  superior  inter- 
est; distinguished  especially,  as  it  is 
from  all  free  governments  of  powerful 
nations  which  history  has  recorded,  by 
its  manifesting,  after  the  lapse  of  several 
centuries,  not  merely  no  symptom  of  ir- 
retrievable decay,  but  a  more  expansive 
energy.  Comparing  long  periods  of 
time,  it  may  be  justly  asserted  that  the 
administration  of  government  has  pro- 
gressively become  more  equitable,  and 
the  privileges  of  the  subject  more  secure  ; 
and,  though  it  would  be  both  presumptu- 
ous and  unwise  to  express  an  unlimited 
confidence  as  to  the  durability  of  liber- 


I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


310 


ties  which  owe  their  greatest  security  to 
the  constant  suspicion  of  the  people,  yet 
if  we  calmly  reflect  on  the  present  as- 
pect of  this  country,  it  will  probably  ap- 
pear, that  whatever  perils  may  threaten 
our  constitution  are  rather  from  circum- 
stances altogether  unconnected  with  it 
than  from  any  intrinsic  defects  of  its  own. 
It  will  be  the  object  of  the  ensuing  chap- 
ter to  trace  the  gradual  formation  of  this 
system  of  government.     Such  an  inves- 
tigation, impartially  conducted,  will  de- 
tect errors  diametrically  opposite ;  those 
intended   to    impose   on   the   populace, 
which,  on  account  of  their  palpable  ab- 
surdity and  the  ill  faith  with  which  they 
are   usually  proposed,    I   have    seldom 
thought  it  worth   while  directly  to   re- 
pel;  and  those  which   better  informed 
persons  are  apt  to  entertain,  caught  from 
transient  reading  and  the  misrepresenta- 
tions of  late  historians,  but  easily  refuted 
by  the  genuine  testimony  of  ancient  times. 
The  seven  very  unequal  kingdoms  of 
Sketch  of  the    Saxon    Heptarchy,   formed 
Anglo-      successively  out  of  the  countries 
Saxon      wrested  from  the  Britons,  were 
ory'     originally  independent   of   each 
other.    Several  times,  however,  a  power- 
ful sovereign  acquired  a  preponderating 
influence  over  his  neighbours,  marked 
perhaps  by  the  payment  of  tribute.     Sev- 
en are  enumerated  by  Bede  as  having 
thus  reigned  over  the  whole  of  Britain ; 
an  expression  which  must  be  very  loose- 
ly interpreted.     Three  kingdoms  became 
at  length  predominant ;  those  of  Wessex, 
Mercia,  and  Northumberland.     The  first 
rendered  tributary  the  small  estates  of 
the  Southeast,  and  the  second  that  of  the 
Eastern   Angles.     But   Egbert,  king  of 
Wessex,  not  only  incorporated  with  his 
own  monarchy  the  dependant  kingdoms 
of  Kent  and  Essex,  but  obtained  an  ac- 
knowledgment of  his  superiority  from 
Mercia  and  Northumberland ;  the  latter 
of  which,  though  the  most  extensive  of 
any  Anglo-Saxon  state,  was  too  much 
weakened  by  its  internal  divisions  to  of- 
fer any  resistance.*     Still,  however,  the 
kingdoms   of  Mercia,   East  Anglia,  and 
Northumberland   remained  under   their 
ancient  line  of  sovereigns ;  nor  did  either 
Egbert  or  his  five  immediate  successors 
assume  the  title  of  any  other  crown  than 
Wessex.f 


The  destruction  of  those  minor  states 
was  reserved  for  a  different  enemy. 
About  the  end  of  the  eighth  century  the 


northern    pirates 
coast  of  England. 


began  to   ravage    the 
Scandinavia  exhibited 


*  Chronicon  Saxonicum,  p.  70. 

t  Alfred  denominates  himself  in  his  will,  Occi- 
dentalium  Saxorum  rex  ;  and  Asserius  never  gives 
him  any  other  name.  But  his  son  Edward  the  El- 
der takes  the  title  of  Rex  Anglorum  on  his  coins. — 
Vid.  Numismata  Anglo-Saxon,  in  Hickes's  The- 
saurus.vol.ii. 


in  that  age  a  very  singular  condition  of 
society.  Her  population,  continually  re- 
dundant in  those  barren  regions  which 
gave  it  birth,  was  cast  out  in  search  of 
plunder  upon  the  ocean.  Those  who 
loved  riot  rather  than  famine  embarked 
in  large  armaments  under  chiefs  of  legit- 
imate authority,  as  well  as  approved  val- 
our. Such  were  the  sea-kings,  renown- 
ed in  the  stories  of  the  North ;  the  young- 
er branches  commonly  of  royal  families, 
who  inherited,  as  it  were,  the  sea  for 
their  patrimony.  Without  any  territory 
but  on  the  bosom  of  the  waves,  without 
any  dwelling  but  their  ships,  these  prince- 
ly pirates  were  obeyed  by  numerous  sub- 
jects, and  intimidated  mighty  nations.* 
Their  invasions  of  England  became  con- 
tinually more  formidable ;  and,  as  their 
confidence  increased,  they  began  first  to 
winter,  and  ultimately  to  form  permanent 
settlements  in  the  country.  By  their 
command  of  the  sea,  it  was  easy  for 
them  to  harass  every  part  of  an  island 
presenting  such  an  extent  of  coast  as 
Britain ;  the  Saxons,  after  a  brave  resist- 
ance, gradually  gave  way,  and  were  on 
the  brink  of  the  same  servitude  or  exter- 
nination  which  their  own  arms  had  al- 
•eady  brought  upon  the  ancient  posses- 
sors. 

From  this  imminent  peril,  after  the 
three  dependant  kingdoms,  Mercia,  Nor- 
thumberland, and  East  Anglia,  had  been 
overwhelmed,  it  was  the  glory  of  Alfred 
to  rescue  the  Anglo-Saxon  monarchy. 
Nothing  less  than  the  appearance  of  a 
hero  so  undesponding,  so  enterprising, 
and  so  just,  could  have  prevented  the  en- 
tire conquest  of  England.  Yet  he  never 
subdued  the  Danes,  nor  became  master 
of  the  whole  kingdom.  The  Thames, 
the  Lea,  the  Ouse,  and  the  Roman  road 
called  Watling-street,  determined  the  lim- 
its of  Alfred's  dominion.!  To  the  north- 
east of  this  boundary  were  spread  the  in- 
vaders, still  denominated  the  armies  of 
East  Anglia  and  Northumberland  ;|  a 
name  terribly  expressive  of  foreign  con- 
querors, who  retained  their  warlike  con- 
federacy without  melting  into  the  mass 

*  For  these  Vikingr,  or  sea-kings,  a  new  and  in- 
teresting subject,  I  would  refer  to  Mr.  Turner's 
History  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  in  which  valuable 
work  almost  every  particular  that  can  illustrate 
our  early  annals  will  be  found. 

f  Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  47.  Chron, 
Saxon.,  p.  99. 

Chronicon  Saxon.,  passim. 


320 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


of  their  subject  population.  Three  able 
and  active  sovereigns,  Edward,  Athel- 
stan,  and  Edmund,  the  successors  of  Al- 
fred, pursued  the  course  of  victory,  and 
finally  rendered  the  English  monarchy 
coextensive  with  the  present  limits  of 
England.  Yet  even  Edgar,  the  most 
powerful  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings,  did 
not  venture  to  interfere  with  the  legal 
customs  of  his  Danish  subjects.* 

Under  this  prince,  whose  rare  fortune 
as  well  as  judicious  conduct  procured 
him  the  surname  of  Peaceable,  the  king- 
dom appears  to  have  reached  its  zenith 
of  prosperity.  But  his  premature  death 
changed  the  scene.  The  minority  and 
feeble  character  of  Ethelred  II.  provoked 
fresh  incursions  of  our  enemies  beyond 
the  German  Sea.  A  long  series  of  dis- 
asters, and  the  inexplicable  treason  of 
those  to  whom  the  public  safety  was  in- 
trusted, overthrew  the  Saxon  line,  and 
established  Canute  of  Denmark  upon  the 
throne. 

The  character  of  the  Scandinavian  na- 
tions was  in  some  measure  changed  from 
what  it  had  been  during  their  first  inva- 
sions. They  had  embraced  the  Christian 
faith ;  they  were  consolidated  into  great 
kingdoms;  they  had  lost  some  of  that 
predatory  and  ferocious  spirit  which  a  re- 
ligion, invented,  as  it  seemed,  for  pirates, 
had  stimulated.  Those  too  who  had 
long  been  settled  in  England  became 
gradually  more  assimilated  to  the  na- 
tives, whose  laws  and  language  were  not 
radically  different  from  their  own.  Hence 
the  accession  of  a  Danish  line  of  kings 
produced  neither  any  evil  nor  any  sen- 
sible change  of  polity.  But  the  English 
still  outnumbered  their  conquerors,  and 
eagerly  returned,  when  an  opportunity 
arrived,  to  the  ancient  stock.  Edward 
the  Confessor,  notwithstanding  his  Nor- 
man favourites,  was  endeared  by  the  mild- 
ness of  his  character  to  the  English  na- 
tion; and  subsequent  miseries  gave  a 
kind  of  posthumous  credit  to  a  reign  not 
eminent  either  for  good  fortune  or  wise 
government. 

In  a  stage  of  civilization  so  little  ad- 
Succession  vanced  as  that  of  the  Anglo- Sax- 
tothe  oils,  and  under  circumstances 
i;rown.  Qf  sucn  mcessant  peril,  the  for- 
tunes of  a  nation  chiefly  depend  upon  the 
wisdom  and  valour  of  its  sovereigns. 

*  Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  83.  In  1064, 
after  a  revolt  of  the  Northumbrians,  Edward  the 
Confessor  renewed  the  laws  of  Canute.— Chronic. 
Saxon.  It  seems  now  to  be  ascertained  by  the 
comparison  of  dialects,  that  the  inhabitants  from 
the  Humber,  or  at  least  the  Tyne,  to  the  Firth  of 
Forth,  were  chiefly  Danes. 


No  free  people,  therefore,  would  intrust 
their  safety  to  blind  chance,  and  permit 
a  uniform  observance  of  hereditary  suc- 
cession to  prevail  against  strong  public 
expediency.  Accordingly  the  Saxons, 
like  most  other  European  nations,  while 
they  limited  the  inheritance  of  the  crown 
exclusively  to  one  royal  family,  were 
not  very  scrupulous  about  its  devolution 
upon  the  nearest  heir.  It  is  an  unwar- 
ranted assertion  of  Carte,  that  the  rule 
of  the  Anglo-Saxon  monarchy  was  "  lin- 
eal agnatic  succession,  the  blood  of  the 
second  son  having  no  right  until  the  ex- 
tinction of  that  of  the  eldest."*  Unques- 
tionably the  eldest  son  of  the  last  king, 
being  of  full  age,  and  not  manifestly  in- 
competent, was  his  natural  and  probable 
successor ;  nor  is  it  perhaps  certain  that 
he  always  waited  for  an  election  to  take 
upon  himself  the  rights  of  sovereignty; 
although  the  ceremony  of  coronation, 
according  to  the  ancient  form,  appears  to 
imply  its  necessity.  But  the  public  se- 
curity in  those  times  was  thought  incom- 
patible with  a  minor  king ;  and  the  arti- 
ficial substitution  of  a  regency,  which 
stricter  notions  of  hereditary  right  have 
introduced,  had  never  occurred  to  so 
rude  a  people.  Thus,  not  to  mention 
those  instances  which  the  obscure  times 
of  the  Heptarchy  exhibit,  Ethelred  I.,  as 
some  say,  but  certainly  Alfred,  excluded 
the  progeny  of  their  elder  brother  from 
the  throne. f  Alfred,  in  his  testament, 
dilates  upon  his  own  title,  which  he  builds 
upon  a  triple  foundation,  the  will  of  his 
father,  the  compact  of  his  brother  Ethel- 
red,  and  the  consent  of  the  West  Saxon 
nobility.J  A  similar  objection  to  the 
government  of  an  infant  seems  to  have 
rendered  Athelstan,  notwithstanding  his 
reputed  illegitimacy,  the  public  choice 
upon  the  death  of  Edward  the  Elder. 
Thus,  too,  the  sons  of  Edmund  I.  were 
postponed  to  their  uncle  Edred,  and 
again  preferred  to  his  issue.  And  happy 
might  it  have  been  for  England  if  this 
exclusion  of  infants  had  always  obtained. 
But  upon  the  death  of  Edgar,  the  royal 
family  wanted  some  prince  of  mature 
years  to  prevent  the  crown  from  resting 
upon  the  head  of  a  child  ;§  and  hence  the 


*  Vol.  i.,  p.  365.  Blackstone  has  laboured  to 
prove  the  same  proposition ;  but  his  knowledge  of 
English  history  was  rather  superficial. 

t  Chronicon  Saxon.,  p.  99.  Hume  says  that 
Ethelwald,  who  attempted  to  raise  an  insurrection 
against  Edward  the  Elder,  was  son  of  Ethelbert. 
The  Saxon  Chronicle  only  calls  him  the  king's 
cousin  ;  which  he  would  be  as  the  son  of  Ethelred, 
Spelman,  Vita  Alfredi,  Appendix. 
According  to  the  historian  of  Ramsey,  a  sort 
of  interregnum  took  place  on  Edgar's  death ;  his 


PART  I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


321 


minorities  of  Edward  II.  and  Ethelred  II 
led  to  misfortunes  which  overwhelms 
for  a  time  both  the  house  of  Cerdic  am 
the  English  nation. 

The  Anglo-Saxon  monarchy,  during  it: 
influence  of  earlier  period,   seems  to  hav< 
provincial     suffered  but  little  from  that  in 
governors,    subordination  among  the  supe 
rior  nobility,  which  ended  in  dismember 
ing  the  empire  of  Charlemagne.     Such 
kings  as  Alfred  and  Athelstan  were  no 
likely  to  permit  it.     And   the   English 
counties,  each  under  its  own  alderman 
were  not  of  a  size  to  encourage  the  usur- 
pations of  their  governors.     But  when 
the  whole  kingdom  was  subdued,  there 
arose  unfortunately  a  fashion  of  intrust- 
ing great  provinces  to  the  administration 
of  a  single  earl.     Notwithstanding  their 
union,  Mercia,  Northumberland,  and  East 
Anglia  were  regarded  in  some  degree  a 
distinct  parts  of  the  monarchy.     A  differ- 
ence of  laws,  though  probably  but  slight, 
kept  up  this  separation.     Alfred  govern- 
ed Mercia  by  the  hands  of  a  nobleman 
who  had  married  his  daughter  Ethelfleda ; 
and  that  lady,  after  her  husband's  death, 
held  the  reins  with  a  masculine  energy 
till  her  own,  when  her  brother  Edward 
took   the   province   into  his  immediate 
command.*     But  from  the  era  of  Edward 
II. 's  accession,  the  provincial  governors 
began  to  overpower  the  royal  authority, 
as  they  had  done  upon  the  continent. 
England,  under  this  prince,  was  not  far 
removed  from  the  condition  of  France 
under  Charles  the  Bald.     In  the  time  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  the  whole  king- 
dom seems  to  have  been  divided  among 
five  earls,f  three  of  whom  were  Godwin 
and  his  sons  Harold  and  Tostig.     It  can- 
not be  wondered  at  that  the  royal  line 
was  soon  supplanted  by  the  most  power- 
ful and  popular  of  these  leaders,  a  prince 
well  worthy  to  have  founded  a  new  dy- 
nasty, if  his  eminent  qualities   had  not 
yielded  to  those  of  a  still  more  illustrious 
enemy. 

There  were  but  two  denominations  of 
Distribution  persons  above  the  class  of  ser- 
into  Thanes  vitude,  Thanes  and  Ceorls  ;  the 
and  Ceoris.  owners  an(j  the  cultivators  of 


son's  birth  not  being  thought  sufficient  to  give  him 
a  clear  right  during  infancy. — 3  Gale,  xv.  Script., 
p.  413. 

*  Chronicon  Saxon. 

t  The  word  earl  (eorl)  meant  originally  a  man 
of  noble  birth,  as  opposed  to  the  ceorl.  It  was  not 
a  title  of  office  till  the  eleventh  century,  when  it 
was  used  as  synonymous  to  alderman,  for  a  gov- 
ernor of  a  county  or  province.  After  the  conquest, 
it  superseded  altogether  the  ancient  title.— Selden's 
Titles  of  Honour,  vol.  iii.,  p.  638  (edit.  Wilkins), 
and  Anglo-Saxon  writings  passim. 


land,  or  rather,  perhaps,  as  a  more  accu- 
rate distinction,  the  gentry  and  the  infe- 
rior people.  Among  all  the  northern  na* 
tions,  as  is  well  known,  the  weregild,  or 
compensation  for  murder,  was  the  stand- 
ard measure  of  the  gradations  of  society, 
In  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws  we  find  two 
ranks  of  freeholders ;  the  first,  called 
king's  thanes,  whose  lives  were  valued 
at  1200  shillings  ;  the  second,  of  inferior 
degree,  whose  composition  was  half  that 
sum.*  That  of  a  ceorl  was  200  shillings. 
The  nature  of  this  distinction  between 
royal  and  lesser  thanes  is  very  obscure ; 
and  I  shall  have  something  more  to  say 
of  it  presently.  However,  the  thanes  in 
general,  or  Anglo-Saxon  gentry,  must 
have  been  very  numerous.  A  law  of  Eth- 
elred directs  the  sheriff  to  take  twelve  of 
the  chief  thanes  in  every  hundred  as  his 
assessors  on  the  bench  of  justice. f  And 
from  Domesday  Book  we  may  collect 
that  they  had  formed  a  pretty  large  class, 
at  least  in  some  counties,  under  Edward 
the  Confessor.J 

The  composition  for  the  life  of  a  ceorl 
was,  as  has  been  said,  200  shil-  condition  of 
lings.  If  this  proportion  to  the  «» ceo^- 
value  of  a  thane  points  out  the  subordina- 
tion of  ranks,  it  certainly  does  not  exhib- 
it the  lower  freemen  in  a  state  of  com- 
Dlete  abasement.  The  ceorl  was  not 
Dound,  as  far  as  appears,  to  the  land 
which  he  cultivated  ;$  he  was  occasion- 
ally called  upon  to  bear  arms  for  the 
public  safety  ;||  he  was  protected  against 
jersonal  injuries,  or  trespasses  on  his 
and  ;^f  he  was  capable  of  property,  and 
of  the  privileges  which  it  conferred.  If 
le  came  to  possess  five  hydes  of  land 
or  about  600  acres),  with  a  church  and 
mansion  of  his  own,  he  was  entitled  to 
he  name  and  rights  of  a  thane.**  I  am, 
lowever,  inclined  to  suspect,  that  the 
ceorl  were  sliding  more  and  more  towards 
state  of  servitude  before  the  conquest.ff 
The  natural  tendency  of  such  times  of 


*  Wilkins,  p.  40,  43,  64,  72,  101. 

t  Idem,  p.  117. 

j  Domesday  Book  having  been  compiled  by  dif- 
erent  sets  of  commissioners,  their  language  has 
ometimes  varied  in  describing  the  same  class  of 
ersons.  The  liberi  homines,  of  whom  we  find  con- 
inual  mention  in  some  counties,  were  perhaps  not 
ifferent  from  the  thaini,  who  occur  in  other  places. 
But  this  subject  is  very  obscure  ;  and  a  clear  ap- 
irehension  of  the  classes  of  society  mentioned  in 
)omesday  seems  at  present  unattainable. 

§  Leges  Alfredi,  c.  33,  in  Wilkins.  This  text  is 
ot  unequivocal ;  and  I  confess  that  a  law  of  Ina 
c.  39)  has  rather  a  contrary  appearance. 

||  Leges  Inae,  c.  51,  ibid. 

1T  Leges  Alfredi,  c.  31,  35. 

**  Leges  Athelstani,  ibid.,  p.  70,  71. 

ft  If  the  laws  that  bear  the  name  of  William  are, 

is  generally  supposed,  those  of  his  jpredecessor 


322 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VHf. 


rapine,  with  the  analogy  of  a  similar 
change  in  France,  leads  to  this  conjec- 
ture. And  as  it  was  part  of  those  singu- 
lar regulations  which  were  devised  for 
the  preservation  of  internal  peace,  that 
every  man  should  be  enrolled  in  some 
tithing,  and  be  dependant  upon  some 
lord,  it  was  not  very  easy  for  the  ceorl 
to  exercise  the  privilege  (if  he  possessed 
it)  of  quitting  the  soil  upon  which  he 
lived. 

Notwithstanding  this,  I  doubt  whether 
it  can  be  proved  by  any  authority  earlier 
than  that  of  Glanvil,  whose  treatise  was 
written  about  1180,  that  the  peasantry  of 
England  were  reduced  to  that  extreme 
debasement  which  our  law-books  call 
viUanage,  a  condition  which  left  them  no 
civil  rights  with  respect  to  their  lord. 
For,  by  the  laws  of  William  the  Conquer- 
or, there  was  still  a  composition  fixed 
for  the  murder  of  a  villein  or  ceorl,  the 
strongest  proof  of  his  being,  as  it  was 
called,  law-worthy,  and  possessing  a 
rank,  however  subordinate,  in  political 
society.  And  this  composition  was  due 
to  his  kindred,  not  to  the  lord.*  Indeed, 
it  seems  positively  declared  in  another 
passage,  that  the  cultivators,  though 
bound  to  remain  upon  the  land,  were 
only  subject  to  certain  services.!  Again, 
the  treatise  denominated  the  Laws  of 
Henry  I.,  which,  though  not  deserving 
that  appellation,  must  be  considered  as 
a  contemporary  document,  expressly 
mentions  the  twyhinder  or  villein  as  a 
freeman. |  Nobody  can  doubt  that  the 
villani  and  bordarii  of  Domesday  Book, 
who  are  always  distinguished  from  the 
serfs  of  the  demesne,  were  the  ceorls  of 
Anglo-Saxon  law.fy  And  I  presume  that 
the  socmen,  who  so  frequently  occur  in 
that  record,  though  far  more  in  some 
counties  than  in  others,  were  ceorls  more 
fortunate  than  the  rest,  who  by  purchase 
had  acquired  freeholds,  or  by  prescrip- 
tion and  the  indulgence  of  their  lords  had 
obtained  such  a  property  in  the  outlands 
allotted  to  them  that  they  could  not  be 
removed,  and  in  many  instances  might 
dispose  of  them  at  pleasure.  They  are 
the  root  of  a  noble  plant,  the  free  soccage 
tenants,  or  English  yeomanry,  whose  in- 
dependence has  stamped  with  peculiar 
features  both  our  constitution  and  our  na- 
tional character. 

Beneath  the  ceorls  in  political  estima- 
tion were  the  conquered  natives  of  Brit- 
Edward,  they  were  already  annexed  to  the  soil,  p. 
225. 

*  Wilkins,  p.  221.  t  Ibid.,  p.  225. 

J  Leges  Henr.  I.,  c.  70  and  76,  in  Wilkins. 

§  Somner  on  Gavelkind,  p.  74. 


ain.  In  a  war  so  long  and  so  ob-  British 
stinately  maintained  as  that  of  the  nativea. 
Britons  against  their  invaders,  it  is  natu- 
ral to  conclude,  that  in  a  great  part  of  the 
country  the  original  inhabitants  were  al- 
most extirpated,  and  that  the  remainder 
were  reduced  into  servitude.  This,  till 
lately,  has  been*  the  concurrent  opinion 
of  our  antiquaries  ;  and  with  some  quali- 
fication, I  do  not  see  why  it  should  not 
still  be  received.  In  every  kingdom  of 
the  continent,  which  was  formed  by  the 
northern  nations  of  the  Roman  empire, 
the  Latin  language  preserved  its  superi- 
ority, and  has  much  more  been  corrupted 
through  ignorance  and  want  of  a  stand- 
ard, than  intermingled  with  their  original 
idiom.  But  our  own  language  is,  and 
has  been  from  the  earliest  times  after 
the  Saxon  conquest,  essentially  Teuton- 
ic, and  of  the  most  obvious  affinity  to 
those  dialects  which  are  spoken  in  Den- 
mark and  Lower  Saxony.  With  such  as 
are  extravagant  enough  to  controvert  so 
evident  a  truth,  it  is  idle  to  contend ;  and 
those  who  believe  great  part  of  our  lan- 
guage to  be  borrowed  from  the  Welsh 
may  doubtless  infer  that  great  part  of 
our  population  is  derived  from  the  same 
source.  If  we  look  through  the  subsist- 
ing Anglo-Saxon  records,  there  is  not 
very  frequent  mention  of  British  subjects. 
But  some  undoubtedly  there  were  in  a 
state  of  freedom,  and  possessed  of  landed 
state.  A  Welshman  (that  is,  a  Briton), 
who  held  five  hydes,  was  raised,  like  a 
ceorl,  to  the  dignity  of  thane.*  In  the 
composition,  however,  for  their  lives, 
and  consequently  in  their  rank  in  society, 
they  were  inferior  to  the  meanest  Saxon 
'reeman.  The  slaves,  who  were  glaveg 
frequently  the  objects  of  legisla- 
;ion,  rather  for  the  purpose  of  ascertain- 
ng  their  punishments  than  of  securing 
their  rights,  may  be  presumed,  at  least 
n  early  times,  to  have  been  part  of  the 
conquered  Britons.  For  though  his  own 
crimes,  or  the  tyranny  of  others,  might 
possibly  reduce  a  Saxon  ceorl  to  this  con- 
dition,! it  is  inconceivable  that  the  low- 
st  of  those  who  won  England  with  their 
swords  should  in  the  establishment  of  the 
new  kingdoms  have  been  left  destitute 
of  personal  liberty. 

The  great  council  by  which  an  Anglo- 
Saxon  king  was  guided  in  all  TheWitten- 
;he  main  acts  of  government  agemot. 
Dore  the  appellation  of  Witten  agemot,  or 
;he  assembly  of  the  wise  men.  All  their 
,aws  express  the  assent  of  this  council ; 


*  Leges  Inae,  p.  18.    Leg.  Atheist.,  p.  71. 
|  Leges  Inae,  c.  24. 


PART  L] 


'ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


323 


and  there  are  instances  where  grants 
made  without  its  concurrence  have  been 
revoked.  It  was  composed  of  prelates 
and  abbots,  of  the  aldermen  of  shires, 
and,  as  it  is  generally  expressed,  of  the 
noble  and  wise  men  of  the  kingdom.* 
Whether  the  lesser  thanes,  or  inferior 
proprietors  of  lands,  were  entitled  to  a 
place  in  the  national  council,  as  they  cer- 
tainly were  in  the  shiregemot,  or  county- 
court,  is  not  easily  to  be  decided.  Many 
writers  have  concluded  from  a  passage 
in  the  History  of  Ely,  that  no  one,  how- 
ever nobly  born,  could  sit  in  the  witten- 
agemot,  so  late  at  least  as  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  unless  he  pos- 
sessed forty  hydes  of  land,  or  about  five 
thousand  acres. f  But  the  passage  in 
question  does  not  unequivocally  relate 
to  the  wittenagemot ;  and  being  vaguely 
worded  by  an  ignorant  monk,  who  per- 
haps had  never  gone  beyond  his  fens, 
ought  not  to  be  assumed  as  an  incontro- 
vertible testimony.  Certainly  so  very 
high  a  qualification  cannot  be  supposed 
to  have  been  requisite  in  the  kingdoms 
of  the  Heptarchy  ;  nor  do  we  find  any 
collateral  evidence  to  confirm  the  hypoth- 
esis. If,  however,  all  the  body  of  thanes 
or  freeholders  were  admissible  to  the 
wittenagemot,  it  is  unlikely  that  the  priv- 
ilege should  have  been  fully  exercised. 
Very  few,  I  believe,  at  present,  imagine 
that  there  was  any  representative  system 
in  that  age ;  much  less  that  the  ceorls  or 
inferior  freemen  had  the  smallest  share 
in  the  deliberations  of  the  national  as- 
sembly. Every  argument  which  a  spirit 
of  controversy  once  pressed  into  this 
service,  has  long  since  been  victoriously 
refuted. 

It  has  been  justly  remarked  by  Hume, 
Judicial  that  among  a  people  who  lived  in 
power.  So  simple  a  manner  as  these  An- 
glo-Saxons, the  judicial  power  is  always 
of  more  consequence  than  the  legislative. 
The  liberties  of  these  Anglo-Saxon  thanes 
were  chiefly  secured,  next  to  their  swords 
and  their  free  spirits,  by  the  inestimable 
right  of  deciding  civil  and  criminal  suits 
in  their  own  county-court ;  an  institution 
which,  having  survived  the  Conquest,  and 
contributed  in  no  small  degree  to  fix  the 
liberties  of  England  upon  a  broad  and 
popular  basis,  by  limiting  the  feudal  aris- 
tocracy, deserves  attention  in  following 
the  history  of  the  British  constitution. 

The  division  of  the  kingdom  into  coun- 


*  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  in  Wilkins,  passim. 

t  Quoniam  ille  quadraginta  hydarum  terras  do- 
minium  minimi  obtineret,  licet  nobilis  esset,  inter 
proceres  tune  numeran  non  potuit. — 3  Gale,  Scrip- 
tores,  p.  513. 

X2 


ties,  and  of  these  into  hundreds  Division 
and  decennaries,  for  the  purpose  JJJJ  ch°uunn* 
of  administering  justice,  was  not  dmjs,  and 
peculiar  to  England.  In  the  early  tunings, 
laws  of  France  and  Lombardy,  frequent 
mention  is  made  of  the  hundred  court, 
and  now  and  then  of  those  petty  village 
magistrates,  who  in  England  were  called 
tithing-men.  It  has  been  usual  to  ascribe 
the  establishment  of  this  system  among 
our  Saxon  ancestors  to  Alfred,  upon  the 
authority  of  Ingulfus,  a  writer  contem- 
porary with  the  Conquest.  But  neither 
the  biographer  of  Alfred,  Asserius,  nor 
the  existing  laws  of  that  prince,  bear  tes- 
timony to  the  fact,  With  respect  indeed 
to  the  division  of  counties,  and  their  gov- 
ernment by  aldermen  and  sheriffs,  it  is 
certain  that  both  existed  long  before  his 
time  ;*  and  the  utmost  that  can  be  sup- 
posed is  that  he  might  in  some  instances 
have  ascertained  an  unsettled  boundary. 
There  does  not  seem  to  be  equal  evi- 
dence as  to  the  antiquity  of  the  minor 
divisions.  Hundreds,  I  think,  are  first 
mentioned  in  a  law  of  Edgar,  and  ti- 
things  in  one  of  Canute. f  But  as  Alfred, 
it  must  be  remembered,  was  never  mas- 
ter of  more  than  half  the  kingdom,  the 
complete  distribution  of  England  into 
these  districts  cannot,  upon  any  supposi- 
tion, be  referred  to  him. 

There  is,  indeed,  a  circumstance  ob- 
servable in  this  division  which  seems  to 
indicate  that  it  could  not  have  taken  place 
at  one  time,  nor  upon  one  system ;  I 
mean,  the  extreme  inequality  of  hundreds 
in  different  parts  of  England.  Whether 
the  name  be  conceived  to  refer  to  the 
number  of  free  families,  or  of  landhold- 
ers, or  of  petty  vills,  forming  so  many 
associations  of  mutual  assurance  or  frank- 
pledge,  one  can  hardly  doubt  that,  when 
the  term  was  first  applied,  a  hundred  of 
one  or  other  of  these  were  comprised,  at 
an  average  reckoning,  within  the  district. 
But  it  is  impossible  to  reconcile  the  vary- 
ing size  of  hundreds  to  any  single  hypoth- 
esis. The  county  of  Sussex  contains 
sixty-five;  that  of  Dorset  forty-three; 
while  Yorkshire  has  only  twenty-six ; 
and  Lancashire  but  six.  No  difference  of 
population,  though  the  south  of  England 
was  undoubtedly  far  the  best  peopled, 
can  be  conceived  to  account  for  so  pro- 
digious a  disparity.  I  know  of  no  better 
solution  than  that  the  divisions  of  the 


*  Counties,  as  well  as  the  alderman  who  pre- 
sided over  them,  are  mentioned  in  the  laws  of  Ina, 
c.  36. 

t  Wilkins,  p.  87,  136.  The  former,  however, 
refers  to  them  as  an  ancient  institution :  quaeratur 
centnriae  conventus,  sicut  antea  institutum  erat. 


324 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


north,  properly  called  wapentakes,*  were 
planned  upon  a  different  system,  and  ob- 
tained the  denomination  of  hundreds  in- 
correctly, after  the  union  of  all  England 
under  a  single  sovereign. 

Assuming,  therefore,  the  name  and  par- 
tition of  hundreds  to  have  originated  in 
the  southern  counties,  it  will  rather,  I 
think,  appear  probable,  that  they  contain- 
ed only  a  hundred  free  families,  inclu- 
ding the  ceorls  as  well  as  their  landlords. 
If  we  suppose  none  but  the  latter  to  have 
been  numbered,  we  should  find  six  thou- 
sand thanes  in  Kent,  and  six  thousand 
five  hundred  in  Sussex ;  a  reckoning  to- 
tally inconsistent  with  any  probable  esti- 
mate, f  But  though  we  have  little  direct 
testimony  as  to  the  population  of  those 
times,  there  is  one  passage  which  falls  in 
very  sufficiently  with  the  former  suppo- 
sition. Bede  says  that  the  kingdom  of 
the  South  Saxons,  comprehending  Sur- 
rey as  well  as  Sussex,  contained  seven 
thousand  families.  The  county  of  Sus- 
sex alone  is  divided  into  sixty-five  hun- 
dreds, which  comes  at  least  close  enough 
to  prove  that  free  families,  rather  than 
proprietors,  were  the  subject  of  that  nu- 
meration. And  this  is  the  interpretation 
of  Du  Cange  and  Muratori,  as  to  the  Cen- 
tenae  and  Decaniae  of  their  own  ancient 
laws. 

I  cannot  but  feel  some  doubt,  notwith- 
standing a  passage  in  the  laws  ascribed 
to  Edward  the  Confessor,!  whether  the 
tithing-man  ever  possessed  any  judicial 
magistracy  over  his  small  district.  He 
was,  more  probably,  little  different  from  a 
petty  constable,  as  is  now  the  case,  I  be- 
lieve; wherever  that  denomination  of  of- 
fice is  preserved.  The  court  of  the  hun- 
dred, not  held,  as  on  the  continent,  by  its 
own  centenarius,  but  by  the  sheriff  of  the 
county,  is  frequently  mentioned  in  the 
County-  later  Anglo-Saxon  laws.  It  was, 
court,  however,  to  the  county- court  that 
an  English  freeman  chiefly  looked  for  the 
maintenance  of  his  civil  rights.  In  this 
assembly,  held  monthly,  or  at  least  more 
than  once  in  the  year  (for  there  seems 
some  ambiguity  or  perhaps  fluctuation  as 
to  this  point),  by  the  bishop  and  the  earl, 
or,  in  his  absence,  the  sheriff,  the  oath  of 
allegiance  was  administered  to  all  free- 
men, breaches  of  the  peace  were  inquired 

*  Leges  Edwardi  Confess.,  c.  33. 

t  It  would  be  easy  to  mention  particular  hun- 
dreds in  these  counties,  so  small  as  to  render  this 
supposition  quite  ridiculous. 

}  Leges  Edwardi  Confess.,  p.  203.  Nothing,  as 
far  as  I  know,  confirms  this  passage,  which  hardly 
tallies  with  what  the  genuine  Anglo-Saxon  docu- 
ments contain  as  to  the  judicial  arrangements  of 
that  period. 


into,  crimes  were  investigated,  and  claims 
were  determined.  I  assign  all  these  func- 
ions  to  the  county-court  upon  the  sup- 
position that  no  other  subsisted  during  the 
Saxon  times,  and  that  the  separation  of 
the  sheriffs  tourn  for  criminal  jurisdic- 
tion had  not  yet  taken  place,  which,  how- 
ever, I  cannot  pretend  to  determine.* 

A  very  ancient  Saxon  instrument,  re- 
cording a  suit  in  the  county-court  suit  in  the 
under  the  reign  of  Canute,  has  county- 
been  published  by  Hickes,  and  court- 
may  be  deemed  worthy  of  a  literal  transla- 
;ion  in  this  place.  "  It  is  made  known  by 
this  writing,  that  in  the  shiregemot  (coun- 
ty-court) held  at  Agelnothes-stane  (Ayls- 
ton  in  Herefordshire),  in  the  reign  of  Ca- 
nute, there  sat  Athelstan  the  bishop,  and 
Ranig  the  alderman,  and  Edwin  his  son, 
and  Leofwin  Wulfig's  son ;  and  Thurkil 
he  White  and  Tofig  came  there  on  the 
king's  business ;  and  there  were  Bryning 
he  sheriff,  and  Athelweard  of  Frome,  and 
Leofwin  of  Frome,  and  Goodric  of  Stoke, 
and  all  the  thanes  of  Herefordshire. 
Then  came  to  the  mote  Edwin  son  of 
Enneawne,  and  sued  his  mother  for  some 
lands,  called  Weolintun  and  Cyrdeslea. 
Then  the  bishop  asked,  who  would  an- 
swer for  his  mother.  Then  answered 
Thurkil  the  White,  and  said  that  he 
would,  if  he  knew  the  facts,  which  he 
did  not.  Then  were  seen  in  the  mote 
three  thanes,  that  belonged  to  Feligly 
(Fawley,  five  miles  from  Aylston),  Leof- 
win of  Frome,  ^Egelwig  the  Red,  and 
Thinsig  Staegthman ;  and  they  went  to 
her,  and  inquired  what  she  had  to  say 
about  the  lands  which  her  son  claimed. 
She  said  that  she  had  no  land  which  be- 
longed to  him,  and  fell  into  a  noble  pas- 
sion against  her  son,  and  calling  for  Le- 
ofleda  her  kinswoman,  the  wife  of  Thur- 
kil, thus  spake  to  her  before  them : — '  This 
is  Leofleda  my  kinswoman,  to  whom  I 
give  my  lands,  money,  clothes,  and  what- 
ever I  possess  after  my  life :'  and  this 
said,  she  thus  spake  to  the  thanes  :  '  Be- 
have like  thanes,  and  declare  my  mes- 
sage to  all  the  good  men  in  the  mote,  and 
tell  them  to  whom  I  have  given  my  lands, 
and  all  my  possessions,  and  nothing  to 
my  son ;'  and  bade  them  be  witnesses  to 
this.  And  thus  they  did,  rode  to  the 
mote,  and  told  all  the  good  men  what  she 
had  enjoined  them.  Then  Thurkil  the 
White  addressed  the  mote,  and  requested 
all  the  thanes  to  let  his  wife  have  the 
lands  which  her  kinswoman  had  given 
her;  and  thus  they  did,  and  Thurkil 

*  This  point  is  obscure ;  but  I  do  not  perceive 
that  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws  distinguish  the  civil 
from  the  criminal  tribunal. 


PART  I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


325 


rode  to  the  church  of  St.  Ethelbert,  with 
the  leave  and  witness  of  all  the  people, 
and  had  this  inserted  in  a  book  in  the 
church."* 

It  may  be  presumed  from  the  appeal 
made  to  the  thanes  present  at  the  county- 
court,  and  is  confirmed  by  other  ancient 
authorities,!  that  all  of  them,  and  they 
alone,  to  the  exclusion  of  inferior  free- 
men, were  the  judges  of  civil  controver- 
sies. The  latter  indeed  were  called  upon 
to  attend  its  meetings,  or,  in  the  language 
of  our  present  law,  were  suiters  to  the 
court,  and  it  was  penal  to  be  absent. 
But  this  was  on  account  of  other  duties, 
the  oath  of  allegiance  which  they  were 
to  take,  or  the  frank-pledges  into  which 
they  were  to  enter,  not  in  order  to  exer- 
cise any  judicial  power ;  unless  we  con- 
ceive that  the  disputes  of  the  ceorls  were 
decided  by  judges  of  their  own  rank.  It 
is  more  important  to  remark  the  crude 
state  of  legal  process  and  inquiry  which 
this  instrument  denotes.  Without  any 
regular  method  of  instituting  or  conduct- 
ing causes,  the  county-court  seems  to 
have  had  nothing  to  recommend  it  but, 
what  indeed  is  no  trifling  matter,  its  se- 
curity from  corruption  and  tyranny ;  and 
in  the  practical  jurisprudence  of  our 
Saxon  ancestors,  even  at  the  beginning 
of  the  eleventh  century,  we  perceive  no 
advance  of  civility  and  skill  from  the 
state  of  their  own  savage  progenitors  on 
the  banks  of  the  Elbe.  No  appeal  could 
be  made  to  the  royal  tribunal,  unless  jus- 
tice was  denied  in  the  county-  court. J 
This  was  the  great  constitutional  judica- 
ture in  all  questions  of  civil  right.  In 
another  instrument,  published  by  Hickes, 
of  the  age  of  Ethelred  II.,  the  tenant  of 
lands  which  were  claimed  in  the  king's 
court  refused  to  submit  to  the  decree  of 
that  tribunal,  without  a  regular  trial  in 
the  county;  which  was  accordingly  grant- 
ed.^ There  were,  however,  royal  judges, 


*  Hickes,  Dissertatio  Epistolaris,  p.  4,  in  The- 
saurus Antiquitatum  Septentrion,  vol.  iii.  Before 
the  conquest,  says  Gurdon  (on  Courts-Baron,  p. 
589),  grants  were  enrolled  in  the  shire-book  in  pub- 
lic shire  mote,  after  proclamation  made  for  any  to 
come  in  that  could  claim  the  lands  conveyed  ;  and 
this  was  as  irreversible  as  the  modern  fine  with 
proclamations  or  recovery.  This  may  be  so  ;  but 
the  county-court  has  at  least  long  ceased  to  be 
a  court  of  record;  and  one  would  ask  for  proof 
of  the  assertion.  The  book  kept  in  the  church  of 
St.  Ethelbert,  wherein  Thurkil  is  said  to  have  in- 
Berted  the  proceedings  of  the  county-court,  may  or 
may  not  have  been  a  public  record. 

t  Id.,  p.  3.     Leges  Henr.  Primi,  c.  29. 

i  Leges  Eadgari,  p.  77 ;  Canuti,  p.  136  ;  Henrici 
Primi,  c.  34.  I  quote  the  latter  freely  as  Anglo- 
Saxon,  though  posterior  to  the  conquest;  then- 
spirit  being  perfectly  of  the  former  period. 

()  Dissertatio  Epistolaris,  p.  5. 


who,  either  by  way  of  appeal  from  the 
lower  courts,  or  in  excepted  cases,  form- 
ed a  paramount  judicature  ;  but  how  their 
court  was  composed  under  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  sovereigns  I  do  not  pretend  to 
assert.* 

It  had  been  a  prevailing  opinion,  that 
trial  by  jury  may  be  referred  to  the  Trial  by 
Anglo-Saxon  age,  and  common  Jury- 
tradition  has  ascribed  it  to  the  wisdom 
of  Alfred.  In  such  an  historical  deduc- 
tion of  the  English  government  as  I  have 
attempted,  an  institution  so  peculiarly 
characteristic  deserves  every  attention 
to  its  origin ;  and  I  shall  therefore  pro- 
duce the  evidence  which  has  been  sup- 
posed to  bear  upon  this  most  eminent 
part  of  our  judicial  system.  The  first 
text  of  the  Saxon  laws  which  may  ap- 
pear to  have  such  a  meaning  is  in  those 
of  Alfred.  "  If  any  one  accuse  a  king's 
thane  of  homicide,  if  he  dare  to  purge 
himself  (ladian),  let  him  do  it  along  with 
twelve  king's  thanes.  If  any  one  accuse 
a  thane  of  less  rank  (Iressa  maga)  than  a 
king's  thane,  let  him  purge  himself  along 
with  eleven  of  his  equals,  and  one  king's 
thane. "f  This  law,  which  Nicholson 
contends  can  mean  nothing  but  trial  by 
jury,  has  been  referred  by  Hickes  to  that 
ancient  usage  of  compurgation,  where 
the  accused  sustained  his  own  oath  by 
those  of  a  number  of  his  friends,  who 
pledged  their  knowledge,  or  at  least  their 
belief  of  his  innocence.  J 

In  the  canons  of  the  Northumbrian 
clergy,  we  read  as  follows  :  "  If  a  king's 
thane  deny  this  (the  practice  of  heathen 
superstitions),  let  twelve  be  appointed 
for  him,  and  let  him  take  twelve  of  his 
kindred  (or  equals,  maga)  and  twelve 
British  strangers  ;  and  if  he  fail,  then  let 
him  pay  for  his  breach  of  law  twelve  half- 
marcs  :  If  a  landholder  (or  lesser  thane) 
deny  the  charge,  let  as  many  of  his  equals 
and  as  many  strangers  be  taken  as  for  a 
royal  thane ;  and  if  he  fail  let  him  pay 
six  half-marcs  :  If  a  ceorl  deny  it,  let  as 
many  of  his  equals  and  as  many  stran- 
gers be  taken  for  him  as  for  the  others ; 


*  Madox,  History  of  the  Exchequer,  p.  65,  will 
not  admit  the  existence  of  any  court  analogous  to 
the  Curia  Regis  before  the  conquest ;  all  pleas  be- 
ing determined  in  the  county.  There  are,  how- 
ever, several  instances  of  decisions  before  the  king; 
and  in  some  cases  it  seems  that  the  wittenagemot 
had  a  judicial  authority. — Leges  Canuti,  p.  135, 
136.  Hist.  Eliensis,  p.  469.  Chron.  Sax.,  p.  169. 
In  the  Leges  Henr.  I.,  c.  10,  the  limits  of  the  royal 
and  local  jurisdictions  are  defined  as  to  criminal 
matters,  and  seem  to  have  been  little  changed  since 
the  reign  of  Canute,  p.  135. 

t  Leges  Alfredi,  p.  47. 

t  Nicholson,  Prefatio  ad  Leges  Anglo-Saxon. 
Wilkinsii,  p.  10.  Hickes,  Dissertatio  Epistolaris. 


326 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


and  if  he  fail,  let  him  pay  twelve  orae  for 
his  breach  of  law."*  It  is  difficult  at  first 
sight  to  imagine  that  these  thirty-six  so 
selected  were  merely  compurgators,  since 
it  seems  absurd  that  the  judge  should 
name  indifferent  persons,  who,  without 
inquiry,  were  to  make  oath  of  a  party's 
innocence.  Some  have  therefore  con- 
ceived, that  in  this  and  other  instances 
where  compurgators  are  mentioned,  they 
were  virtually  jurors,  who,  before  attest- 
ing the  facts,  were  to  inform  their  con- 
sciences by  investigating  them.  There 
are,  however,  passages  in  the  Saxon 
laws  nearly  parallel  to  that  just  quoted, 
which  seem  incompatible  with  this  in- 
terpretation. Thus,  by  a  law  of  Athel- 
stan,  if  any  one  claimed  a  stray  ox  as  his 
own,  five  of  his  neighbours  were  to  be 
assigned,  of  whom  one  was  to  maintain 
the  claimant's  oath.f  Perhaps  the  prin- 
ciple of  these  regulations,  and  indeed  of 
the  whole  law  of  compurgation,  is  to  be 
found  in  that  stress  laid  upon  general 
character  which  pervades  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  jurisprudence.  A  man  of  ill  rep- 
utation was  compelled  to  undergo  a  triple 
ordeal,  in  cases  where  a  single  one  suffi- 
ced for  persons  of  credit;  a  provision 
rather  inconsistent  with  the  trust  in  a 
miraculous  interposition  of  Providence 
which  was  the  basis  of  that  superstition. 
And  the  law  of  frank-pledge  proceeded 
upon  the  maxim  that  the  best  guarantee 
of  every  man's  obedience  to  the  govern- 
ment was  to  be  sought  in  the  confidence 
of  his  neighbours.  Hence,  while  some 
compurgators  were  to  be  chosen  by  the 
sheriff,  to  avoid  partiality  and  collusion, 
it  was  still  intended  that  they  should  be 
residents  of  the  vicinage,  witnesses  of 
the  defendant's  previous  life,  and  compe- 
tent to  estimate  the  probability  of  his  ex- 
culpatory oath.  For  the  British  stran- 
gers, in  the  canon  quoted  above,  were 
certainly  the  original  natives,  more  inter- 
mingled with  their  conquerors,  probably, 
in  the  provinces  north  of  the  Humber 
than  elsewhere,  and  still  denominated 
strangers,  as  the  distinction  of  races  was 
not  done  away. 

If  in  this  instance  we  do  not  feel  our- 
selves warranted  to  infer  the  existence 
of  trial  by  jury,  still  less  shall  we  find 
even  an  analogy  to  it  in  an  article  of  the 
treaty  between  England  and  Wales  du- 
ring the  reign  of  Ethelred  II.  "  Twelve 
persons  skilled  in  the  law  (lahmen),  six 
English  and  six  Welsh,  shall  instruct 
the  natives  of  each  country,  on  pain  of 


*  Wilkins,  p.  100. 

f  Leges  Athelstani,  p.  58. 


forfeiting  their  possessions,  if,  except 
through  ignorance,  they  give  false  infor- 
mation."* This  is  obviously  but  a  regu- 
lation intended  to  settle  disputes  among 
the  Welsh  and  English,  to  which  their 
ignorance  of  each  other's  customs  might 
give  rise. 

By  a  law  of  the  same  prince,  a  court 
was  to  be  held  in  every  wapentake, 
where  the  sheriff  and  twelve  principal 
thanes  should  swear  that  they  would  nei- 
ther acquit  any  criminal,  nor  convict  any 
innocent  person. f  It  seems  more  prob- 
able that  these  thanes  were  permanent 
assessors  to  the  sheriff,  like  the  scabini 
so  frequently  mentioned  in  the  early 
laws  of  France  and  Italy,  than  jurors  in- 
discriminately selected.  This  passage, 
however,  is  stronger  than  those  which 
have  been  already  adduced ;  and  it  may 
be  thought,  perhaps  with  justice,  that  at 
least  the  seeds  of  our  present  form  of 
trial  are  discoverable  in  it.  In  the  his- 
tory of  Ely,  we  twice  read  of  pleas  held 
before  twenty-four  judges  in  the  court  of 
Cambridge ;  which  seems  to  have  been 
formed  out  of  several  neighbouring  hun- 
dreds.! 

But  the  nearest  approach  to  a  regular 
jury  which  has  been  preserved  in  our 
scanty  memorials  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
age,  occurs  in  the  history  of  the  monas- 
tery of  Ramsey.  A  controversy  relating 
to  lands  between  that  society  and  a  cer- 
tain nobleman  was  brought  into  the  coun- 
ty-court; when  each  party  was  heard 
in  his  own  behalf.  After  this  commence- 
ment, on  account  probably  of  the  length 
and  difficulty  of  the  investigation,  it  was 
referred  by  the  court  to  thirty-six  thanes, 
equally  chosen  by  both  sides.  $  And  here 
we  begin  to  perceive  the  manner  in 
which  those  tumultuous  assemblies,  the 
mixed  body  of  freeholders  in  their  coun- 
ty-court, slid  gradually  into  a  more 
steady  and  more  diligent  tribunal.  But 
this  was  not  the  work  of  a  single  age. 
In  the  Conqueror's  reign  we  find  a  pro- 
ceeding very  similar  to  the  case  of  Ram- 
sey, in  which  the  suit  has  been  commen- 
ced in  the  county-court,  before  it  was 
found  expedient  to  remit  it  to  a  select 
body  of  freeholders.  In  the  reign  of 
William  Rufus,  and  down  to  that  of  Hen- 
ry II.,  when  the  trial  of  writs  of  right  by 
the  grand  assize  was  introduced,  Hickes 
has  discovered  other  instances  of  the  ori- 
ginal usage.  ||  The  language  of  Domes- 


*  Leges  Ethelredi,  p.  125.  f  P.  117. 

J  Hist.  Eliensis,  in  Gale's  Scriptores,  t.  iii.,  p. 
471  and  478. 

§  Hist.  Ramsey,  id.,  p.  415. 

||  Hickesii  Dissertatio  Epistolaris,  p.  33,  38. 


• 


PART  I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


327 


day  Book  lends  some  confirmation  to 
its  existence  at  the  time  of  that  survey ; 
and  even  our  common  legal  expression 
of  trial  by  the  country  seems  to  be  deri- 
ved from  a  period  when  the  form  was  lit- 
erally popular. 

In  comparing  the  various  passages 
which  I  have  quoted,  it  is  impossible  not 
to  be  struck  with  the  preference  given  to 
twelve,  or  some  multiple  of  it,  in  fixing 
the  number  either  of  judges  or  compur- 
gators.  This  was  not  peculiar  to  Eng- 
land. Spelman  has  produced  several  in- 
stances of  it  in  the  early  German  laws. 
And  that  number  seems  to  have  been  re- 
garded with  equal  veneration  in  Scandi- 
navia.* It  is  very  immaterial  from  what 
caprice  or  superstition  this  predilection 
arose.  But  its  general  prevalence  shows 
that,  in  searching  for  the  origin  of  trial 
by  jury,  we  cannot  rely  for  a  moment 
upon  any  analogy  which  the  mere  num- 
ber affords.  I  am  induced  to  make  this 
observation,  because  some  of  the  pas- 
sages which  have  been  alleged  by  emi- 
nent men  for  the  purpose  of  establishing 
the  existence  of  that  institution  before 
the  conquest,  seem  to  have  little  else  to 
support  them. 

There  is  certainly  no  part  of  the  Anglo- 
Law  of  Saxon  polity  which  has  attracted 
frank-  so  much  the  notice  of  modern 
pledge.  tjmes  as  the  jaw  Of  frank-pledge, 
or  mutual  responsibility  of  the  members 
of  a  tithing  for  each  other's  abiding  the 
course  of  justice.  This,  like  the  distribu- 
tion of  hundreds  and  tithings  themselves, 
and  like  trial  by  jury,  has  been  generally 
attributed  to  Alfred ;  and  of  this,  I  sus- 
pect, we  must  also  deprive  him.  It  is 
not  surprising  that  the  great  services  of 
Alfred  to  his  people  in  peace  and  in  war 
should  have  led  posterity  to  ascribe  every 
institution,  of  which  the  beginning  was 
obscure,  to  his  contrivance,  till  his  fame 
has  become  almost  as  fabulous  in  legisla- 
tion as  that  of  Arthur  in  arms.  The  Eng- 
lish nation  redeemed  from  servitude,  and 
their  name  from  extinction ;  the  lamp  of 
learning  refreshed,  when  scarce  a  glim- 
mer was  visible  ;  the  watchful  observance 
of  justice  and  public  order;  these  are  the 
genuine  praises  of  Alfred,  and  entitle  him 
to  the  rank  he  has  always  held  in  men's 
esteem,  as  the  best  and  greatest  of  Eng- 
lish kings.  But  of  his  legislation  there  is 
little  that  can  be  asserted  with  sufficient 
evidence ;  the  laws  of  his  time  that  re- 
main are  neither  numerous  nor  particu- 
larly interesting ;  and  a  loose  report  of 

*  Spelman's  Glossary,  voc.  Jurata.  Du  Cange, 
voc.  Nembda.  Edinb.  Review,  vol.  xxxi.,  p.  115: 
a  most  learned  and  elaborate  essay. 


late  writers  is  not  sufficient  to  prove  that 
he  compiled  a  dom-boc,  or  general  code 
for  the  government  of  his  kingdom. 

An  ingenious  and  philosophical  writer 
has  endeavoured  to  found  the  law  of 
frank-pledge  upon  one  of  those  general 
principles  to  which  he  always  loves  to 
recur.  "  If  we  look  upon  a  tithing,"  he 
says,  "  as  regularly  composed  of  ten  fam- 
ilies, this  branch  of  its  police  will  appear 
in  the  highest  degree  artificial  and  sin- 
gular ;  but  if  we  consider  that  society  as 
of  the  same  extent  with  a  town  or  vil- 
lage, we  shall  find  that  such  a  regulation 
is  conformable  to  the  general  usage  of 
barbarous  nations,  and  is  founded  upon 
their  common  notions  of  justice."*  A 
variety  of  instances  are  then  brought  for- 
ward, drawn  from  the  customs  of  almost 
every  part  of  the  world,  wherein  the  in- 
habitants of  a  district  have  been  made 
answerable  for  crimes  and  injuries  impu- 
ted to  one  of  them.  But  none  of  these 
fully  resemble  the  Saxon  institution  of 
which  we  are  treating.  They  relate  ei- 
ther to  the  right  of  reprisals,  exercised 
with  respect  to  the  subjects  of  foreign 
countries,  or  to  the  indemnification  ex- 
acted from  the  district,  as  in  our  modern 
statutes,  which  give  an  action  in  certain 
cases  of  felony  against  the  hundred,  for 
crimes  which  its  internal  police  was  sup- 
posed capable  of  preventing.  In  the  Irish 
custom,  indeed,  which  bound  the  head  of 
a  sept  to  bring  forward  every  one  of  his 
kindred  who  should  be  charged  with  any 
heinous  crime,  we  certainly  perceive  a 
strong  analogy  to  the  Saxon  law,  not  as 
it  latterly  subsisted,  but  under  one  of  its 
prior  modifications.  For  I  think  that 
something  of  a  gradual  progression  may 
be  traced  to  the  history  of  this  famous 
police,  by  following  the  indications  af- 
forded by  those  laws  through  which  alone 
we  become  acquainted  with  its  exist- 
ence. 

The  Saxons  brought  with  them  from 
their  original  forests  at  least  as  much 
roughness  as  any  of  the  nations  which 
overturned  the  Roman  empire ;  and  their 
long  struggle  with  the  Britons  could  not 
contribute  to  polish  their  manners.  The 
royal  authority  was  weak ;  and  little  had 
been  learned  of  that  regular  system  of 
government  which  the  Franks  and  Lom- 
bards acquired  from  the  provincial  Ro- 
mans, among  whom  they  were  mingled. 
No  people  were  so  much  addicted  to  rob- 
bery, to  riotous  frays,  and  to  feuds  ari- 
sing out  of  family  revenge,  as  the  Anglo- 

*  Millar  on  the  English  Government,  vol.  i.,  p. 
189. 


328 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


Saxons.  Their  statutes  are  filled  with 
complaints  that  the  public  peace  was 
openly  violated,  and  with  penalties  which 
seem,  by  their  repetition,  to  have  been 
disregarded.  The  vengeance  taken  by 
the  kindred  of  a  murdered  man  was  a  sa- 
cred right  which  no  law  ventured  to  for- 
bid, though  it  was  limited  by  those  which 
established  a  composition,  and  by  those 
which  protected  the  family  of  the  mur- 
derer from  their  resentment.  Even  the 
author  of  the  laws  ascribed  to  the  Con- 
fessor speaks  of  this  family  warfare, 
where  the  composition  had  not  been  paid, 
as  perfectly  lawful.*  But  the  law  of  com- 
position tended  probably  to  increase  the 
number  of  crimes.  Though  the  sums 
imposed  were  sometimes  heavy,  men 
paid  them  with  the  help  of  their  relations, 
or  entered  into  voluntary  associations, 
the  purposes  whereof  might  often  be 
laudable,  but  which  were  certainly  sus- 
ceptible of  this  kind  of  abuse.  And  many 
led  a  life  of  rapine,  forming  large  parties 
of  ruffians,  who  committed  murder  and 
robbery  with  little  dread  of  punishment. 

Against  this  disorderly  condition  of  so- 
ciety, the  wisdom  of  our  English  kings, 
with  the  assistance  of  their  great  coun- 
cils, was  employed  in  devising  remedies, 
which  ultimately  grew  up  into  a  peculiar 
system.  No  man  could  leave  the  shire 
to  which  he  belonged  without  the  per- 
mission of  its  alderman. f  No  man  could 
be  without  a  lord,  on  whom  he  depended ; 
though  he  might  quit  his  present  patron, 
it  was  under  the  condition  of  engaging 
himself  to  another.  If  he  failed  in  this, 
his  kindred  were  bound  to  present  him  in 
the  county-court,  and  to  name  a  lord  for 
him  themselves.  Unless  this  were  done, 
he  might  be  seized  by  any  one  who  met 
him  as  a  robber. J  Hence,  notwithstand- 
ing the  personal  liberty  of  the  peasants, 
it  was  not  very  practicable  for  one  of 
them  to  quit  his  place  of  residence.  A 
stranger  guest  could  not  be  received 
more  than  two  nights  as  such;  on  the 
third  the  host  became  responsible  for  his 
inmate's  conduct.^ 

The  peculiar  system  of  frank-pledges 
seems  to  have  passed  through  the  follow- 
ing very  gradual  stages.  At  first  an  ac- 
cused person  was  obliged  to  find  bail]|  for 


*  Parentibus  occisi  fiat  emendatio,  vel  guerra 
eorum  portetur.— Wilkins,  p.  1 99.  This,  like  many 
other  parts  of  that  spurious  treatise,  appears  to 
have  been  taken  from  some  older  laws,  or  at  least 
traditions.  I  do  not  conceive  that  this  private  re 
Tenge  was  tolerated  by  law  after  the  conquest. 

t  Leges  Alfredi,  c.  33. 

$  Leges  Athelstani,  p.  56. 

4  Leges  Edwardi  Confess.,  p.  202. 

il  Leges  Lotharii  £regis  Cantii],  p.  8. 


standing  his  trial.  At  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod his  relations  were  called  upon  to 
become  sureties  for  payment  of  the  com- 
position and  other  fines  to  which  he  was 
liable.*  They  were  even  subject  to  be 
imprisoned  until  payment  was  made,  and 
this  imprisonment  was  commutable  for  a 
ertain  sum  of  money.  The  next  stage 
was  to  make  persons  already  convicted, 
or  of  suspicious  repute,  give  sureties  for 
heir  future  behaviour.f  It  is  not  till  the 
reign  of  Edgar  that  we  find  the  first  gen- 
ral  law,  which  places  every  man  in  the 
condition  of  the  guilty  or  suspected,  and 
compels  him  to  find  a  surety,  who  shall 
be  responsible  for  his  appearance  when 
judicially  summoned. |  This  is  perpetu- 
ally repeated  and  enforced  in  later  stat- 
ites,  during  his  reign  and  that  of  Ethelred. 
Finally,  the  laws  of  Canute  declare  the 
necessity  of  belonging  to  some  hundred 
and  tithing,  as  well  as  of  providing  sure- 
ties ;§  and  it  may,  perhaps,  be  inferred, 
;hat  the  custom  of  rendering  every  mem- 
ber of  a  tithing  answerable  for  the  ap- 
pearance of  all  the  rest,  as  it  existed 
after  the  conquest,  is  as  old  as  the  reign 
of  this  Danish  monarch. 

It  is  by  no  means  an  accurate  notion 
which  the  writer  to  whom  I  have  already 
adverted  has  conceived,  that  "  the  mem- 
bers of  every  tithing  were  responsible 
for  the  conduct  of  one  another ;  and  that 
the  society,  or  their  leader,  might  be 
prosecuted  and  compelled  to  make  repa- 
ration for  an  injury  committed  by  any  in- 
dividual." Upon  this  false  apprehension 
of  the  nature  of  frank-pledges  the  whole 
of  his  analogical  reasoning  is  founded. 
It  is  indeed  an  error  very  current  in  pop- 
ular treatises,  and  which  might  plead 
the  authority  of  some  whose  professional 
learning  should  have  saved  them  from  so 
obvious  a  misstatement.  But,  in  fact,  the 
members  of  a  tithing  were  no  more  than 
perpetual  bail  for  each  other.  "  The 
greatest  security  of  the  public  order  (says 
the  laws  ascribed  to  the  Confessor),  is 
that  every  man  must  bind  himself  to  one 
of  those  societies  which  the  English  in 
general  call  freeborgs,  and  the  people  of 
Yorkshire  ten  men's  tale."||  This  con- 
sisted in  the  responsibility  of  ten  men, 
each  for  the  other,  throughout  every  vil- 
lage in  the  kingdom ;  so  that  if  one  of 
the  ten  committed  any  fault,  the  nine 
should  produce  him  in  justice ;  where  he 
should  make  reparation  by  his  own  prop- 


*  Leges  Edwardi  Senioris,  p.  53. 

f  Leges  Athelstani,  p.  57,  c,  6,  7,  8. 

j  Leges  Eadgari,  p.  78. 

6  Leges  Canuti,  p.  137, 

II  Leges  Edwardi,  in  Wilkins,  p.  20L 


PART  I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


329 


erty  or  by  personal  punishment.  If  he 
fled  from  justice,  a  mode  was  provided, 
according  to  which  the  tithing  might 
clear  themselves  from  participation  in 
his  crime  or  escape ;  in  default  of  such 
exculpation,  and  the  malefactor's  estate 
proving  deficient,  they  were  compelled  to 
make  good  the  penalty.  And  it  is  equal- 
ly manifest  from  every  other  passage  in 
which  mention  is  made  of  this  ancient  in- 
stitution, that  the  obligation  of  the  tithing 
was  merely  that  of  permanent  bail,  re- 
sponsible only  indirectly  for  the  good  be- 
haviour of  their  members. 

Every  freeman  above  the  age  of  twelve 
years  was  required  to  be  enrolled  in 
some  tithing.*  In  order  to  enforce  this 
essential  part  of  police,  the  courts  of  the 
tourn  and  leet  were  erected,  or  rather, 
perhaps,  separated  from  that  of  the  coun- 
ty. The  periodical  meetings  of  these, 
whose  duty  it  was  to  inquire  into  the 
state  of  tithings,  whence  they  were  call- 
ed the  view  of  frank-pledge,  are  regula- 
ted in  Magna  Charta.  But  this  custom, 
which  seems  to  have  been  in  full  vigour 
when  Bracton  wrote,  and  is  enforced  by 
'  a  statute  of  Edward  II.,  gradually  died 
away  in  succeeding  times. f  According 
•  to  the  laws  ascribed  to  the  Confessor, 
which  are  perhaps  of  insufficient  author- 
ity to  fix  the  existence  of  any  usage  be- 
fore the  conquest,  lords,  who  possessed 
a  baronial  jurisdiction,  were  permitted  to 
keep  their  military  tenants  and  the  ser- 
vants of  their  household  under  their  own 
peculiar  frank-pledge. ;{;  Nor  was  any 
freeholder,  in  the  age  of  Bracton,  bound 
to  be  enrolled  in  a  tithing. 
It  remains  only,  before  we  conclude 
this  sketch  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
nures  wheth-  system,  to  consider  the  once 
er  known  be-  famous  question  respecting 
q°ureestthe  °0n"  the  establishment  of  feudal  te- 
nures in  England  before  the 
conquest.  The  position  asserted  by  Sir 
Henry  Spelman  in  his  Glossary,  that 
lands  were  not  held  feudally  before  that 
period,  having  been  denied  by  the  Irish 
judges  in  the  great  case  of  tenures,  he 
was  compelled  to  draw  up  his  treatise  on 
feuds,  in  which  it  is  more  fully  maintain- 
ed. Several  other  writers,  especially 

*  Leges  Canutt,  p.  136. 

•f  Stat.  18  E.  II.  Traces  of  the  actual  view  of 
frank-pledge  appear  in  Cornwall  as  late  as  the  10th 
of  Henry  VI.,  Rot.  Parliam.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  403.  And 
indeed  Selden  tells  us  (Janus  Anglorum,  t.  ii.,  p. 
993),  that  it  was  not  quite  obsolete  in  his  time. 
The  form  may,  for  aught  I  know,  be  kept  up  in 
some  parts  of  England  at  this  day.  For  some  rea- 
son which  I  cannot  explain,  the  distribution  by 
tens  was  changed  into  one  by  dozens. — Britton,  c. 
29,  and  Stat.  18  E.  II,  t  P.  202. 


Hickes,  Madox,  and  Sir  Martin  Wright, 
have  taken  th£  same  side.  But  names 
equally  respectable  might  be  thrown  into 
the  opposite  scale ;  and  I  think  the  pre- 
vailing bias  of  modern  antiquaries  is  in 
favour  of  at  least  a  modified  affirmative 
as  to  this  question. 

Lands  are  commonly  supposed  to  have 
been  divided  among  the  Anglo-Saxons 
into  bocland  and  folkland.  The  former 
was  held  in  full  propriety,  and  might  be 
conveyed  by  boc  or  written  grant;  the 
latter  was  occupied  by  the  common  peo- 
ple, yielding  rent  or  other  service,  and 
perhaps  without  any  estate  in  the  land, 
but  at  the  pleasure  of  the  owner.  These 
two  species  of  tenure  might  be  compared 
to  freehold  and  copyhold,  if  the  latter  had 
retained  its  original  dependance  upon  the 
will  of  the  lord.*  Bocland  was  devisable 
by  will ;  it  was  equally  shared  among  the 
children ;  it  was  capable  of  being  entailed 
by  the  person  under  whose  grant  it  was 
originally  taken ;  and,  in  case  of  a  treach- 
erous or  cowardly  desertion  from  the 
army,  it  was  forfeited  to  the  crown.f 

It  is  an  improbable,  and  even  extrava- 
gant supposition,  that  all  these  hereditary 
estates  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  freeholders 
were  originally  parcels  of  the  royal  de- 
mesne, and  consequently  that  the  king 
was  once  the  sole  proprietor  in  his  king- 
dom. Whatever  partitions  were  made 
upon  the  conquest  of  a  British  province, 
we  may  be  sure  that  the  shares  of  the 
army  were  coeval  with  those  of  the  gen- 
eral. The  great  mass  of  Saxon  property 
could  not  have  been  held  by  actual  bene- 
ficiary grants  from  the  crown.  However, 
the  royal  demesnes  were  undoubtedly 
very  extensive.  They  continued  to  be 
so  even  in  the  time  of  the  Confessor, 
after  the  donations  of  his  predecessors. 
And  several  instruments  granting  lands 
to  individuals,  besides  those  in  favour  of 
the  church,  are  extant.  These  are  gen- 
erally couched  in  that  style  of  full  and 
unconditional  conveyance,  which  is  ob- 
servable in  all  such  charters  of  the  same 


*  This  supposition  may  plead  the  great  authori- 
ties of  Somner  and  Lye,  the  Anglo-Saxon  lexicog- 
raphers, and  appears  to  me  far  more  probable  than 
the  theory  of  Sir  John  Dalrymple,  in  his  Essay  on 
Feudal  Property,  or  that  of  the  author  of  a  dis- 
course on  the  Bocland  and  Folkland  of  the  Saxons, 
1775,  whose  name,  I  think,  was  Ibbetson.  The 
first  of  these  supposes  bocland  to  have  been  feudal, 
and  folkland  allodial ;  the  second  most  strangely 
takes  folkland  for  feudal.  I  cannot  satisfy  myself 
whether  thainland  and  reveland,  which  occur 
sometimes  in  Domesday  Book,  merely  correspond 
with  the  other  two  denominations. 

t  Wilkins,  p.  43,  145.  The  latter  law  is  copied 
from  one  of  Charlemagne's  Capitularies. — Baluze, 
p.  767. 


330 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


age  upon  the  continent.  Some  excep- 
tions, however,  occur;  the  lands  be- 
queathed by  Alfred  to  certain  of  his  no- 
bles were  to  return  to  his  family  in  de- 
fault of  male  heirs  ;  and  Hickes  is  of 
opinion  that  the  royal  consent,  which 
seems  to  have  been  required  for  the  tes- 
tamentary disposition  of  some  estates, 
was  necessary  on  account  of  their  bene- 
ficiary tenure.* 

All  the  freehold  lands  of  England,  ex- 
cept some  of  those  belonging  to  the 
church,  were  subject  to  three  great  public 
burdens;  military  service  in  the  king's 
expeditions,  or  at  least  in  defensive  war,f 
the  repair  of  bridges,  and  that  of  royal 
fortresses.  These  obligations,  and  espe- 
cially the  first,  have  been  sometimes 
thought  to  denote  a  feudal  tenure.  There 
is,  however,  a  confusion  into  which  we 
may  fall  by  not  sufficiently  discriminating 
the  rights  of  a  king  as  chief  lord  of  his 
vassals,  and  as  sovereign  of  his  subjects. 
In  every  country,  the  supreme  power  is 
entitled  to  use  the  arm  of  each  citizen 
in  the  public  defence.  The  usage  of  all 
nations  agrees  with  common  reason  in 
establishing  this  great  principle.  There 
is  nothing,  therefore,  peculiarly  feudal  in 
this  military  service  of  landholders;  it 
was  due  from  the  allodial  proprietors 
upon  the  continent ;  it  was  derived  from 
their  German  ancestors ;  it  had  been  fixed, 
probably,  by  the  legislatures  of  the  Hep- 
tarchy upon  the  first  settlement  in  Brit- 
ain. 

It  is  material,  however,  to  observe,  that 
a  thane  forfeited  his  hereditary  freehold 
by  misconduct  in  battle  ;  a  penalty  more 
severe  than  was  inflicted  upon  allodial  pro- 
prietors on  the  continent.  We  even  find 
in  the  earliest  Saxon  laws,  that  the  sith- 
cundman,  who  seems  to  have  correspond- 
ed to  the  inferior  thane  of  later  times,  for- 
feited his  land  by  neglect  of  attendance 
in  war ;  for  which  an  allodialist  in  France 
would  only  have  paid  his  heribannum,  or 
penalty. J  Nevertheless,  as  the  policy  of 
different  states  may  enforce  the  duties 
of  subjects  by  more  or  less  severe  sanc- 
tions, I  do  not  know  that  a  law  of  for- 
feiture in  such  cases  is  to  be  considered 
as  positively  implying  a  feudal  tenure. 

But  a  much  stronger  presumption  is 
afforded  by  passages  that  indicate  a  mu- 

*  Dissertatio  Epistolaris,  p.  60. 

f  This  duty  is  by  some  expressed  rata  expedi- 
tio ;  by  others,  hostis  propulsio,  which  seems  to 
make  no  small  difference.  But,  unfortunately, 
most  of  the  military  service  which  an  Anglo-Saxon 
freeholder  had  to  render  was  of  the  latter  kind. 

J  Leges  Inae,  p.  23.  Du  Cange,  voc.  Heribannum. 
By  the  laws  of  Canute,  p.  135,  a  fine  only  was  im- 
posed for  this  offence. 


tual  relation  of  lord  and  vassal  among  the 
free  proprietors.  The  most  powerful  sub- 
jects have  not  a  natural  right  to  the  ser- 
vice of  other  freemen.  But  in  the  laws 
enacted  during  the  Heptarchy,  we  find 
it  hinted  that  the  sithcundman,  or  petty 
gentleman,  might  be  dependant  on  a  su- 
perior lord.*  This  is  more  distinctly  ex- 
pressed in  some  ecclesiastical  canons, 
apparently  of  the  tenth  century,  which 
distinguish  the  king's  thane  from  the 
landholder,  who  depended  upon  a  lord.f 
Other  proofs  of  this  might  be  brought 
from  the  Anglo-Saxon  laws.J  It  is  not, 
however,  sufficient  to  prove  a  mutual  re- 
lation between  the  higher  and  lower  or- 
der of  gentry,  in  order  to  establish  the 
existence  of  feudal  tenures.  For  this  re- 
lation was  often  personal,  as  I  have  men- 
tioned more  fully  in  another  place,  and 
bore  the  name  of  commendation.  And 
no  nation  was  so  rigorous  as  the  English 
in  compelling  every  man,  from  the  king's 
thane  to  the  ceorl,  to  place  himself  under 
a  lawful  superior.  Hence  the  question 
is  not  to  be  hastily  decided  on  the  credit 
of -a  few  passages  that  express  this  gra- 
dation of  dependance ;  feudal  vassalage, 
the  object  of  our  inquiry,  being  of  a  real, 
not  a  personal  nature,  and  resulting  entire- 
ly from  the  tenure  of  particular  lands.  But 
it  is  not  unlikely  that  the  personal  rela- 
tion of  client,  if  I  may  use  that  word, 
might  in  a  multitude  of  cases  be  changed 
into  that  of  vassal.  And  certainly  many 
of  the  motives  which  operated  in  France 
to  produce  a  very  general  commutation 
of  allodial  into  feudal  tenure  might  have 
a  similar  influence  in  England,  where  the 
disorderly  condition  of  society  made  it 
the  interest  of  every  man  to  obtain  the 
protection  of  some  potent  lord. 

The  word  thane  corresponds  in  its  de- 
rivation to  vassal ;  and  the  latter  term  is 
used  by  Asserius,  the  contemporary  bi- 
ographer of  Alfred,  in  speaking  of  the 
nobles  of  that  prince. §  In  their  attend- 
ance, too,  upon  the  royal  court,  and  the 
fidelity  which  was  expected  from  them, 
the  king's  thanes  seem  exactly  to  have 
resembled  that  class  of  followers  who, 
under  different  appellations,  were  the 
guards  as  well  as  courtiers  of  the  Frank 
and  Lombard  sovereigns.  But  I  have 
remarked  that  the  word  thane  is  not  ap- 

*  Leges  Inas,  p.  10,  23.          f  Wilkins,  p.  101. 

t  P.  71, 144,  145. 

§  Alfredus  cum  paucis  suis  nobilibus,  et  etiam 
cumquibusdam  militibus  et  Vassallis,  p.  166.  No- 
biles  Vassalli  Sumertunensis  pagi,  p.  167.  Yet 
Hickes  objects  to  the  authenticity  of  a  charter  as- 
cribed to  Edgar,  because  it  contains  the  word  Vas- 
sallus,  "  quam  &  Nortmannis  Angli  habuerunt." — 
Dissertatio  Epistol.,  p.  7. 


PART  I.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


331 


plied  to  the  whole  body  of  gentry  in  the 
more  ancient  laws,  where  the  word  eorl 
is  opposed  to  the  ceorl  or  roturier,  and 
that  of  sithcundman*  to  the  royal  thane. 
It  would  be  too  much  to  infer  from  the 
extension  of  this  latter  word  to  a  large 
class  of  persons,  that  we  should  interpret 
it  with  a  close  attention  to  etymology,  a 
very  uncertain  guide  in  almost  all  inves- 
tigations. 

For  the  age  immediately  preceding  the 
Norman  invasion,  we  cannot  have  re- 
course to  a  better  authority  than  Domes- 
day Book.  That  incomparable  record 
contains  the  names  of  every  tenant,  and 
the  conditions  of  his  tenure,  under  the 
Confessor,  as  well  as  the  time  of  its  com- 
pilation ;  and  seems  to  give  little  coun- 
tenance to  the  notion  that  a  radical 
change  in  the  system  of  our  laws  had 
been  effected  during  the  interval.  In  al- 
most every  page,  we  meet  with  tenants 
either  of  the  crown,  or  of  other  lords, 
denominated  thanes,  freeholders  (liberi 
homines)  or  soccagers  (socmanni) .  Some 
of  these,  it  is  stated,  might  sell  their 
lands  to  whom  they  pleased ;  others  were 
restricted  from  alienation.  Some,  as  it  is 
expressed,  might  go  with  their  lands 
whither  they  would ;  by  which  I  under- 
stand the  right  of  commending  themselves 
to  any  patron  of  their  choice.  These, 
of  course,  could  not  be  feudal  tenants  in 
any  proper  notion  of  that  term.  Others 
could  not  depart  from  the  lord  whom 
they  served;  not  certainly  that  they 
were  personally  bound  to  the  soil,  but  so 
long  as  they  retained  it,  the  seigniory  of 
the  superior  could  not  be  defeated. f  But 


*  Wilkins,  p.  3,  7,  23,  &c.  This  is  an  obscure 
word,  occurring  only,  I  believe,  during  the  Hep- 
tarchy. Wilkins  translates  it,  praepositus  paganus, 
which  gives  a  wrong  idea.  But  gesith,  which  is 
plainly  the  same  word,  is  used  in  Alfred's  transla- 
tion of  Bede  for  a  gentleman  or  nobleman.  Where 
Bede  uses  comes,  the  Saxon  is  always  gesith  or 
gesithman  ;  where  princeps  or  dux  occurs,  the  ver- 
sion is  ealdorman. — Selden's  Titles  of  Honour,  p. 
643. 

t  It  sometimes  weakens  a  proposition  which  is 
capable  of  innumerable  proofs  to  take  a  very  few 
at  random  :  yet  the  following  casual  specimens  will 
illustrate  the  common  language  of  Domesday  Book. 

Haec  tria  maneria  tenuit  Ulveva  tempore  regis 
Edwardi  et  potuit  ire  cum  terra  quo  volebat,  p.  85. 

Toti  emit  earn  T.  R.  E.  (temp,  regis  Edwardi) 
de  ecclesia  Malmsburiensi  ad  aetatem  trium  homi- 
nuin  ;  et  infra  hunc  terminum  poterat  ire  cum  ea 
ad  quern  vellet  dominum,  p.  72. 

Tres  Angli  tenuerunt  Darneford  T.  R.  E.  et  non 
poterant  ab  ecclesia  separari.  Duo  ex  iis  redde- 
bant  v  solidos,  et  tertius  serviebat  sicut  Thainus, 
p.  68. 

Has  terras  qui  tenuerunt  T.  R.  E.  quo  voluerunt 
ire  poterunt,  praeter  unum  Seric  vocatum,  qui  in 
Ragendal  tenuit  iii  carucatas  terrae ;  sed  non  poterat 
cum  e&  alicubi  recedere,  p.  235. 


I  am  not  aware  that  military  service  is 
specified  in  any  instance  to  be  due  from 
one  of  these  tenants  ;  though  it  is  difficult 
to  speak  as  to  a  negative  proposition  of 
this  kind  with  any  confidence. 

No  direct  evidence  appears  as  to  the 
ceremony  of  homage  or  the  oath  of  feal- 
ty before  the  conquest.  The  feudal  ex- 
action of  aid  in  certain  prescribed  cases 
seems  to  have  been  unknown.  Still  less 
could  those  of  wardship  and  marriage 
prevail,  which  were  no  parts  of  the  great 
feudal  system,  but  introduced,  and  per- 
haps invented,  by  our  rapacious  Norman 
tyrants.  The  English  lawyers,  through 
an  imperfect  acquaintance  with  the  his- 
tory of  feuds  upon  the  continent,  have 
treated  these  unjust  innovations  as  if  they 
had  formed  essential  parts  of  the  system, 
and  sprung  naturally  from  the  relation 
between  lord  and  vassal.  And,  with  ref- 
erence to  the  present  question,  Sir  Hen- 
ry Spelman  has  certainly  laid  too  much 
stress  upon  them  in  concluding  that  feu- 
dal tenures  did  not  exist  among  the  An- 
glo-Saxons, because  their  lands  were  not 
in  ward,  nor  their  persons  sold  in  mar- 
riage. But  I  cannot  equally  concur  with 
this  eminent  person  in  denying  the  ex- 
istence of  reliefs  during  the  same  period. 
If  the  heriot,  which  is  first  mentioned  in 
the  time  of  Edgar*  (though  it  may  prob- 
ably  have  been  an  established  custom 
long  before),  were  not  identical  with 
the  relief,  it  bore  at  least  a  very  strong 
analogy  to  it.  A  charter  of  Ethelred's 
interprets  one  word  by  the  other. f  In 
the  laws  of  William,  which  re-enact 
those  of  Canute  concerning  heriots,  the 
term  relief  is  employed  as  synonymous. | 
Though  the  heriot  was  in  later  times 
paid  in  chattels,  the  relief  in  money,  it  is 
equally  true  that  originally  the  law  fixed 
a  sum  of  money  in  certain  cases  for  the 
heriot,  and  a  chattel  for  the  relief.  And 
the  most  plausible  distinction  alleged  by 
Spelman,  that  the  heriot  is  by  law  due 
from  the  personal  estate,  but  the  relief 
from  the  heir,  seems  hardly  applicable  to 
that  remote  age,  when  the  law  of  succes- 
sion as  to  real  and  personal  estate  was 
not  different. 

It  has  been  shown,  in  another  place, 
how  the  right  of  territorial  jurisdiction 
was  generally,  and  at  last  inseparably, 
connected  with  feudal  tenure.  Of  this 
right  we  meet  frequent  instances  in  the 
laws  and  records  of  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
though  not  in  those  of  an  early  date.  A 
charter  of  Edred  grants  to  the  monastery 


*  Selden's  Works,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1620. 

t  Hist.  Ramseyens,  p.  430. 

J  Leges  Canuti,  p.  144.    Leges  Gulielmi,  p.  223. 


332 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  VIII. 


of  Croyland  soc,  sac,  toll,  team,  and  in- 
fangthef;  words  which  generally  went 
together  in  the  description  of  these  privi- 
leges, and  signify  the  right  of  holding  a 
court  to  which  all  freemen  of  the  terri- 
tory should  repair,  of  deciding  pleas 
therein,  as  well  as  of  imposing  amerce- 
ments according  to  law,  of  taking  tolls 
upon  the  sale  of  goods,  and  of  punishing 
capitally  a  thief  taken  in  the  fact  within 
the  limits  of  the  manor.*  Another  char- 
ter from  the  confessor  grants  to  the  ab- 
bey of  Ramsey  similar  rights  over  all 
who  were  suiters  to  the  sheriff's  court, 
subject  to  military  service,  and  capable 
of  landed  possessions ;  that  is,  as  I  con- 
ceive, all  who  were  not  in  servitude. f  By 
a  law  of  Ethelred,  none  but  the  king  could 
have  jurisdiction  over  a  royal  thane. J 
And  Domesday  Book  is  full  of  decisive 
proofs,  that  the  English  lords  had  their 
courts  wherein  they  rendered  justice  to 
their  suiters,  like  the  continental  nobility  ; 
privileges  which  are  noticed  with  great 
precision  in  that  record,  as  part  of  the 
statistical  survey.  For  the  right  of  juris- 
diction at  a  time  when  punishments  were 
almost  wholly  pecuniary,  was  a  matter 
of  property,  and  sought  from  motives  of 
rapacity  as  well  as  pride. 

Whether,  therefore,  the  law  of  feudal 
tenures  can  be  said  to  have  existed  in 
England  before  the  conquest,  must  be  left 
to  every  reader's  determination.  Per- 
haps any  attempt  to  decide  it  positively 
would  end  in  a  verbal  dispute.  In  tracing 
the  history  of  every  political  institution, 
three  things  are  to  be  considered :  the 
principle,  the  form,  and  the  name.  The 
last  will  probably  not  be  found  in  any 
genuine  Anglo-Saxon  record. $  Of  the 
former,  or  the  peculiar  ceremonies  and 
incidents  of  a  regular  fief,  there  is  some, 
though  not  much  appearance.  But  those 
who  reflect  upon  the  dependance  in  which 
free  and  even  noble  tenants  held  their 
estates  of  other  subjects,  and  upon  the 

*  Ingulfus,  p.  35.  I  do  not  pretend  to  assert  the 
authenticity  of  these  charters,  which  at  all  events 
are  nearly  as  old  as  the  conquest.  Hickes  calls 
most  of  them  in  question. — Dissert.  Epist.,  p.  66 : 
but  some  later  antiquaries  seem  to  have  been  more 
favourable. — Archaeologia,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  49.  Nou- 
veau  Traite  de  Diplomatique,  t.  i.,  p.  348. 

f  Hist.  Ramsey,  p.  454. 

j  P.  118.  This  is  the  earliest  allusion,  if  I  am 
not  mistaken,  to  territorial  jurisdiction  in  the  Sax- 
on laws.  Probably  it  was  not  frequent  till  near  the 
end  of  the  tenth  century. 

§  Feodum  twice  occurs  in  the  testament  of  Al- 
fred ;  but  it  does  not  appear  to  be  used  in  its  proper 
sense,  nor  do  I  apprehend  that  instrument  to  have 
been  originally  written  in  Latin.  It  was  much 
more  consonant  to  Alfred's  practice  to  employ  his 
own  language. 


privileges  of  territorial  jurisdiction,  will, 
I  think,  perceive  much  of  the  intrinsic 
character  of  the  feudal  relation,  though 
in  a  less  mature  and  systematic  shape 
than  it  assumed  after  the  Norman  con- 
quest. 


PART  II. 
THE  ANGLO-NORMAN  CONSTITUTION. 

The  Anglo-Norman  Constitution.— Causes  of  the 
Conquest. — Policy  and  character  of  William — 
his  Tyranny. — Introduction  of  Feudal  Services. 
— Difference  between  the  Feudal  Governments 
of  France  and  England. — Causes  of  the  great 
Power  of  the  first  Norman  Kings. — Arbitrary 
Character  of  their  Government. — Great  Council. 
— Resistance  of  the  Barons  to  John. — Magna 
Charta — its  principal  Articles. — Reign  of  Henry 
III. — The  Constitution  acquires  a  more  liberal 
Character. — Judicial  System  of  the  Anglo-Nor- 
mans.— Curia  Regis,  Exchequer,  &c. — Estab- 
lishment of  the  Common  Law— its  effect  in 
fixing  the  Constitution. — Remarks  on  the  Lim- 
itation of  Aristocratical  Privileges  in  England. 

IT  is  deemed  by  William  of  Malmsbury 
an  extraordinary  work  of  Prov-  conquest  of 
idence,  that  the  English  should  England  by 
have  given  up  all  for  lost  after  William- 
the  battle  of  Hastings,  where  only  a 
small  though  brave  army  had  perished.* 
It  was  indeed  the  conquest  of  a  great 
kingdom  by  the  prince  of  a  single  prov- 
ince, an  event  not  easily  paralleled,  where 
the  vanquished  were  little,  if  at  all,  less 
courageous  than  their  enemies,  and  where 
no  domestic  factions  exposed  the  country 
to  an  invader.  Yet  William  was  so  ad- 
vantageously situated,  that  his  success 
seems  neither  unaccountable  nor  any 
matter  of  discredit  to  the  English  nation. 
The  heir  of  the  house  of  Cerdic  had  been 
already  set  aside  at  the  election  of  Ha- 
rold ;  and  his  youth,  joined  to  a  medioc- 
rity of  understanding  which  excited  nei- 
ther esteem  nor  fear,f  gave  no  encour- 
agement to  the  scheme  of  placing  him 
upon  the  throne  in  those  moments  of 
imminent  peril  which  followed  the  battle 
of  Hastings.  England  was  peculiarly  des- 
titute of  great  men.  The  weak  reigns 


*  Malmsb.,  p.  53.  And  Henry  of  Huntingdon 
says  emphatically  :  Millesimo  et  sexagesimo  sexto 
anno  gratiae,  perfecit  dominator  Deus  de  gente  An- 
glorum  quod  diu  cogitaverat. — Genti  namque  Nor- 
mannorum  asperse  et  callidae  tradidit  eos  ad  exter- 
minandum,  p.  210. 

t  Edgar,  after  one  or  two  ineffectual  attempts 
to  recover  the  kingdom,  was  treated  by  William 
with  a  kindness  which  could  only  have  proceeded 
from  contempt  of  his  understanding;  for  he  was 
not  wanting  in  courage.  He  became  the  intimate 
friend  of  Robert,  duke  of  Normandy,  whose  for- 
tunes, as  well  as  character,  much  resembled  his 
own. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


of  Ethelred  and  Edward  had  rendered 
the  government  a  mere  oligarchy,  and 
reduced  the  nobility  into  the  state  of 
retainers  to  a  few  leading  houses,  the 
representatives  of  which  were  every  way 
unequal  to  meet  such  an  enemy  as  the 
Duke  of  Normandy.  If  indeed  the  con- 
current testimony  of  historians  does  not 
exaggerate  his  forces,  it  may  be  doubted 
whether  England  possessed  military  re- 
sources sufficient  to  have  resisted  so  nu- 
merous and  well-appointed  an  army. 

This  forlorn  state  of  the  country  indu- 
ced, if  it  did  not  justify,  the  measure  of 
tendering  the  crown  to  William,  which 
he  had  a  pretext  or  title  to  claim,  arising 
from  the  intentions,  perhaps  the  promise, 
perhaps  even  the  testament  of  Edward, 
which  had  more  weight  in  those  times 
than  it  deserved,  and  was  at  least  better 
than  the  naked  title  of  conquest.  And 
this,  supported  by  an  oath  exactly  similar 
to  that  taken  by  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings, 
and  by  the  assent  of  the  multitude,  Eng- 
lish as  well  as  Normans,  on  the  day  of 
his  coronation,  gave  as  much  appearance 
of  a  regular  succession  as  the  circum- 
stances of  the  times  would  permit.  Those 
who  yielded  to  such  circumstances  could 
not  foresee,  and  were  unwilling  to  antici- 
pate, the  bitterness  of  that  servitude  which 
William  and  his  Norman  followers  were 
to  bring  upon  their  country. 

The  commencement  of  his  adminis- 
His  conduct  tration  was  tolerably  equita- 
at  first  mod-  ble.  Though  many  confisca- 
tions took  place,  in  order  to 
gratify  the  Norman  army,  yet  the  mass 
of  property  was  left  in  the  hands  of  its 
former  possessors.  Offices  of  high  trust 
were  bestowed  upon  Englishmen,  even 
upon  those  whose  family  renown  might 
have  raised  the  most  aspiring  thoughts.* 
it  becomes  But  Partly  through  the  inso- 
more  tyran-  lence  and  injustice  of  William's 
Norman  vassals,  partly  through 
the  suspiciousness  natural  to  a  man  con- 
scious of  having  overturned  the  national 
government,  his  yoke  soon  became  more 
heavy.  The  English  were  oppressed; 
they  rebelled,  were  subdued,  and  op- 
pressed again.  All  their  risings  were 
without  concert,  and  desperate;  they 
wanted  men  fit  to  head  them,  and  for- 
tresses to  sustain  their  revolt. f  After  a 

*  Ordericus  Vitalis,  p.  520  (in  Du  Chesne,  Hist. 
Norm.  Script.). 

t  Ordericus  notices  the  want  of  castles  in  Eng- 
land, as  one  reason  why  rebellions  were  easily 
quelled,  p.  511.  Failing  in  their  attempts  at  a  gen- 
erous resistance,  the  English  endeavoured  to  get 
rid  of  their  enemies  by  assassination,  to  which 
many  Normans  became  victims.  William  there- 
fore enacted,  that  in  every  case  of  murder,  which 


very  few  years  they  sank  in  despair,  and 
yielded  for  a  century  to  the  indignities  of 
a  comparatively  small  body  of  strangers 
without  a  single  tumult.  So  possible  is 
it  for  a  nation  to  be  kept  in  permanent 
servitude,  even  without  losing  its  reputa- 
tion for  individual  courage,  or  its  desire 
of  freedom ! 

The  tyranny  of  William  displayed  less 
of  passion  or  insolence  than  of  that  in- 
difference about  human  suffering  which 
distinguishes  a  cold  and  far-sighted  states- 
man. Impressed  by  the  frequent  risings 
of  the  English  at  the  commencement  of 
his  reign,  and  by  the  recollection,  as  one 
historian  observes,  that  the  mild  govern- 
ment of  Canute  had  only  ended  in  the 
expulsion  of  the  Danish  line,*  he  formed 
the  scheme  of  riveting  such  fetters  upon 
the  conquered  nation  that  all  resistance 
should  become  impracticable.  Those 
who  had  obtained  honourable  offices  were 
successively  deprived  of  them ;  even  the 
bishops  and  abbots  of  English  birth  were 
deposed  ;f  a  stretch  of  power  very  sin- 
gular in  that  age,  and  which  marks  how 
much  the  great  talents  of  William  made 
him  feared  by  the  church,  in  the  moment 
of  her  highest  pretensions,  for  Gregory 
VII.  was  in  the  papal  chair.  Morcar, 
one  of  the  most  illustrious  English,  suf- 
fered perpetual  imprisonment.  Walthe- 
off,  a  man  of  equally  conspicuous  birth, 
lost  his  head  upon  a  scaffold  by  a  very 
harsh,  if  not  iniquitous  sentence.  It  was 
so  rare  in  those  times  to  inflict  judicially 
any  capital  punishment  upon  persons  of 
such  rank,  that  his  death  seems  to  have 
produced  more  indignation  and  despair  in 
England  than  any  single  circumstance. 
The  name  of  Englishman  was  turned  into 
a  reproach.  None  of  that  race  for  a  hun- 
dred years  were  raised  to  any  dignity  in 
the  state  or  church.J  Their  language, 
and  the  characters  in  which  it  was  writ- 
ten, were  rejected  as  barbarous;  in  all 
schools,  children  were  taught  French, 


strictly  meant  the  killing  of  any  one  by  an  un- 
known hand,  the  hundred  should  be  liable  in  a  fine, 
unless  they  could  prove  the  person  murdered  to  be 
an  Englishman.  This  was  tried  by  an  inquest, 
upon  what  was  called  a  presentment  of  Englishry. 
But  from  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  the  two  nations 
having  been  very  much  intermingled,  this  inquiry, 
as  we  learn  from  the  Dialogue  de  Scaccario,  p.  26, 
ceased,  and  in  every  case  of  a  freeman  murdered 
by  persons  unknown,  the  hundred  was  fined. — See 
however  Bracton,  1.  iii.,  c.  15. 

*  Malmsbury,  p.  104.  f  Hoveden,  p.  453. 

t  Becket  is  said  to  have  been  the  first  English- 
man who  reached  any  considerable  dignity. — Lord 
Lyttleton's  Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  22.  And 
Eadmer  declares  that  Henry  I.  would  not  place  a 
single  Englishman  at  the  head  of  a  monastery.  Si 
Anglus  erat,  nulla  virtus,  ut  honore  aliquo  dignus 
judicaretur,  eum  poterat  adjuvare,  p.  110. 


834 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


and  the  laws  were  administered  in  no 
other  tongue.*  It  is  well  known  that 
this  use  of  French  in  all  legal  proceed- 
ings lasted  till  the  reign  of  Edward  III. 

This  exclusion  of  the  English  from  po- 
confiscation  Htical  privileges  was  accom- 
of  English  panied  with  such  a  confiscation 
property.  Qf  pr0perty  as  never  perhaps 
has  proceeded  from  any  government  not 
avowedly  founding  its  title  upon  the 
sword.  In  twenty  years  from  the  acces- 
sion of  William,  almost  the  whole  soil 
of  England  had  been  divided  among  for- 
eigners. Of  the  native  proprietors  many 
had  perished  in  the  scenes  of  rapine  and 
tyranny  which  attended  this  convulsion ; 
many  were  fallen  into  the  utmost  pover- 
ty ;  and  not  a  few,  certainly,  still  held 
their  lands  as  vassals  of  Norman  lords. 
Several  English  nobles,  desperate  of  the 
fortunes  of  their  country,  sought  refuge 
in  the  court  of  Constantinople,  and  ap- 
proved their  valour  in  the  wars  of  Alex- 
ius against  another  Norman  conqueror 
scarcely  less  celebrated  than  their  own, 
Robert  Guiscard.  Under  the  name  of 
Varangians,  those  true  and  faithful  sup- 
porters of  the  Byzantine  empire  preserv- 
ed to  its  dissolution  their  ancient  Saxon 
idiom.f 

The  extent  of  this  spoliation  of  prop- 
erty is  not  to  be  gathered  merely  from 
historians,  whose  language  might  be  ac- 
cused of  vagueness  and  amplification.  In 
the  great  national  survey  of  Domesday 
Book,  we  have  an  indisputable  record  of 
this  vast  territorial  revolution  during  the 
reign  of  the  Conqueror.  I  am  indeed  sur- 
prised at  Brady's  position,  that  the  Eng- 
lish had  suffered  an  indiscriminate  depri- 
vation of  their  lands.  Undoubtedly  there 
were  a  few  left  in  almost  every  county, 
who  still  enjoyed  the  estates  which  they 
held  under  Edward  the  Confessor,  free 
from  any  superiority  but  that  of  the 
crown,  and  were  denominated,  as  in  for- 

*  Ingulfus,  p.  61.  Tantum  tune  Anglicos  abo- 
minati  sunt,  ut  quantocunque  merito  pollerent,  de 
dignitatibus  repellebantur ;  et  multo  minus  habiles 
al.ienigenae  de  quacunque  alia  nations,  quae  sub 
coelo  est,  extitissent,  gratanter  assumerentur.  Ip- 
sum  etiam  idioma  tantum  abhorrebant,  quod  leges 
terrae,  statutaque  Anglicorum  regum  lingua  Gal- 
lica  tractarentur ;  et  pueris  etiam  in  scholis  prin- 
cipia  literarum  grammatica  Gallic^,  ac  non  Angli- 
c&  traderentur ;  modus  etiam  scribendi  Anglicus 
omitteretur,  et  modus  Gallicus  in  chartis  et  in  li- 
bris  omnibus  admitteretur. 

t  Gibbon,  vol.  x.,  p.  223.  No  writer,  except  per- 
haps the  Saxon  Chronicler,  is  so  full  of  William's 
tyranny  as  Ordericus  Vitalis. — See  particularly  pp. 
507,  512,  514,  521,523,  in  Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Norm. 
Script.  Ordericus  was  an  Englishman,  but  pass- 
ed at  ten  years  old,  A.  D.  1084,  into  Normandy, 
where  he  became  professed  in  the  monastery  of 
Eu,  ibid.,  p.  924. 


mer  times,  the  king's  thanes.*  Cospa- 
tric,  son  perhaps  of  one  of  that  name 
who  had  possessed  the  earldom  of  Nor- 
thumberland, held  forty-one  manors  in 
Yorkshire,  though  many  of  them  are  sta- 
ted in  Domesday  to  be  waste.  Inferior 
freeholders  were  probably  much  less  dis- 
turbed in  their  estates  than  the  higher 
class.  Though  few  of  English  birth  con- 
tinued to  enjoy  entire  manors,  even  by  a 
mesne  tenure,  it  is  reasonable  to  suppose 
that  the  greater  part  of  those  who  ap- 
pear, under  various  denominations,  to 
have  possessed  small  freeholds  and  par- 
cels of  manors,  were  no  other  than  the 
original  natives. 

Besides  the  severities  exercised  upon 
the  English  after  every  insur-  Devastation 
rection,  two  instances  of  Will-  of  Yorkshire 
iam's  unsparing  cruelty  are  jj!j^ew 
well  known,  the  devastation  of 
Yorkshire  and  of  the  New  Forest.  In  the 
former,  which  had  the  tyrant's  plea,  ne- 
cessity, for  its  pretext,  an  invasion  being 
threatened  from  Denmark,  the  whole 
country  between  the  Tyne  and  the  Hum- 
ber  was  laid  so  desolate,  that  for  nine  years 
afterward  there  was  not  an  inhabited  vil- 
lage, and  hardly  an  inhabitant  left;  the 
wasting  of  this  district  having  been  follow- 
ed by  a  famine,  which  swept  away  the 
whole  population.!  That  of  the  New  For- 
est, though  undoubtedly  less  calamitous  in 
its  effects,  seems  even  more  monstrous, 
from  the  frivolousness  of  the  cause.  J  He 
afforested  several  other  tracts.  And  these 
favourite  demesnes  of  the  Norman  kings 
were  protected  by  a  system  of  iniquitous 
and  cruel  regulations,  called  the  Forest 
Laws,  which  it  became  afterward  a  great 
object  with  the  assertors  of  liberty  to 
correct.  The  penalty  for  killing  a  stag 
or  a  boar  was  loss  of  eyes  :  for  William 
loved  the  great  game,  says  the  Saxon 
Chronicle,  as  if  he  had  been  their  father.  § 

A  more  general  proof  of  the  ruinous 


*  Brady,  whose  unfairness  always  keeps  pace 
with  his  ability,  pretends  that  all  these  were  me- 
nial officers  of  the  king's  household.  But  notwith- 
standing the  difficulty  of  disproving  these  gratui- 
tous suppositions,  it  is  pretty  certain  that  many 
of  the  English  proprietors  in  Domesday  could  not 
have  been  of  this  description. — See  p.  99,  153,  218, 
219,  and  other  places.  The  question,  however, 
was  not  worth  a  battle,  though  it  makes  a  figure  in 
the  controversy  of  Normans  and  Anti-Normans, 
between  Dugdale  and  Brady  on  the  one  side,  and 
Tyrrell,  Petyt,  and  Atwood  on  the  other. 

I  Malmsbury,  p.  103.  Hoveden,  p.  451.  Orde- 
ric.  Vitalis,  p.  514.  The  desolation  of  Yorkshire 
continued  in  Malmsbury's  time,  sixty  or  seventy 
years  afterward ;  nudum  omnium  solum  usque  ad 
hoc  etiam  tempus. 

J  Malmsbury,  p.  111. 

§  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  191. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


335 


Proofs  of  oppression  of  William  the  Con- 
depopuia-  queror  may  be  deduced  from  the 
Domesday  comparative  condition  of  the 
Book.  English  towns  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  the  Confessor,  and  at  the  compi- 
lation of  Domesday.  At  the  former 
epoch  there  were  in  York  1607  inhabited 
houses,  at  the  latter  967  ;  at  the  former 
there  were  in  Oxford  721,  at  the  latter 
243;  of  172  houses  in  Dorchester,  100 
were  destroyed ;  of  243  in  Derby,  103 ; 
of  487  in  Chester,  205.  Some  other 
towns  had  suffered  less,  but  scarcely  any 
one  fails  to  exhibit  marks  of  a  decayed 
population.  As  to  the  relative  numbers 
of  the  peasantry  and  value  of  lands  at 
these  two  periods,  it  would  not  be  easy 
to  assert  any  thing  without  a  laborious 
examination  of  Domesday  Book. 

The  demesne  lands  of  the  crown,  ex- 
Domains  of  tensive  and  scattered  over  every 
the  crown,  county,  were  abundantly  suffi- 
cient to  support  its  dignity  and  magnifi- 
cence ;*  and  William,  far  from  wasting 
this  revenue  by  prodigal  grants,  took 
care  to  let  them  at  the  highest  rate  to 
farm,  little  caring  how  much  the  cultiva- 
tors were  racked  by  his  tenants. f  Yet 
his  exactions,  both  feudal  and  in  the  way 
of  tallage  from  his  burgesses  and  the  ten- 
ants of  his  vassals,  were  almost  as  vio- 
lent as  his  confiscations.  No  source  of 
income  was  neglected  by  him,  or  indeed 
by  his  successors,  however  trifling,  un- 
just, or  unreasonable.  His  revenues,  if 
Riches  of  we  could  trust  Ordericus  Yitalis, 
the  con-  amounted  to  .£1060  a  day.  This, 
queror.  m  mere  weight  of  silver,  would 
be  e^ual  to  nearly  £1,200,000  a  year  at 
present.  But  the  arithmetical  statements 
of  these  writers  are  not  implicitly  to  be 
relied  upon.  He  left  at  his  death  a  treas- 
ure of  £60,000,  which,  in  conformity  to 
his  dying  request,  his  successor  distrib- 
uted among  the  church  and  poor  of  the 
kingdom,  as  a  feeble  expiation  of  the 
crimes  by  which  it  had  been  accumula- 
ted ;J  an  act  of  disinterestedness,  which 
seems  to  prove  that  Rufus,  amid  all  his 
vices,  was  not  destitute  of  better  feelings 
than  historians  have  ascribed  to  him.  It 
might  appear  that  William  had  little  use 
for  his  extorted  wealth.  By  the  feudal 
constitution,  as  established  during  his 
reign,  he  commanded  the  service  of  a 
vast  army  at  its  own  expense,  either  for 

*  They  consisted  of  1422  manors. — Lyttleton's 
Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  288. 

t  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  188. 

t  Huntingdon,  p.  371.  Ordericus  Vitalis  puts  a 
long  penitential  speech  into  William's  mouth  on 
his  death-bed,  p.  666.  Though  this  may  be  his  in- 
vention, yet  facts  seem  to  show  the  compunctions 
of  the  tyrant's  conscience. 


domestic  or  continental  warfare.  But 
this  was  not  sufficient  for  his  His  merce- 
purpose :  like  other  tyrants,  he  nary  troops, 
put  greater  trust  in  mercenary  obedience. 
Some  of  his  predecessors  had  kept  bodies 
of  Danish  troops  in  pay  ;  partly  to  be  se- 
cure against  their  hostility,  partly  from 
the  convenience  of  a  regular  army,  and 
the  love  which  princes  bear  to  it.  But 
William  carried  this  to  a  much  greater 
length.  He  had  always  stipendiary  sol- 
diers at  his  command.  Indeed,  his  army 
at  the  conquest  could  not  have  been 
swelled  to  such  numbers  by  any  other 
means.  They  were  drawn,  by  the  allure- 
ment of  high  pay,  not  from  France  and 
Britany  alone,  but  Flanders,  Germany, 
and  even  Spain.  When  Canute  of  Den- 
mark threatened  an  invasion  in  1085, 
William,  too  conscious  of  his  own  tyran- 
ny to  use  the  arms  of  his  English  sub- 
jects, collected  a  mercenary  force  so 
vast,  that  men  wondered,  says  the  Saxon 
Chronicler,  how  the  country  could  main- 
tain it.  This  he  quartered  upon  the  peo- 
ple, according  to  the  proportion  of  their 
estates.* 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  tenures,  it  is  certain  that  j-eudai  sys. 
those  of  the  feudal  system  were  tem  estab- 
thoroughly  established  in  Eng-  lished- 
land  under  the  Conqueror.  It  has  been 
observed  in  another  part  of  this  work, 
that  the  rights,  or  feudal  incidents  of 
wardship  and  marriage,  were  nearly  pe- 
culiar to  England  and  Normandy.  They 
certainly  did  not  exist  in  the  former  be- 
fore the  conquest ;  but  whether  they  were 
ancient  customs  of  the  latter  cannot  be 
ascertained,  unless  we  had  more  incon- 
testable records  of  its  early  jurisprudence. 
For  the  Great  Customary  of  Normandy 
is  a  compilation  as  late  as  the  reign  of 
Richard  Coeur  de  Lion,  when  the  laws  of 
England  might  have  passed  into  a  country 
so  long  and  intimately  connected  with  it. 
But  there  appears  reason  to  think  that 
the  seizure  of  the  lands  in  wardship,  the 
selling  of  the  heiress  in  marriage,  were 
originally  deemed  rather  acts  of  violence 
than  conformable  to  law.  For  Henry 
I.'s  charter  expressly  promises  that  the 
mother,  or  next  of  kin,  shall  have  the 
custody  of  the  lands  as  well  as  person  of 
the  heir.f  And  as  the  charter  of  Henry 
II.  refers  to  and  confirms  that  of  his 
grandfather,  it  seems  to  follow  that  what 

*  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  185.    Ingulfus,  p.  79. 

t  Terrae  et  liberorum  custos  erit  sive  uxor,  sive 
alius  propinquorum,  qui  Justus  esse  debebit ;  et  pr»- 
cipio  ut  barones  mei  similiter  se  contineant  ergd 
filios  vel  filias  vel  uxores  hominum  meorum. — Le 
gee  Anglo- Saxonica,  p.  234. 


336 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


is  called  guardianship  in  chivalry  had  not 
yet  been  established.  At  least  it  is  not 
till  the  assize  of  Clarendon,  confirmed  at 
Northampton  in  1176,*  that  the  custody 
of  the  heir  is  clearly  reserved  to  the  lord. 
With  respect  to  the  right  of  consenting 
to  the  marriage  of  a  female  vassal,  it 
seems  to  have  been,  as  I  have  elsewhere 
observed,  pretty  general  in  feudal  tenures. 
But  the  sale  of  her  person  in  marriage, 
or  the  exaction  of  a  sum  of  money  in 
lieu  of  this  scandalous  tyranny,  was  only 
the  law  of  England,  and  was  not  perhaps 
fully  authorized  as  such  till  the  statute  of 
Merton  in  1236. 

One  innovation  made  by  William  upon 
the  feudal  law  is  very  deserving  of  atten- 
tion. By  the  leading  principle  of  feuds, 
an  oath  of  fealty  was  due  from  the  vas- 
sal to  the  lord  of  whom  he  immediately 
held  his  land,  and  to  no  other.  The  King 
of  France,  long  after  this  period,  had  no 
feudal  and  scarcely  any  royal  authority 
over  the  tenants  of  his  own  vassals.  But 
William  received  at  Salisbury,  in  1085, 
the  fealty  of  all  landholders  in  England, 
both  those  who  held  in  chief  and  their 
tenants  ;f  thus  breaking  in  upon  the  feudal 
compact  in  its  most  essential  attribute, 
the  exclusive  dependance  of  a  vassal 
upon  his  lord.  And  this  may  be  reckon- 
ed among  the  several  causes  which  pre- 
vented the  continental  notions  of  inde- 
pendence upon  the  crown  from  ever 
taking  root  among  the  English  aristoc- 
racy. 

The  best  measure  of  William  was  the 
Preservation  of  establishment  of  public  peace, 
public  peace,  jje  permitted  no  rapine  but 
his  own.  The  feuds  of  private  revenge, 
the  lawlessness  of  robbery,  were  re- 
pressed. A  girl  loaded  with  gold,  if  we 
believe  some  ancient  writers,  might  have 
passed  safely  through  the  kingdom.  J  But 
this  was  the  tranquillity  of  an  imperious 
and  vigilant  despotism,  the  degree  of 
which  may  be  measured  by  these  effects, 
in  which  no  improvement  of  civilization 
had  any  share.  There  is  assuredly  noth- 
ing to  wonder  at  in  the  detestation  with 
which  the  English  long  regarded  the 
memory  of  this  tyrant.  §  Some  advantages 

*  Leges  Anglo-Saxonicae,  p.  330. 

t  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  187. 

t  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  190.  M.  Paris,  p.  10.  I  will 
not  omit  one  other  circumstance,  apparently  praise- 
worthy, which  Ordericus  mentions  of  William,  that 
he  tried  to  learn  English,  in  order  to  render  justice 
by  understanding  every  man's  complaint,  but  failed 
on  account  of  his  advanced  age,  p.  520.  This  was 
in  the  early  part  of  his  reign,  before  the  reluctance 
of  the  English  to  submit  had  exasperated  his  dis- 
position. 

$  W.  Malmsh.,  Praf. ,  ad.  1.  iii. 


undoubtedly,  in  the  course  of  human  af- 
fairs, eventually  sprang  from  the  Norman 
conquest.  The  invaders,  though  without 
perhaps  any  intrinsic  superiority  in  social 
virtues  over  the  native  English,  degraded 
and  barbarous  as  these  are  represented 
to  us,  had  at  least  that  exterior  polish  of 
courteous  and  chivalric  manners,  and  that 
taste  for  refinement  and  magnificence, 
which  serve  to  elevate  a  people  from 
mere  savage  rudeness.  Their  buildings, 
sacred  as  well  as  domestic,  became  more 
substantial  and  elegant.  The  learning  of 
the  clergy,  the  only  class  to  whom  that 
word  could  at  all  be  applicable,  became 
infinitely  more  respectable  in  a  short  time 
after  the  conquest.  And  though  this  may 
by  some  be  ascribed  to  the  general  im- 
provements of  Europe  in  that  point  during 
the  twelfth  century,  yet  I  think  it  was 
partly  owing  to  the  more  free  intercourse 
with  France  and  the  closer  dependance 
upon  Rome  which  that  revolution  pro- 
duced. This  circumstance  was,  how- 
ever, of  no  great  moment  to  the  English 
of  those  times,  whose  happiness  could 
hardly  be  affected  by  the  theological  rep- 
utation of  Lanfranc  and  Anselm.  Per- 
haps the  chief  benefit  which  the  natives 
of  that  generation  derived  from  the  gov- 
ernment of  William  and  his  successors, 
next  to  that  of  a  more  vigilant  police,  was 
the  security  they  found  from  invasion  on 
the  side  of  Denmark  and  Norway.  The 
high  reputation  of  the  conqueror  and  his 
sons,  with  the  regular  organization  of  a 
feudal  militia,  deterred  those  predatory 
armies  which  had  brought  such  repeated 
calamity  on  England  in  former  times. 

The  system  of  feudal  policy,  though  de- 
rived to  England  from  a  French  Difference 
source,  bore  a  very  different  ap-  fee2enol^e 
pearance  in  the  two  countries.  inUEngiandy 
France,  for  about  two  centu-  and  France, 
ries  after  the  house  of  Capet  had  usurped 
the  throne  of  Charlemagne's  posterity, 
could  hardly  be  deemed  a  regular  con- 
federacy, much  less  an  entire  monarchy. 
But  in  England,  a  government,  feudal  in- 
deed in  its  form,  but  arbitrary  in  its  exer- 
cise, not  only  maintained  subordination, 
but  almost  extinguished  liberty.  Several 
causes  seem  to  have  conspired  towards 
this  radical  difference.  In  the  first  place, 
a  kingdom,  comparatively  small,  is  much 
more  easily  kept  under  control  than  one 
of  vast  extent.  And  the  fiefs  of  Anglo- 
Norman  barons  after  the  conquest  were 
far  less  considerable,  even  relatively  to 
the  size  of  the  two  countries,  than  those 
of  France.  The  Earl  of  Chester  held, 
indeed,  almost  all  that  county;*  the 


*  This  was,  upon  the  whole,  more  like  a  great 


PART 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


33? 


Earl  of  Shrewsbury  nearly  the  whole  of 
Salop.  But  these  domains  bore  no  com- 
parison with  the  dukedom  of  Guienne  or 
the  county  of  Touloues.  In  general,  the 
lordships  of  William's  barons,  whether 
this  were  owing  to  policy  or  accident, 
were  exceedingly  dispersed.  Robert, 
earl  of  Moreton,  for  example,  the  most 
richly-endowed  of  his  followers,  enjoyed 
248  manors  in  Cornwall,  54  in  Sussex, 
196  in  Yorkshire,  99  in  Northampton 
shire,  besides  many  in  other  counties.' 
Estates  so  disjoined,  however  immense 
in  their  aggregate,  were  ill  calculated  for 
supporting  a  rebellion.  It  is  observed  by 
Madox,  that  the  knight's  fees  of  almost 
every  barony  were  scattered  over  vari- 
ous counties. 

In  the  next  place,  these  baronial  fiefs 
were  held  under  an  actual  derivation  from 
the  crown.  The  great  vassals  of  France 
had  usurped  their  dominions  before  the 
accession  of  Hugh  Capet,  and  barely  sub- 
mitted to  his  nominal  sovereignty.  They 
never  intended  to  yield  the  feudal  tributes 
of  relief  and  aid,  nor  did  some  of  them 
even  acknowledge  the  supremacy  of  his 
royal  jurisdiction.  But  the  conqueror 
and  his  successors  imposed  what  condi- 
tions they  would  upon  a  set  of  barons  who 
owed  all  to  their  grants;  and  as  man- 
kind's notions  of  right  are  generally 
founded  upon  prescription,  these  peers 
grew  accustomed  to  endure  many  bur- 
dens, reluctantly  indeed,  but  without  that 
feeling  of  injury  which  would  have  re- 
sisted an  attempt  to  impose  them  upon 
the  vassals  of  the  French  crown.  For 
the  same  reasons,  the  barons  of  England 
were  regularly  summoned  to  the  great 
council,  and  by  their  attendance  in  it,  and 
concurrence  in  the  measures  which  were 
there  resolved  upon,  a  compactness  and 
unity  of  interest  was  given  to  the  monar- 
chy which  was  entirely  wanting  in  that 
of  France.  But  above  all,  the  paramount 
authority  of  the  king's  court,  and  those 
excellent  Saxon  tribunals  of  the  county 
and  hundred,  kept  within  very  narrow 
limits  that  great  support  of  the  feudal 


French  fief  than  any  English  earlddm.  Hugh  de 
Abrincis,  nephew  of  William  I.,  had  barons  of  his 
own,  one  of  whom  held  forty-six  and  another  thirty 
manors.  Chester  was  first  called  a  county-palatine 
under  Henry  II. ;  but  it  previously  possessed  all 
regalian  rights  of  jurisdiction.  After  the  forfeit- 
ures of  the  house  of  Montgomery,  it  acquired  all 
the  country  between  the  Mersey  and  Ribble.  Sev- 
eral eminent  men  inherited  the  earldom ;  but  upon 
the  death  of  the  most  distinguished,  Ranulf,  in 
1232,  it  fell  into  a  female  line,  and  soon  escheated 
to  the  erown. — Dugdale's  Baronage,  p.  45.  Lyttle- 
ton's  Henry  IL,  vol.  ii.,  p.  218. 
*  Dugdale's  Baronage,  p.  25. 


aristocracy,  the  right  of  territorial  juris* 
diction.  Except  in  the  counties  palatine, 
the  feudal  courts  possessed  a  very  tri- 
fling degree  of  jurisdiction  over  civil,  and 
not  a  very  extensive  one  over  criminal 
causes. 

We  may  add  to  the  circumstances  that 
rendered  the  crown  powerful  du-  Hatred  of 
ring  the  first  century  after  the  English  to 
conquest,  an  extreme  antipathy  Normans- 
of  the  native  English  towards  their  in- 
vaders. Both  William  Rufus  and  Henry 
I.  made  use  of  the  former  to  strengthen 
themselves  against  the  attempts  of  their 
brother  Robert ;  though  they  forgot  their 
promises  to  the  English  after  attaining 
their  object.*  A  fact,  mentioned  by  Or- 
dericus  Vitalis,  illustrates  the  advantage 
which  the  government  found  in  this  na- 
tional animosity.  During  the  siege  of 
Bridgenorth,  a  town  belonging  to  Robert 
de  Belesme,  one  of  the  most  turbulent 
and  powerful  of  the  Norman  barons,  by 
Henry  I.,  in  1102,  the  rest  of  the  nobility 
deliberated  together,  and  came  to  the 
conclusion,  that  if  the  king  could  expel 
so  distinguished  a  subject,  he  would  be 
able  to  treat  them  all  as  his  servants. 
They  endeavoured,  therefore,  to  bring 
about  a  treaty ;  but  the  English  part  of 
Henry's  army,  hating  Robert  de  Belesme 
as  a  Norman,  urged  the  king  to  proceed 
with  the  siege ;  which  he  did,  and  took 
the  castle. f 

Unrestrained,  therefore,  comparative- 
ly speaking,  by  the  aristocrat-  Tyranny  of 
ic  principles  which  influenced  the  Norman 
other  feudal  countries,  the  ad-  g°vern«»ent. 
ministration  acquired  a  tone  of  rigour 
and  arbitrariness  under  William  the  Con* 
queror,  which,  though  sometimes  per- 
haps a  little  mitigated,  did  not  cease  du- 
ring a  century  and  a  half.  For  the  first 
three  reigns  we  must  have  recourse 
to  historians ;  whose  language,  though 
vague,  and  perhaps  exaggerated,  is  too 
uniform  and  impressive  to  leave  a  doubt 
of  the  tyrannical  character  of  the  govern- 
ment. The  intolerable  exactions  of  trib- 
ute, the  rapine  of  purveyance,  the  iniqui- 
ty of  royal  courts,  are  continually  in  their 
mouths.  "  God  sees  the  wretched  peo- 
ple," says  the  Saxon  Chronicler,  "  most 
unjustly  oppressed;  first  they  are  de- 
spoiled of  their  possessions,  then  butch- 
ered. This  was  a  grievous  year  (1 124)^ 
Whoever  had  any  property,  lost  it  by 
heavy  taxes  and  unjust  decrees. "|  The 


f  W.  Malmsbury,  p.  120  et  156.  R.  Hoveden, 
p.  461.  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  194. 

t  Du  Chesne,  Script.  Norman.,  p.  807. 

t  Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  228.  Non  facile  polest  n*f- 
rari  miseria,  eays  Roger  de  Hov«den,  quam  '' 


338 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


same  ancient  chronicle,  which  appears 
to  have  been  continued  from  time  to  time 
in  the  abbey  of  Peterborough,  frequently 
utters  similar  notes  of  lamentation. 

From  the  reign  of  Stephen,  the  miser- 
its  exac-  ies  of  which  are  not  to  my  im- 
tions.  mediate  purpose,  so  far  as  they 
proceeded  from  anarchy  and  intestine 
war,*  we  are  able  to  trace  the  character 
of  government  by  existing  records. f 
These,  digested  by  the  industrious  Ma- 
dox  into  his  History  of  the  Exchequer, 
give  us  far  more  insight  into  the  spirit  of 
the  constitution,  if  we  may  use  such  a 
word,  than  all  our  monkish  chronicles. 
It  was  not  a  sanguinary  despotism. 
Henry  II.  was  a  prince  of  remarkable 
clemency ;  and  none  of  the  Conqueror's 
successors  were  as  grossly  tyrannical  as 
himself.  But  the  system  of  rapacious 
extortion  from  their  subjects  prevailed  to 
a  degree  which  we  should  rather  expect 
to  find  among  eastern  slaves,  than  that 
high-spirited  race  of  Normandy,  whose 
renown  then  filled  Europe  and  Asia.  The 
right  of  wardship  was  abused  by  selling 
the  heir  and  his  land  to  the  highest  bid- 
der. That  of  marriage  was  carried  to  a 
still  grosser  excess.  The  kings  of  France 
indeed  claimed  the  prerogative  of  forbid- 
ding the  marriage  of  their  vassals'  daugh- 
ters to  such  persons  as  they  thought 
unfriendly  or  dangerous  to  themselves ; 
but  I  am  not  aware  that  they  ever  com- 
pelled them  to  marry,  much  less  that  they 
turned  this  attribute  of  sovereignty  into 
a  means  of  revenue.  But  in  England, 
women,  and  even  men,  simply  as  ten- 
ants in  chief,  and  not  as  wards,  fined  to 
the  crown  for  leave  to  marry  whom  they 
would,  or  not  to  be  compelled  to  marry 
any  other.J  Towns  not  only  fined  for 
original  grants  of  franchises,  but  for  re- 


nuit  illo  tempore  [circ.  aim.  1103],  terra  Anglorum 
propter  regias  exactiones,  p.  470. 

*  The  following  simple  picture  of  that  reign  from 
the  Saxon  Chronicle  may  be  worth  inserting. 
"  The  nobles  and  bishops  built  castles,  and  filled 
them  with  devilish  and  wicked  men,  and  oppressed 
the  people,  cruelly  torturing  men  for  their  money. 
They  imposed  taxes  upon  towns,  and  when  they 
had  exhausted  them  of  every  thing,  set  them  on 
fire.  You  might  travel  a  day,  and  not  find  one 
man  living  in  a  town,  nor  any  land  in  cultivation. 
Never  did  the  country  suffer  greater  evils.  If  two 
or  three  men  were  seen  riding  up  to  a  town,  all  its 
inhabitants  left  it,  taking  them  for  plunderers.  And 
this  lasted,  growing  worse  and  worse,  throughout 
Stephen's  reign.  Men  said  openly  that  Christ  and 
his  saints  were  asleep,"  p.  239. 

f  The  earliest  record  in  the  Pipe-office  is  that 
which  Madox,  in  conformity  to  the  usage  of  others, 
Cites  by  the  name  of  Magnum  Rotulum  quinto 
Stephani.  But  in  a  particular  dissertation  subjoin- 
ed to  his  History  of  the  Exchequer,  he  inclines, 
though  not  decisively,  to  refer  this  record  to  the 
reign  of  Henry  I.  t  Madox,  c.  10. 


peated  confirmations.  The  Jews  paid 
exorbitant  sums  for  every  common  right 
of  mankind,  for  protection,  for  justice. 
In  return,  they  were  sustained  against 
their  Christian  debtors  in  demands  of 
usury,  which  superstition  and  tyranny 
rendered  enormous.*  Men  fined  for  the 
king's  good- will ;  or  that  he  would  remit 
his  anger ;  or  to  have  his  mediation  with 
their  adversaries.  Many  fines  seem  as 
it  were  imposed  in  sport,  if  we  look  to 
the  cause ;  though  their  extent,  and  the 
solemnity  with  which  they  were  record- 
ed, prove  the  humour  to  have  been  dif- 
ferently relished  by  the  two  parties. 
Thus  the  Bishop  of  Winchester  paid  a 
tun  of  good  wine  for  not  reminding  the 
king  (John)  to  give  a  girdle  to  the  Count- 
ess of  Albemarle ;  and  Robert  de  Vaux 
five  best  palfreys,  that  the  same  king 
might  hold  his  peace  about  Henry  Pinel's 
wife.  Another  paid  four  marks  for  leave 
to  eat  (pro  licentia  comedendi).  But  of 
all  the  abuses  which  deformed  the  Anglo- 
Norman  government,  none  was  so  flagi- 
tious as  the  sale  of  judicial  redress.  The 
king,  we  are  often  told,  is  the  fountain  of 
justice ;  but  in  those  ages,  it  was  one 
which  gold  alone  could  unseal.  Men 
fined  to  have  right  done 'them;  to  sue 
in  a  certain  court ;  to  emplead  a  certain 
person ;  to  have  restitution  of  land  which 
they  had  recovered  at  law.f  From  the 
sale  of  that  justice  which  every  citizen 
has  a  right  to  demand,  it  was  an  easy 
transition  to  withhold  or  deny  it.  Fines 
were  received  for  the  king's  help  against 
the  adverse  suiter ;  that  is,  for  perversion 
of  justice,  or  for  delay.  Sometimes  they 
were  paid  by  opposite  parties,  and,  of 
course,  for  opposite  ends.  These  were 
called  counter-fines ;  but  the  money  was 
sometimes,  or,  as  Lord  Lyttleton  thinks, 
invariably,  returned  to  the  unsuccessful 
suiter.! 

Among  a  people  imperfectly  civilized, 
the  most  outrageous  injustice  to-  General 
wards  individuals  may  pass  with-  taxes- 
out  the  slightest  notice,  while  in  matters 
affecting  the  community,  the  powers  of 
government  are  exceedingly  controlled. 
It  becomes  therefore  an  important  ques- 
tion, what  prerogative  these  Norman 
kings  were  used  to  exercise  in  raising 
money,  and  in  general  legislation.  By 
the  prevailing  feudal  customs,  the  lord 
was  entitled  to  demand  a  pecuniary  aid 
of  his  vassals  in  certain  cases.  These 


*  Madox,  c.  7.  f  Id.,  c.  12  and  13. 

t  The  most  opposite  instances  of  these  exactions 
are  well  selected  from  Madox  by  Hume,  Appendix 
II.  :  upon  which  account  I  have  gone  less  into  de 
tail  than  would  otherwise  have  been  necessary. 


ll] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


were,  in  England,  to  make  his  eldest  son 
a  knight,  to  marry  his  eldest  daughter, 
and  to  ransom  himself  from  captivity. 
Accordingly,  when  such  circumstances 
occurred,  aids  were  levied  by  the  crown 
upon  its  tenants,  at  the  rate  of  a  mark 
or  a  pound  for  every  knight's  fee.* 
These  aids,  being  strictly  due  in  the  pre- 
scribed cases,  were  taken  without  requi- 
ring the  consent  of  parliament.  Escu- 
age,  which  was  a  commutation  for  the 
personal  service  of  military  tenants  in 
war,  having  rather  the  appearance  of  an 
indulgence  than  an  imposition,  might 
reasonably  be  levied  by  the  king.f  It 
was  not  till  the  charter  of  John  that  es- 
cuage  became  a  parliamentary  assess- 
ment ;  the  custom  of  commuting  service 
having  then  grown  general,  and  the  rate 
of  commutation  being  variable. 

None  but  military  tenants  could  be  lia- 
ble for  escuage;J  but  the  inferior  sub- 
jects of  the  crown  were  oppressed  by 
tallages.  The  demesne  lands  of  the 
king  and  all  royal  towns  were  liable  to 
tallage  ;  an  imposition  far  more  rigorous 
and  irregular  than  those  which  fell  upon 
the  gentry.  Tallages  were  continually 
raised  upon  different  towns  during  all  the 
Norman  reigns,  without  the  consent  of 
parliament^  which  neither  represented 
them  nor  cared  for  their  interests.  The 
itinerant  justices  in  their  circuit  usually 
set  this  tax.  Sometimes  the  tallage  was 
assessed  in  gross  upon  a  town,  and  col- 
lected by  the  burgesses :  sometimes  indi- 
vidually, at  the  judgment  of  the  justices. 
There  was  an  appeal  from  an  excessive 
assessment  to  the  barons  of  the  ex- 
chequer. Inferior  lords  might  tallage 
their  own  tenants  and  demesne  towns, 
though  not,  it  seems,  without  the  king's 
permission.  §  Customs  upon  the  import 

*  The  reasonable  aid  was  fixed  by  the  statute  of 
Westminster  I.,  3  Edw.  I.,  c.  36,  at  twenty  shillings 
for  every  knight's  fee,  and  as  much  for  every  201. 
value  of  land  held  by  soccage.  The  aid  pour  faire 
fitz  chevalier  might  be  raised,  when  he  entered 
into  his  fifteenth  year ;  pour  fille  marier,  when  she 
reached  the  age  of  seven. 

t  Fit  interdum,  ut  imminente  vel  insurgente  in 
regnum  hostium  machinatione,  decernat  rex  de 
singulis  feodis  militum  summam  aliquam  solvi, 
marcam  scilicet,  vel  libram  unam ;  unde  militibus 
stipendia  vel  donativa  succedant.  Mavult  enim 
princeps  stipendiaries  quam  domesticos  bellicis 
exponere  casibus.  Haec  itaque  summa,  quia 
nomine  scutorum  solvitur,  scutagium  nominator. 
— Dialogus  de  Scaccario,  ad  finem.  Madox,Hist. 
Exchequer,  p.  25  (edit,  in  folio). 

t  The  tenant  in  capite  was  entitled  to  be  reim- 
bursed what  would  have  been  his  escuage  by  his 
vassals  even  if  he  performed  personal  service. — 
Madox,  c.  16. 

()  For  the  important  subject  of  tallages,  see  Ma- 
dox, c.  17. 

Y2 


and  export  of  merchandise,  of  which 
the  prisage  of  wine,  that  is,  a  right  of 
taking  two  casks  out  of  each  vessel, 
seems  the  most  material,  were  immemo- 
rially  exacted  by  the  crown.  There  is 
no  appearance  that  these  originated  with 
parliament.*  Another  tax,  extending  to 
all  the  lands  of  the  kingdom,  was  Dane- 
geld,  the  ship-money  of  those  times. 
This  name  had  been  originally  given  to 
the  tax  imposed  under  Ethelred  II.,  in 
order  to  raise  a  tribute  exacted  by  the 
Danes.  It  was  afterward  applied  to  a 
permanent  contribution  for  the  public 
defence  against  the  same  enemies.  But 
after  the  conquest  this  tax  is  said  to  have 
been  only  occasionally  required  ;  and  the 
latest  instance  on  record  of  its  payment 
is  in  the  20th  of  Henry  II.  Its  imposi- 
tion appears  to  have  been  at  the  king's 
discretion.! 

The  right  of  general  legislation  was 
undoubtedly  placed  in  the  king,  Right  of  ie- 
cpnjointly  with  his  great  coun-  gwi«fon. 
cil,{  or,  if  the  expression  be  thought  more 
proper,  with  their  advice.  So  little  op- 
position was  found  in  these  assemblies 
by  the  early  Norman  kings,  that  they 
gratified  their  own  love  of  pomp,  as  well 
as  the  pride  of  their  barons,  by  consult- 
ing them  in  every  important  business. 
But  the  limits  of  legislative  power  were 
extremely  indefinite.  New  laws,  like 
new  taxes,  affecting  the  community,  re- 
quired the  sanction  of  that  assembly 
which  was  supposed  to  represent  it ;  but 
there  was  no  security  for  individuals 
against  acts  of  prerogative,  which  we 
should  justly  consider  as  most  tyranni- 
cal. Henry  II.,  the  best  of  these  mon- 
archs,  banished  from  England  the  rela- 
tions and  friends  of  Becket,  to  the  num- 
ber of  four  hundred.  At  another  time, 
he  sent  over  from  Normandy  an  injunc- 
tion, that  all  the  kindred  of  those  who 
obeyed  a  papal  interdict  should  be  ban- 
ished, and  their  estates  confiscated.^ 

*  Madox,  c.  18.  Male's  Treatise  on  the  Cus- 
toms in  Hargrave's  Tracts,  vol.  LT  p.  116. 

t  Henr.  Huntingdon,  1.  v.,  p.  205.  Dialogus  de 
Scaccario,  c.  11.  Madox,  c.  17.  Lyttleton's 
Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  170. 

t  Glanvil,  Prologus  ad  Tractatum  de  Consuetud. 

$  Hoveden,  p.  496.  Lyttleton,  vol.  ii.,  p.  530. 
The  latter  says  that  this  edict  must  have  been 
framed  by  the  king  with  the  advice  and  assent  of 
bis  council.  But  if  he  means  his  great  council,  I 
cannot  suppose  that  all  the  barons  and  tenants 
in  capite  could  have  been  duly  summoned  to  a 
council  held  beyond  seas.  Some  English  barons 
might  doubtless  have  been  with  the  king,  as  at 
Verneuil  in  1176,  where  a  mixed  assembly  of  Eng- 
lish and  ^French  enacted  laws  for  both  countries. 
Benedict.  Abbas  apud  Hume.  So  at  Northampton 
in  1165,  several  Norman  barons  voted  ;  net  is  ariy 


340 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


The  statutes  of  those  reigns  do  not  ex- 
Laws  and  char-  hibit  to  us  many  provisions 
ters  of  Norman  calculated  to  maintain  public 
kings.  liberty  on  a  broad  and  gen- 

eral foundation.  And  although  the  laws 
then  enacted  have  not  all  been  preserved, 
yet  it  is  unlikely  that  any  of  an  exten- 
sively remedial  nature  should  have  left 
no  trace  of  their  existence.  We  find, 
however,  what  has  sometimes  been  call- 
ed the  Magna  Charta  of  William  the 
Conqueror,  preserved  in  Roger  de  Hove- 
den's  collection  of  his  laws.  We  will, 
enjoin,  and  grant,  says  the  king,  that  all 
freemen  of  our  kingdom  shall  enjoy  their 
lands  in  peace,  free  from  all  tallage,  and 
from  every  unjust  exaction,  so  that  noth- 
ing but  their  service  lawfully  due  to  us 
shall  be  demanded  at  their  hands.*  The 
laws  of  the  Conqueror,  found  in  Hove- 
den,  are  wholly  different  from  those  in 
Ingulfus,  and  are  suspected  not  to  have 
escaped  considerable  interpolation.!  It 
is  remarkable  that  no  reference  is  made 
to  this  concession  of  William  the  Con- 
queror in  any  subsequent  charter.  How- 
ever, it  seems  to  comprehend  only  the 
feudal  tenants  of  the  crown.  Nor  does 
the  charter  of  Henry  I.,  though  so  much 
celebrated,  contain  any  thing  specially 
expressed  but  a  remission  of  unreasona- 
ble reliefs,  wardships,  and  other  feudal 
burdens.  J  It  proceeds,  however,  to  de- 
clare that  he  gives  his  subjects  the  laws 
of  Edward  the  Confessor,  with  the 
emendations  made  by  his  father  with 
consent  of  his  barons. §  The  charter 
of  Stephen  not  only  confirms  that  of  his 
predecessor,  but  adds,  in  fuller  terms 
than  Henry  had  used,  an  express  conces- 
sion of  the  laws  and  customs  of  Ed- 


notice  taken  of  this  as  irregular. — Fitz  Stephen, 
ibid.  So  unfixed,  or  rather  unformed,  were  all 
constitutional  principles. 

*  Vqlumus  etiam,  ac  firmiter  prsecipimus  et 
concedimus,  ut  omnes  liberi  homines  totius  mon- 
archiae  praedicti  regni  nostri  habeant  et  teneant  ter- 
ras suas  et  possessiones  suas  bene,  et  in  pace,  li- 
bere  ab  omm  exactione  injusta,  et  ab  omnitallagio, 
ita  quod  nihil  ab  iis  exigatur  vel  capiatur,  nisi  ser- 
vitium  suum  liberum,  quod  de  jure  nobis  facere 
debent,  et  facere  tenentur ;  et  prout  statutum  est 
iis,  et  illis  a  nobis  datum  et  concessum  jure  haered- 
itarioin  perpetuum  per  commune  concilium  totius 
regni  nostri  praedicti. 

t  Selden,  ad  Eadmerum.  Hody  (Treatise  on 
Convocations,  p.  249),  infers  from  the  words  of 
Hoveden,  that  they  were  altered  from  the  French 
original  by  Glanvil. 

J  Wilkins,  p.  234. 

§  A  great  impression  is  said  to  have  been  made 
on  the  barons  confederated  against  John  by  the 
production  of  Henry  I.'s  charter,  whereof  they  had 
been  ignorant. — Matt.  Paris.,  p.  212.  But  this 
could  hardly  have  been  the  existing  charter,  for 
reasons  alleged  by  Blackstone. — Introduction  to 
Magna  Charta,  p.  6. 


ward.*  Henry  II.  is  silent  about  these, 
although  he  repeats  the  confirmation  of 
his  grandfather's  charter.!  The  people, 
however,  had  begun  to  look  back  to  a 
more  ancient  standard  of  law.  The 
Norman  conquest,  and  all  that  ensued 
upon  it,  had  endeared  the  memory  of 
their  Saxon  government.  Its  disorders 
were  forgotten,  or  rather  were  less  odi- 
ous to  a  rude  nation,  than  the  coercive 
justice  by  which  they  were  afterward 
restrained. J  Hence  it  became  the  fa- 
vourite cry  to  demand  the  laws  of  Ed- 
ward the  Confessor;  and  the  Normans 
themselves,  as  they  grew  dissatisfied 
with  the  royal  administration,  fell  into 
these  English  sentiments. $  But  what 
these  laws  were,  or  more  properly,  per- 
haps, these  customs,  subsisting  in  the 
Confessor's  age,  was  not  very  distinctly 
understood.  j|  So  far,  however,  was  clear, 
that  the  rigorous  feudal  servitudes,  the 
weighty  tributes  upon  poorer  freemen, 
had  never  prevailed  before  the  conquest. 
In  claiming  the  laws  of  Edward  the  Con- 
fessor, our  ancestors  meant  but  the  re- 
dress of  grievances  which  tradition  told 
them  had  not  always  existed. 

It  is  highly  probable,  independently  of 
the   evidence   supplied  by  the  „.  . 

I,  r   TT  T  J-L-      Kicnard  I.'s 

charters  of  Henry  I.  and  his  chancellor 
two  successors,  that  a  sense  of  deposed  by 
oppression  had  long  been  stim- 


*  Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  310. 

t  Id.,  p.  318. 

t  The  Saxon  Chronicler  complains  of  a  witten- 
agemot,  as  he  calls  it,  or  assizes,  held  at  Leices- 
ter in  1124,  where  forty-four  thieves  were  hanged, 
a  greater  number  than  was  ever  before  known  ;  it 
was  said  that  many  suffered  unjustly,  p.  228. 

§  The  distinction  between  the  two  nations  was 
pretty  well  obliterated  at  the  end  of  Henry  II. 's 
reign,  as  we  learn  from  the  Dialogue  on  the  Ex- 
chequer, then  written  ;  jam  cohabitantibus  Angli- 
cis  et  Normannis,  et  alterutrum  uxores  ducenti- 
bus  vel  nubentibus,  sic  permixtae  sunt  nationes,  ut 
vix  discerni  possit  hodie,  de  liberis  loquor,  quis 
Anglicus,  quis  Normannus  sit  genere  ;  exceptis 
duntaxat  ascriptitiis  qui  villani  dicuntur,  quibus 
non  est  liberum  obstantibus  dominis  suis  a  sui  sta- 
tus conditione  discedere.  Eapropter  pene  qui- 
cunque  sic  hodie  pccisus  reperitur,  ut  murdrum 
punitur,  exceptis  his  quibus  certa  sunt  ut  diximus 
servilis  conditionis  indicia,  p.  26. 

I!  Non  quas  tulit,  sed  quas  observaverit,  says 
William  of  Malmsbury,  concerning  the  Confes- 
sor's laws.  Those  bearing  his  name  in  Lambard 
and  Wilkins  are  evidently  spurious,  though  it  may 
not  be  easy  to  fix  upon  the  time  when  they  were 
forged.  Those  found  in  Ingulfus,  in  the  French 
language,  are  genuine,  and  were  confirmed  by 
William  the  Conqueror.  Neither  of  these  collec- 
tions, however,  can  be  thought  to  have  any  rela- 
tion to  the  civil  liberty  of  the  subject.  It  has  been 
deemed  more  rational  to  suppose,  that  these  long- 
ings for  Edward's  laws  were  rather  meant  for  a 
mild  administration  of  government,  free  from  un- 
just Norman  innovations,  than  any  written  and 
definitive  system. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


341 


ulating  the  subjects  of  so  arbitrary  a  gov- 
ernment, before  they  gave  any  demon- 
strations of  it  sufficiently  palpable  to  find 
a  place  in  history.  But  there  are  cer- 
tainly no  instances  of  rebellion,  or  even, 
as  far  as  we  know,  of  a  constitutional 
resistance  in  parliament,  down  to  the 
reign  of  Richard  I.  The  revolt  of  the 
earls  of  Leicester  and  Norfolk  against 
Henry  II.,  which  endangered  his  throne 
and  comprehended  his  children  with  a 
large  part  of  his  barons,  appears  not  to 
have  been  founded  even  upon  the  pretext 
of  public  grievances.  Under  Richard  I., 
something  more  of  a  national  spirit  be- 
gan to  show  itself.  For  the  king  having 
left  his  chancellor,  William  Longchamp, 
joint  regent  and  justiciary  with  the  Bish- 
op of  Durham  during  his  crusade,  the 
foolish  insolence  of  the  former,  who  ex- 
cluded his  coadjutor  from  any  share  in 
the  administration,  provoked  every  one 
of  the  nobility.  A  convention  of  these, 
the  king's  brother  placing  himself  at  their 
head,  passed  a  sentence  of  removal  and 
banishment  upon  the  chancellor.  Though 
there  might  be  reason  to  conceive  that 
this  would  not  be  unpleasing  to  the  king, 
who  was  already  apprized  how  much 
Longchamp  had  abused  his  trust,  it  was 
a  remarkable  assumption  of  power  by 
that  assembly,  and  the  earliest  authority 
for  a  leading  principle  of  our  constitu- 
tion, the  responsibility  of  ministers  to 
parliament. 

In  the  succeeding  reign  of  John,  all  the 
Magna  rapacious  exactions  usual  to  these 
charta.  Norman  kings  were  not  only  re- 
doubled, but  mingled  with  other  outrages 
of  tyranny  still  more  intolerable.*  These 
too  were  to  be  endured  at  the  hands  of  a 
prince  utterly  contemptible  for  his  folly 
and  cowardice.  One  is  surprised  at  the 
forbearance  displayed  by  the  barons,  till 
they  took  arms  at  length  in  that  confed- 
eracy which  ended  in  establishing  the 
Great  Charter  of  Liberties.  As  this  was 
the  first  effort  towards  a  legal  govern- 
ment, so  is  it  beyond  comparison  the 
most  important  event  in  our  history,  ex- 
cept that  revolution  without  which  its 
benefits  would  rapidly  have  been  annihi- 
lated. The  constitution  of  England  has 
indeed  no  single  date  from  which  its  du- 
ration is  to  be  reckoned.  The  institu- 
tions of  positive  law,  the  far  more  impor- 
tant changes  which  time  has  wrought  in 


*  In  1207,  John  took  a  seventh  of  the  moveables 
of  lay  and  spiritual  persons,  cunctis  murmurantibus, 
sed  contradicere  non  audentibus. — Matt.  Paris,  p. 
186,  ed.  1684.  But  his  insults  upon  the  nobility  in 
debauching  their  wives  and  daughters  were,  as  usu- 
ally happens,  the  most  exasperating  provocation. 


the  order  of  society  during  six  hundred 
years  subsequent  to  the  Great  Charter, 
have  undoubtedly  lessened  its  direct  ap- 
plication to  our  present  circumstances. 
But  it  is  still  the  keystone  of  English 
liberty.  All  that  has  since  been  obtained 
is  little  more  than  as  confirmation  or 
commentary ;  and  if  every  subsequent 
law  were  to  be  swept  away,  there  would 
still  remain  the  bold  features  that  distin- 
guish a  free  from  a  despotic  monarchy. 
It  has  been  lately  the  fashion  to  depreci- 
ate the  value  of  Magna  Charta,  as  if  it 
had  sprung  from  the  private  ambition  of 
a  few  selfish  barons,  and  redressed  only 
some  feudal  abuses.  It  is  indeed  of  little 
importance  by  what  motives  those  who 
obtained  it  were  guided.  The  real  char- 
acters of  men  most  distinguished  in  the 
transactions  of  that  time  are  not  easily 
determined  at  present.  Yet  if  we  bring 
these  ungrateful  suspicions  to  the  test, 
they  prove  destitute  of  all  reasonable 
foundation.  An  equal  distribution  of 
civil  rights  to  all  classes  of  freemen 
forms  the  peculiar  beauty  of  the  charter. 
In  this  just  solicitude  for  the  people,  and 
in  the  moderation  which  infringed  upon 
no  essential  prerogative  of  the  monarchy, 
we  may  perceive  a  liberality  and  patri- 
otism very  unlike  the  selfishness  which 
is  sometimes  rashly  imputed  to  those 
ancient  barons.  And,  as  far  as  we  are 
guided  by  historical  testimony,  two  great 
men,  the  pillars  of  our  church  and  state, 
may  be  considered  as  entitled  beyond  the 
rest  to  the  glory  of  this  monument ;  Ste- 
phen Langton,  archbishop  of  Canterbury, 
and  William,  earl  of  Pembroke.  To 
their  temperate  zeal  for  a  legal  govern- 
ment, England  was  indebted  during  that 
critical  period  for  the  two  greatest  bles- 
sings that  patriotic  statesmen  could  con- 
fer; the  establishment  of  civil  liberty 
upon  an  immoveable  basis,  and  the  pres- 
ervation of  national  independence  under 
the  ancient  line  of  sovereigns,  which 
rasher  men  were  about  to  exchange  for 
the  dominion  of  France. 

By  the  Magna  Charta  of  John,  reliefs 
were  limited  to  a  certain  sum,  according 
to  the  rank  of  the  tenant,  the  waste  com- 
mitted by  guardians  in  chivalry  restrain- 
ed, the  disparagement  in  matrimony  of 
female  wards  forbidden,  and  widows  se- 
cured from  compulsory  marriage.  These 
regulations,  extending  to  the  sub-vassals 
of  the  crown,  redressed  the  worst  griev- 
ances of  every  military  tenant  in  Eng- 
land. The  franchises  of  the  city  of  Lon- 
don and  of  all  towns  and  boroughs  were 
declared  inviolable.  The  freedom  of 
commerce  was  guarantied  to  alien  mer- 


342 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


chants.  The  Court  of  Common  Pleas, 
instead  of  following  the  king's  person, 
was  fixed  at  Westminster.  The  tyranny 
exercised  in  the  neighbourhood  of  royal 
forests  met  with  some  check,  which  was 
further  enforced  by  the  Charter  of  For- 
ests under  Henry  III. 

But  the  essential  clauses  of  Magna 
Charta  are  those  which  protect  the  per- 
sonal liberty  and  property  of  all  freemen, 
by  giving  security  from  arbitrary  impris- 
onment and  arbitrary  spoliation.  "No 
freeman  (says  the  29th  chapter  of  Henry 
III.'s  charter,  which,  as  the  existing  law, 
I  quote  in  preference  to  that  of  John,  the 
variations  not  being  very  material)  shall 
be  taken  or  imprisoned,  or  be  disseized  of 
his  freehold,  or  liberties,  or  free  customs, 
or  be  outlawed,  or  exiled,  or  any  other- 
wise destroyed ;  nor  will  we  pass  upon 
him,  nor  send  upon  him,  but  by  lawful 
judgment  of  his  peers,  or  by  the  law  of  the 
land.*  We  will  sell  to  no  man,  we  will 
not  deny,  or  delay  to  any  man  justice  or 
right"."  It  is  obftous  that  these  words,  in- 
terpreted by  any  honest  court  of  law,  con- 
vey an  ample  security  for  the  two  main, 
rights  of  civil  society.  From  the  era, 
therefore,  of  King  John's  charter,  it  must 
have  been  a  clear  principle  of  our  consti- 
tution, that  no  man  can  be  detained  in 
prison  without  trial.  Whether  courts  of 
justice  framed  the  writ  of  habeas  corpus 
in  conformity  to  the  spirit  of  this  clause, 
or  found  it  already  in  their  register,  it  be- 
came from  that  era  the  right  of  every  sub- 
ject to  demand  it.  That  writ,  rendered 
more  actively  remedial  by  the  statute  of 
Charles  II.,  but  founded  upon  the  broad 
basis  of  Magna  Charta,  is  the  principal  bul- 
wark of  English  liberty ;  and  if  ever  tem- 
porary circumstances,  or  the  doubtful  plea 
of  political  necessity,  shall  lead  men  to 
look  on  its  denial  with  apathy,  the  most 

*  Nisi  per  legale  judicium  parium  suorum,  vel 
per  legem  terras.  Several  explanations  have  been 
offered  of  the  alternative  clause,  which  some 
have  referred  to  judgment  by  default  or  demurrer, 
others  to  the  process  of  attachment  for  contempt. 
Certainly  there  are  many  legal  procedures  besides 
trial  by  jury,  through  which  a  party's  goods  or  per- 
son may  be  taken.  But  one  may  doubt  whether 
these  were  in  contemplation  of  the  framers  of 
Magna  Charta.  In  an  entry  of  the  charter  of  1217 
by  a  contemporary  hand,  preserved  in  a  book  in  the 
town-clerk's  office  in  London,  called  Liber  Cus- 
tumarum  et  Regum  antiquorum,  a  various  reading, 
et  per  legem  terrae,  occurs.— Blackstone's  Char- 
ters, p.  42.  A.nd  the  word  vel  is  so  frequently  used 
for  et,  that  J  am  not  wholly  free  from  a  suspicion 
that  it  was  so  intended  in  this  place.  The  mean- 
ing will  be,  that  no  person  shall  be  disseized,  &c. 
except  upon  a  lawful  cause  of  action  or  endictment, 
found  by  the  verdict  of  a  jury.  This  really  seems 
as  good  as  any  of  the  disjunctive  interpretations: 
but  {  dp  not  offer  it  with  much  confidence. 


distinguishing  characteristic  of  our  con- 
stitution will  be  effaced. 

As  the  clause  recited  above  protects 
the  subject  from  any  absolute  spoliation 
of  his  freehold  rights,  so  others  restrain 
the  excessive  amercements  which  had  an 
almost  equally  ruinous  operation.  The 
magnitude  of  his  offence,  by  the  14th 
clause  of  Henry  III.'s  charter,  must  be 
the  measure  of  his  fine;  and  in  every 
case  the  contenement  (a  word  expressive 
of  chattels  necessary  to  each  man's  sta- 
tion, as  the  arms  of  a  gentleman,  the 
merchandise  of  a  trader,  the  plough  and 
wagons  of  a  peasant)  was  exempted  from 
seizure,  A  provision  was  made  in  the 
charter  of  John,  that  no  aid  or  escuage 
should  be  imposed,  except  in  the  three 
feudal  cases  of  aid,  without  consent  of 
parliament.  And  this  was  extended  to 
aids  paid  by  the  city  of  London.  But 
the  clause  was  omitted  in  the  three  char- 
ters granted  by  Henry  111.,  though  par- 
liament seem  to  have  acted  upon  it  in 
most  part  of  his  reign.  It  had,  however, 
no  reference  to  tallages  imposed  upon 
towns  without  their  consent.  Fourscore 
years  were  yet  to  elapse  before  the  great 
principle  of  parliamentary  taxation  was 
explicitly  and  absolutely  recognised. 

A  law  which  enacts  that  justice  shall 
neither  be  sold,  denied,  nor  delayed, 
stamps  with  infamy  that  government  un- 
der which  it  had  become  necessary.  But 
from  the  time  of  the  charter,  according 
to  Madox,  the  disgraceful  perversions  of 
right,  which  are  upon  record  in  the  rolls 
of  the  exchequer,  became  less  frequent.* 

From  this  era  a  new  soul  was  infused 
into  the  people  of  England.  Stateofth6 
Her  liberties,  at  the  best  long  cnnstitu- 
in  abeyance,  became  a  tangible  tion  "nj«r 
possession,  and  those  indefinite 
aspirations  for  the  laws  of  Edward  the 
Confessor  were  changed  into  a  steady 
regard  for  the  Great  Charter.  Pass  but 
from  the  history  of  Roger  de  Hoveden  to 
that  of  Matthew  Paris,  from  the  second 
Henry  to  the  third,  and  judge  whether 
the  victorious  struggle  had  not  excited 
an  energy  of  public  spirit  to  which  the 
nation  was  before  a  stranger.  The 
strong  man,  in  the  sublime  language  of 
Milton,  was  aroused  from  sleep,  and 
shook  his  invincible  locks.  Tyranny  in- 
deed, and  injustice,  will,  by  all  historians 
not  absolutely  servile,  be  noted  with 
moral  reprobation ;  but  never  shall  we 
find  in  the  English  writers  of  the  twelfth 
century  that  assertion  of  positive  and  na- 
tional rights  which  distinguishes  those 

*  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  13. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


343 


of  the  next  age,  and  particularly  the 
monk  of  St.  Alban's.  From  his  prolix 
history  we  may  collect  three  material 
propositions  as  to  the  state  of  the  Eng- 
lish constitution  during  the  long  reign  of 
Henry  III. ;  a  prince  to  whom  the  epithet 
of  worthless  seems  best  applicable ;  and 
who,  without  committing  any  flagrant 
crimes,  was  at  once  insincere,  ill-judging, 
and  pusillanimous.  The  intervention  of 
such  a  reign  was  a  very  fortunate  circum- 
stance for  public  liberty;  which  might 
possibly  have  been  crushed  in  its  infancy, 
if  an  Edward  had  immediately  succeeded 
to  the  throne  of  John. 

1.  The  Great  Charter  was  always  con- 
sidered as  a  fundamental  law.  But  yet 
it  was  supposed  to  acquire  additional  se- 
curity by  frequent  confirmation.  This 
it  received,  with  some  not  inconsiderable 
variation,  in  the  first,  second,  and  ninth 
years  of  Henry's  reign.  The  last  of 
these  is  in  our  present  statute-book,  and 
has  never  received  any  alterations ;  but 
Sir  E.  Coke  reckons  thirty-two  instances 
wherein  it  has  been  solemnly  ratified. 
Several  of  these  were  during  the  reign 
of  Henry  III.,  and  were  invariably  pur- 
chased by  the  grant  of  a  subsidy.*  This 
prudent  accommodation  of  parliament  to 
the  circumstances  of  their  age  not  only 
made  the  law  itself  appear  more  inviola- 
ble, but  established  that  correspondence 
between  supply  and  redress,  which  for 
some  centuries  was  the  balance-spring 
of  our  constitution.  The  charter  indeed 
was  often  grossly  violated  by  their  ad- 
ministration. Even  Hubert  de  Burgh, 
of  whom  history  speaks  more  favour- 
ably than  of  Henry's  later  favourites, 
though  a  faithful  servant  of  the  crown, 
seems,  as  is  too  often  the  case  with 
such  men,  to  have  thought  the  king's 
honour  and  interest  concerned  in  main- 
taining an  unlimited  prerogative.!  The 
government  was  however  much  worse 
administered  after  his  fall.  From  the 
great  difficulty  of  compelling  the  king 
to  observe  the  boundaries  of  law,  the 
English  clergy,  to  whom  we  are  much 
indebted  for  their  zeal  in  behalf  of  liberty 
during  this  reign,  devised  means  of  bind- 
ing his  conscience,  and  terrifying  his 
imagination  by  religious  sanctions.  The 
solemn  excommunication,  accompanied 
with  the  most  awful  threats,  pronounced 
against  the  violators  of  Magna  Charta,  is 
well  known  from  our  common  histories. 
The  king  was  a  party  to  this  ceremony, 
and  swore  to  observe  the  charter.  But 
Henry  III.,  though  a  very  devout  person, 


Matt.  Paris,  p.  272. 


f  Id.,  p".  284. 


had  his  own  notions  as  to  the  validity  of 
an  oath  that  affected  his  power,  and  in- 
deed passed  his  life  in  a  series  of  perju- 
ries. According  to  the  creed  of  that 
age,  a  papal  dispensation  might  annul  any 
prior  engagement ;  and  he  was  generally 
on  sufficiently  good  terms  with  Rome  to 
obtain  such  an  indulgence. 

2.  Though  the  prohibition  of  levying 
aids  or  escuages  without  consent  of  par- 
liament had  been  omitted  in  all  Henry's 
charters,  an  omission  for  which  we  can- 
not assign  any  other  motive  than  the  dis- 
position of  his  ministers  to  get  rid  of  that 
restriction,  yet  neither  one  nor  the  other 
seem  in  fact  to  have  been  exacted  at 
discretion  throughout  his  reign.     On  the 
contrary,  the  barons  frequently  refused 
the  aids,  or  rather  subsidies,  which  his 
prodigality  was  always  demanding.     In- 
deed, it  would  probably  have  been  impos- 
sible for  the  king,  however  frugal,  strip- 
ped as  he  was  of  so  many   lucrative 
though  oppressive   prerogatives  by  the 
Great  Charter,  to  support  the  expenditure 
of  government  from  his  own  resources. 
Tallages  on  his  demesnes,  and  especially 
on  the  rich  and  ill-affected  city  of  Lon- 
don, he  imposed  without  scruple ;  but  it 
does  not  appear  that  he  ever  pretended 
to  a  right  of  general  taxation.     We  may 
therefore   take   it  for  granted,  that  the 
clause  in  John's  charter,  though  not  ex- 
pressly renewed,  was  still  considered  as 
of  binding  force.     The  king  was  often 
put  to  great  inconvenience  by  the  refusal 
of  supply ;  and  at  one  time  was  reduced 
to  sell  his  plate  and  jewels,  which  the 
citizens  of  London  buying,  he  was  pro- 
voked  to    exclaim   with   envious   spite 
against  their  riches,  which  he  had  not 
been  able  to  exhaust.* 

3.  The  power  of  granting  money  must 
of  course  imply  the  power  of  withholding 
it;   yet  this  has  sometimes  been  little 
more  than  a  nominal  privilege.     But  in 
this  reign  the  English  parliament  exer- 
cised their  right  of  refusal,  or,  what  was 
much  better,  of  conditional  assent,   Great 
discontent  was  expressed  at  the  demand 
of  a  subsidy  in  1237 ;  and  the  king  alle- 
ging that  he  had  expended  a  great  deal  of 
money  on  his  sister's  marriage  with  the 
emperor,  and  also  upon  his  own,  the  bay? 
ons  answered,  that  he  had  not  taken  their 
advice  in  those  affairs,  nor  ought  they  to 
share  the  punishment  of  acts  of  impru- 
dence   they   had    not    committed. f     In 
1241,  a  subsidy  having  been  demanded 


*  M.  Paris,  p,  650. 

t  Quod  hsec  omnia  sine  consilio  fidelium  suo- 
rum  facerat,  nee  debuerant  esse  poenae  participes, 
qui  fuerant  a  culpa  inirnunes,  p.  367. 


344 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


[CHAP.    VIII 


for  the  war  in  Poitou,  the  barons  drew 
up  a  remonstrance,  enumerating  all  the 
grants  they  had  made  on  former  occa- 
sions, but  always  on  condition  that  the 
imposition  should  not  be  turned  into  pre- 
cedent. Their  last  subsidy,  it  appears, 
had  been  paid  into  the  hands  of  four  bar- 
ons, who  were  to  expend  it  at  their  dis- 
cretion for  the  benefit  of  the  king  and 
kingdom  ;*  an  early  instance  of  parlia- 
mentary  control  over  public  expendi- 
ture. On  a  similar  demand  in  1244,  the 
king  was  answered  by  complaints  against 
the  violation  of  the  charter,  the  waste  of 
former  subsidies,  and  the  maladministra- 
tion of  his  servants.!  Finally,  the  bar- 
ons positively  refused  any  money ;  and 
he  extorted  1500  marks  from  the  city  of 
London.  Some  years  afterward  they 
declared  their  readiness  to  burden  them- 
selves more  than  ever,  if  they  could  se- 
cure the  observance  of  the  charter ;  and 
requested  that  the  justiciary,  chancellor, 
and  treasurer  might  be  appointed  with 
consent  of  parliament,  according,  as  they 
asserted,  to  ancient  custom,  and  might 
hold  their  offices  during  good  behaviour.! 
Forty  years  of  mutual  dissatisfaction 
had  elapsed,  when  a  signal  act  of  Henry's 
improvidence  brought  on  a  crisis  which 
endangered  his  throne.  Innocent  IV., 
out  of  mere  animosity  against  the  family 
of  Frederick  II.,  left  no  means  untried 
to  raise  up  a  competitor  for  the  crown 
of  Naples,  which  Manfred  had  occupied. 
Richard,  earl  of  Cornwall,  having  been 
prudent  enough  to  decline  this  specula- 
tion, the  pope  offered  to  support  Henry's 
second  son,  Prince  Edmund.  Tempted 

*  Matt.  Paris,  p.  515. 

t  Id.,  p.  563,572.  Matthew  Paris's  language  is 
particularly  uncourtly  :  rex  cum  instantissime,  ne 
dicam  impudentissim&,  auxilium  pecuniare  ab  iis 
iterum  postularet,  toties  laesi  et  illusi,  contradix- 
erunt  ei  unanimiter  et  uno  ore  in  facie. 

j  De  comrnuni  consilio  regni,  sicut  ab  antique 
consuetum  et  justum,  p.  778.  This  was  not  so 
great  an  encroachment  as  it  may  appear.  Ralph 
de  Neville,  bishop  of  Chichester,  had  been  made 
chancellor  in  1223,  assensu  totius  regni;  itaque 
scilicet  ut  non  deponeretur  ab  ejus  sigilli  custodi& 
nisi  totius  regni  ordinance  consensu  et  consilio,  p. 
266.  Accordingly,  the  king  demanding  the  great 
seal  from  him  in  1236,  he  refused  to  give  it  up,  alle- 
ging that,  having  received  it  in  the  general  council 
of  the  kingdom,  he  could  not  resign  it  without  the 
same  authority,  p.  363.  And  the  parliament  of 
1248  complained  that  the  king  had  not  followed 
the  steps  of  his  predecessors  in  appointing  these 
three  great  officers  by  their  consent,  p.  646.  What 
had  been  in  fact  the  practice  of  former  kings,  I  do 
not  know  ;  but  it  is  not  likely  to  have  been  such 
as  they  represent.  Henry,  however,  had  named 
the  Archbishop  of  York  to  the  regency  of  the  king- 
dom during  his  absence  beyond  sea  in  1242,  de 
consilio  omnium  comitum  et  baronum  nostrorum  et 
omnium  fldelium  nostrbrum.— -Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  400. 


by  such  a  prospect,  the  silly  king  involv- 
ed himself  in  irretrievable  embarrass- 
ments  by  prosecuting  an  enterprise  which 
could  not  possibly  be  advantageous  to 
England,  and  upon  which  he  entered 
without  the  advice  of  his  parliament. 
Destitute  himself  of  money,  he  was  com- 
pelled to  throw  the  expense  of  this  new 
crusade  upon  the  pope;  but  the  assist- 
ance of  Rome  was  never  gratuitous,  and 
Henry  actually  pledged  his  kingdom  for 
the  money  which  she  might  expend  in  a 
war  for  her  advantage  and  his  own.*  He 
did  not  even  want  the  effrontery  to  tell 
parliament  in  1257,  introducing  his  son 
Edmund  as  King  of  Sicily,  that  they  were 
bound  for  the  repayment  of  14,000  marks, 
with  interest.  The  pope  had  also,  in 
furtherance  of  the  Neapolitan  project, 
conferred  upon  Henry  the  tithes  of  all 
benefices  in  England,  as  well  as  the  first 
fruits  of  such  as  should  be  vacant,  f  Such 
a  concession  drew  upon  the  king  the  im- 
placable resentment  of  his  clergy,  already 
complaining  of  the  cowardice  or  conni- 
vance that  had  during  all  his  reign  ex- 
posed them  to  the  shameless  exactions 
of  Rome.  Henry  had  now  indeed  cause 
to  regret  his  precipitancy.  Alexander 
IV.,  the  reigning  pontiff,  threatened  him 
not  only  with  a  revocation  of  the  grant 
to  his  son,  but  with  an  excommunication 
and  general  interdict,  if  the  money  ad- 
vanced on  his  account  should  not  be  im- 
mediately repaid,^  an^  a  Roman  agent 
explained  the  demand  to  a  parliament 
assembled  at  London.  The  sum  required 
was  so  enormous,  we  are  told,  that  it 
struck  all  the  hearers  with  astonishment 
and  horror.  The  nobility  of  the  realm 
were  indignant  to  think  that  one  man's 
supine  folly  should  thus  bring  them  to 
ruin.§  Who  can  deny  that  measures  be- 
yond the  ordinary  course  of  the  consti- 
tution were  necessary  to  control  so  prod- 
igal and  injudicious  a  sovereign  ?  Ac- 
cordingly, the  barons  insisted  that  twen- 
ty-four persons  should  be  nominated,  half 
by  the  king  and  half  by  themselves,  to 
reform  the  state  of  the  kingdom.  These 
were  appointed  on  the  meeting  of  the 
parliament  at  Oxford,  after  a  prorogation. 

*  Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  771.  f  P.  813. 

J  Idem,  p.  632.  This  inauspicious  negotiation 
for  Sicily,  which  is  not  altogether  unlike  that  of 
James  I.  about  the  Spanish  match,  in  its  folly,  bad 
success,  and  the  dissatisfaction  it  occasioned  at 
home,  receives  a  good  deal  of  illustration  from  doc- 
uments in  Rymer's  collection. 

§  Quantitas  pecuniae  ad  tantam  ascendit  sum- 
mam,  ut  stuporem  simul  et  horrorem  in  auribus 
generaret  audientium.  Doluit  igitur  nobilitas  reg- 
ni, se  unius  hominis  ita  confundi  supina  simplici- 
tate.-M.  Pan*,  p.  827. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


345 


The  seven  years  that  followed  are  a 
revolutionary  period,  the  events  of  which 
we  do  not  find  satisfactorily  explained  by 
the  historians  of  the  time.*  A  king,  di- 
vested of  prerogatives  by  his  people,  soon 
appears  even  to  themselves  an  injured 
party.  And  as  the  baronial  oligarchy 
acted  with  that  arbitrary  temper  which 
is  never  pardoned  in  a  government  that 
has  an  air  of  usurpation  about  it,  the 
royalists  began  to  gain  ground,  chiefly 
through  the  defection  of  some  who  had 
joined  in  the  original  limitations  imposed 
on  the  crown,  usually  called  the  provis- 
ions of  Oxford.  An  ambitious  man,  con- 
fident in  his  talents  and  popularity,  ven- 
tured to  display  too  marked  a  superiority 
above  his  fellows  in  the  same  cause. 
But  neither  his  character,  nor  the  battles 
of  Lewes  and  Evesham,  fall  strictly  with- 
in the  limits  of  a  constitutional  history. 
It  is,  however,  important  to  observe,  that 
even  in  the  moment  of  success,  Henry 
III.  did  not  presume  to  revoke  any  part 
of  the  Great  Charter.  His  victory  had 
been  achieved  by  the  arms  of  the  Eng- 
lish nobility,  who  had,  generally  speaking, 
concurred  in  the  former  measures  against 
his  government,  and  whose  opposition  to 
the  Earl  of  Leicester's  usurpation  was 
compatible  with  a  steady  attachment  to 
constitutional  liberty.! 

The  opinions  of  eminent  lawyers  are 
Limitations  undoubtedly,  where  legislative 
ro'atlv11/0  or  Judicial  authorities  fail,  the 
prove'dfrom  best  evidence  that  can  be  ad- 
Bracton.  duced  in  constitutional  history. 
It  will  therefore  be  satisfactory  to  select 
a  few  passages  from  Bracton,  himself  a 
judge  at  the  end  of  Henry  III.'s  reign,  by 
which  the  limitation  of  prerogative  by 
law  will  clearly  appear  to  have  been 
fully  established.  "  The  king,"  says  he, 
"  must  not  be  subject  to  any  man,  but  to 
God  and  the  law  ;  for  the  law  makes  him 
king.  Let  the  king  therefore  give  to  the 
law  what  the  law  gives  to  him,  dominion 
and  power;  for  there  is  no  king  where 
will  and  not  law  bears  rule."J  "  The 
king  (in  another  place)  can  do  nothing 
on  earth,  being  the  minister  of  God,  but 
what  he  can  do  by  law ;  nor  is  what  is 
said  (in  the  Pandects)  any  objection,  that 

*  The  best  account  of  the  provisions  of  Oxford 
in  1260,  and  the  circumstances  connected  with 
them,  is  found  in  the  Burton  Annals.— 2  Gale.  xv. 
Scriptores.,  p.  407.  Many  of  these  provisions  were 
afterward  enacted  in  the  statute  of  Marlebridge. 

t  The  Earl  of  Glocester,  whose  personal  quarrel 
with  Montfort  had  overthrown  the  baronial  oligar- 
chy, wrote  to  the  king  in  1267,  ut  provisiones  Oxo- 
niae  teneri  faciat  per  regnum  suum,  et  ut  proinissa 
sibi  apud  Evesham  de  facto  compleret.— Matt. 
Paris,  p.  850.  t  L  *-.  c-  8- 


whatever  the  prince  pleases  shall  be  law ; 
because,  by  the  words  that  follow  in  that 
text,  it  appears  to  design  not  any  mere 
will  of  the  prince,  but  that  which  is  es- 
tablished by  the  advice  of  his  counsel- 
lors, the  king  giving  his  authority,  and 
deliberation  being  had  upon  it."*  This 
passage  is  undoubtedly  a  misrepresenta- 
tion of  the  famous  lex  regia,  which  has 
ever  been  interpreted  to  convey  the  un- 
limited power  of  the  people  to  their  em- 
perors, f  But  the  very  circumstance  of 
so  perverted  a  gloss  put  upon  this  text  is 
a  proof  that  no  other  doctrine  could  be 
admitted  in  the  law  of  England.  In  an- 
other passage,  Bracton  reckons  as  supe- 
rior to  the  king,  "  not  only  God  and  the 
law,  by  which  he  is  made  king,  but  his 
court  of  earls  and  barons ;  for  the  former 
(comites)  are  so  styled  as  associates  of 
the  king,  and  whoever  has  an  associate, 
has  a  master  ;J  so  that  if  the  king  were 
without  a  bridle,  that  is,  the  law,  they 
ought  to  put  a  bridle  upon  him."§  Sev- 
eral other  passages  in  Bracton  might  be 
produced  to  the  same  import ;  but  these 
are  sufficient  to  demonstrate  the  impor- 
tant fact,  that  however  extensive  or  even 
indefinite  might  be  the  royal  prerogative 
in  the  days  of  Henry  III.,  the  law  was 
already  its  superior,  itself  but  made  part 
of  the  law,  and  was  incompetent  to  over- 
throw it.  It  is  true,  that  in  this  very 
reign  the  practice  of  dispensing  with  stat- 
utes by  a  non-obstante  was  introduced, 
in  imitation  of  the  papal  dispensations.  || 
But  this  prerogative  could  only  be  ex- 
erted within  certain  limits,  and  however 
pernicious  it  may  be  justly  thought,  was, 
when  thus  understood  and  defined,  not, 
strictly  speaking,  incompatible  with  the 
legislative  sovereignty  of  parliament. 

In  conformity  Avith  the  system  of 
France  and  other  feudal  countries,  there 
was  one  standing  council,  which  assist- 
ed the  kings  of  England  in  the  The  king'* 
collection  and  management  of  court- 
their  revenue,  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice to  suiters,  and  the  despatch  of  all 
public  business.  This  was  styled  the 
king's  court,  and  held  in  his  palace,  or 
wherever  he  was  personally  present.  It 
was  composed  of  the  great  officers ;  the 
chief  justiciary  ;^f  the  chancellor,  the  con- 

*  L.  iii.,  c.  9.  These  words  are  nearly  copied 
from  Glanvil's  introduction  to  his  treatise. 

t  See  Selden  ad  Fletam,  p.  1046. 

t  This  means,  I  suppose,  that  he  who  acts  with 
the  consent  of  others,  must  be  in  some  degree  re- 
strained by  them ;  but  it  is  ill  expressed. 

$  L.  ii.,  c.  16. 

II  M.  Paris,  p.  701. 

IT  The  chief  justiciary  was  the  greatest  subject 
in  England.  Besides  presiding  in  the  king's  court 


346 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


stable,  marshal,  chamberlain,  steward, 
and  treasurer,  with  any  others  whom  the 
king  might  appoint.  Of  this  great  court 
there  was,  as  it  seems,  from  the  begin- 
ning, a  particular  branch,  in  which  all 
matters  relating  to  the  revenue  were 
exclusively  transacted.  This,  though 
composed  of  the  same  persons,  yet  be- 
The  court  mg  held  in  a  different  part  of  the 
of  exche-  palace,  and  for  different  business, 
quer.  was  distinguished  from  the  king's 
court  by  the  name  of  the  exchequer ;  a 
separation  which  became  complete  when 
civil  pleas  were  decided  and  judgments 
recorded  in  this  second  court.* 

It  is  probable,  that  in  the  age  next  after 
the  conquest,  few  causes  in  which  the 
crown  had  no  interest  were  carried  be- 
fore the  royal  tribunals ;  every  man  finding 
a  readier  course  of  justice  in  the  manor  or 
county  to  which  he  belonged-!  But,  by 
degrees,  this  supreme  jurisdiction  be- 
came more  familiar ;  and  as  it  seemed 
less  liable  to  partiality  or  intimidation 

and  in  the  exchequer,  he  was  originally,  by  virtue 
of  his  office,  the  regent  of  the  kingdom  during  the 
absence  of  the  sovereign ;  which,  till  the  loss  of 
Normandy,  occurred  very  frequently.  Writs,  at 
such  times,  ran  in  his  name,  and  were  teste'd  by 
him. — Madox,  Hist,  of  Excheq.,  p.  16.  His  appoint- 
ment upon  these  temporary  occasions  was  express- 
ed, ad  custodiendum  loco  nostro  terram  nostram 
Angliae  et  pacem  regni  nostri ;  and  all  persons 
were  enjoined  to  obey  him  tanquam  justitiario  nos- 
tro.— Rymer,  t.  i.?  p.  181.  Sometimes,  however, 
the  king  issued  his  own  writ  de  ultra  mare.  The 
first  time  when  the  dignity  of  this  office  was  im- 
paired was  at  the  death  of  John,  when  the  justicia- 
ry, Hubert  de  Burgh,  being  besieged  in  Dover  cas- 
tle, those  who  proclaimed  Henry  III.  at  Glocester, 
constituted  the  Earl  of  Pembroke  governor  of  the 
king  and  kingdom,  Hubert  still  retaining  his  of- 
fice. This  is  erroneously  stated  by  Matthew  Par- 
is, who  has  misled  Spelman  in  his  Glossary ;  but 
the  truth  appears  from  Hubert's  answer  to  the  ar- 
ticles of  charge  against  him,  and  from  a  record  in 
Madox's  Hist,  of  Excheq.,  c.  21,  note  A,  wherein 
the  Earl  of  Pembroke  is  named  rector  regis  et  reg- 
ni, and  Hubert  de  Burgh  justiciary.  In  1241,  the 
Archbishop  of  York  was  appointed  to  the  regency 
during  Henry's  absence  in  Poitou,  without  the  title 
of  justiciary.— Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  410.  Still  the  office 
was  so  considerable,  that  the  barons  who  met  in  the 
Oxford  parliament  of  1258  insisted  that  the  justi- 
ciary should  be  annually  chosen  with  their  appro- 
bation. But  the  subsequent  successes  of  Henry 
prevented  this  being  established  ;  and  Edward  I. 
discontinued  the  office  altogether. 

*  For  every  thing  that  can  be  known  about  the 
Curia  Regis,  and  especially  this  branch  of  it,  the 
student  of  our  constitutional  history  should  have 
recourse  to  Madox's  History  of  the  Exchequer, 
and  to  the  Dialogus  de  Scaccario,  written  in  the 
time  of  Henry  II.  by  Richard,  bishop  of  Ely, 
though  commonly  ascribed  to  Gervase  of  Tilbury. 
This  treatise  he  will  find  subjoined  to  Madox's 
work. 

t  Omnis  causa  terminetu  comitatu,  vel  hundre- 
do,  vel  halimoto  socam  habentium.— Leges  Henr. 
1..0.9. 


than  the  provincial  courts,  suiters  grew 
willing  to  submit  to  its  expensiveness 
and  inconvenience.  It  was  obviously  the 
interest  of  the  king's  court  to  give  such 
equity  and  steadiness  to  its  decisions  as 
might  encourage  this  disposition.  Noth- 
ing could  be  more  advantageous  to  the 
king's  authority,  nor,  what  perhaps  was 
more  immediately  regarded,  to  his  reve- 
nue ;  since  a  fine  was  always  paid  for 
leave  to  plead  in  his  court,  or  to  remove 
thither  a  cause  commenced  below.  But 
because  few,  comparatively  speaking, 
could  have  recourse  to  so  distant  a  tribu- 
nal as  that  of  the  king's  court,  and  per- 
haps also  on  account  of  the  attachment 
which  the  English  felt  to  their  ancient 
right  of  trial  by  the  neighbouring  free- 
holders, Henry  II.  established  institution 
itinerant  justices,  to  decide  civil  of  justices 
and  criminal  pleas  within  each  ofassi*e- 
county.*  This  excellent  institution  is 
referred  by  some  to  the  twenty-second 
year  of  that  prince ;  but  Madox  traces  it 
several  years  higher.f  We  have  owed 
to  it  the  uniformity  of  our  common  law, 
which  would  otherwise  have  been  split, 
like  that  of  France,  into  a  multitude  of 
local  customs ;  and  we  still  owe  to  it  the 
assurance,  which  is  felt  by  the  poorest 
and  most  remote  inhabitant  of  England, 
that  his  right  is  weighed  by  the  same  in- 
corrupt and  acute  understanding,  upon 
which  the  decision  of  the  highest  ques- 
tions is  reposed.  The  justices  of  assize 
seem  originally  to  have  gone  their  cir- 
cuits annually ;  and  as  part  of  their  duty 
was  to  set  tallages  upon  royal  towns,  and 
superintend  the  collection  of  the  revenue, 
we  may  be  certain  that  there  could  be  no 
long  interval.  This  annual  visitation 
was  expressly  confirmed  by  the  twelfth 
section  of  Magna  Charta,  which  provides 
also  that  no  assize  of  novel  disseisin,  or 
mort  d'ancestor,  should  be  taken  except 
in  the  shire  where  the  lands  in  contro- 
versy lay.  Hence  this  clause  stood  op- 
posed on  the  one  hand  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  king's  court,  which  might 
otherwise,  by  drawing  pleas  of  land  to  it- 
self, have  defeated  the  suiter's  right  to  a 
jury  from  the  vicinage ;  and  on  the  other, 
to  those  of  the  feudal  aristocracy,  who 
hated  any  interference  of  the  crown  to 
chastise  their  violations  of  law  or  control 
their  own  jurisdiction.  Accordingly, 
while  the  confederacy  of  barons  against 


*  Dialogus  de  Scaccario,  p.  38. 

f  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  iii.  Lord  Lyttleton 
thinks  that,  this  institution  may  have  been  adopted 
in  imitation  of  Louis  VI.,  who  half  a  century  before 
had  introduced  a  similar  regulation  in  his  domin. 
ions.— Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  206. 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTI0 


:': 


Henry  III.  was  in  its  full  power,  an  at- 
tempt was  made  to  prevent  the  regular 
circuits  of  the  judges.* 

Long  after  the  separation  of  the  ex- 
The  court  of  chequer  from  the  king's  court, 
common  another  branch  was  detached 
for  the  decision  of  private  suits. 
This  had  its  beginning,  in  Madox's  opin- 
ion, as  early  as  the  reign  of  Richard  I.f 
But  it  was  completely  established  by 
Magna  Charta.  "  Common  Pleas,"  it  is 
said  in  the  fourteenth  clause,  "  shall  not 
follow  our  court,  but  be  held  in  some 
certain  place."  Thus  was  formed  the 
Court  of  Common  Bench  at  Westminster, 
with  full  and,  strictly  speaking,  exclusive 
jurisdiction  over  all  civil  disputes,  where 
neither  the  king's  interest,  nor  any  mat- 
ter savouring  of  a  criminal  nature,  was 
concerned.  For  of  such  disputes  neither 
the  court  of  king's  bench  nor  that  of  ex- 
chequer can  take  cognizance,  except  by 
means  of  a  legal  fiction,  which,  in  the 
one  case,  supposes  an  act  of  force,  and 
in  the  other,  a  debt  to  the  crown. 

The  principal  officers  of  state,  who  had 
Origin  of  originally  been  effective  mem- 
theCom-  bers  of  the  king's  court,  began 

monLaw.  ^    withdraw    from    it    after    this 

separation  into  three  courts  of  justice, 
and  left  their  places  to  regular  lawyers; 
though  the  treasurer  and  chancellor  of 
the  exchequer  have  still  seats  on  the 
equity  side  of  that  court,  a  vestige  of  its 
ancient  constitution.  It  would  indeed 
have  been  difficult  for  men  bred  in  camps 
or  palaces  to  fulfil  the  ordinary  functions 
of  judicature,  under  such  a  system  of 
law  as  had  grown  up  in  England.  The 
rules  of  legal  decision  among  a  rude  peo^ 
pie  are  always  very  simple ;  not  serving 
much  to  guide,  far  less  to  control,  the 
feelings  of  natural  equity.  Such  were 
those  which  prevailed  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  ;  requiring  no  subtler  intellect  or 
deeper  learning  than  the  earl  or  sheriff 
at  the  head  of  his  county-court  might  be 
expected  to  possess.  But  a  great  change 

*  Justiciarii  regis  Anglia?,  qui  dicuntur  itineris, 
missi  Herfordiam,  pro  suo  exequendo  officio  repel- 
luntur,  allegantibus  his  qui  regi  adversabantur,  ip- 
sos  contr&  formam  provisionum  Qxonia?  nuper  fac- 
tarum  venisse.— Chron.  Nic.  Trivet.,  A-  D.  1260. 
1  forget  where  I  found  this  quotation. 

t  Hist,  of '  Exchequer,  c.  19.  Justices  of  the 
bench  are  mentioned  several  years  before  Magna 
Charta.  But  Madox  thinks  the  chief  justiciary  of 
England  might  preside  in  the  two  courts,  as  well 
as  in  the  exchequer.  After  the  erection  of  the 
Common  Bench,  the  style  of  the  superior  court 
began  to  alter.  It  ceased  by  degrees  to  be  called 
the  king's  court.  Pleas  were  said  to  be  held  coram 
rege,  or  coram  rege  ubicunque  fuerit.  And  thus 
the  court  of  king's  bench  was  formed  out  of  the  re>> 
mains  of  the  ancient  curia  regis. 


was  wrought  in  about  a  century  after  the 
conquest.  Our  English  lawyers,  prone 
to  magnify  the  antiquity,  like  the  other 
merits  of  their  system,  are  apt  to  carry 
up  the  date  of  the  common  law,  till,  like 
the  pedigree  of  an  illustrious  family,  it 
loses  itself  in  the  obscurity  of  ancient 
time.  Even  Sir  Matthew  Hale  does  not 
hesitate  to  say,  that  its  origin  is  as  undis- 
coverable  as  that  of  Nile.  But  though 
some  features  of  the  common  law  may 
be  distinguishable  in  Saxon  times,  while 
our  limited  knowledge  prevents  us  from 
assigning  many  of  its  peculiarities  to  any 
determinable  period,  yet  the  general  char- 
acter and  most  essential  parts  of  the  sys- 
tem were  of  much  later  growth.  The 
laws  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  kings,  Madox 
truly  observes,  are  as  different  from  those 
collected  by  Glanvil  as  the  laws  of  two 
different  nations.  The  pecuniary  com- 
positions for  crimes,  especially  for  hom- 
icide, which  run  through  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  code  down  to  the  laws  ascribed  to 
Henry  I.,*  are  not  mentioned  by  Glanvil. 
Death  seems  to  have  been  the  regular 
punishment  of  murder,  as  well  as  rob- 
bery. Though  the  investigation  by  means 
of  ordeal  was  not  disused  in  his  time,f 
yet  trial  by  combat,  of  which  we  find  no 
instance  before  the  conquest,  was  evi- 
dently preferred.  Under  the  Saxon  gov- 
ernment, suits  appear  to  have  commen- 
ced, even  before  the  king,  by  verbal  or 
written  complaint  ;  at  least,  no  trace  re- 
mains of  the  original  writ,  the  foundation 
of  our  civil  procedure.  J  The  descent  of 
lands  before  the  conquest  was  according 
to  the  custom  of  gavelkind,  or  equal  par- 
tition among  the  children  ;§  in  the  age  of 
Henry  I.  the  eldest  son  took  the  principal 
fief  to  his  own  share  ;j|  in  that  of  Glanvil 
he  inherited  all  the  lands  held  by  knight 
service  ;  but  the  descent  of  soccage  lands 
depended  on  the  particular  custom  of  the 
estate.  By  the  Saxon  laws,  upon  the 
death  of  the  son  without  issue,  the  father 
inherited  ;"jf  by  our  common  law,  he  is 
absolutely,  and  in  every  case,  excluded. 
Lands  were,  in  general,  devisable  by  tes- 
tament before  the  conquest  ;  but  not  in 

~*  C.  70. 

t  A  citizen  of  London,  suspected  of  murder,  hav- 
ing  failed  in  the  ordeal  of  cold  water,  was  hanged 
by  order  of  Henry  II.,  though  he  offered  500  marks 
to  save  his  life.  —  Hoveden,  p.  566.  It  appears  as 
if  the  ordeal  were  permitted  to  persons  already  con- 
victed by  the  verdict  of  a  jury.  If  they  escaped  in 
this  purgation,  yet,  in  cases  of  murder,  they  were 
banished  the  realm.—  Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Sax- 
on,, p.  330.  Ordeals  were  abolished  about  the  be- 
ginning of  Henry  III.'s  reign. 

t  Hickes,  Dissert.  Epistol.,  p.  8. 

6  Leges  Gulielmi,  p.  225. 

fl  Leges  Henr.  I  ,  c.  70. 


343 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


the  time  of  Henry  II.,  except  by  particu- 
lar custom.  These  are  sufficient  samples 
of  the  differences  between  our  Saxon 
and  Norman  jurisprudence ;  but  the  dis- 
tinct character  of  the  two  will  strike 
more  forcibly  every  one  who  peruses 
successively  the  laws  published  by  Wil- 
kins,  and  the  treatise  ascribed  to  Glanvil. 
The  former  resemble  the  barbaric  codes 
of  the  continent,  and  the  capitularies  of 
Charlemagne  and  his  family;  minute  to 
an  excess  in  apportioning  punishments, 
but  sparing  and  indefinite  in  treating  of 
civil  rights ;  while  the  other,  copious, 
discriminating,  and  technical,  displays  the 
characteristics  as  well  as  unfolds  the  prin- 
ciples of  English  law.  It  is  difficult  to 
assert  any  thing  decisively  as  to  the  pe- 
riod between  the  conquest  and  the  reign 
Of  Henry  II.,  which  presents  fewer  mate- 
rials for  legal  history  than  the  preceding 
age;  but  the  treatise  denominated  the 
Laws  of  Henry  I.,  compiled  at  the  soonest 
about  the  end  of  Stephen's  reign,*  bears 
so  much  of  a  Saxon  character,  that  I 
should  be  inclined  to  ascribe  our  present 
common  law  to  a  date,  so  far  as  it  is  ca- 
pable of  any  date,  not  much  antecedent  to 
the  publication  of  Glanvil.  f  At  the  same 
time,  since  no  kind  of  evidence  attests 
any  sudden  and  radical  change  in  the  ju- 
risprudence of  England,  the  question  must 
be  considered  as  left  in  great  obscurity. 
Perhaps  it  might  be  reasonable  to  con- 
jecture that  the  treatise  called  Leges 
Henrici  Primi  contains  the  ancient  usa- 
ges still  prevailing  in  the  inferior  juris- 
dictions, and  that  of  Glanvil  the  rules 
established  by  the  Norman  lawyers  of  the 
king's  court,  which  would  of  course  ac- 
quire a  general  recognition  and  efficacy, 
in  consequence  of  the  institution  of  jus- 
tices holding  their  assizes  periodically 
throughout  the  country. 
The  capacity  of  deciding  legal  contro- 

Cbaracter     YersifS.   WaS    n°W    O^y    to     be 

and  defects  found  in  men  who  had  devo- 
oftheEng-  ted  themselves  to  that  peculiar 
study ;  and  a  race  of  such  men 
arose,  whose  eagerness  and  even  enthu- 
siasm in  the  profession  of  the  law  were 
stimulated  by  the  self-complacency  of  in- 
tellectual dexterity  in  thridding  its  intri- 
cate and  thorny  mazes.  The  Normans 
are  noted  in  their  own  country  for  a 
shrewd  and  litigious  temper,  which  may 
have  given  a  character  to  our  courts  of 

*  The  decretum  of  Gratian  is  quoted  in  this  trea- 
tise, which  was  not  published  in  Italy  till  1151. 

t  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exch.,  p.  122,  edit.  1711. 
Lord  Lyttleton,  vol.  ii.,  p.  267,  has  given  reasons 
for  supposing  that  Glanvil  was  not  the  author  of 
this  treatise,  but  some  clerk  under  his  direction. 


justice  in  early  times.  Something  too 
of  that  excessive  subtlety,  and  that  pref- 
erence of  technical  to  rational  principles, 
which  runs  through  our  system,  may  be 
imputed  to  the  scholastic  philosophy 
which  was  in  vogue  during  the  same 
period,  and  is  marked  by  the  same  fea- 
tures. But  we  have  just  reason  to*  boast 
of  the  leading  causes  of  these  defects ; 
an  adherence  to  fixed  rules,  and  a  jeal- 
ousy of  judicial  discretion,  which  ha\e  in 
no  country,  I  believe,  been  carried  to 
such  a  length.  Hence  precedents  of 
adjudged  cases,  becoming  authorities  for 
the  future,  have  been  constantly  noted, 
and  form  indeed  almost  the  sole  ground 
of  argument  in  questions  of  mere  law. 
But  these  authorities  being  frequently 
unreasonable  and  inconsistent,  partly 
from  the  infirmity  of  all  human  reason, 
partly  from  the  imperfect  manner  in 
which  a  number  of  unwarranted  and 
incorrect  reporters  have  handed  them 
down,  later  judges  grew  anxious  to  elude 
by  impalpable  distinctions  what  they  did 
not  venture  to  overturn.  In  some  in- 
stances, this  evasive  skill  has  been  ap- 
plied to  acts  of  the  legislature.  Those 
who  are  moderately  conversant  with  the 
history  of  our  law  will  easily  trace  other 
circumstances  that  have  co-operated  in 
producing  that  technical  and  subtle  sys- 
tem which  regulates  the  course  of  real 
property.  For  as  that  formed  almost  the 
whole  of  our  ancient  jurisprudence,  it  is 
there  that  we  must  seek  its  original  char- 
acter. But  much  of  the  same  spirit  per- 
vades every  part  of  the  law.  No  tri- 
bunal of  a  civilized  people  ever  borrowed 
so  little,  even  of  illustration,  from  the 
writings  of  philosophers,  or  from  the  in- 
stitutions of  other  countries.  Hence  law 
has  been  studied,  in  general,  rather  as  an 
art  than  a  science,  with  more  solicitude 
to  know  its  rules  and  distinctions,  than 
to  perceive  their  application  to  that  for 
which  all  rules  of  law  ought  to  have  been 
established,  the  maintenance  of  public 
and  private  rights.  Nor  is  there  any 
reading  more  jejune  and  unprofitable  to  a 
philosophical  mind  than  that  of  -our  an- 
cient law-books.  Later  times  have  in- 
troduced other  inconveniences,  till  the 
vast  extent  and  multiplicity  of  our  laws 
have  become  a  practical  evil  of  serious 
importance,  and  an  evil  which,  between 
the  timidity  of  the  legislature  on  the  one 
hand,  and  the  selfish  views  of  practition- 
ers on  the  other,  is  likely  to  reach,  in  no 
long  period,  an  intolerable  excess.  De- 
terred by  an  interested  clamour  against 
innovation  from  abrogating  what  is  use- 
less, simplifying  what  is  complex,  or  de- 


PART  II.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


349 


termining  what  is  doubtful,  and  always 
more  inclined  to  stave  off  an  immediate 
difficulty  by  some  patchwork  scheme  of 
modifications  and  suspensions,  than  to 
consult  for  posterity  in  the  comprehen- 
sive spirit  of  legal  philosophy,  we  accu- 
mulate statute  upon  statute,  and  prece- 
dent upon  precedent,  till  no  industry  can 
acquire,  nor  any  intellect  digest  the  mass 
of  learning  that  grows  upon  the  panting 
student;  and  our  jurisprudence  seems 
not  unlikely  to  be  simplified  in  the  worst 
and  least  honourable  manner,  a  tacit 
agreement  of  ignorance  among  its  pro- 
fessors. Much  indeed  has  already  gone 
into  desuetude  within  the  last  centu- 
ry, and  is  known  only  as  an  occult 
science  by  a  small  number  of  adepts. 
We  are  thus  gradually  approaching  the 
crisis  of  a  necessary  reformation,  when 
our  laws,  like  those  of  Rome,  must  be 
cast  into  the  crucible.  It  would  be  a  dis- 
grace to  the  nineteenth  century,  if  Eng- 
land could  not  find  her  Tribonian.* 

This  establishment  of  a  legal  system, 
which  must  be  considered  as  complete  at 
the  end  of  Henry  III.'s  reign,  when  the 
unwritten  usages  of  the  common  law,  as 
well  as  the  forms  and  precedents  of  the 
courts,  were  digested  into  the  great  work 
of  Bracton,  might,  in  some  respects,  con- 
duce to  the  security  of  public  freedom. 
For,  however  highly  the  prerogative 
might  be  strained,  it  was  incorporated 
with  the  law,  and  treated  with  the  same 


*  Whitelocke,  just  after  the  restoration,  com- 
plains that  "  Now  the  volume  of  our  statutes  is 
grown  or  swelled  to  a  great  bigness."  The  vol- 
ume! What  would  he  have  said  to  the  monstrous 
birth  of  a  volume  triennially,  rilled  with  laws  pro- 
fessing to  be  the  deliberate  work  of  the  legislature, 
which  every  subject  is  supposed  to  read,  remem- 
ber, and  understand  !  The  excellent  sense  of  the 
following  sentences  from  the  same  passage  may 
well  excuse  me  from  quoting  them,  and,  perhaps, 
in  this  age  of  bigoted  averseness  to  innovation,  I 
have  need  of  some  apology  for  what  I  have  ven- 
tured to  say  in  the  text.  "  I  remember  the  opin- 
ion of  a  wise  and  learned  statesman  and  lawyer 
(the  Chancellor  Oxenstiern)  that  multiplicity  of 
written  laws  do  but  distract  the  judges,  and  render 
the  law  less  certain ;  that  where  the  law  sets  due 
and  clear  bounds  between  the  prerogative  royal 
and  the  rights  of  the  people,  and  gives  remedy  in 
private  causes,  there  needs  no  more  laws  to  be  in- 
creased, for  thereby  litigation  will  be  increased  like- 
wise. It  were  a  work  worthy  of  a  parliament,  and 
cannot  be  done  otherwise,  to  cause  a  review  of  all 
our  statutes,  to  repeal  such  as  they  shall  judge 
inconvenient  to  remain  in  force  ;  to  confirm  those 
which  they  shall  think  fit  to  stand,  and  those  sev- 
eral statutes  which  are  confused,  some  repugnant 
to  others,  many  touching  the  same  matters,  to  be 
reduced  into  certainty,  all  of  one  subject  into  one 
statute,  that  perspicuity  and  clearness  may  appear 
in  our  written  laws,  which  at  this  day  few  students 
or  sages  can  find  in  them."— Whitelpcke's  Com- 
mentary on  Parliamentary  Writ,*vol.  i.,  p.  409. 


distinguishing  and  argumentative  subt- 
lety as  every  other  part  of  it.  What- 
ever things,  therefore,  it  was  asserted, 
that  the  king  might  do,  it  was  a  neces- 
sary implication  that  there  were  other 
things  which  he  could  not  do;  else  it 
were  vain  to  specify  the  former.  It  is 
not  meant  to  press  this  too  far ;  since  un- 
doubtedly the  bias  of  lawyers  towards 
the  prerogative  was  sometimes  too  dis- 
cernible. But  the  sweeping  maxims  of 
absolute  power,  which  servile  judges  and 
churchmen  taught  the  Tudor  and  Stuart 
princes,  seem  to  have  made  no  progress 
under  the  Plantagenet  line. 

Whatever  may  be  thought  of  the  ef- 
fect which  the  study  of  the  law 
had  upon  the  rights  of  the  sub-  JflSX 
ject,  it  conduced  materially  to  crown  es- 
the  security  of  good  order  by  tablished- 
ascertaining  the  hereditary  succession  of 
the  crown.  Five  kings  out  of  seven  that 
followed  William  the  Conqueror  were 
usurpers,  according  at  least  to  modern 
notions.  Of  these,  Stephen  alone  en- 
countered any  serious  opposition  upon 
that  ground ;  and  with  respect  to  him,  it 
must  be  remembered,  that  all  the  barons, 
himself  included,  had  solemnly  sworn  to 
maintain  the  succession  of  Matilda.  Hen- 
ry II.  procured  a  parliamentary  settle- 
ment of  the  crown  upon  his  eldest  and 
second  sons ;  a  strong  presumption  that 
their  hereditary  right  was  not  absolutely 
secure.*  A  mixed  notion  of  right  and 
choice  in  fact  prevailed  as  to  the  suc- 
cession of  every  European  monarchy. 
The  coronation  oath  and  the  form  of 
popular  consent  then  required  were  con- 
sidered as  more  material,  at  least  to  per- 
fect a  title,  than  we  deem  them  at  present. 
They  gave  seisin,  as  it  were,  of  the 
crown,  and,  in  cases  of  disputed  preten- 
sions, had  a  sort  of  judicial  efficacy. 
The  Chronicle  of  Dunstaple  says,  con- 
cerning Richard  I.,  that  he  was  "ele- 
vated to  the  throne  by  hereditary  right, 
after  a  solemn  election  by  the  clergy  and 
people  :"f  words  that  indicate  the  current 
principles  of  that  age.  It  is  to  be  observ- 
ed, however,  that  Richard  took  upon  him. 
the  exercise  of  royal  prerogatives,  with- 
out waiting  for  his  coronation.}  The 
succession  of  John  has  certainly  passed 
in  modern  times  for  a  usurpation.  I  do 
not  find  that  it  was  considered  as  such 
by  his  own  contemporaries  on  this  side 
of  the  channel.  The  question  of  inher- 
itance between  an  uncle  and  the  son  of 


*  Lyttleton,  vol.  ii.,  p.  14. 
t  Idem,  p.  42.    Haereditario  jure  promovendus  in 
regnum,  post  cleri  et  populi  solennem  electionem, 
%  Gul.  Neubrigensis,  1.  iv.,  c.  1. 


350 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


VIII. 


his  deceased  elder  brother  was  yet  unset- 
tled, as  we  learn  from  Glanvil,  even  in 
private  succession.*  In  the  case  of  sov- 
ereignties, which  were  sometimes  con- 
tended to  require  different  rules  from  or- 
dinary patrimonies,  it  was,  and  continued 
long  to  be,  the  most  uncertain  point  in 
public  law.  John's  pretensions  to  the 
crown  might  therefore  be  such  as  the 
English  were  justified  in  admitting,  espe- 
cially as  his  reversionary  title  seems  to 
have  been  acknowledged  in  the  reign  of 
his  brother  Richard. f  If  indeed  we  may 
place  reliance  on  Matthew  Paris,  Arch- 
bishop Hubert,  on  this  occasion,  declared 
in  the  most  explicit  terms  that  the  crown 
was  elective,  giving  even  to  the  blood 
royal  no  other  preference  than  their  merit 
might  challenge. :{:  Carte  rejects  this  as 
a  fiction  of  the  historian ;  and  it  is  cer- 
tainly a  strain  far  beyond  the  constitu- 
tion, which,  both  before  and  after  the 
conquest,  had  invariably  limited  the 
throne  to  one  royal  stock,  though  not 
strictly  to  its  nearest  branch.  In  a  char- 
ter of  the  first  year  of  his  reign,  John 
calls  himself  king  "by  hereditary  right, 
and  through  the  consent  and  favour  of 
the  church  and  people. "$ 

It  is  deserving  of  remark,  that  during 
the  rebellions  against  this  prince  and  his 
son  Henry  III. ,  not  a  syllable  was  breathed 
in  favour  of  Eleanor,  Arthur's  sister,  who, 
if  the  present  rules  of  succession  had 
been  established,  was  the  undoubted  heir- 
ess of  his  right.  The  barons  chose  rather 
to  call  in  the  aid  of  Louis,  with  scarcely 
a  shade  of  title,  though  with  much  bet- 
ter means  of  maintaining  himself.  One 
should  think  that  men  whose  fathers  had 
been  in  the  field  for  Matilda  could  make  no 
difficulty  about  female  succession.  But  I 
doubt  whether,  notwithstanding  that  pre- 
cedent, the  crown  of  England  was  uni- 
versally acknowledged  to  be  capable  of  de- 
scending to  a  female  heir.  Great  averse- 
ness  had  been  shown  by  the  nobility  of 
Henry  I.  to  his  proposal  of  settling  the 
kingdom  on  his  daughter. ||  And  from  a 
remarkable  passage  which  I  shall  produce 
in  a  note,  it  appears  that  even  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  the  succession  was  sup- 
posed to  be  confined  to  the  male  line.T 

*  Glanvil,  1.  vii.,  c.  3.          f  Hoveden,  p.  702. 

J  Hoveden,  p.  165. 

$  Jure  haereditario,  et  mediante  tarn  cleri  et  pop- 
uli  consensu  et  favore.— Gurdon  on  Parliaments, 
p.  139. 

||  Lyttleton,  vol.  i.,  p.  162. 

^  This  is  intimated  by  the  treaty  made  in  1339, 
for  a  marriage  between  the  eldest  son  of  Edward 
III.  and  the  Duke  of  Brabant's  daughter.  Edward 
therein  promises,  that  if  his  son  should  die  before 
him,  leaving  male  issue,  he  will  procure  the  con- 


At  length,  about  the  middle  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  the  lawyers  applied  to 
the  crown  the  same  strict  principles  of 
descent  which  regulate  a  private  inherit-* 
ance.  Edward  I.  was  proclaimed  imme- 
diately upon  his  father's  death,  though 
absent  in  Sicily.  Something,  however, 
of  the  old  principle  may  be  traced  in  this 
proclamation,  issued  in  his  name  by  the 
guardians  of  the  realm,  where  he  asserts 
the  crown  of  England  "  to  have  devolv- 
ed upon  him  by  hereditary  succession 
and  the  will  of  his  nobles."*  These  last 
words  were  omitted  in  the  proclama- 
tion of  Edward  II.  ;f  since  whose  time 
the  crown  has  been  absolutely  hereditary. 
The  coronation  oath,  and  the  recognition 
of  the  people  at  that  solemnity,  are  for- 
malities which  convey  no  right  either  to 
the  sovereign  or  the  people,  though  they 
may  testify  the  duties  of  each. 

I  cannot  conclude  the  present  chap- 
ter without  observing  one  most  English 
prominent  and  characteristic  gentry  des- 
distinction  between  the  consti-  cuSi^eprlv- 
tution  of  England  and  that  of  iieges. 
every  other  country  in  Europe ;  I  mean 
its  refusal  of  civil  privileges  to  the  lower 
nobility,  or  those  whom  we  denominate 
the  gentry.  In  France,  in  Spain,  in  Ger- 
many, wherever,  in  short,  we  look,  the 
appellations  of  nobleman  and  gentleman 
have  been  strictly  synonymous.  Those 
entitled  to  bear  them  by  descent,  by  ten- 
ure of  land,  by  office  or  royal  creation, 
have  'formed  a  class  distinguished  by 
privileges  inherent  in  their  blood  from 
ordinary  freemen.  Marriage  with  noble 


sent  of  his  barons,  nobles,  and  cities  (that  is,  of 
parliament;  nobles  here  meaning  knights,  if  the 
word  has  any  distinct  sense)  for  such  issue  to  in- 
herit the  kingdom  ;  and  if  he  die  leaving  a  daugh- 
ter only,  Edward  or  his  heir  shall  make  such  pro- 
vision for  her  as  belongs  to  the  daughter  of  a  king. 
—Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  114.  It  may  be  inferred  from 
this  instrument,  that  in  Edward's  intention,  if  not 
by  the  constitution,  the  Salique-law  was  to  regulate 
the  succession  of  the  English  crown.  This  law, 
it  must  be  remembered,  he  was  compelled  to  admit 
in  his  claim  on  the  kingdom  of  France,  though 
with  a  certain  modification,  which  gave  a  pretext 
of  title  to  himself. 

*  Ad^nos  regni  gubernaculum  successione  hae- 
reditaria,  ac  procerum  regni  voluntate,  et  fidelitate 
nobis  praestila  sit  devolutum.— Brady  (History  of 
England,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix,  p.  1)  expounds  proce- 
rum voluntate  to  mean  willingness,  not  will ;  SLS 
much  as  to  say,  they  acted  readily  and  without 
command.  But  in  all  probability  it  was  intended 
to  save  the  usual  form  of  consent. 

f  Rymer,  t.  iii.,  p.  1.  Walsingham,  however, 
asserts  that  Edward  II.  ascended  the  throne  non 
tarn  jure  haereditario  quam  unanimi  assensu  proce- 
rum et  magnatum,  p.  95.  Perhaps  we  should  omit 
the  word  non,  and  he  might  intend  to  say,  that  the 
king  had  not  only  his  hereditary  title,  but  the  froe 
consent  of  his  barons. 


PART  II.] 


icNCJLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


351 


families,  or  the  purchase  of  military  fiefs, 
or  the  participation  of  many  civil  offices, 
were  more  or  less  interdicted  to  the 
commons  of  France  and  the  empire.  Of 
these  restrictions,  nothing,  or  next  to 
nothing,  was  ever  known  in  England. 
The  law  has  never  taken  notice  of  gen- 
tlemen.* From  the  reign  of  Henry  III. 
at  least,  the  legal  equality  of  all  ranks 
below  the  peerage  was,  to  every  essen- 
tial purpose,  as  complete  as  at  present. 
Compare  two  writers  nearly  contempo- 
rary, Bracton  with  Beaumanoir,  and  mark 
how  the  customs  of  England  are  distin- 
guishable in  this  respect.  The  French- 
man ranges  the  people  under  three  divis- 
ions, the  noble,  the  free,  and  the  servile ; 
our  countryman  has  no  generic  class 
but  freedom  and  villanage.f  No  restraint 
seems  ever  to  have  lain  upon  marriage ; 
nor  have  the  children  even  of  a  peer 
been  ever  deemed  to  lose  any  privilege 
by  his  union  with  a  commoner.  The 
purchase  of  lands  held  by  knight-service 
was  always  open  to  all  freemen.  A  few 
privileges  indeed  were  confined  to  those 
who  had  received  knighthood.J  But, 
upon  the  whole,  there  was  a  virtual 
equality  of  rights  among  all  the  com- 
moners of  England.  What  is  most  par- 
ticular is,  that  the  peerage  itself  imparts 
no  privilege  except  to  its  actual  possessor. 
In  every  other  country,  the  descendants 
of  nobles  cannot  but  themselves  be  noble, 
because  their  nobility  is  the  immediate 
consequence  of  their  birth.  But  though 
we  commonly  say  that  the  blood  of  a 
peer  is  ennobled,  yet  this  expression 
seems  hardly  accurate,  and  fitter  for 
heralds  than  lawyers ;  since  in  truth 
nothing  confers  nobility  but  the  actual 
descent  of  a  peerage.  The  sons  of  peers, 

*  It  is  hardly  worth  while,  even  for  the  sake  of 
obviating  cavils,  to  notice  as  an  exception  the  stat- 
ute of  23  H.  VI.,  c.  14,  prohibiting  the  election  of 
any  who  were  not  born  gentlemen  for  knights  of 
the  shire.  Much  less  should  I  have  thought  of 
noticing,  if  it  had  not  been  suggested  as  an  objec- 
tion, the  provision  of  the  statute  of  Merton,  that 
guardians  in  chivalry  shall  not  marry  their  wards 
to  villeins  or  burgesses,  to  their  disparagement. 
Wherever  the  distinctions  of  rank  and  property 
are  felt  in  the  customs  of  society,  such  marriages 
will  be  deemed  unequal ;  and  it  was  to  obviate  the 
tyranny  of  feudal  superiors,  who  compelled  their 
wards  to  accept  a  mean  alliance,  or  to  forfeit  its 
price,  that  this  provision  of  the  statute  was  made. 
But  this  does  not  affect  the  proposition  I  had  main- 
tained as  to  the  legal  equality  of  commoners,  any 
more  than  a  report  of  a  master  in  chancery  at  the 
present  day,  that  a  proposed  marriage  for  a  ward 
of  the  court  was  unequal  to  what  her  station  in 
society  appeared  to  claim,  would  invalidate  the 
same  proposition. 

Beaumanoir,  c.  45.     Bracton,  1.  i.,  c.  6. 

t  See  for  these,  Selden's  Titles  of  Honour,  vol. 
in.,  p.  806. 


as  we  well  know,  are  commoners,  and 
totally  destitute  of  any  legal  right  beyond 
a  barren  precedence, 

There  is  no  part,  perhaps,  of  our  con- 
stitution so  admirable  as  this  equality  of 
civil  rights  ;  this  isonomia,  which  the  phi- 
losophers of  ancient  Greece  only  hoped 
to  find  in  democratical  governments.* 
From  the  beginning  our  law  has  been  no 
respecter  of  persons.  It  screens  not  the 
gentleman  of  ancient  lineage  from  the 
judgment  of  an  ordinary  jury,  nor  from 
ignominious  punishment.  It  confers  not, 
it  never  did  confer,  those  unjust  immuni- 
ties from  public  burdens  which  the  supe- 
rior orders  arrogated  to  themselves  upon 
the  continent.  Thus,  while  the  privileges 
of  our  peers,  as  hereditary  legislators  of 
a  free  people,  are  incomparably  more  val- 
uable and  dignified  in  their  nature,  they 
are  far  less  invidious  in  their  exercise 
than  those  of  any  other  nobility  in  Eu- 
rope. It  is,  I  am  firmly  persuaded,  to 
this  peculiarly  democratical  character  of 
the  English  monarchy  that  we  are  in- 
debted for  its  long  permanence,  its  regu- 
lar improvement,  and  its  present  vigour. 
It  is  a  singular,  a  providential  circum- 
stance, that  in  an  age  when  the  gradual 
march  of  civilization  and  commerce  was 
so  little  foreseen,  our  ancestors,  devia- 
ting from  the  usages  of  neighbouring 
countries,  should,  as  if  deliberately,  have 
guarded  against  that  expansive  force 
which,  in  bursting  through  obstacles  im- 
providently  opposed,  has  scattered  havoc 
over  Europe. 

This  tendency  to  civil  equality  in  the 
English  law  may,  I  think,  be  causes  of 
ascribed  to  several  concurrent  the 
causes.  In  the  first  place,  the 
feudal  institutions  were  far  less  land. 
military  in  England  than  upon  the  conti- 
nent. From  the  time  of  Henry  II.,  the 
escuage,  or  pecuniary  commutation  for 
personal  service,  became  almost  univer- 
sal. The  armies  of  our  kings  were  com- 
posed of  hired  troops,  great  part  of  whom 
certainly  were  knights  and  gentlemen, 
but  who,  serving  for  pay,  and  not  by  vir- 
tue of  their  birth  or  tenure,  preserved 
nothing  of  the  feudal  character.  It  was 
not,  however,  so  much  for  the  ends  of  na- 
tional as  of  private  warfare,  that  the  re- 
lation of  lord  and  vassal  was  contrived. 
The  right  which  every  baron  in  France 
possessed  of  redressing  his  own  wrongs 


I}\rj9os  ap%ov,  Trpwrov  [icv  uvofia 

,  says  the  advocate  of  democracy  in  the 
discussion  of  forms  of  government  which  Herodo- 
tus (Thalia,  c*.  80)  has  put  into  the  mouths  of 
three  Persian  satraps,  after  the  murder  of  Smerdis, 
a  scene  conceived  in  the  spirit  of  Corneille. 


352 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Vllf. 


and  those  of  his  tenants  by  arms,  render- 
ed their  connexion  strictly  military.  But 
we  read  very  little  of  private  wars  in 
England.  Notwithstanding  some  passa- 
ges in  Glanvil,  which  certainly  appear  to 
admit  their  legality,  it  is  not  easy  to  rec- 
oncile this  with  the  general  tenure  of 
our  laws.*  They  must  always  have  been 
a  breach  of  the  king's  peace,  which  our 
Saxon  lawgivers  were  perpetually  stri- 
ving to  preserve,  and  which  the*  conquer- 
or and  his  sons  more  effectually  main- 
tained, f  Nor  can  we  trace  many  in- 
stances (some  we  perhaps  may)  of  actual 
hostilities  among  the  nobility  of  England 
after  the  conquest,  except  during  such  an 
anarchy  as  the  reign  of  Stephen  or  the 
minority  of  Henry  III.  Acts  of  outrage 
and  spoliation  were  indeed  very  frequent. 
The  statute  of  Marlebridge,  soon  after  the 
baronial  wars  of  Henry  III.,  speaks  of  the 
disseisins  that  had  taken  place  during  the 
late  disturbances  ;J  and  thirty-five  ver- 
dicts are  said  to  have  been  given  at  one 
court  of  assize  against  Foulkes  de 
Breaute,  a  notorious  partisan,  who  com- 
manded some  foreign  mercenaries  at  the 
beginning  of  the  same  reign  :§  but  these 
are  faint  resemblances  of  that  wide- 
spreading  devastation  which  the  nobles 
of  France  and  Germany  were  entitled  to 
carry  among  their  neighbours.  The  most 
prominent  instance,  perhaps,  of  what  may 
be  deemed  a  private  war,  arose  out  of  a 
contention  between  the  earls  of  Gloces- 
ter  and  Hereford,  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
I.,  during  which  acts  of  extraordinary 
violence  were  perpetrated  ;  but,  far  from 
its  having  passed  for  lawful,  these  pow- 
erful nobles  were  both  committed  to  pris- 
on, and  paid  heavy  fines.  |j  Thus  the 
tenure  of  knight-service  was  not  in  effect 
much  more  peculiarly  connected  with  the 

*  I  have  modified  this  passage,  in  consequence 
of  the  just  animadversion  of  a  periodical  critic.  In 
the  former  edition  I  had  stated  too  strongly  the  dif- 
ference which  I  still  believe  to  have  existed  be- 
tween the  customs  of  England  and  other  feudal 
countries,  in  respect  of  private  warfare. 

f  The  penalties  imposed  on  breaches  of  the 
peace  in  Wilkins's  Anglo-Saxon  laws  are  too  nu- 
merous to  be  particularly  inserted.  One  remarka- 
ble passage  in  Domesday  appears,  by  mentioning  a 
legal  custom  of  private  feuds  in  an  individual  man- 
or, and  there  only  among  Welshmen,  to  afford  an  in- 
ference that  it  was  an  anomaly.  In  the  royal  manor 
of  Archenfeld  in  Herefordshire,  if  one  Welshman 
kills  another,  it  was  a  custom  for  the  relations  of 
the  slain  to  assemble  and  plunder  the  murderer  and 
his  kindred,  and  burn  their  houses  until  the  corpse 
should  be  interred,  which  was  to  take  place  by 
noon  on  the  morrow  of  his  death.  Of  this  plunder 
the  king  had  a  third  part,  and  the  rest  they  kept  for 
themselves,  p.  179. 

J  Stat.  52  H.  III.  $  Matt.  Paris,  p.  271. 

H  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i.,  p.  70. 


profession  of  arms  than  that  of  soccage. 
There  was  nothing  in  the  former  condi- 
tion to  generate  that  high  self-estimation 
which  military  habits  inspire.  On  the 
contrary,  the  burdensome  incidents  of 
tenure  in  chivalry  rendered  soccage  the 
more  advantageous,  though  less  honoura- 
ble of  the  two. 

In  the  next  place,  we  must  ascribe  a 
good  deal  of  efficacy  to  the  old  Saxon 
principles  that  survived  the  conquest  of 
William,  and  infused  themselves  into  our 
common  law.  A  respectable  class  of 
free  soccagers,  having,  in  general,  full 
rights  of  alienating  their  lands,  and  hold- 
ing them  probably  at  a  small  certain  rent 
from  the  lord  of  the  manor,  frequent- 
ly occur  in  Domesday  Book.  Though, 
as  I  have  already  observed,  these  were 
derived  from  the  superior  and  more  for- 
tunate Anglo-Saxon  ceorls,  they  were 
perfectly  exempt  from  all  marks  of  vil- 
lanage  both  as  to  their  persons  and  es- 
tates. Some  have  derived  their  name 
from  the  Saxon  soc,  which  signifies  a 
franchise,  especially  one  of  jurisdiction. 
And  whatever  may  come  of  this  etymol- 
ogy, which  is  not  perhaps  so  well  estab- 
lished as  that  from  the  French  word  soc, 
a  ploughshare,*  they  undoubtedly  were 
suiters  to  the  court-baron  of  the  lord,  to 
whose  soc,  or  right  of  justice,  they  be- 
longed. They  were  consequently  judges 
in  civil  causes,  determined  before  the 
manorial  tribunal. f  Such  privileges  set 


*  It  is  not  easy  to  decide  between  these  two 
derivations  of  the  words  soccage  and  socman. 
On  the  one  hand,  the  frequent  recurrence  in 
Domesday  Book  of  the  expression,  socmanni  de 
soca  Algari,  &c.,  seems  to  lead  us  to  infer  that 
these  words,  so  near  in  sound,  were  related  to 
each  other.  Sommer  (on  Gavelkind,  p.  13)  is 
clearly  for  this  derivation.  But  Bracton,  1.  ii.,  c. 
35,  derives  soccage  from  the  French  soc,  and  this 
etymology  is  curiously  illustrated  by  a  passage 
in  Blomefield's  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  iii.,  p.  538 
(folio).  In  the  manor  of  Cawston,  a  mace  with  a 
brazen  hand  holding  a  ploughshare  was  carried 
before  the  steward,  as  a  sign  that  it  was  held  by 
soccage  of  the  dutchy  of  Lancaster.  Perhaps, 
however,  this  custom  may  be  thought  not  suffi- 
ciently ancient  to  confirm  Bracton's  derivation. 

t  Territorial  jurisdiction,  the  commencement 
of  which  we  have  seen  before  the  conquest,  was 
never  so  extensive  as  in  governments  of  a  more 
aristocratical  character,  either  in  criminal  or  civil 
cases.  1.  In  the  laws  ascribed  to  Henry  I.,  it  is 
said  that  all  great  offences  could  only  be  tried  in 
the  king's  court,  or  by  his  commission,  c.  10. 
Glanvil  distinguishes  the  criminal  pleas,  which 
could  only  be  determined  before  the  king's  judges, 
from  those  which  belong  to  the  sheriff.  Treason, 
murder,  robbery,  and  rape  were  of  the  former 
class  ;  theft  of  the  latter,  1.  xiv.  The  criminal  ju- 
risdiction of  the  sheriff  is  entirely  taken  away'by 
Magna  Charta,  c.  17.  Sir  E.  Coke  says,  the  ter- 
ritorial franchises  of  infangthef  and  outfangthef 
"  had  some  continuance  afterward,  but  either  by 
this  act,  or  per  desuetudinem,  for  inconvenience 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


353 


them  greatly  above  the  roturiers,  or  cen- 
siers  of  France.  They  were  all  Eng- 
lishmen, and  their  tenure  strictly  Eng- 
lish; which  seems  to  have  given  it 
credit  in  the  eyes  of  our  lawyers,  when 
the  name  of  Englishman  was  affected 
even  by  those  of  Norman  descent,  and 
the  laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor  be- 
came the  universal  demand.  Certainly 
Glanvil,  and  still  more  Bracton,  treat 
the  tenure  in  free  soccage  with  great  re- 
spect. And  we  have  reason  to  think 
that  this  class  of  freeholders  was  very 
numerous,  even  before  the  reign  of  Ed- 
ward I. 
But,  lastly,  the  change  which  took 


these  franchises  within  manors  are  antiquated  and 
gone."—?.  Inst.,  p.  31.  The  statute  hardly  seems 
to  reach  them  ;  and  they  were  certainly  both  claim- 
ed and  exercised  as  late  as  the  reign  of  Edward 
I.  Blomefield  mentions  two  instances,  both  in 
1285,  where  executions  for  felony  took  place  by 
the  sentence  of  a  court-baron.  In  these  cases  the 
lord's  privilege  was  called  in  question  at  the  as- 
sizes, by  which  means  we  learn  the  transaction ; 
it  is  very  probable  that  similar  executions  occurred 
in  manors  where  the  jurisdiction  was  not  dispu- 
ted.—(Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  i.,  p.  313 ;  vol.  iii.,  p. 
50.)  Felonies  are  now  cognizable  in  the  greater 
part  of  boroughs  ;  though  it  is  usual,  except  in  the 
most  considerable  places,  to  remit  such  as  are  not 
within  benefit  of  clergy  to  the  justices  of  jail  de- 
livery on  their  circuit.  This  jurisdiction,  however, 
is  given,  or  presumed  to  be  given,  by  special  char- 
ter, and  perfectly  distinct  from  that  which  was 
feudal  and  territorial.  Of  the  latter  some  vestiges 
appear  to  remain  in  particular  liberties,  as  for  ex- 
ample the  Soke  of  Peterborough  ;  but  most,  if  not 
all,  of  these  local  franchises  have  fallen,  by  right 
or  custom,  into  the  hands  of  justices  of  the  peace. 
A  territorial  privilege  somewhat  analogous  to 
criminal  jurisdiction,  but  considerably  more  op- 
pressive, was  that  of  private  jails.  At  the  parlia- 
ment of  Merton,  1237,  the  lords  requested  to  have 
their  own  prison  for  trespasses  upon  their  parks 
and  ponds,  which  the  king  refused. — Stat.  Merton, 
c.  11.  But  several  lords  enjoyed  this  as  a  particu- 
lar franchise  ;  which  is  saved  by  the  statute  5  H. 
IV.,  c.  10,  directing  justices  of  the  peace  to  im- 
prison no  man,  except  in  the  common  jail.  2. 
The  civil  jurisdiction  of  the  court-baron  was  ren- 
dered insignificant  not  only  by  its  limitation,  in 
personal  suits,  to  debts  or  damages  not  exceeding 
forty  shillings,  but  by  the  writs  of  toll  and  pone, 
which  at  once  removed  a  suit  for  lands,  in  any 
stage  of  its  progress  before  judgment,  into  the 
county  court  or  that  of  the  king.  The  statute  of 
Marlebridge  took  away  all  appellant  jurisdiction 
of  the  superior  lord,  for  false  judgment  in  the 
manorial  court  of  his  tenant,  and  thus  aimed  an- 
other blow  at  the  feudal  connexion. — 52  H.  III.,  c. 
19.  3.  The  lords  of  the  counties  palatine  of  Ches- 
ter and  Durham,  and  the  royal  franchise  of  Ely, 
had  not  only  a  capital  jurisdiction  in  criminal 
cases,  but  an  exclusive  cognizance  of  civil  suits ; 
the  former  still  is  retained  by  the  bishops  of  Dur- 
ham and  Ely,  though  much  shorn  of  its  ancient 
extent  by  an  act  of  Henry  VIII.  (27  H.  VIII.,  c. 
24),  and  administered  by  the  king's  justices  of  as- 
size ;  the  bishops  or  their  deputies  being  put  only 
on  the  footing  of  ordinary  justices  of  the  peace. — 
Id.,  s.  20. 


place  in  the  constitution  of  parliament 
consummated  the  degradation,  if  we 
must  use  the  word,  of  the  lower  nobili- 
ty: I  mean,  not  so  much  their  attend* 
ance  by  representation  instead  of  per- 
sonal summons,  as  their  election  by  the 
whole  body  of  freeholders,  and  their  sep- 
aration, along  with  citizens  and  bur- 
gesses, from  the  house  of  peers.  These 
changes  will  fall  under  consideration  in 
the  following  chapter. 


PART  III. 
THE  ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 

Reign  of  Edward  I. — Confirmatio  Chartarum.— 
Constitution  of  Parliament — the  Prelates — the 
Temporal  Peers.  —  Tenure  by  Barony  —  its 
Changes. — Difficulty  of  the  Subject. — Origin  of 
Representation  of  the  Commons.— .Knights  of 
Shires  —  their  Existence  doubtfully  traced 
through  the  Reign  of  Henry  III.  —  Question 
whether  Representation  was  confined  to  Ten' 
ants  in  capite  discussed.  —  State  of  English 
Towns  at  the  Conquest  and  afterward— their 
Progress. — Representatives  from  them  summon- 
ed to  Parliament  by  Earl  of  Leicester. — Im- 
probability of  an  earlier  Origin. — Cases  of  St.  Al- 
ban's  and  Barnstaple  considered. — Parliaments 
under  Edward  I. — Separation  of  Knights  and 
Burgesses  from  the  Peers.— Edward  II. — grad- 
ual progress  of  the  Authority  of  Parliament 
traced  through  the  Reigns  of  Edward  III.  and 
his  successors  down  to  Henry  VI. — Privilege  of 
Parliament — the  early  instances  of  it  noticed.— 
Nature  of  Borough  Representation. — Rights  of 
Election — other  particulars  relative  to  Elec- 
tions.— House  of  Lords. — Baronies  by  Tenure 
— by  Writ. — Nature  of  the  latter  discussed. — 
Creation  of  Peers  by  Act  of  Parliament  and  by 
Patent.— Summons  of  Clergy  to  Parliament.— 
King's  Ordinary  Council — its  Judicial  and  other 
Power. — Character  of  the  Plantagenet  Govern- 
ment.— Prerogative — its  Excesses  —  erroneous 
Views  corrected. — Testimony  of  Sir  John  For- 
tescue  to  the  Freedom  of  the  Constitution. — 
Causes  of  the  superior  Liberty  of  England  con- 
sidered.— State  of  Society  in  England. — Want 
of  Police. — Villanage— its  gradual  extinction- 
latter  years  of  Henry  VI. — Regencies. — Instan- 
ces of  them  enumerated. — Pretensions  of  the 
House  of  York,  and  War  of  the  Roses.— Ed- 
ward IV. — Conclusion. 

THOUGH  the  undisputed  accession  of  a 
prince  like  Edward  the  First  Accession  of 
to  the  throne  of  his  father,  Edward  I. 
does  not  seem  so  convenient  a  resting- 
place  in  history  as  one  of  those  revolu- 
tions which  interrupt  the  natural  chain 
of  events,  yet  the  changes  wrought  du- 
ring his  reign  make  it  properly  an  epoch 
n  the  progress  of  these  inquiries.  And, 
indeed,  as  ours  is  emphatically  styled  a 
government  by  king,  lords,  and  com- 
mons, we  cannot  perhaps  in  strictness 
carry  it  farther  back  than  the  admission 
of  the  latter  into  parliament ;  so  that,  if 
the  constant  representation  of  the  com- 


354 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CftAP.  VI 11, 


mons  is  to  be  referred  to  the  age  of  Ed- 
ward the  First,  it  will  be  nearer  the  truth 
to  date  the  English  constitution  from  that 
than  froai  any  earlier  era. 

The  various  statutes  affecting  the  law 
of  property  and  administration  of  justice 
whTch  hare  caused  Edward  I.  to  be 
named,  rather  hyperbolically,  the  Eng- 
lish Justinramr,  bear  no  immediate  relation 
to  our  present  inquiries.  In  a  constitu- 
tional point  of  view,  the  principal  object 
confirma-  is  that  statute  entitled  the  Con- 
tionofthe  firmationof  the  Charters,  which 
charters.  was  yery  reluctantly  conceded 
by  the  king  in  the  twenty-fifth  year 
of  his  reign.  I  do  not  know  that  Eng- 
land has  ever  produced  any  patriots  to 
whose  memory  she  owes  more  gratitude 
than  Humphrey  Bohun,  earl  of  Here- 
ford and  Essex,  and  Roger  Bigody  earl 
of  Norfolk.  In  the  Great  Charter  the 
base  spirit  and  deserted  condition  of 
John  take  off  something  from  the  glory  of 
the  triumph,  though  they  enhance  the 
moderation  of  those  who  pressed  no  far- 
ther upon  an  abject  tyrant.  But  to 
withstand  the  measures  of  Edward,  a 
prince  unequalled  by  any  who  had  reign- 
ed in  England  since  the  Conqueror  for 
prudence,  valour,  and  success,  required 
a  far  more  intrepid  patriotism.  Their 
provocations,  if  less  outrageous  than 
those  received  from  John,  were  such  as 
evidently  manifested  a  disposition  in  Ed- 
ward to  reign  without  any  control;  a 
constant  refusal  to  confirm  the  charters, 
which  in  that  age  were  hardly  deemed  to 
bind  the  king  without  his  actual  consent ; 
heavy  impositions,  especially  one  on  the 
export  of  wool,  and  other  unwarranta- 
ble demands.  He  had  acted  with  such 
unmeasured  violence  towards  the  clergy, 
on  account  of  their  refusal  of  further 
subsidies,  that,  although  the  ill-judged 
policy  of  that  class  kept  their  interests 
too  distinct  from  those  of  the  people,  it 
was  natural  for  all  to  be  alarmed  at  the 
precedent  of  despotism.*  These  en- 
croachments made  resistance  justifiable, 
and  the  circumstances  of  Edward  made 
it  prudent.  His  ambition,  luckily  for  the 
people,  had  involved  him  in  foreign  war- 
fare, from  which  he  could  not  recede 
without  disappointment  and  dishonour. 
Thus  was  wrested  from  him  that  famous 
statute,  inadequately  denominated  the 


*  The  fullest  account  we  possess  of  these  do- 
mestic transactions  from  1294  to  1298  is  in  Walter 
Hemingford,  one  of  the  historians  edited  by 
Hearne,  p.  52—168.  They  have  been  vilely  per- 
verted by  Carte,  but  extremely  well  told  by  Hume, 
the  first  writer  who  had  the  merit  of  exposing  the 
character  of  Edward  I.  See  too  Knyghton,  in 
Twysden's  Decem  Scriptoreb,  col.  2492. 


Confirmation  of  the  Charters,  because  it 
added  another  pillar  to  our  constitution, 
not  less  important  than  the  Great  Char- 
ter itself.* 

It  wa»  enacted  by  the  25  E.  I.,  that  the 
charter  of  liberties,  and  that  of  the  for- 
est, besides  being  explicitly  confirmed,! 
should  be  sent  to  all  sheriffs,  justices  in 
eyrer  and  other  magistrates  throughout 
the  realm,  in  order  to  their  publication 
before  the  people  -,  that  copies  of  them 
should  be  kept  in  cathedral  churches,  and 
publicly  read  twice  in  the  year,  accom- 
panied by  a  solemn  sentence  of  excom- 
munication against  all  who  should  in- 
fringe them;  that  any  judgment  given 
contrary  to  these  charters  should  be  in- 
valid, and  holden  for  naught.  This  au- 
thentic promulgation,  these  awful  sanc- 
tions of  the  Great  Charter,  would  alone 
render  the  statute  of  which  we  are  speak- 
ing illustrious.  But  it  went  a  great  deal 
farther.  Hitherto  the  king's  prerogative 
of  levying  money,  by  name-  of  tallage  or 
prise r  from  his  towns  and  tenants  in  de- 
mesne, had  passed  unquestioned.  Some 
impositions,  that  especially  on  the  ex- 
port of  wool,  affected  all  his  subjects. 
It  was  now  the  moment  to  enfranchise 
the  people,  and  give  that  security  to  pri- 
vate property  which  Magna  Charta  had 
given  to  personal  liberty.  By  the  5th 
and  6th  sections  of  this  statute,  "the  aids, 
tasks,  and  prises"  before  taken  are  re- 
nounced as  precedents ;  and  the  king 
"  grants  for  him  and  his  heirs,  as-  well  to 
archbishops,  bishops-,  abbots,  priors,  and 
other  folk  of  holy  church,,  as  also  to  earls, 
barons,  and  to  all  commonalty  of  the 
land,  that  for  no  business  from  hence- 
forth we  shall  take  such  manner  of  aids, 
tasks,  nor  prises,  but  by  the  common  as- 
sent of  the  realm,  and  for  the  common 
profit  thereof,  saving  the  ancient  aids  and 
prises  due  and  accustomed."  The  toll 
upon  wool,  so  far  as  levied  by  the  king's 
mere  prerogative,  is  expressly  released 
by  the  seventh  section. J 


*  Walsingham,  in  Camden's  Scriptores  Rer. 
Anglicarum,  p.  71 — 73. 

f  Edward  would  not  confirm  the  charters,  not- 
withstanding his  promise,  without  the  words  sal- 
vo jure  coronae  nostrae ;  on  which  the  two  earls 
retired  from  court.  When  the  confirmation  was 
read  to  the  people  at  St.  Paul's,  says  Hemingford, 
they  blessed  the  king  on  seeing  the  charters  with 
the  great  seal  affixed  :  but  when  they  heard  the 
captious  conclusion,  they  cursed  him  instead.  At 
the  next  meeting  of  parliament,  the  king  agreed  to 
omit  these  insidious  words,  p.  168. 

}  The  supposed  statute.  De  Tallagio  non  conce- 
dendo,  is  considered  by  Blackstone  (Introduction 
to  Charters,  p.  67)  as  merely  an  abstract  of  the 
Confirmatio  Chartarum.  By  that  entitled  Articuli 
super  Chartas,  28  Edw.  I.,  a  court  was  erected  in 


PART  HI.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


355 


We  come  now  to  a  part  of  our  subject 
Constitu-  exceed!  ugly  important,  but  more 
tion  of  par-  intricate  and  controverted  than 
liament.  any  other,  the  constitution  of 
parliament.  I  have  taken  no  notice  of 
this  in  the  last  section,  in  order  to  pre- 
sent uninterruptedly  to  the  reader  the 
gradual  progress  of  our  legislature  down 
to  its  complete  establishment  under  the 
Edwards.  No  excuse  need  be  made  for 
the  dry  and  critical  disquisition  of  the  fol- 
lowing pages ;  but  among  such  obscure 
inquiries,  I  cannot  feel  myself  as  secure 
from  error  as  I  certainly  do  from  par- 
tiality. 

One  constituent  branch  of  the  great 
The  spirit-  councils,  held  by  William  the 
uai  peers.  Conqueror  and  all  his  succes- 
sors, was  composed  of  the  bishops,  and 
the  heads  of  religious  houses  holding 
their  temporalities  immediately  of  the 
crown.  It  has  been  frequently  maintain- 
ed, that  these  spiritual  lords  sat  in  par- 
liament only  by  virtue  of  their  baronial 
tenure.  And  certahily  they  did  all  hold 
baronies,  which,  according  to  the  analogy 
of  lay  peerages,  were  sufficient  to  give 
them  such  a  share  in  the  legislature. 
Nevertheless,  I  think  that  this  is  rather 
too  contracted  a  view  of  the  rights  of 
the  English  hierarchy,  and,  indeed,  by 
implication,  of  the  peerage.  For  a  great 
council  of  advice  and  assent  in  matters 
of  legislation  or  national  importance  was 
essential  to  all  the  northern  governments. 
And  all  of  them,  except  perhaps  the  Lom- 
bards, invited  the  superior  ecclesiastics 
to  their  councils;  not  upon  any  feudal 
notions,  which  at  that  time  had  hardly 
begun  to  prevail,  but  chiefly  as  represent- 
atives of  the  church  and  of  religion  itself; 
next,  as  more  learned  and  enlightened 
counsellors  than  the  lay  nobility ;  and  in 
some  degree,  no  doubt,  as  rich  proprie- 
tors of  land.  It  will  be  remembered 
also  that  ecclesiastical  and  temporal  af- 
fairs were  originally  decided  in  the  same 
assemblies,  both  upon  the  continent  and 
ir;  England.  The  Norman  conquest, 
which  destroyed  the  Anglo-Saxon  nobil- 
ity, and  substituted  a  new  race  in  their 
stead,  could  not  affect  the  immortality 
of  church  possessions.  The  bishops  of 
William's  age  were  entitled  to  sit  in  his 
councils  by  the  general  custom  of  Eu- 
rope, and  by  the  common  law  of  England,* 

every  county,  of  three  knights  or  others,  to  he 
elected  by  the  commons  of  the  shire,  whose  sole 
province  was  to  determine  offences  against  the  two 
charters,  with  power  of  punishing  by  fine  and  im- 
prisonment ;  hut  net  to  extend  to  any  case  where- 
in the  remedy  by  writ  was  already  provided. 
*  Hody  (Treatise  on  Convocations,  p.  126)  states 
Z  2 


which  the  conquest  did  not  overturn. 
Some  smaller  arguments  might  be  urged 
against  the  supposition  that  their  legis- 
lative rights  are  merely  baronial;  such 
as  that  the  guardian  of  the  spiritualities 
was  commonly  summoned  to  parliament 
during  the  vacancy  of  a  bishopric,  and 
that  the  five  sees  created  by  Henry  VIII. 
have  no  baronies  annexed  to  them  ;*  but 
the  former  reasoning  appears  less  tech- 
nical and  confined.! 


the  matter  thus :  in  the  Saxon  times  all  bishops 
and  abbots  sat  and  voted  in  the  state  councils  or 
parliament  as  such,  and  not  on  account  of  their 
tenures.  After  the  conquest,  the  abbots  sat  there 
not  as  such,  but  by  virtue  of  their  tenures  as  bar- 
ons ;  and  the  bishops  sat  in  a  double  capacity,  as 
bishops  and  as  barons. 

*  Hody,  p.  128. 

f  It  is  rather  a  curious  speculative  question,  and 
such  only,  we  may  presume,  it  will  long  continue, 
whether  bishops  are  entitled,  on  charges  of  treason 
or  felony,  to  a  trial  by  the  peers.  If  this  question 
be  considered  either  theoretically  or  according  to 
ancient  authority,  I  think  the  affirmative  proposi- 
tion is  beyond  dispute.  Bishops  were  at  all  times 
members  of  the  great  national  council,  and  fully 
equal  to  lay  lords  in  temporal  power  as  well  as  dig- 
nity. Since  the  conquest,  they  have  held  their  tem- 
poralities of  the  crown  by  a  baronial  tenure,  which, 
if  there  be  any  consistency  in  law,  must  unequivo- 
cally distinguish  them  from  commoners  ;  since 
any  one  holding  by  barony  might  be  challenged 
on  a  jury,  as  not  being  the  peer  of  the  party  whom 
he  was  to  try.  It  is  true  that  they  take  no  share 
in  the  judicial  power  of  the  house  of  lords  in  cases 
of  treason  or  felony ;  but  this  is  merely  in  conform- 
ity to  those  ecclesiastical  canons  which  prohibited 
the  clergy  from  partaking  in  capital  judgment,  and 
they  have  always  withdrawn  from  the  house  on 
such  occasions  under  a  protestation  of  their  right 
to  remain.  Had  it  not  been  for  this  particularity, 
arising  wholly  out  of  their  own  discipline,  the 
question  of  their  peerage  could  never  have  come 
into  dispute.  As  for  the  common  argument,  that 
they  are  not  tried  as  peers  because  they  have  no 
inheritable  nobility,  I  consider  it  as  very  frivolous ; 
since  it  takes  for  granted  the  precise  matter  in 
controversy,  that  an  inheritable  nobility  is  neces- 
sary to  the  definition  of  peerage,  or  to  its  incident- 
al privileges. 

If  we  come  to  constitutional  precedents,  by 
which,  when  sufficiently  numerous  and  unexcep- 
tionable, all  questions  of  this  kind  are  ultimately 
to  be  determined,  the  weight  of  ancient  authority 
seems  to  be  in  favour  of  the  prelates.  In  the  fif- 
teenth year  of  Edward  III.  (1340),  the  king  brought 
several  charges  against  Archbishop  Stratford.  He 
came  to  parliament  with  a  declared  intention  of 
defending  himself  before  his  peers.  The  king  in- 
sisted upon  his  answering  in  the  court  of  exche- 
quer. Stratford,  however,  persevered  ;  and  the 
house  of  lords,  by  the  king's  consent,  appointed 
twelve  of  their  number,  bishops,  earls,  and  barons, 
to  report  whether  peers  ought  to  answer  criminal 
charges  in  parliament  and  not.  elsewhere.  This 
committee  reported  to  the  king  in  full  parliament, 
that  the  peers  of  the  land  ought  not  to  be  arraign- 
ed nor  put  on  trial,  except  in  parliament  and  by 
their  peers.  The  archbishop  upon  this  prayed  the 
king,  that  inasmuch  as  he  had  been  notoriously  de- 
famed, he  might  be  arraigned  in  full  parliament 
before  the  peers,  and  there  make  answer ;  which 


356 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


Next  to  these  spiritual  lords  are  the 
earls  and  barons,  or  lay  peerage  of  Eng- 
land. The  former  dignity  was  perhaps 
not  so  merely  official  as  in  the  Saxon 
times,  although  the  earl  was  entitled  to 
the  third  penny  of  all  emoluments  ari- 
sing from  the  administration  of  justice  in 

request  the  king  granted.— Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
127.  Collier's  Eccles.  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  p.  543.  The 
proceedings  against  Stratford  went  no  farther,  but 
I  think  it  impossible  not  to  admit  that  his  right  to 
trial  as  a  peer  was  fully  recognised  both  by  the 
king  and  lords. 

This  is  however  the  latest,  and  perhaps  the 
only  instance  of  a  prelate's  obtaining  so  high  a  priv- 
ilege. In  the  preceding  reign  of  Edward  II.,  if 
we  can  rely  on  the  account  of  Walsingham  (p. 
119),  Adam  Orleton,  the  factious  bishop  of  Here- 
fora,  had  first  been  arraigned  before  the  house 
of  lords,  and  subsequently  convicted  by  a  com- 
mon jury  ;  but  the  transaction  was  of  a  singular 
nature,  and  the  king  might  probably  be  influenced 
by  the  difficulty  of  obtaining  a  conviction  from  the 
temporal  peers,  of  whom  many  were  disaffected  to 
him,  in  a  case  where  privilege  of  clergy  was  vehe- 
mently claimed.  But  about  1357,  a  bishop  of  Ely, 
being  accused  of  harbouring  one  guilty  of  murder, 
though  he  demanded  a  trial  by  the  peers,  was  com- 
pelled to  abide  the  verdict  of  a  jury. — Collier,  p. 
557.  In  the  31st  of  Edward  III.  (1358),  the  abbot 
of  Missenden  was  hanged  for  coining.— 2  Inst.,  p. 
635.  The  abbot  of  this  monastery  appears  from 
Dugdale  to  have  been  summoned  by  writ,  in  the 
49th  of  Henry  III.  If  he  actually  held  by  barony, 
I  do  not  perceive  any  strong  distinction  between 
his  case  and  that  of  a  bishop.  The  leading  prece- 
dent, however,  and  that  upon  which  lawyers  prin- 
cipally found  their  denial  of  this  privilege  to  the 
bishops,  is  the  case  of  Fisher,  who  was  certainly 
tried  before  an  ordinary  jury ;  nor  am  I  aware  that 
any  remonstrance  was  made  by  himself,  or  com- 
plaint by  his  friends,  upon  this  ground.  Cranmer 
was  treated  in  the  same  manner  ;  and  from  these 
two,  being  the  most  recent  precedents,  though 
neither  of  them  in  the  best  of  times,  the  great  plu- 
rality of  law-books  have  drawn  a  conclusion  that 
bishops  are  not  entitled  to  trial  by  the  temporal 
peers.  Nor  can  there  be  much  doubt  that,  when- 
ever the  occasion  shall  occur,  this  will  be  the  de- 
cision of  the  house  of  lords. 

There  are  two  peculiarities,  as  it  may  naturally 
appear,  in  the  abovementioned  resolutions  of  the 
lords  in  Stratford's  case.  The  first  is,  that  they 
claim  to  be  tried,  not  only  before  their  peers,  but 
in  parliament.  And  in  the  case  of  the  Bishop  of 
Ely,  it  is  said  to  have  been  objected  to  his  claim  of 
trial  by  his  peers,  that  parliament  was  not  then  sit- 
ting (Collier,  ubi  sup.).  It  is  most  probable,  there- 
fore, that  the  court  of  the  lord  high  steward,  for  the 
special  purpose  of  trying  a  peer,  was  of  more  re- 
cent institution  ;  as  appears  also  from  Sir  E.  Coke's 
expressions. — 4  Inst.,  p.  58.  The  second  circum- 
stance that  may  strike  a  reader  is,  that  the  lords 
assert  their  privilege  in  all  criminal  cases,  not  dis- 
tinguishing misdemeanors  from  treasons  and  felo- 
nies. But  in  this  they  were  undoubtedly  warrant- 
ed by  the  clear  language  of  Magna  Charta,  which 
makes  no  distinction  of  the  kind.  The  practice  of 
trying  a  peer  for  misdemeanors  by  a  jury  of  com- 
moners, concerning  the  origin  of  which  I  can  say 
nothing,  is  one  of  those  anomalies  which  too  often 
render  our  laws  capricious  and  unreasonable  in  the 
eyes  of  impartial  men. 

Since  writing  the  above  note  I  have  read  Stil- 


the  county-courts,  and  might,  perhaps, 
command  the  militia  of  his  county  when 
it  was  called  forth.*  Every  earl  was  also 
a  baron,  and  held  an  honour  or  barony  of 
the  crown,  for  which  he  paid  a  higher  re- 
lief than  an  ordinary  baron,  probably  on 
account  of  the  profits  of  his  earldom.  I 


lingfleet's  treatise  on  the  judicial  power  of  the  bish- 
ops in  capital  cases  ;  a  right  which  though  now,  I 
think,  abrogated  by  non-claim  and  a  course  of  contra- 
ry precedents,  he  proves  beyond  dispute  to  have  ex- 
isted by  the  common  law  and  constitutions  of  Cla- 
rendon, to  have  been  occasionally  exercised,  and  to 
have  been  only  suspended  by  their  voluntary  act.  In 
the  course  of  this  argument  he  treats  of  the  peerage 
of  the  bishops,  and  produces  abundant  evidence 
from  the  records  of  parliament  that  they  were  sty- 
led peers,  for  which,  though  convinced  from  gen- 
eral recollection,  I  had  not  leisure  or  disposition  to 
search.  But  if  any  doubt  should  remain,  the  statute 
25  E.  III.,  c.  6,  contains  a  legislative  declaration 
of  the  peerage  of  bishops.  The  whole  subject  is 
discussed  with  much  perspicuity  and  force  by  Stil- 
lingfleet,  who  seems  however  not  to  press  very 
greatly  the  right  of  trial  by  peers,  aware  no  doubt 
of  the  weight  of  opposite  precedents. — (Stilling- 
fleet's  Works,  vol.  hi.,  p.  820.)  In  one  distinction, 
that  the  bishops  vote  in  their  judicial  functions  as 
barons,  but  in  legislation  as  magnates,  which  War- 
burton  has  brought  forward  as  his  own  in  the  Alli- 
ance of  Church  and  State,  Stillingfleet  has  per- 
haps not  taken  the  strongest  ground,  nor  sufficient- 
ly accounted  for  their  right  of  sitting  in  judgment 
on  the  impeachment  of  a  commoner.  Parliament- 
ary impeachment,  upon  charges  of  high  public 
crimes,  seems  to  be  the  exercise  of  a  right  inherent 
in  the  great  council  of  the  nation,  some  traces  of 
which  appear  even  before  the  conquest  (Chron. 
Sax.,  p.  164, 169) ;  independent  of  and  superseding 
that  of  trial  by  peers,  which,  if  the  29th  section  of 
Magna  Charta  be  strictly  construed,  is  only  requi- 
red upon  endictments  at  the  king's  suit.  And  this 
consideration  is  of  great  weight  in,  the  question 
still  unsettled,  whether  a  commoner  can  be  tried 
by  the  lords  upon  an  impeachment  for  treason. 

The  treatise  of  Stillingfleet  was  written  on  oc- 
casion of  the  objection  raised  by  the  commons  to 
the  bishops  voting  on  the  question  of  Lord  Danby's 
pardon,  which  he  pleaded  in  bar  of  his  impeach- 
ment. Burnet  seems  to  suppose  that  their  right  of 
final  judgment  had  never  been  defended,  and  con- 
founds judgment  with  sentence.  Mr.  Hargrave, 
strange  to  say,  has  made  a  much  greater  blunder, 
and  imagined  that  the  question  related  to  their 
right  of  voting  on  a  bill  of  attainder,  which  no  one, 
I  believe,  ever  disputed. — Notes  on  Co.  Litt., 
134  b. 

*  Madox,  Baronia  Anglica,  p.  138.  Dialogus  de 
Scaccario,  1.  i.,  c.  17.  Lyttleton's  Henry  II.,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  217.  The  last  of  these  writers  supposes,  con- 
trary to  Selden,  that  the  earls  continued  to  be  gov- 
ernors of  their  counties  under  Henry  II.  Stephen 
created  a  few  titular  earls,  with  grants  of  crown 
lands  to  support  them ;  but  his  successor  resumed 
the  grants,  and  deprived  them  of  their  earldoms. 

In  Rymer's  Fcedera,  vol.  i.,  p.  3,  we  find  a  grant 
of  Matilda,  creating  Milo  of  Glocester  earl  of  Here- 
ford, with  the  moat  and  castle  of  that  city  in  fee 
to  him  and  his  heirs,  the  third  penny  of  the  rent 
of  the  city,  and  of  the  pleas  in  the  county,  three 
manors  and  a  forest,  and  the  service  of  three  ten- 
ants in  chief,  with  all  their  fiefs,  to  be  held  with 
all  privileges  and  liberties  as  fully  as  ever  any  earl 
in  England  had  possessed  them. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


357 


will  not  pretend  to  say  whether  titular 
earldoms,  absolutely  distinct  from  the 
lieutenancy  of  a  county,  were  as  ancient 
as  the  conquest,  which  Madox  seems  to 
think,  or  were  considered  as  irregular,  so 
late  as  Henry  II.,  according  to  Lord  Lyt- 
tleton.  In  Dugdale's  Baronage,  I  find 
none  of  this  description  in  the  first  Nor- 
man reigns,  for  even  that  of  Clare  was 
connected  with  the  local  earldom  of  Hert- 
ford. 

It  is  universally  agreed,  that  the  only 
baronies  known  for  two  centu- 

tiuestion  as      .  -          , 

to  the  na-  nes  after  the  conquest  were  m- 
ture  of  bar-  cident  to  the  tenure  of  land  held 
immediately  from  the  crown. 
There  are,  however,  material  difficulties 
in  the  way  of  rightly  understanding  their 
nature,  which  ought  not  to  be  passed 
over,  because  the  consideration  of  baro- 
nial tenures  will  best  develop  the  forma- 
tion of  our  parliamentary  system.  Two 
of  our  most  eminent  legal  antiquaries, 
Selden  and  Madox,  have  entertained  dif- 
ferent opinions  as  to  the  characteristics 
and  attributes  of  this  tenure. 

According  to  the  first,  every  tenant  in 
Theory  of  chief  by  knight-service  was  an 
Seiden ;  honorary  or  parliamentary  baron 
by  reason  of  his  tenure.  All  these  were 
summoned  to  the  king's  councils,  and 
were  peers  of  his  court.  Their  baronies, 
or  honours,  as  they  were  frequently  call- 
ed, consisted  of  a  number  of  knight's 
fees,  that  is,  of  estates,  from  each  of 
which  the  feudal  service  of  a  knight  was 
due  ;  not  fixed  to  thirteen  fees  and  a 
third,  as  has  been  erroneously  conceived, 
but  varying  according  to  the  extent  of  the 
barony,  and  the  reservation  of  service  at 
the  time  of  its  creation.  Were  they 
more  or  fewer,  however,  their  owner  was 
equally  a  baron,  and  summoned  to  serve 
the  king  in  parliament  with  his  advice  and 
judgment,  as  appears  by  many  records 
and  passages  in  history. 

But  about  the  latter  end  of  John's  reign, 
some  only  of  the  most  eminent  tenants 
in  chief  were  summoned  by  particular 
writs  ;  the  rest  by  one  general  summons 
through  the  sheriffs  of  their  several  coun- 
ties. This  is  declared  in  the  Great  Char- 
ter of  that  prince,  wherein  he  promises 
that  whenever  an  aid  or  scutage  shall  be 
required,  faciemus  summoneri  archiepis- 
copos,  episcopos,  abbates,  comites  et  ma- 
jores  barones  regni  sigillatim  per  literas 
nostras.  Et  praeterea  faciemus  summon- 
eri in  general!  per  vicecomites  et  ballivos 
nostros  omnes  alios  qui  in  capite  tenent  de 
nobis.  Thus  the  barons  are  distinguished 
from  other  tenants  in  chief,  as  if  the  for- 
mer name  were  only  applicable  to  a  par- 


ticular number  of  the  king's  immediate 
vassals.  But  it  is  reasonable  to  think, 
that  before  this  charter  was  made,  it  had 
been  settled  by  the  law  of  some  other  par- 
liament, how  these  greater  barons  should 
be  distinguished  from  the  lesser  tenants  in 
chief;  else  what  certainty  could  there  be 
in  an  expression  so  general  and  indefi- 
nite ?  And  this  is  likely  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  the  pride  with  which  the 
ancient  and  wealthy  barons  of  the  realm 
would  regard  those  newly  created  by 
grants  of  escheated  honours,  or  those 
decayed  in  estate,  who  yet  were  by  their 
tenures  on  an  equality  with  themselves. 
They  procured,  therefore,  two  innova- 
tions in  their  condition ;  first,  that  these 
inferior  barons  should  be  summoned  gen- 
erally by  the  sheriff,  instead  of  receiving 
their  particular  writs,  which  made  an 
honorary  distinction ;  and  next,  that  they 
should  pay  relief,  not  as  for  an  entire 
barony,  one  hundred  marks ;  but  at  the 
rate  of  five  pounds  for  each  knight's  fee 
which  they  held  of  the  crown.  This 
changed  their  tenure  to  one  by  mere 
knight-service,  and  their  denomination  to 
tenants  in  chief.  It  was  not  difficult 
afterward  for  the  greater  barons  to  ex- 
clude any  from  coming  to  parliament  as 
such,  without  particular  writs  directed  to 
them,  for  which  purpose  some  law  was 
probably  enacted  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
III.  If  indeed  we  could  place  reliance 
on  a  nameless  author  whom  Camden  has 
quoted,  this  limitation  of  the  peerage  to 
such  as  were  expressly  summoned  de- 
pended upon  a  statute  made  soon  after 
the  battle  of  Evesham.  But  no  one  has 
ever  been  able  to  discover  Camden's  au- 
thority^ and  the  change  was  probably  of 
a  much  earlier  date.* 

Such  is  the  theory  of  Selden,  which,  if 
it  rested  less  upon  conjectural    fM  d 
alterations  in  the  law,  would  un-  ° 
doubtedly  solve  some  material  difficulties 
that  occur  in  the  opposite  view  of  the 
subject.     According  to  Madox,  tenure  by 
knight's-service  in  chief  was  always  dis- 
tinct from  that  by  barony.     It  is  an(j  obser. 
not  easy,  however,  to  point  out  vations  up- 
the  characteristic  differences  of  on  both' 
the  two ;  nor  has  that  eminent  antiquary, 
in  his  large  work,  the  Baronia  Anglica, 
laid  down  any  definition,  or  attempted  to 
explain  the  real  nature  of  a  barony.     The 
distinction  could  not  consist  in  the  num- 
ber of  knight's  fees ;  for  the  barony  of 
Hwayton  consisted  of  only  three  ;f  while 
John  de  Baliol  held  thirty  fees  by  mere 


*  Selden's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.  713—743. 
t  Lyttleton's  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  212. 


858 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


knight-service.  Nor  does  it  seem  to  j 
have  consisted  in  the  privilege  or  ser- 1 
vice  of  attending  parliament,  since  all  i 
tenants  in  chief  were  usually  summoned.  ! 
But  whatever  may  have  been  the  line  | 
between  these  modes  of  tenure,  there  j 
seems  complete  proof  of  their  separation 
long  before  the  reign  of  John.  Tenants 
in  chief  are  enumerated  distinctly  from 
earls  and  barons  in  the  charter  of  Henry  I. 
Knights,  as  well  as  barons,  are  named  as 
present  in  the  parliament  of  Northamp- 
ton in  1165,  in  that  held  at  the  same  town 
in  1 176,  and  upon  other  occasions.*  Sev- 
eral persons  appear  in  the  Liber  Niger 
Scaccarii,  a  roll  of  military  tenants  made 
in  the  age  of  Henry  II.,  who  held  single 
knight's  fees  of  the  crown.  It  is,  how- 
ever, highly  probable,  that  in  a  lax  sense 
of  the  word,  these  knights  may  some- 
times have  been  termed  barons.  The 
author  of  the  Dialogus  de  Scaccario 
speaks  of  those  holding  greater  or  lesser 
baronies,  including,  as  appears  by  the 
context,  all  tenants  in  chief,  t  The  for- 
mer of  these  seem  to  be  the  majores  bar- 
ones  of  King  John's  Charter.  And  the 
secundae  dignitatis  barones,  said  by  a  con- 
temporary historian  to  have  been  present 
in  the  parliament  of  Northampton,  were 
in  all  probability  no  other  than  the 
knightly  tenants  of  the  crown.!  For  the 
word  baro,  originally  meaning  only  a 
man,  was  of  very  large  significance,  and 
is  not  unfrequently  applied  to  common 
freeholders,  as  in  the  phrase  of  court- 
baron.  It  was  used  too  for  the  magis- 
trates or  chief  men  of  cities,  as  it  is  still 
for  the  judges  of  the  exchequer,  and  the 
representatives  of  the  Cinque-Ports. 

The  passage,  however,  before  cited 
from  the  Great  Charter  of  John  affords 
one  spot  of  firm  footing  in  the  course  of 
our  progress.  Then,  at  least,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  all  tenants  in  chief  were  entitled 
to  their  summons ;  the  greater  barons 
by  particular  writs,  the  rest  through  one 
directed  to  their  sheriff.  The  epoch  when 
all,  who,  though  tenants  in  chief,  had  not 
been  actually  summoned,  were  deprived 
of  their  right  of  attendance  in  parliament, 
is  again  involved  in  uncertainty  and  con- 

*  Hody  on  Convocations,  p.  222,  234. 

t  Lib.  ii.,  c.  9. 

j  Hody  and  Lord  Lyttleton  maintain  these 
"  barons  of  the  second  rank"  to  have  been  the  sub- 
vassals  of  the  crown  ;  tenants  of  the  great  barons, 
to  whom  the  name  was  sometimes  improperly  ap- 
plied. This  was  very  consistent  with  their  opin- 
ion, that  the  commons  were  a  part  of  parliament  at 
that  time.  But  Hume,  assuming  at  once  the  truth 
of  their  interpretation  in  this  instance,  and  the 
falsehood  of  their  system,  treats  it  as  a  deviation 
from  the  established  rule,  and  a  proof  of  the  unset 
tied  state  of  the  constitution. 


jecture.  The  unknown  writer  quoted  by 
Camden  seems  not  sufficient  authority 
to  establish  his  assertion,  that  they  were 
excluded  by  a  statute  made  after  the 
battle  of  Evesham.  The  principle  was 
most  likely  acknowledged  at  an  earlier 
time.  Simon  de  Montfort  summoned 
only  twenty-three  temporal  peers  to  his 
famous  parliament.  In  the  year  1-255, 
the  barons  complained  that  many  of  their 
number  had  not  received  their  writs,  ac- 
ording  to  the  tenour  of  the  charter,  and 
refused  to  grant  an  aid  to  the  king  till 
they  were  issued.* 

But  it  would  have  been  easy  to  disap- 
point this  mode  of  packing  a  parliament, 
if  an  unsummoned  baron  could  have  sat 
by  mere  right  of  his  tenure.  The  opin- 
ion of  Selden,  that  a  law  of  exclusion 
wTas  enacted  towards  the  beginning  of 
Henry's  reign,  is  not  liable  to  so  much 
objection.  But  perhaps  it  is  unnecessary 
to  frame  an  hypothesis  of  this  nature. 
Writs  of  summons  might  probably  be 
older  than  the  time  of  John  ;f  and  when 
this  had  become  the  customary  and  reg- 
ular preliminary  of  a  baron's  coming  to 
parliament,  it  was  a  natural  transition  to 
look  upon  it  as  an  indispensable  condi- 
tion ;  in  times  when  the  prerogative 
was  high,  the  law  unsettled,  and  the 
service  in  parliament  deemed  by  many 
still  more  burdensome  than  honourable. 
Some  omissions  in  summoning  the  king's 
tenants  to  former  parliaments  may  per- 
haps have  produced  the  abovementioned 
provision  of  the  Great  Charter,  whicli 
had  a  relation  to  the  imposition  of  taxes, 
wherein  it  was  deemed  essential  to  ob- 
tain a  more  universal  consent  than  was 
required  in  councils  held  for  state,  or 
even  for  advice. J 

It  is  not  easy  to  determine  how  long 
the  inferior  tenants  in  chief  con-  Whether 
tinued  to  sit  personally  in  par-  mereten- 
liament.      In  the    charters    of  a"!s  in 
Henry   III.,  the  clause  which  333l  iwr- 
we   have   been    considering   is  liamemun- 
omitted :  and  I  think  there  is  no  gj  Henfy 
express  proof  remaining,   that 
the  sheriff  was  ever  directed  to  summon 
the   king's  military   tenants  within  his 
county  in  the  manner  which  the  charter 

*  M.  Paris,  p.  785.  The  barons  even  tell  the 
king  that  this  was  contrary  to  his  charter,  in 
which  nevertheless  the  clause  to  that  effect,  con- 
tained in  his  father's  charter,  had  been  omitted. 

t  Henry  II.,  in  1175,  forbade  any  of  those  who 
had  been  concerned  in  the  late  rebellion  to  come 
to  his  court  without  a  particular  summons. — Carte, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  249. 

%  Upon  the  subject  of  tenure  by  barony,  besides 
the  writers  already  quoted,  see  West's  Inquiry  into 
the  Method  of  creating  Peers,  and  Carte's  History 
of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  247. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


350 


of  John  required.  It  appears,  however, 
that  they  were  in  fact  members  of  par- 
liament on  many  occasions  during  Hen- 
ry's reign,  which  shows  that  they  were 
summoned  either  by  particular  writs  or 
through  the  sheriff ;  and  the  latter  is  the 
more  plausible  conjecture.  There  is  in- 
deed great  obscurity  as  to  the  constitu- 
tion of  parliament  in  this  reign ;  and  the 
passages  which  I  am  about  to  produce 
may  lead  some  to  conceive  that  the  free- 
holders were  represented  even  from  its 
beginning.  I  rather  incline  to  a  different 
opinion. 

In  the  Magna  Charta  of  1  Henry  III., 
it  is  said :  Pro  hac  donatione  et  conces- 
sione  ....  archiepiscopi,  episcopi,  com- ' 
ites,  barones,  milites,  et  libere  tenentes, 
et  omnes  de  regno  nostro  dederunt  no- 
bis  quintam  decimam  partem  omnium 
bonorum  suorum  mobilium.*  So  in  a 
record  of  19  Henry  III.  :  Comites,  et 
barones,  et  omnes  alii  de  toto  regno  nos- 
tro Angliae,  spontanea  voluntate  sua  con- 
cesserunt  nobis  efficax  auxilium.f  The 
largeness  of  these  words  is,  however,  | 
controlled  by  a  subsequent  passage, 
which  declares  the  tax  to  be  imposed  ad 
mandatum  omnium  comituia  et  baronum 
et  omnium  aliorurn  gui  de  nobis  tenent  in 
capite.  And  it  seems  to  have  been  a  gen- 
eral practice  to  assume  the  common 
consent  of  all  ranks  to  that  which  had 
actually  been  agreed  by  the  higher.  In  j 
a  similar  writ,  21  Henry  III.,  the  ranks 
of  men  are  enumerated  specifically ;  ar- 
chiepiscopi, episcopi,  abbates,  priores,  et 
clerici  terras  habentes  quae  ad  ecclesias 
suas  non  pertinent,  comites,  barones,  mi- 
lites, et  liberi  homines,  pro  se  et  suis  vil- 
lanis,  nobis  concesserunt  in  auxilium  tri- 
cesimam  partem  omnium  mobilium. J 
In  the  close  roll  of  the  same  year,  we 
have  a  writ  directed  to  the  archbish- 
ops, bishops,  abbots,  priors,  earls,  barons, 
knights,  and  freeholders  (liberi  homines) 
of  Ireland,  in  which  an  aid  is  desired  of 
them ;  and  it  is  urged,  that  one  had  been 
granted  by  his  fideles  Angliae. $ 

But  this  attendance  in  parliament  of 
inferior  tenants  in  chief,  some  of  them 
too  poor  to  have  received  knighthood, 
grew  insupportably  vexatious  to  them- 
selves, and  was  not  well  liked  by  the 
king.  He  knew  them  to  be  dependant 
upon  the  barons,  and  dreaded  the  conflu- 
ence of  a  multitude  who  assumed  the 


*  Hody  on  Convocations,  p.  293. 

t  Brady,  Introduction  to  History  of  England, 
Appendix,  p.  43. 

1  Brady's  History  of  England,  vol.  i.,  Appendix, 
p.  "182. 

$  Brady's  Introduction,  p.  94. 


privilege  of  coming  in  arms  to  the  ap- 
pointed place.  So  inconvenient  and  mis- 
chievous a  scheme  could  not  long  subsist 
among  an  advancing  people,  and  fortu- 
nately the  true  remedy  was  discovered 
with  little  difficulty. 

The  principle  of  representation,  in  its 
widest  sense,  can  hardly  be  un-  Origin  and 
known  to  any  government  not  JJJulSenf 
purely  democratical.  In  almost  ary  non- 
every  country  the  sense  of  the  sentation. 
whole  is  understood  to  be  spoken  by  a 
part,  and  the  decisions  of  a  part  are  bind- 
ing upon  the  whole.  Among  our  ances- 
tors, the  lord  stood  in  the  place  of  his 
vassals,  and,  still  more  unquestionably, 
the  abbot  in  that  of  his  monks.  The 
system  indeed  of  ecclesiastical  coun- 
cils, considered  as  organs  of  the  church, 
rested  upon  the  principle  of  a  virtual  or 
an  express  representation,  and  had  a  ten- 
dency to  render  its  application  to  nation 
al  assemblies  more  familiar. 

The  first  instance  of  actual  representa- 
tion which  occurs  in  our  history  is  only 
four  years  after  the  conquest :  when  Will- 
iam, if  we  may  rely  on  Hoveden,  caused 
twelve  persons  skilled  in  the  customs  of 
England  to  be  chosen  from  each  county, 
who  were  sworn  to  inform  him  rightly 
of  their  laws  ;  and  these,  so  ascertained, 
were  ratified  by  the  consent  of  the  great 
council.  This  Sir  Matthew  Hale  asserts 
to  be  "  as  sufficient  and  effectual  a  par- 
liament as  ever  was  held  in  England."* 
But  there  is  no  appearance  that  these 
twelve  deputies  of  each  county  were  in- 
vested with  any  higher  authority  than 
that  of  declaring  their  ancient  usages. 
No  stress  can  be  laid,  at  least,  on  this  in 
sulated  and  anomalous  assembly,  the  ex 
istence  of  which  is  only  learned  from  an 
historian  of  a  century  later. 

We  find  nothing  that  can  arrest  our 
attention,  in  searching  out  the  origin  of 
county  representation,  till  we  come  to  a 
writ  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  John,  direct- 
ed to  all  the  sheriffs  in  the  following 
terms:  Rex  Vicecomiti  N.,  salutem. 
Praecipimus  tibi  quod  omnes  milites  bal 
livae  tuae  qui  summoniti  fuerunt  esse 
apud  Oxoniam  ad  Nos  a  die  Omnium 
Sanctorum  in  quindecim  dies  venire  fa 
cias  cum  armis  suis :  corpora  vero  bar 
onum  sine  armis  singulariter,  et  guatuoi 
discretos  milites  de  comitatu  tuo,  illuc  ve 
nire  facias  ad  eundem  terminum,  ad  lo 
quendum  nobiscum  de  negotiis  regni 
nostri.  For  the  explanation  of  this  ob 
scure  writ,  I  must  refer  to  what  Prynnel 


*  Hist,  of  Common  Law,  vol.  i.,  p.  202, 
t  2  Prynne's  Register,  p.  16. 


360 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHIP.  VIII. 


has  said ;  but  it  remains  problematical 
whether  these  four  knights  (the  only 
clause  which  concerns  our  purpose)  were 
to  be  elected  by  the  county,  or  return- 
ed, in  the  nature  of  a  jury,  at  the  discre- 
tion of  the  sheriff.  Since  there  is  no 
sufficient  proof  whereon  to  decide,  we 
can  only  say  with  hesitation,  that  there 
may  have  been  an  instance  of  county 
representation  in  the  fifteenth  year  of 
John. 

We  may  next  advert  to  a  practice,  of 
which  there  is  very  clear  proof  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.  Subsidies  granted  in 
parliament  were  assessed,  not  as  in  for- 
mer times,  by  the  justices  upon  their  cir- 
cuits, but  by  knights  freely  chosen  in  the 
county-court.  This  appears  by  two  writs, 
one  of  the  fourth  and  one  of  the  ninth 
year  of  Henry  III.*  At  a  subsequent  pe- 
riod, by  a  provision  of  the  Oxford  parlia- 
ment, in  1258,  every  county  elected  four 
knights  to  inquire  into  grievances,  and 
deliver  their  inquisition  into  parliament.! 

The  next  writ  now  extant  that  wears 
the  appearance  of  parliamentary  repre- 
sentation is  in  the  thirty-eighth  of  Hen- 
ry III.  This,  after  reciting  that  the  earls, 
barons,  and  other  great  men  (cseteri  mag- 
nates) were  to  meet  at  London  three 
weeks  after  Easter,  with  horses  and  arms, 
for  the  purpose  of  sailing  into  Gascony, 
requires  the  sheriff  to  compel  all  within 
his  jurisdiction,  who  hold  twenty  pounds 
a  year  of  the  king  in  chief,  or  of  those 
in  ward  of  the  king,  to  appear  at  the 
same  time  and  place.  And  that  besides 
those  mentioned  he  shall  cause  to  come 
before  the  king's  council  at  Westminster, 
on  the  fifteenth  day  after  Easter,  two 
good  and  discreet  knights  of  his  county, 
whom  the  men  of  the  county  shall  have 
chosen  for  this  purpose,  in  the  stead  of 
all  and  each  of  them,  to  consider,  along 
with  the  knights  and  other  counties,  what 
aid  they  will  grant  the  king  in  such  an 
emergency.!  In  the  principle  of  elec- 
tion, and  in  the  object  of  the  assembly, 
which  was  to  grant  money,  this  certain- 
ly resembles  a  summons  to  parliament. 
There  are  indeed  anomalies,  sufficiently 
remarkable  upon  the  face  of  the  writ, 
which  distinguish  this  meeting  from  a  reg- 
ular parliament.  But  when  the  scheme 
of  obtaining  money  from  the  commons 
of  shires  through  the  consent  of  their 
representatives  had  once  been  entertain- 
ed, it  was  easily  applicable  to  more  for- 
mal councils  of  the  nation. 

A  few  years  later  there  appears  anoth- 

*  Brady's  Introduction,  Appendix,  pp.  41  and  44. 
t  Brady's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.,  Appendix,  p. 
227.  t  2  Prynne,  p.  23. 


er  writ  analogous  to  a  summons.  Du- 
ring the  contest  between  Henry  III.  and 
the  confederate  barons  in  1261,  they  pre- 
sumed to  call  a  sort  of  parliament,  sum- 
moning three  knights  out  of  every  coun- 
ty, secum  tractaturos  super  communibus 
negotiis  regni.  This  we  learn  only  by 
an  opposite  writ,  issued  by  the  king,  di- 
recting the  sheriff  to  enjoin  these  knights 
who  had  been  convened  by  the  earls  of 
Leicester  and  Glocester  to  their  meeting 
at  St.  Alban's,  that  they  should  repair  in- 
stead to  the  king  at  Windsor,  and  to  no 
other  place,  nobiscum  super  praemissis 
colloquium  habituros.*  It  is  not  abso- 
lutely certain  that  these  knights  were 
elected  by  their  respective  counties.  But 
even  if  they  were  so,  this  assembly  has 
much  less  the  appearance  of  a  parliament 
than  that  in  the  thirty-eighth  of  Henry  III. 

At  length,  in  the  year  1265,  the  forty- 
ninth  of  Henry  III.,  while  he  was  a  cap- 
tive in  the  hands  of  Simon  de  Montfort, 
writs  were  issued  in  his  name  to  all  the 
sheriffs,  directing  them  to  return  two 
knights  ^or  the  body  of  their  county, 
with  two  citizens  or  burgesses  for  every 
city  and  borough  contained  within  it. 
This  therefore  is  the  epoch  at  which  the 
representation  of  the  commons  becomes 
indisputably  manifest,  even  should  we 
reject  altogether  the  more  equivocal  in- 
stances of  it  which  have  just  been  enu- 
merated. 

If,  indeed,  the  knights  were  still  elect- 
ed by  none  but  the  king's  mili- 
tary  tenants,  if  the  mode  of  rep-  knightswere 
resentation  was  merely  adopt-  elected  by 
ed  to  spare  them  the  inconve- 
nience  of  personal  attendance, 
the  immediate  innovation  in  our  polity 
was  not  very  extensive.  This  is  an  in- 
teresting, but  very  obscure  topic  of  in- 
quiry. Spelman  and  Brady,  with  other 
writers,  have  restrained  the  original  right 
of  election  to  tenants  in  chief,  among 
whom,  in  process  of  time,  those  holding 
under  mesne  lords,  not  being  readily  dis- 
tinguishable in  the  hurry  of  an  election, 
contrived  to  slide  in,  till  at  length  their 
encroachments  were  rendered  legitimate 
by  the  statute  7  H.  IV.,  c.  15,  which  put 
all  suiters  to  the  county-court  on  an 
equal  footing  as  to  the  elective  franchise. 
The  argument  on  this  side  might  be  plau- 
sibly urged  with  the  following  reasoning. 

The  spirit  of  a  feudal  monarchy,  which 
compelled  every  lord  to  act  by  the  advice 
and  assent  of  his  immediate  vassals,  es- 
tablished no  relation  between  him  and 
those  who  held  nothing  at  his  hands. 


*  2  Prynne,  p.  27. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


361 


They  were  included,  so  far  as  he  was 
concerned,  in  their  superiors;  and  the 
feudal  incidents  were  due  to  him  from 
the  whole  of  his  vassal's  fief,  whatever 
tenants  might  possess  it  by  sub-infeuda- 
tion.  In  England,  the  tenants  in  chief 
alone  were  called  to  the  great  councils 
before  representation  was  thought  of,  as 
is  evident  both  by  the  charter  of  John 
and  by  the  language  of  many  records; 
nor  were  any  others  concerned  in  levying 
aids  or  escuages,  which  were  only  due 
by  virtue  of  their  tenure.  These  mili- 
tary tenants  were  become  in  the  reign 
of  Henry  III.  far  more  numerous  than 
they  had  been  under  the  Conqueror.  If 
we  include  those  who  held  of  the  king 
ut  de  honore,  that  is,  the  tenants  of  baro- 
nies escheated  or  in  ward,  who  may 
probably  have  enjoyed  the  same  privile- 
ges, being  subject,  in  general,  to  the  same 
burdens,  their  number  will  be  greatly 
augmented,  and  form  no  inconsiderable 
portion  of  the  freeholders  of  the  kingdom. 
After  the  statute  commonly  called  Quia 
emptores  in  the  eighteenth  of  Edward  I., 
they  were  likely  to  increase  much  more, 
as  every  licensed  alienation  of  any  por- 
tion of  a  fief  by  a  tenant  in  chief  would 
create  a  new  freehold  immediately  de- 
pending upon  the  crown.  Many  of  these 
tenants  in  capite  held  very  small  fractions 
of  knight's  fees,  and  were  consequently 
not  called  upon  to  receive  knighthood. 
They  were  plain  freeholders,  holding  in 
chief,  and  the  liberi  homines  or  libere 
tenentes  of  those  writs  which  have  been 
already  quoted.  The  common  form  in- 
deed of  writs  to  the  sheriff  directs  the 
knights  to  be  chosen  de  communitate 
comitatus.  But  the  word  communitas, 
as  in  boroughs,  denotes  only  the  superior 
part :  it  is  not  unusual  to  find  mention 
in  records  of  communitas  populi  or  omnes 
de  regno,  where  none  are  intended  but 
the  barons,  or,  at  most,  the  tenants  in 
chief.  If  we  look  attentively  at  the  ear- 
liest instance  of  summoning  knights  of 
shires  to  parliament,  that  in  38  H.  III., 
which  has  been  noticed  above,  it  will 
appear  that  they  could  only  have  been 
chosen  by  military  tenants  in  chief.  The 
object  of  calling  this  parliament,  if  par- 
liament it  were,  was  to  obtain  an  aid  from 
the  military  tenants,  who,  holding  less 
than  a  knight's  fee,  were  not  required  to 
do  personal  service.  None  then,  surely, 
but  the  tenants  in  chief  could  be  electors 
upon  this  occasion,  which  merely  re- 
spected their  feudal  duties.  Again,  to 
come  much  lower  down,  we  find  a  series 
of  petitions  in  the  reigns  of  Edward  III. 
and  Richard  II.,  which  seem  to  lead  us 


to  a  conclusion  that  only  tenants  in  chief 
were  represented  by  the  knights  of  shires. 
The  writ  for  wages  directed  the  sheriff 
to  levy  them  on  the  commons  of  the 
county,  both  within  franchises  and  with- 
out (tarn  intra  libertates  quam  extra). 
But  the  tenants  of  lords  holding  by  bar- 
ony endeavoured  to  exempt  themselves 
from  this  burden,  in  which  they  seem 
to  have  been  countenanced  by  the  king. 
This  led  to  frequent  remonstrances  from 
the  commons,  who  finally  procured  a 
statute,  that  all  lands,  not  discharged  by 
prescription,  should  contribute  to  the 
payment  of  wages.*  But,  if  these  mesne 
tenants  had  possessed  equal  rights  of 
voting  with  tenants  in  chief,  it  is  impos- 
sible to  conceive  that  they  would  have 
thought  of  claiming  so  unreasonable  an 
exemption.  Yet,  as  it  would  appear  harsh 
to  make  any  distinction  between  the 
rights  of  those  who  sustained  an  equal 
burden,  we  may  perceive  how  the  free- 
holders, holding  of  mesne  lords,  might  on 
that  account  obtain  after  the  statute  a 
participation  in  the  privilege  of  tenants 
in  chief.  And  without  supposing  any 
partiality  or  connivance,  it  is  easy  to 
comprehend,  that  while  the  nature  of 
tenures  and  services  was  so  obscure  as 
to  give  rise  to  continual  disputes,  of 
which  the  ancient  records  of  the  King's 
Bench  are  full,  no  sheriff  could  be  very 
accurate  in  rejecting  the  votes  of  com- 
mon-freeholders, repairing  to  the  county- 
court,  and  undistinguishable,  as  must  be 
allowed,  from  tenants  in  capite  upon 
other  occasions,  such  as  serving  on  ju- 
ries, or  voting  on  the  election  of  coro- 
ners. To  all  this  it  yields  some  corrob- 
oration,  that  a  neighbouring  though  long 
hostile  kingdom,  who  borrowed  much  of 
her  law  from  our  own,  has  never  admitted 
any  freeholders,  except  tenants  in  chief 
of  the  crown,  to  a  suffrage  in  county 
elections.  These  attended  the  parlia- 
ment of  Scotland  in  person  till  1428,  when 
a  law  of  James  I.  permitted  them  to  send 
representatives.! 

Such  is,  I  think,  a  fair  statement  of 
the  arguments  that  might  be  alleged  by 
those  who  would  restrain  the  right  of 
election  to  tenants  of  the  crown.  It  may 
be  urged  on  the  other  side,  that  the  genius 
of  the  feudal  system  was  never  com- 
pletely displayed  in  England  ;  much  less 
can  we  make  use  of  that  policy  to  ex- 
plain institutions  that  prevailed  under 
Edward  I.  Instead  of  aids  and  scutages 


*  12  Ric.  II.,  c.  12.     Prynne's  4th  Register. 

t  Pinkerton's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  120, 
357.  But  this  law  was  not  regularly  acted  upon 
till  1587,  p.  368. 


362 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


levied  upon  the  king's  military  tenants, 
the  crown  found  ample  resources  in  sub- 
sidies upon  moveables,  from  which  no 
class  of  men  was  exempted.  But  the  stat- 
ute that  abolished  all  unparliamentary 
taxation  led,  at  least  in  theoretical  princi- 

Ele,  to  extend  the  elective  franchise  to  as 
irge  a  mass  of  the  people  as  could  con- 
veniently exercise  it.  It  was  even  in  the 
mouth  of  our  kings,  that  what  concerned 
all  should  be  approved  by  all.  Nor  is 
the  language  of  all  extant  writs  less  ad- 
verse to  the  supposition,  that  the  right 
of  suffrage  in  county  elections  was  lim- 
ited to  tenants  in  chief.  It  seems  extraor- 
dinary, that  such  a  restriction,  if  it  existed, 
should  never  be  deducible  from  these  in- 
struments ;  that  their  terms  should  inva- 
riably be  large  enough  to  comprise  all 
freeholders.  Yet  no  more  is  ever  re- 
quired of  the  sheriff  than  to  return  two 
knights,  chosen  by  the  body  of  the  coun- 
ty. For  they  are  not  only  said  to  be  re- 
turned pro  communitate,  but  "  per  com- 
munitatem,1'  and  "  de  assensu  totius  com- 
munitatis."  Nor  is  it  satisfactory  to  al- 
lege, without  any  proof,  that  this  word 
should  be  restricted  to  the  tenants  in 
chief,  contrary  to  what  must  appear  to 
be  its  obvious  meaning.*  Certainly  if 
these  tenants  of  the  crown  had  found  in- 
ferior freeholds  usurping  a  right  of  suf- 
frage, we  might  expect  to  find  it  the  sub- 
ject of  some  legislative  provision,  or  at 
least  of  some  petition  and  complaint. 
And,  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  have 
been  considered  as  unreasonable  to  levy 
the  wages  due  to  knights  of  the  shire  for 
their  service  in  parliament  on  those  who 
had  no  share  in  their  election.  But  it 
appears  by  writs  at  the  very  beginning 
of  Edward  II.'s  reign,  that  wages  were 
levied  "  de  communitate  comitatus."f  It 
will  scarcely  be  contended  that  no  one 
was  to  contribute  under  this  writ  but 


«  *  What  can  one  who  adopts  this  opinion  of  Dr. 
Brady  say  to  the  following  record?  Rex  militi- 
bus,  liberis  hominibus,  et  toti  communitati  comita- 
tus  Wygorniae  tarn  intra  libertates  quam  extra, 
salutem.  Cum  comites,  barones,  milites,  liberi 
homines,  et  communitates  comitatuum  regni  nostri 
vicesimam  omnium  bonorum  suorum  mobilium, 
civesque  et  bnrgenses  et  communitates  omnium 
civitatum  et  burgorum  ejusdem  regni,  necnon  te- 
nentes  de  antiquis  dominicis  coronae  nostra?  quin- 
decimam  bonorum  suorum  mobilium  nobis  conces- 
serunt.— Pat,  Rot.,  1  E.  II.,  in  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i.,p. 
442.  See  also  p.  241  and  p.  269.  If  the  word  com- 
munitas  is  here  used  in  any  precise  sense,  which, 
when  possible,  we  are  to  suppose  in  construing  a 
legal  instrument,  it  must  designate,  not  the  tenants 
in  chief,  but  the  inferior  class,  who,  though  neither 
freeholders  nor  free  burgesses,  were  yet  contribu- 
table  to  the  subsidy  on  their  goods, 
f  Madox,  Firma  Burgi,  p.  99  and  p.  102,  note  Z. 


tenants  in  chief;  and  yet  the  word  com- 
munitas  can  hardly  be  applied  to  differ- 
ent persons,  when  it  occurs  in  the  same 
instrument  and  upon  the  same  matter. 
The  series  of  petitions  above  mentioned 
relative  to  the  payment  of  wages  rather 
tends  to  support  a  conclusion,  that  all 
mesne  tenants  had  the  right  of  suffrage, 
if  they  thought  fit  to  exercise  it,  since  it 
was  earnestly  contended  that  they  were 
liable  to  contribute  towards  that  expense. 
Nor  does  there  appear  any  reason  to 
doubt  that  all  freeholders,  except  those 
within  particular  franchises,  were  suiters 
to  the  county-court ;  an  institution  of  no 
feudal  nature,  and  in  which  elections 
were  to  be  made  by  those  present.  As 
to  the  meeting  to  which  knights  of  shires 
were  summoned  in  38  H.  III.,  it  ought 
not  to  be  reckoned  a  parliament,  but  rath- 
er one  of  those  anomalous  conventions 
which  sometimes  occurred  in  the  unfix- 
ed state  of  government.  It  is  at  least 
the  earliest  known  instance  of  represent- 
ation, and  leads  us  to  no  conclusion  in 
respect  to  later  times,  when  the  com- 
mons had  become  an  essential  part  of 
the  legislature,  and  their  consent  was 
required  to  aH  public  burdens. 

This  question,  upon  the  whole,  is  cer- 
tainly not  free  from  considerable  difficul- 
ty. The  legal  antiquaries  are  divided. 
Prynne  does  not  seem  to  have  doubted 
but  that  the  knights  were  "  elected  in  the 
full  county,  by  and  for  the  whole  coun- 
ty," without  respect  to  the  tenure  of  the 
freeholders.*  But  Brady  and  Carte  are 
of  a  different  opinion. f  Yet  their  dispo- 
sition to  narrow  the  basis  of  the  constitu- 
tion is  so  strong,  that  it  creates  a  sort  of 
prejudice  against  their  authority.  And 
if  I  might  offer  an  opinion  on  so  obscure 
a  subject,  I  should  be  much  inclined  to 
believe,  that  even  from  the  reign  of  Hen- 
ry I.,  the  election  of  knights  by  all  free- 
holders in  the  county-court,  without  re- 
gard to  tenure,  was  little,  if  at  all,  differ- 
ent from  what  it  is  at  present.^ 

The  progress  of  towns  in  several  con- 
tinental countries  from  a  condi-  Progress  of 
tion  bordering  upon  servitude  to  towns- 
wealth  and  liberty  has  more  than  once 
attracted  our  attention  in  other  parts  of 
the  present  work.  Their  growth  in  Eng- 
land, both  from  general  causes  and  imi- 
tative policy,  was  very  similar  and  near- 
ly coincident.  Under  the  Anglo-Saxon 
line  of  sovereigns,  we  scarcely  can  dis- 


*  Prynne's  2d  Register,  p.  50. 

f  Carte's  Hist.  ofEngland,  vol.  ii.,  p.  250. 

\  The  present  question  has  been  discussed  with 
much  ability  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  xxvi., 
p.  341. 


Hi.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION, 


363 


cover  in  our  scanty  records  the  condition 
of  their  inhabitants;  except  retrospect- 
ively from  the  great  survey  of  Domesday 
Book,  which  displays  the  state  of  Eng 
land  under  Edward  the  Confessor.  Some 
attention  to  commerce  had  been  shown 
by  Alfred  and  Athelstan ;  and  a  merchant 
who  had  made  three  voyages  beyond  sea 
was  raised  by  a  law  of  the  latter  monarch 
to  the  dignity  of  a  thane.*  This  privilege 
was  not  perhaps  often  claimed ;  but  the 
burgesses  of  towns  were  already  a  dis- 
tinct class  from  the  ceorls  or  rustics,  and, 
though  hardly  free  according  to  our  esti- 
mation, seem  to  have  laid  the  foundation 
of  more  extensive  immunities.  It  is 
probable,  at  least,  that  the  English  towns 
had  made  full  as  great  advances  towards 
emancipation  as  those  of  France.  At 
the  conquest,  we  find  the  burgesses  or 
inhabitants  of  towns  living  under  the  su- 
periority or  protection  of  the  king,  or  of 
some  other  lord  to  whom  they  paid  an- 
nual rents,  and  determinate  dues  or  cus- 
toms. Sometimes  they  belonged  to  dif- 
ferent lords ;  and  sometimes  the  same 
burgesses  paid  customs  to  one  master, 
while  he  was  under  the  jurisdiction  of  an- 
other. They  frequently  enjoyed  special 
privileges  as  to  inheritance  ;  and  in  two  or 
three  instances  they  seem  to  have  possess- 
ed common  property,  belonging  to  a  sort 
of  guild  or  corporation ;  but  never,  as  far 
as  appears  by  any  evidence,  had  they  a 
municipal  administration  by  magistrates 
of  their  own  choice. f  Besides  the  regu- 

*  Wilkins,  p.  71. 

t  Burgenses  Exonia?  urbis  habent  extra  civita- 
tem  terrain  duodecim  carucatarum:  quae  nullam 
consuetudinem  reddunt  nisi  ad  ipsam  civitatem. — 
Domesday,  p.  100.  At  Canterbury  the  burgesses 
had  forty-five  houses  without  the  city,  de  quibus 
ipsi  habebant  gablum  et  consuetudinem,  rex  autem 
socam  et  sacain  ;  ipsi  quoque  burgenses  habebant 
de  rege  triginta  tres  acras  prati  in  gildam  suam,  p. 
2.  In  Lincoln  and  Stamford  some  resident  propri- 
etors, called  Lagemanni,  had  jurisdiction  (socam 
et  sacam)  over  their  tenants.  But  nowhere  have 
I  been  able  to  discover  any  trace  of  internal  self- 
government  ;  unless  Chester  may  be  deemed  an 
exception,  where  we  read  of  twelve  judices  civita- 
tis  ;  but  by  whom  constituted  does  not  appear. 
The  word  lageman  seems  equivalent  to  judex. 
The  guild  mentioned  above  at  Canterbury  was,  in 
all  probability,  a  voluntary  association :  so  at  Do- 
ver we  find  the  burgesses'  guildhall,  gihalla  bur- 
gensium,  p.  1. 

Many  of  the  passages  in  Domesday  relative  to 
the  state  of  burgesses  are  collected  in  Brady's  His- 
tory of  Boroughs  ;  a  woik  which,  if  read  with  due 
suspicion  of  the  author's  honesty,  will  convey  a 
great  deal  of  knowledge. 

Since  the  former  part  of  this  note  was  written, 
I  have  met  with  a  charter  granted  by  Henry  H.  to 
Lincoln,  which  seems  to  refer,  more  explicitly  than 
any  similar  instrument,  to  municipal  privileges  of 
jurisdiction  enjoyed  by  the  citizens  under  Edward 
the  Confessor.  These  charters,  it  is  well  known, 


lar  payments,  which  were  in  general  cot 
heavy,  they  were  liable  to  tallages  at  the 
discretion  of  their  lords.  This  burden 
continued  for  two  centuries,  with  no  lim- 
itation, except  that  the  barons  were  lat- 
terly forced  to  ask  permission  of  the 
king  before  they  set  a  tallage  on  their 
tenants,  which  was  commonly  done 
when  he  imposed  one  upon  his  own.* 
Still  the  towns  became  considerably  rich- 
er ;  for  the  profits  of  their  traffic  were 
undiminished  by  competition;  and  the 
consciousness  that  they  could  not  be  in- 
dividually despoiled  of  their  possessions, 
like  the  villeins  of  the  country  around, 
inspired  an  industry  and  perseverance 
which  all  the  rapacity  of  Norman  kings 
and  barons  was  unable  to  daunt  or  over- 
come. 

One  of  the  earliest  and  most  important 
changes  in  the  condition  of  the  Towns  let  in 
burgesses  was  the  conversion  fee-farm. 
of  their  individual  tributes  into  a  perpet- 
ual rent  from  the  whole  borough.  The 
town  was  then  said  to  be  affermed,  or 
let  in  fee-farm  to  the  burgesses  and  their 
successors  for  ever.f  Previously  to  such 
a  grant,  the  lord  held  the  town  in  his  de- 
mesne, and  was  the  legal  proprietor  of 
the  soil  and  tenements ;  though  I  by  no 
means  apprehend  that  the  burgesses  were 
destitute  of  a  certain  estate  in  their  pos- 


do  not  always  recite  what  is  true  ;  yet  it  is  possi- 
ble that  the  citizens  of  Lincoln,  which  had  been 
one  of  the  five  Danish  towns,  sometimes  mentioned 
with  a  sort  of  distinction  by  writers  before  the  con- 
quest, might  be  in  a  more  advantageous  situation 
than  the  generality  of  burgesses.  Sciatis  me 
concessisse  civibus  meis  Lincoln,  omnes  libertates 
et  consuetudines  et  leges  suas,  quas  habuerunt 
tempore  Edwardi  et  Will,  et  Henr.  regum  Angliae, 
et  gildam  suam  mercatoriam  de  hominibus  civita- 
tis  et  de  aliis  mercatoribus  comitatus,  sicut  illam 
habuerunt  tempore  predictorum  antecessorum  nos- 
trorum,  regum  Angliae,  melius  et  liberius.  Et  om- 
nes homines  qui  infra  quatuor  divisas  civitates  ma- 
nent  et  mercatum  deducunt,  sint  ad  gildas,  et  con- 
suetudines et  assisas  civitatis,  sicut  melius  fue- 
runt  temp.  Edw.  et  Will,  et  Henr.  regum  Angliae. — 
Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  40  (edit.  1816). 

I  am  indebted  to  the  friendly  remarks  of  the  pe- 
riodical critic  whom  I  have  before  mentioned,  for 
reminding  me  of  other  charters  of  the  same  age, 
expressed  in  a  similar  manner,  which  in  my  haste 
I  had  overlooked,  though  printed  in  common  books. 
But  whether  these  general  words  ought  to  out- 
weigh the  silence  of  Domesday  Book,  I  am  not 
prepared  to  decide.  I  have  admitted  below,  that  the 
possession  of  corporate  property  implies  an  elect- 
ive government  for  its  administration,  and  I  think 
it  perfectly  clear  that  the  guilds  made  by-laws  for 
the  regulation  of  their  members.  Yet  this  is 
something  different  from  municipal  jurisdiction 
over  all  the  inhabitants  of  a  town. 

*  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  17. 

t  Madox,  Firma  Burgi,  p.  1.  There  is  one  in- 
stance, I  know  not  if  any  more  could  be  found,  of 
a  firma  burgi  before  the  conquest.  It  was  at  Hun- 
tingdon.— Domesday,  p.  203. 


364 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


sessions.  But  of  a  town  in  fee-farm  he 
only  kept  the  superiority,  and  the  in- 
heritance of  the  annual  rent,  which  he 
might  recover  by  distress.*  The  burgess- 
es held  their  lands  by  burgage-tenure, 
nearly  analogous  to,  or  rather  a  species 
of,  free  soccage.f  Perhaps  before  the 
grant  they  might  correspond  to  modern 
copy-holders.  It  is  of  some  importance 
to  observe,  that  the  lord,  by  such  a  grant 
of  the  town  in  fee-farm,  whatever  we 
may  think  of  its  previous  condition,  di- 
vested himself  of  his  property,  or  lucra- 
tive dominion  over  the  soil,  in  return  for 
the  perpetual  rent ;  so  that  tallages  sub- 
sequently set  at  his  own  discretion  upon 
the  inhabitants,  however  common,  can 
hardly  be  considered  as  a  just  exercise 
of  the  rights  of  proprietorship. 

Under  such  a  system  of  arbitrary  tax- 
Charters  of  ation,  however,  it  was  evident  to 
incorpora-  the  most  selfish  tyrant  that  the 
tioa-  wealth  of  his  burgesses  was  his 

wealth,  and  their  prosperity  his  interest; 
much  more  were  liberal  and  sagacious 
monarchs,  like  Henry  II.,  inclined  to  en- 
courage them  by  privileges.  From  the 
time  of  William  Rufus,  there  was  no 
reign  in  which  charters  were  not  granted 
to  different  towns,  of  exemption  from 
tolls  on  rivers  and  at  markets,  those 
lighter  manacles  of  feudal  tyranny;  or 
of  commercial  franchises  ;  or  of  immuni- 
ty from  the  ordinary  jurisdictions ;  or, 
lastly,  of  internal  self-regulation.  Thus 
the  original  charter  of  Henry  I.  to  the 
city  of  LondonJ  concedes  to  the  citizens, 
in  addition  to  valuable  commercial  and 
fiscal  immunities,  the  right  of  choosing 
their  own  sheriff  and  justice,  to  the  ex- 
clusion of  every  foreign  jurisdiction. § 
These  grants,  however,  were  not  in  gen- 
eral so  extensive  till  the  reign  of  John.|| 

*  Madox,  p.  12, 13.  fid.,  p.  21. 

t  I  have  read  somewhere  that  this  charter  was 
granted  in  1101.  But  the  instrument  itself,  which 
is  only  preserved  by  an  Inspeximus  of  Edward  IV., 
does  not  contain  any  date. — Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  11 
(edit.  1816).  Could  it  be  traced  so  high,  the  cir- 
cumstance would  be  remarkable,  as  the  earliest 
charters  granted  by  Louis  VI.,  supposed  to  be  the 
father  of  these  institutions,  are  several  years  later. 

()  This  did  not,  however,  save  the  citizens  from 
fining  in  one  hundred  marks  to  the  king  for  this 
privilege. — Mag.  Rot.,5  Steph.,apud  Madox,  Hist. 
Exchequer,  t.  xi.  I  do  not  know  that  the  charter 
of  Henry  I.  can  be  suspected  ;  but  Brady,  in  his 
treatise  of  Boroughs  (p.  38,  edit.  1777),  does  not 
think  proper  once  to  mention  it ;  and  indeed  uses 
many  expressions  incompatible  with  its  existence. 

||  Blomefield,  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  ii.,  p.  16,  says 
that  Henry  I.  granted  the  same  privileges  by  char- 
ter to  Norwich  in  1122,  which  London  possessed. 
Yet  it  appears  that  the  king  named  the  port-reeve 
or  provost ;  but  Blomefield  suggests  that  he  was 
probably  recommended  by  the  citizens,  the  office 
being  annual. 


Before  that  time,  the  interior  arrange- 
ment of  towns  had  received  a  new  organ- 
ization. In  the  Saxon  period  we  find  vol- 
untary associations,  sometimes  religious, 
sometimes  secular;  in  some  cases  for 
mutual  defence  against  injury,  in  others 
for  mutual  relief  in  poverty.  These 
were  called  guilds,  from  the  Saxon  verb 
gildan,  to  pay  or  contribute,  and  exhibit- 
ed the  natural,  if  not  the  legal  character 
of  corporations.*  At  the  time  of  the  con- 
quest, as  has  been  mentioned  above,  such 
voluntary  incorporations  of  the  burgess- 
es possessed  in  some  towns  either  landed 
property  of  their  own,  or  rights  of  supe- 
riority over  that  of  others..  An  internal 
elective  government  seems  to  have  been 
required  for  the  administration  of  a  com- 
mon revenue,  and  of  other  business  in- 
cident to  their  association.!  They  be- 


*  Madox,  Firma  Burgi,  p.  23.  Hicks  has  given 
us  a  bond  of  fellowship  among  the  thanes  of  Cam- 
bridgeshire, containing  several  curious  particulars. 
A  composition  of  eight  pounds,  exclusive,  I  con- 
ceive, of  the  usual  weregild,  was  to  be  enforced 
from  the  slayer  of  any  fellow.  If  a  fellow  (gilda) 
killed  a  man  of  1200  shillings  weregild,  each  of  the 
society  was  to  contribute  half  a  marc  ;  for  a  ceorl, 
two  orae  (perhaps  ten  shillings) ;  for  a  Welshman, 
one.  If.  however,  this  act  was  committed  wan- 
tonly, the  fellow  had  no  right  to  call  on  the  socie- 
ty for  contribution.  If  one  fellow  killed  another, 
he  was  to  pay  the  legal  weregild  to  his  kindred, 
and  also  eight  pounds  to  the  society.  Harsh  words 
used  by  one  fellow  towards  another,  or  even  to- 
wards a  stranger,  incurred  a  fine.  No  one  was  to 
eat  or  drink  in  the  company  of  one  who  had  killed 
his  brother  fellow,  unless  in  the  presence  of  the 
king,  bishop,  or  alderman. — Dissertatio  Epistola- 
ris,  p.  21. 

We  find  in  Wilkins's  Anglo-Saxon  laws,  p.  65,  a 
number  of  ordinances,  sworn  to  by  persons  both  of 
noble  and  ignoble  rank  (ge  eorlisce  ge  ceorlisce), 
and  confirmed  by  King  Athelstan.  These  are  in 
the  nature  of  by-laws  for  the  regulation  of  certain 
societies  that  had  been  formed  for  the  preservation 
of  public  order.  Their  remedy  was  rather  violent : 
to  kill  and  seize  the  effects  of  all  who  should  rob 
any  member  of  the  association.  This  property, 
after  deducting  the  value  of  the  thing  stolen,  was 
to  be  divided  into  two  parts  ;  one  given  to  the  crim- 
inal's wife  if  not  an  accomplice,  the  other  shared 
between  the  king  and  the  society. 

In  another  fraternity  among  the  clergy  and  laity 
of  Exeter,  every  fellow  was  entitled  to  a  contribu- 
tion in  case  of  taking  a  journey,  or  if  his  house 
was  burnt.  Thus  they  resembled  in  some  de- 
gree our  friendly  societies ;  and  display  an  inter- 
esting picture  of  manners,  which  has  induced  me 
to  insert  this  note,  though  not  greatly  to  the  pres- 
ent purpose.  See  more  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  guilds 
in  Turner's  History,  vol.  ii.,  p.  102.  Societies  of 
the  same  kind,  for  purposes  of  religion,  charity,  or 
mutual  assistance,  rather  than  trade,  may  be  found 
afterward. — Blomefield's  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  iii., 
p.  494. 

i  See  a  grant  fromTurstin,  archbishop  of  York, 
in  the  reign  of  Henry  I.,  to  the  burgesses  of  Beyer- 
ley,  that  they  may  have  their  hanshus  (i.  e.  guild- 
hall) like  those  of  York,  et  ibi  sua  statuta  pertrac- 
tent  ad  honorem  Dei,  &c.— Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  10,  edit. 
1816. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


365 


came  more  numerous,  and  more  peculiar 
ly  commercial  after  that  era,  as  well  from 
the  increase  of  trade  as  through  imita 
tion   of  similar   fraternities  existing  in 
many  towns  of  France.     The  spirit  of 
monopoly  gave  strength  to  those  institu- 
tions, each  class  of  traders  forming  itself 
into  a  body,  in  order  to  exclude  compe- 
tition.    Thus  were  established  the  com- 
panies in  corporate  towns,  that  of  the 
Weavers  in  London  being  perhaps  the 
earliest  ;*    and  these  were  successively 
consolidated  and  sanctioned  by  charters 
from  the   crown.     In  towns   not  large 
enough  to  admit  of  distinct  companies, 
one   merchant  guild  comprehended  the 
traders  in  general,  or  the  chief  of  them  ; 
and  this,  from  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
downward,  became  the  subject  of  incor- 
porating charters.     The  management  of 
their  internal  concerns,  previously  to  any 
incorporation,  fell  naturally  enough  into  a 
sort  of  oligarchy,  which  the  tenour  of  the 
charter  generally   preserved.      Though 
the  immunities  might  be  very  extensive, 
the  powers  were  more  or  less  restrained 
to  a  small  number.     Except  in  a  few 
places,  the  right  of  choosing  magistrates 
was  first  given  by  King  John ;  and  cer- 
tainly must  rather  be  ascribed  to  his  pov- 
erty  than  to   any  enlarged    policy,   of 
which  he  was  utterly  incapable. f 
•    From  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century 
Prosperity  to  tnat  °f  tne  thirteenth,  the  tra- 
ct English  ders  of  England  became  more  and 
towns.       more  prosperous.    The  towns  on 
the  southern  coast  exported  tin  and  oth- 
er metals  in  exchange  for  the  wines  of 
France;  those  on  the  eastern  sent  corn 
to  Norway;   the  Cinque-ports  bartered 
wool   against   the   stuffs   of   Flanders. J 
Though  bearing  no  comparison  with  the 
cities  of  Italy  or  the  empire,  they  increas- 
ed sufficiently  to  acquire  importance  at 
home.     That  vigorous  prerogative  of  the 
Norman  monarchs,  which  kept  down  the 
feudal  aristocracy,  compensated  for  what- 
ever inferiority  there  might  be  in  the 
population  and  defensible  strength  of  the 
English  towns,  compared  with  those  on 
the  continent.     They  had  to  fear  no  pet- 
ty oppressors,  no  local  hostility ;  and  if 
they  could  satisfy  the  rapacity  of  the 
crown,  were  secure  from  all  other  griev- 
London   ances-      London,   far  above   the 
rest,  our  ancient  and  noble  capital, 
might,  even  in  those  early  times,  be  just- 
ly termed  a  member  of  the  political  sys- 

*  Madox,  Firma  Burgi,  p.  189. 

t  Idem,  passim.  A  few  of  an  earlier  date  may 
be  found  in  the  new  edition  of  Rymer. 

J  Lyttleton's  Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  170. 
Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p.  331. 


tern.  This  great  city,  so  admirably  situa- 
ted, was  rich  and  populous  long  before 
the  conquest.  Bede,  at  the  beginning  of 
the  eighth  century,  speaks  of  London  as 
a  great  market,  which  traders  frequented 
by  land  and  sea.*  It  paid  .£15,000  out 
of  £82,000,  raised  by  Canute  upon  the 
kingdom.f  If  we  believe  Roger  Hove- 
den,  the  citizens  of  London,  on  the  death 
of  Ethelred  II.,  joined  with  part  of  the 
nobility  in  raising  Edmund  Ironside  to 
the  throne. |  Harold  I.,  according  to  bet- 
ter authority,  the  Saxon  Chronicle,  and 
William  of  Malmsbury,  was  elected  by 
their  concurrence. $  Descending  to  later 
history,  we  find  them  active  in  the  civil 
war  of  Stephen  and  Matilda.  The  fa- 
mous Bishop  of  Winchester  tells  the  Lon- 
doners that  they  are  almost  accounted  as 
noblemen  on  account  of  the  greatness  of 
their  city  ;  into  the  community  of  which 
it  appears  that  some  barons  had  been  re- 
ceived. ||  Indeed  the  citizens  themselves, 
or  at  least  the  principal  of  them,  were 
called  barons.  It  was  certainly  by  far 
the  greatest  city  in  England.  There  have 
been  different  estimates  of  its  population, 
some  of  which  are  extravagant ;  but  I 
hink  it  could  hardly  have  contained  less 
than  thirty  or  forty  thousand  souls  with- 
in its  walls;  and  the  suburbs  were  very 
populous.^]"  These  numbers,  the  enjoy- 


Macpherson,  p.  245.  t  Id.,  p.  282. 

Gives  Lundinenses,  et  pars  nobilium,  qui  eo 
tempore  consistebant  Lundoniaj,  Clitonem  Ead- 
•nundum  unanimi  consensu  in  regem  levavere,  p. 
249. 

Chron.  Saxon.,  p.  154.  Malmsbury,  p.  76. 
He  says  the  people  of  London  were  become  al- 
most barbarians  through  their  intercourse  with  the 
Danes  ;  propter  frequentem  convictum. 

||   Londinenses,   qui  sunt  quasi  optimates  pro 
nagnitudine  civitatis  in  Anglia. — Malmsb.,  p.  189. 
Thus  too  Matthew  Paris :  cives  Londinenses,  quos 
ropter  civitatis  dignitatem  et  civium  antiquam 
ibertatem  Barones  consuevimus  appellare,  p.  744 ; 
and  in  another  place  :  totius  civitatis  cives,  quos 
)arones  vocant,  p.  835.     Spelman  says  that  the 
nagistrates  of  several  other  towns  were  called  bar- 
ns.— Glossary,  Barones  de  London. 
U"  Drake,  the  historian  of  York,  maintains  that 
jondon  was  less  populous  about  the  time  of  the 
onquest  than  that  city  ;  and  quotes  Hardynge,  a 
writer  of  Henry  V.'s  age,  to  prove  that  the  interi- 
)r  part  of  the  former  was  not  closely  built. — Ebo- 
acum,  p.  91.    York  however  does  not  appear  to 
vave  contained  more  than  10,000  inhabitants  at 
he  accession  of  the  Conqueror ;  and  the  very  ex- 
ggerations  as  to  the   populousness  of  London 
rove  that  it  must  have  far  exceeded  that  number. 
•'itz-Stephen,  the    contemporary    biographer  of 
Thomas  Becket,  tells  us  of  80,000  men  capable 
of  bearing  arms  within  its  precincts  ;  where  how- 
ever his  translator,  Pegge,  suspects  a  mistake  of 
the  MS.  in  the  numerals.    And  this,  with  simi- 
lar hyperboles,  so  imposed  on  the  judicious  mind 
of  Lord  Lyttleton,  that,  finding  in  Peter  of  Blois 
the  inhabitants  of  London  reckoned  at  quadragin- 
ta  millia,  he  has  actually  proposed  to  read  quadrin- 


568 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Vlir. 


ment  of  privileges,  and  the  consciousness 
of  strength,  infused  a  free  and  even  mu- 
tinous spirit  into  their  conduct.*  The 
Londoners  were  always  on  the  barons' 
side  in  their  contests  with  the  c^own. 
They  bore  a  part  in  deposing  William 
Longchamp,  the  chancellor  and  justici- 
ary of  Richard  I.f  They  were  distin- 
guished in  the  great  struggle  for  Magna 
Charta ;  the  privileges  of  their  city  are 
expressly  confirmed  in  it ;  and  the  Mayor 
of  London  was  one  of  the  twenty-five 
barons  to  whom  the  maintenance  of  its 
provisions  was  delegated.  In  the  subse- 
quent reign,  the  citizens  of  London  were 
regarded  with  much  dislike  and  jealousy 
by  the  court,  and  sometimes  suffered 
pretty  severely  by  its  hands,  especially 
after  the  battle  of  Evesham.J 

Notwithstanding  the  influence  of  Lon- 
don in  these  seasons  of  disturbance,  we 
do  not  perceive  that  it  was  distinguish- 
ed from  the  most  insignificant  town  by 
greater  participation  in  national  councils. 
Rich,  powerful,  honourable,  and  high- 
spirited  as  its  citizens  had  become,  it  was 
very  long  before  they  found  a  regular 
place  in  parliament.  The  prerogative  of 
imposing  tallages  at  pleasure,  unsparing- 
ly exercised  by  Henry  III.  even  over 
London,^  left  the  crown  no  inducement 

genta.— Hist.  Henry  II.,  vol.  iv.,  ad  finem.  It  is 
hardly  necessary  to  observe,  that  the  condition  of 
agriculture  and  internal  communication  would  not 
have  allowed  half  that  number  to  subsist. 

The  subsidy-roll  of  1377,  published  in  the 
Archaeologia,  vol.vii.,  would  lead  to  a  conclusion 
that  all  the  inhabitants  of  London  did  not  even 
then  exceed  35,000.  If  this  be  true,  they  could 
not  have  amounted  probably  to  so  great  a  num- 
ber two  or  three  centuries  earlier. 

*  This  seditious,  or  at  least  refractory  character 
of  the  Londoners,  was  displayed  in  the  tumult 
headed  by  William  Longbeard  in  the  time  of  Rich- 
ard I.,  arid  that  under  Constantine  in  1222,  the  pa- 
triarchs of  a  long  line  of  city  demagogues. — Hove- 
den,  p.  765.  M.  Paris,  p.  154. 

t  Hoveden's  expressions  are  very  precise,  and 
show  thr-t  the  share  taken  by  the  citizens  of  Lon- 
don (probably  the  mayor  and  aldermen)  in  this 
measure  was  no  tumultuary  acclamation,  but  a  de- 
liberate concurrence  with  the  nobility.  Comes 
Johannes,  et  fere  omnes  episcopi,  et  comites  An- 
gliae  eadep  die  intraverunt  Londonhs  ;  et  in  cras- 
tino  praedictus  Johannes  frater  regis,  et  archiepis- 
copus  Rothomagensis,  et  omnes  episcopi,  et  comi- 
tes, et  barones,  et  cives  Lcndonienses  cum  illis 
convenerunt  in  atrio  ecclesise  S.  Pauli.  .  .  .  Pla- 
cuit  ergo  Johanni  fratri  regis,  et  omnibus  episco- 
pis,  et  comitibus,  et  baronibus  regni,  et  civibus 
Londoniarum,  quod  cancellarins  ille  deponeretur, 
et  deposuerunt  eum,  &c.,  p.  701. 

t  The  reader  may  consult,  for  a  more  full  ac- 
count of  tne  English  towns  before  the  middle  of 
the  thirteenth  century,  Lyttleton's  History  of  Hen- 
ry II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  174 ;  and  Macpherson's  Annals 
of  Commerce. 

$  Frequent  proofs  of  this  may  be  found  in  Ma- 
dox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  17,  as  well  as  in  Matt, 


to  summon  the  inhabitants  of  cities  and 
boroughs.  As  these  indeed  were  daily 
growing  more  considerable,  they  were 
certain,  in  a  monarchy  so  limited  as  that 
of  England  became  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, of  attaining  sooner  or  later  this 
eminent  privilege.  Although,  therefore, 
the  object  of  Simon  de  Montfort  in  call- 
ing them  to  his  parliament  after  the  bat- 
tle of  Lewes  was  merely  to  strengthen 
his  own  faction,  which  prevailed  among 
the  commonalty,  yet  their  permanent 
admission  into  the  legislature  may  be  as- 
cribed to  a  more  general  cause.  For 
otherwise  it  is  not  easy  to  see  why  the 
innovation  of  a  usurper  should  have 
been  draw  a  into  precedent,  though  it 
might  perhaps  accelerate  what  the  course 
of  affairs  was  gradually  preparing. 

It  is  well  known  that  the  earliest  writs 
of  summons  to  cities  and  bor-  Fm  •  sum- 
oughs  of  which  we  can  prove  the 
existence,  are  those  of  Simon 
de  Montfort,  earl  of  Leicester,  in49H.  n. 
bearing  date  the  T2th  of  December,  1264, 
in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  Henry  III.* 
After  a  long  controversy,  almost  all 
judicious  inquirers  seem  to  have  acqui- 
esced in  admitting  this  origin  of  popular 
representation.!  The  argument  may  be 
very  concisely  stated.  We  find  from  in- 
numerable records  that  the  king  imposed 
tallages  upon  his  demesne  towns  at  dis- 
cretion.I  No  public  instrument  previous 


Paris,  who  laments  it  with  indignation.  Cives 
Londinenses,  contra  consuetudinem  et  libertatem 
civitatis,  quasi  servi  ultimae  conditionis,  non  sub 
nomine  aut  titulo  liberi  adjutorii,  sed  tallagii,  quod 
multum  eos  angebat,  regi/licet  imiti  et  renitentes, 
numerare  sunt  coacti,  p.  492.  Heu  ubi  est  Londi- 
nensis,  toties  empta,  toties  concessa,  toties  scripta, 
toties  jurata  libertas  !  &c.  p.  657.  The  king  some- 
times suspended  their  market,  that  is,  I  suppose, 
their  right  of  toll,  till  his  demands  were  paid. 

*  These  writs  are  not  extant,  having  perhaps 
never  been  returned  ;  and  consequently  we  cannot 
tell  to  what  particular  places  they  were  addressed. 
It  appears,  however,  that  the  assembly  was  intend- 
ed to  be  numerous,  for  the  entry  runs:  scribitur 
civibus  Ebor,  civibus  Lincoln,  et  csteris  burgis 
Angliae.  It  is  singular  that  no  mention  is  made  of 
London,  which  must  have  had  some  special  sum- 
mons.— Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  803.  Dugdale,  Summoni- 
tiones  ad  Parliamentum,  p.  1. 

t  It  would  ill  repay  any  reader's  diligence  to 
wade  through  the  vapid  and  diluted  pages  of  Tyr- 
rell ;  but  whoever  would  know  what  can  be  best 
pleaded  for  a  higher  antiquity  of  our  present  par- 
liamentary constitution,  may  have  recourse  to  Hody 
on  Convocations,  and  Lord  Lyttleton's  History  of 
.Jenry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  276,  and  vol.  iv.,  p.  79—106. 
I  do  not  conceive  it  possible  to  argue  the  question 
more  ingeniously  than  has  been  done  by  the  noble 
writer  last  quoted.  Whitelocke,  in  his  commentary 
on  the  parliamentary  writ,  has  treated  it  very 
mnch  at  length,  but  with  no  critical  discrimina- 
tion. 

t  Madox,  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  c.  17. 


PART  HI.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


307 


to  the  forty-ninth  of  Henry  III.  names 
the  citizens  and  burgesses  as  constitu- 
ent parts  of  parliament;  though  prelates, 
barons,  knights,  and  sometimes  freehold- 
ers, are  enumerated  ;*  while,  since  the 
undoubted  admission  of  the  commons, 
they  are  almost  invariably  mentioned. 
No  historian  speaks  of  representatives 
appearing  for  the  people,  or  uses  the 
word  citizen  or  burgess  in  describing 
those  present  in  parliament.  Such  con- 
vincing, though  negative  evidence  is  not 
to  be  invalidated  by  some  general  and 
ambiguous  phrases,  whether  in  writs  and 
records  or  in  historians. f  Those  monk- 
ish annalists  are  poor  authorities  upon 
any  point  where  their  language  is  to  be 
delicately  measured.  But  it  is  hardly 
possible,  that  writing  circumstantially,  as 
Roger  de  Hoveden  and  Matthew  Paris 
sometimes  did,  concerning  proceedings  in 
parliament,  they  could  have  failed  to  men- 
tion the  commons  in  unequivocal  expres- 
sions, if  any  representatives  from  that 
order  had  actually  formed  a  part  of  the 
assembly. 

Two  authorities,  however,  which  had 
Authorities  been  supposed  to  prove  a 
in  favour  of  greater  antiquity  than  we  have 
an  earlier  assigned  to  the  representation 
of  the  commons,  are  deserving 
of  particular  consideration ;  the  cases  of 
St  Albans  and  Barnstaple.  The  burgess- 
st  Albans  es  °^  ^  Albans  complained  to 
the  council,  in  the  eighth  year 
of  Edward  II.,  that,  although  they  held 
of  the  king  in  capite,  and  ought  to  at- 
tend his  parliaments  whenever  they  are 
summoned,  by  two  of  their  number,  in- 
stead of  all  other  services,  as  had  been 
their  custom  in  all  past  times,  which  ser- 
vices the  said  burgesses  and  their  prede- 
cessors had  performed  as  well  in  the 
time  of  the  late  King  Edward  and  his  an- 
cestors, as  in  that  of  the  present  king 
until  the  parliament  now  sitting,  the 
names  of  their  deputies  having  been  con- 
stantly enrolled  in  chancery,  yet  the 
sheriff  of  Hertfordshire,  at  the  instigation 

*  The  only  apparent  exception  to  this  is  in  the 
letter  addressed  to  the  pope  by  the  parliament  of 
1246,  the  salutation  of  which  runs  thus  :  Barones, 
proceres,  et  magnates,  ac  mobiles  portuum  marls  hab- 
itatores,  necnon  et  clems  et  populus  universus,  sa- 
lutem. — Matt.  Paris,  p.  696.  It  is  plain,  I  think, 
from  these  words,  that  some  of  the  chief  inhabi- 
tants of  the  Cinque-ports,  at  that  time  very  flourish- 
ing towns,  were  present  in  this  parliament.  But 
whether  they  sat  as  representatives,  or  by  a  pecu- 
liar writ  of  summons  is  not  so  evident ;  and  the 
latter  may  be  the  more  probable  hypothesis  of  the 
two. 

t  Thus  Matthew  Paris  tells  us,  that  in  1247,  the 
whole  kingdom,  regni  totius  universitas,  repaired 
to  a  parliament  of  Henry  III.,  p.  367. 


of  the  abbot  of  St.  Albans,  had  neglected 
to  cavse  an  election  and  return  to  be 
made ;  and  prayed  remedy.  To  this  pe- 
tition it  was  answered,  "  Let  the  rolls  of 
chancery  be  examined,  that  it  may  ap- 
pear whether  the  said  burgesses  were  ac- 
customed to  come  to  parliament  or  not, 
in  the  time  of  the  king's  ancestors ;  and 
let  right  be  done  to  them,  vocatis  evocan- 
dis,  si  necesse  fuerit."  I  do  not  trans- 
late these  words,  concerning  the  sense 
of  which  there  has  been  some  dispute, 
though  not  apparently  very  material  to 
the  principal  subject.* 

This  is,  in  my  opinion,  by  far  the  most 
plausible  testimony  for  the  early  repre- 
sentation of  boroughs.  The  burgesses 
of  St.  Albans  claim  a  prescriptive  right 
from  the  usage  of  all  past  times,  and 
more  especially  those  of  the  late  Edward 
and  his  ancestors.  Could  this  be  alle- 
ged, it  has  been  said,  of  a  privilege  at  the 
utmost  of  fifty  years'  standing,  once 
granted  by  a  usurper,  in  the  days  of  the 
late  king's  father,  and  afterward  discon- 
tinued till  about  twenty  years  before  the 
date  of  their  petition,  according  to  those 
who  refer  the  regular  appearance  of  the 
commons  in  parliament  to  the  twenty- 
third  of  Edward  1. 1  Brady,  who  obvi- 
ously felt  the  strength  of  this  authority, 
has  shown  little  of  his  usual  ardour  and 
acuteness  in  repelling  it.  It  was  observ- 
ed, however,  by  Madox,  that  the  petition 
of  St.  Albans  contains  two  very  singular 
allegations  :  it  asserts  that  the  town  was 
part  of  the  king's  demesne,  whereas  it 
had  invariably  belonged  to  the  adjoining 
abbey;  and  that  its  burgesses  held  by 
the  tenure  of  attending  parliament,  in- 
stead of  all  other  services,  contrary  to 
all  analogy,  and  without  parallel  in  the 
condition  of  any  tenant  in  capite  through- 
out the  kingdom.  "  It  is  no  wonder, 
therefore,"  says  Hume,  "  that  a  petition 
which  advances  two  falsehoods  should 
contain  one  historical  mistake,  which  in- 
deed amounts  only  to  an  inaccurate  ex- 
pression." But  it  must  be  confessed, 
that  we  cannot  so  easily  set  aside  the 
whole  authority  of  this  record.  For 
whatever  assurance  the  people  of  St. 
Albans  might  show  in  asserting  what  was 
untrue,  the  king's  council  must  have 
been  aware  how  recently  the  deputies 
of  any  towns  had  been  admitted  into 
parliament.  If  the  lawful  birth  of  the 
House  of  Commons  were  in  1295,  as  is 
maintained  by  Brady  and  his  disqples,  is 
it  conceivable  that,  in  1315,  the  council 
would  have  received  a  petition,  claiming 
the  elective  franchise  by  prescription, 


*  Brady's  Introd.  to  Hist,  of  England,  p.  38. 


368 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


and  have  referred  to  the  rolls  of  chance- 
ry to  inquire  whether  this  had  been  used 
in  the  days  of  the  king's  progenitors  I  I 
confess  that  I  see  no  answer  which  can 
easily  be  given  to  this  objection  by  such 
as  adopt  the  latest  epoch  of  borough  rep- 
I*  resentation,  namely,  the  parliament  of 
23  E.  I.  But  they  are  by  no  means 
equally  conclusive  against  the  supposi- 
tion, that  the  communities  of  cities  and 
towns,  having  been  first  introduced  into 
the  legislature  during  Leicester's  usurpa- 
tion, in  the  forty-ninth  year  of  Henry 
III.,  were  summoned,  not  perhaps  uni- 
formly, but  without  any  long  intermis- 
sion, to  succeeding  parliaments.  There 
is  a  strong  presumption,  from  the  lan- 
guage of  a  contemporary  historian,  that 
they  sat  in  the  parliament  of  1269,  four 
years  after  that  convened  by  Leicester.* 
It  is  more  unequivocally  stated  by  anoth- 
er annalist,  that  they  were  present  in  the 
first  parliament  of  Edward  I.,  held  in 
1271. t  Nor  does  a  similar  inference 
want  some  degree  of  support  from  the 
preambles  of  the  statute  of  Marlebridge 
in  51  H.  III.,  of  Westminster  I.,  in  the 
third,  and  of  Glocester,  in  the  sixth 
year  of  Edward  I.J  And  the  writs  are 
extant  which  summon  every  city,  bor- 
ough, and  market  town  to  send  two  dep- 
uties to  a  council  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
his  reign.  I  call  this  a  council,  for  it 
undoubtedly  was  not  a  parliament.  The 
sheriffs  were  directed  to  summon  per- 
sonally all  who  held  more  than  twenty 
pounds  a  year  of  the  crown,  as  well  as 
four  knights  for  each  county  invested 
with  full  powers  to  act  for  the  commons 
thereof.  The  knights  and  burgesses 
thus  chosen,  as  well  as  the  clergy  within 
the  province  of  Canterbury,  met  at 
Northampton ;  those  within  the  province 
of  York,  at  that  city.  And  neither  as- 

*  Convocatis  universis  Angliae  prelatis  et  mag- 
natibus,  necnon  cunctarum  regni  sui  civitatum  et 
burgorum  potentioribus. — Wikes,  in  Gale,  xv. 
Scriptores,  t.  ii.,  p.  88.  I  am  indebted  to  Hody  on 
•  Convocations  for  this  reference,  which  seems  to 
have  escaped  most  of  our  constitutional  writers. 

t  Hoc  anno  ....  convenerunt  archiepiscopi, 
episcopi,  cpmites  et  barones,  abbates  et  priores, 
et^de  quolibet  comitatu  quatuor  milttes,  et  de 
qualibet  civitate  quatuor. — Annales  Waverleien- 
ses  in  Gale,  t.  ii.,  p.  227.  I  was  led  to  this  pas- 
sage by  Atterbury,  Rights  of  Convocations,  p. 
310,  where  some  other  authorities,  less  unques- 
tionable, are  adduced  for  the  same  purpose.  Both 
this  assembly,  and  that  mentioned  by  Wikes  in 
1269,  were  certainly  parliaments,  and  acted  as 
such,  particularly  the  former,  though  summoned 
for  purposes  not  strictly  parliamentary. 

t  The  statute  of,  Marlebridge  is  said  to  be  made 
convocatis  discretioribus,  tarn  majoribus  quatn  mi- 
noribus;  that  of  Westminster  primer,  par  son 
conseil,  et  par  1'essentements  des  archie vesques, 


sembly  was  opened  by  the  king.*  This 
anomalous  convention  was  nevertheless 
one  means  of  establishing  the  represent- 
ative system,  and,  to  an  inquirer  free 
from  technical  prejudice,  is  little  less 
important  than  a  regular  parliament. 
Nor  have  we  long  to  look  even  for  this. 
In  the  same  year,  about  eight  months 
after  the  councils  at  Northampton  and 
York,  writs  were  issued  summoning  to  a 
parliament  at  Shrewsbury  two  citizens 
from  London,  and  as  many  from  each  of 
twenty  other  considerable  towns. f  It  is 
a  slight  cavil  to  object  that  these  were 
not  directed  as  usual  to  the  sheriff  of 
each  county,  but  to  the  magistrates  of 
each  place.  Though  a  very  imperfect, 
this  was  a  regular  and  unequivocal  rep- 
resentation of  the  commons  in  parlia- 
ment. But  their  attendance  seems  to 
have  intermitted  from  this  time  to  the 
twenty-third  year  of  Edward's  reign.  * 

Those  to  whom  the  petition  of  St.  Al- 
bans  is  not  satisfactory,  will  Barnstaple. 
hardly  yield  their  conviction  to 
that  of  Barnstaple.  This  town  set  forth 
in  the  eighteenth  of  Edward  III.,  that, 
among  other  franchises  granted  to  them 
by  a  charter  of  Athelstan,  they  had  ever 
since  exercised  the  right  of  sending  two 
burgesses  to  parliament.  The  said  char- 
ter indeed  was  unfortunately  mislaid, 
and  the  prayer  of  their  petition  was  to 
obtain  one  of  the  like  import  in  its  stead. 
Barnstaple,  it  must  be  observed,  was  a 
town  belonging  to  Lord  Audley,  and  had 
actually  returned  members  ever  since 
the  twenty-third  of  Edward  I.  Upon  an 
inquisition  directed  by  the  king  to  be 
made  into  the  truth  of  these  allegations, 
it  was  found  that  "the  burgesses  of  the 
said  town  were  wont  to  send  two  bur- 
gesses to  parliament  for  the  commonal- 

evesques,  abbes,  priors,  countes,  barons,  et  tout  le 
comminalty  de  la  terre  illonques  summones.  The 
statute  of  Glocester  runs,  appelles  les  plus  dis- 
cretes de  son  royaume,  auxibien  des  grandes  come 
des  meinders.  These  preambles  seem  to  have 
satisfied  Mr.  Prynne  that  the  commons  were  then 
represented,  though  the  writs  are  wanting ;  and 
certainly  no  one  could  be  less  disposed  to  exag- 
gerate their  antiquity. — 2d  Register,  p.  30. 

*  Brady's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix 
Carte,  vol.  ii.,  p.  257. 

t  This  is  commonly  denominated  the  parlia- 
ment of  Acton  Burnell ;  the  clergy  and  commons 
having  sat  in  that  town,  while  the  barons  passed 
judgment  upon  David,  prince  of  Wales,  at 
Shrewsbury.  The  towns  which  were  honoured 
with  the  privilege  of  representation,  and  may  con- 
sequently be  supposed  to  have  been  at  that  time 
the  most  considerable  in  England,  were  York, 
Carlisle,  Scarborough,  Nottingham,  Grimsby,  Lin- 
coln, Northampton,  Lynn,  Yarmouth,  Colchester, 
Norwich,  Chester,  Shrewsbury,  Worcester,  Here- 
ford, Bristol,  Canterbury,  Winchester,  and  Exe- 
ter.— Rymer,  t.  ii.,  p.  247. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


369 


ty  of  the  borough  ;"  but  nothing  appearec 
as  to  the  pretended  charter  of  Athelstan 
or  the  liberties  which  it'  was  alleged  to 
contain.  The  burgesses,  dissatisfied  with 
this  inquest,  prevailed  that  another  should 
be  taken,  which  certainly  answered  bet- 
ter their  wishes.  The  second  jury  found 
that  Barnstaple  was  a  free  borough  from 
time  immemorial ;  that  the  burgesses  had 
enjoyed  under  a  charter  of  Athelstan, 
which  had  been  casually  lost,  certain 
franchises  by  them  enumerated,  and  par- 
ticularly that  they  should  send  two  bur- 
gesses to  parliament ;  and  that  it  would 
not  be  to  the  king's  prejudice,  if  he 
should  grant  them  a  fresh  charter  in 
terms  equally  ample  with  that  of  his 
predecessor  Athelstan.  But  the  follow- 
ing year  we  have  another  writ  and  an- 
other inquest,  the  former  reciting  that 
the  second  return  had  been  unduly  and 
fraudulently  made;  and  the  latter  ex- 
pressly contradicting  the  previous  in- 
quest in  many  points,  and  especially  find- 
ing no  proof  of  Athelstan's  supposed 
charter.  Comparing  the  various  parts 
of  this  business,  we  shall  probably  be  in- 
duced to  agree  with  Willis,  that  it  was 
but  an  attempt  of  the  inhabitants  of 
Barnstaple  to  withdraw  themselves  from 
the  jurisdiction  of  their  lord.  For  the 
right  of  returning  burgesses,  though  it  is 
the  main  point  of  our  inquiries,  was  by 
no  means  the  most  prominent  part  of 
their  petition,  which  rather  went  to  es- 
tablish some  civil  privileges  of  devising 
their  tenements  and  electing  their  own 
mayor.  The  first  and  fairest  return  finds 
only  that  they  were  accustomed  to  send 
members  to  parliament,  which  a  usage 
of  fifty  years  (from  23  E.  I.  to  18  E.  III.) 
was  fully  sufficient  to  establish,  without 
searching  into  more  remote  antiquity.* 

It  has,  however,  probably  occurred  to 
the  reader  of  these  two  cases,  St.  Albans 
and  Barnstaple,  that  the  representation 
of  the  commons  in  parliament  was  not 
treated  as  a  novelty,  even  in  times  little 
posterior  to  those  in  which  we  have  been 
supposing  it  to  have  originated.  In  this 
consists,  I  think,  the  sole  strength  of  the 
opposite  argument.  An  act  in  the  fifth 
year  of  Richard  II.  declares,  that  if  any 
sheriff  shall  leave  out  of  his  returns  any 
cities  or  boroughs  which  be  bound,  and 
of  old  time  were  wont  to  come  to  the 
parliament,  he  shall  be  punished  as  was 
accustomed  to  be  done  in  the  like  case 
in  time  past.f  In  the  memorable  asser- 
tion of  legislative  right  by  the  commons 


*  Willis,  Notitia  Parliamentaria,  vol.  ii.,  p.  312. 
Lyttleton's  Hist,  of  Hen.  II.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  89. 
f  5  Ric.  II.,  stat.  2,  c.  iv. 
Aa 


in  the  second  of  Henry  V.,  which  will  be 
quoted  hereafter,  they  affirm  that  "  the 
commune  of  the  land  is,  and  ever  has 
been,  a  member  of  parliament."*  And 
the  consenting  suffrage  of  our  older  law- 
books  must  be  placed  in  the  same  scale. 
The  first  gainsayers,  I  think,  were  Cam- 
den  and  Sir  Henry  Spelman,  who,  upon 
probing  the  antiquities  of  our  constitu- 
tion somewhat  more  exactly  than  their 
predecessors,  declared  that  they  could 
find  no  signs  of  the  commons  in  parlia- 
ment till  the  forty-ninth  of  Henry  III. 
Prynne,  some  years  afterward,  with 
much  vigour  and  learning,  maintained 
the  same  argument,  and  Brady  completed 
the  victory.  But  the  current  doctrine  of 
Westminster  Hall,  and  still  more  of  the 
two  chambers  of  parliament,  was  cer- 
tainly much  against  these  antiquaries ; 
and  it  passed  at  one  time  for  a  surrender 
of  popular  principles,  and  almost  a  breach 
of  privilege,  to  dispute  the  lineal  descent 
of  the  house  of  commons  from  the  wit- 
tenagemot.f 

The  true  ground  of  these  pretensions 
to  antiquity  was  a  very  well  founded  per-., 
suasion,  that  no  other  argument  would 
be  so  conclusive  to  ordinary  minds,  or  cut 
short  so  effectually  all  encroachments  of 
the  prerogative.  The  populace  of  every 
country,  but  none  so  much  as  the  Eng- 
lish, easily  grasp  the  notion,  of  right, 
meaning  thereby  something  positive  and 
definite ;  while  the  maxims  of  expediency 
or  theoretical  reasoning  pass  slightly 


*  Rot.  ParL,  vol.  iv.,  p.  22. 
t  Though  such  an  argument  would  not  be  con- 
clusive, it  might  afford  some  ground  for  hesitation 
if  the  royal  burghs  of  Scotland  were  actually  rep- 
resented in  their  parliament  more  than  half  a  cen- 
ury  before  the  date  assigned  to  the  first  represen- 
ation  of  English  towns.  Lord  Hailes  concludes 
rom  a  passage  in  Fordun,  "  that,  as  early  as  1211, 
burgesses  gave  suit  and  presence  in  the  great 
council  of  the  king's  vassals  ;  though  the  contrary 
las  been  asserted  with  much  confidence  by  various 
authors." — Annals  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  139.  For- 
dun's  words,  however,  so  far  from  importing  that 
hey  formed  a  member  of  the  legislature,  which 
perhaps  Lord  Hailes  did  not  mean  by  the  quaint 
;xpression  "  gave  suit  and  presence,"  do  not  ap- 
>ear  to  me  conclusive  to  prove  that  they  were  ac- 
;ually  present.  Hoc  anno  Rex  Scotiae  Willelmus 
magnum  tenuit  consiliuin.  Ubi,  petito  ab  opti- 
matibus  auxjko,  promiserunt  se  daturos  decem 
mille  marcas ;  praeter  burgenses  regni,  qui  sex  mil- 
ia  promiserunt.  Those  who  know  the  brief  and 
ncorrect  style  of  chronicles  will  not  think  it  un- 
ikely  that  the  offer  of  6000  marks  by  the  burgesses 
was  not  made  in  parhament,  but  in  consequence 
of  separate  requisitions  from  the  crown.  Pink- 
erton  is  of  opinion,  that  the  magistrates  of  royal 
burghs  might  upon  this,  and  perhaps  other  occa- 
sions, have  attended  at  the  bar  of  parliament  with 
heir  offers  of  money.  But  the  deputies  of  towns 
do  not  appear  as  a  part  of  parliament  till  1326.— 
Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  352,  371. 


370 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


over  their  minds.  Happy  indeed  for 
England  that  it  is  so !  But  we  have  here 
to  do  with  the  fact  alone.  And  it  may 
be  observed,  that  several  pious  frauds 
were  practised,  to  exalt  the  antiquity  of 
our  constitutional  liberties.  These  be- 
gan, perhaps,  very  early,  when  the  ima- 
ginary laws  of  Edward  the  Confessor 
were  so  earnestly  demanded.  They 
were  carried  farther  under  Edward  I.  and 
his  successors,  when  the  fable  of  privi- 
leges granted  by  the  Conqueror  to  the 
men  of  Kent  was  devised ;  when  Andrew 
Horn  filled  his  Mirror  of  Justices  with 
fictitious  tales  of  Alfred ;  and,  above  all, 
when  the  "  method  of  holding  parlia- 
ments in  the  time  of  Ethelred"  was  fab- 
ricated, about  the  end  of  Richard  y.'s 
reign ;  an  imposture  which  was  not  too 
gross  to  deceive  Sir  Edward  Coke. 

There  is  no  great  difficulty  in  answer- 
Causes  of  in£  the  question,  why  the  dep- 
summoning  uties  of  boroughs  were  finally 
deputies  an<j  permanently  ingrafted  upon 
ovtfis0*'  parliament  by  Edward  I.*  The 
government  was  becoming  con- 
stantly more  attentive  to  the  wealth  that 
commerce  brought  into  the  kingdom,  and 
the  towns  were  becoming  more  flourish- 
ing and  more  independent.  But,  chiefly, 
there  was  a  much  stronger  spirit  of  gen- 
eral liberty,  and  a  greater  discontent  at 
violent  acts  of  prerogative,  from  the  era 
of  Magna  Charta ;  after  which  authentic 
recognition  of  free  principles,  many  acts, 
which  had  seemed  before  but  the  regular 
exercise  of  authority,  were  looked  upon 
as  infringements  of  the  subject's  right. 
Among  these  the  custom  of  setting  tal- 
lages  at  discretion  would  naturally  ap- 
pear the  most  intolerable ;  and  men  were 
unwilling  to  remember  that  the  burgesses 
who  paid  them  were  indebted  for  the 
rest  of  their  possessions  to  the  bounty  of 
the  crown.  In  Edward  I.'s  reign,  even 
before  the  great  act  of  confirmation  of 
the  charters  had  rendered  arbitrary  impo- 
sitions absolutely  unconstitutional,  they 
might  perhaps  excite  louder  murmurs 

*  These  expressions  cannot  appear  too  strong. 
But  it  is  very  remarkable,  that  to  the  parliament 
of  18  Edward  III.,  the  writs  appear  to  have  sum- 
moned none  of  the  towns,  but  only  the  counties. — 
Willis,  Notit.  Parliament.,  vol.  i.,  Preface,  p.  13. 
Prynne's  Register,  3d  part,  p.  144.  Yet  the  citi- 
zens and  burgesses  are  once,  but  only  once,  named 
as  present  in  the  parliamentary  roll ;  and  there  is, 
in  general,  a  chasm  in  place  of  their  names,  where 
the  different  ranks  present  are  enumerated. — Rot. 
Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  146.  A  subsidy  was  granted  at 
this  parliament ;  so  that,  if  the  citizens  and  bur- 
gesses were  really  not  summoned,  it  is  by  far  the 
most  violent  stretch  of  power  during  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.  But  I  know  of  no  collateral  evidence 
to  illustrate  or  disprove  it. 


than  a  discreet  administration  would 
risk.  Though  the  necessities  of  the  king, 
therefore,  and  his  imperious  temper,  often 
led  him  to  this  course,*  it  was  a  more 
prudent  counsel  to  try  the  willingness 
of  his  people  before  he  forced  their  re- 
luctance. And  the  success  of  his  in- 
novation rendered  it  worth  repetition. 
Whether  it  were  from  the  complacency 
of  the  commons  at  being  thus  admitted 
among  the  peers  of  the  realm,  or  from  a 
persuasion  that  the  king  would  take  their 
money  if  they  refused  it,  or  from  inabil- 
ity to  withstand  the  plausible  reasons  of 
his  ministers,  or  from  the  private  influ- 
ence to  which  the  leaders  of  every  pop- 
ular assembly  have  been  accessible,  much 
more  was  granted  in  subsidies  after  the 
representation  of  the  towns  commenced, 
than  had  ever  been  extorted  in  tallages. 
To  grant  money  was  therefore  the 
main  object  of  their  meeting ;  and  if  the 
exigencies  of  the  administration  could 
have  been  relieved  without  subsidies,  the 
citizens  and  burgesses  might  still  have 
sat  at  home,  and  obeyed  the  laws  which 
a  council  of  prelates  and  barons  enacted 
for  their  government.  But  it  is  a  difficult 
question,  whether  the  king  and  the  peers 
designed  to  make  room  for  them,  as  it 
were,  in  legislation ;  and  whether  the 
power  of  the  purse  drew  after  it  immedi- 
ately, or  only  by  degrees,  those  indispen- 
sable rights  of  consenting  to  laws  which 
they  now  possess.  There  are  no  suffi- 
cient means  of  solving  this  doubt  during 
the  reign  of  Edward  I.  The  writ  in  22  E. 
I.  directs  two  knights  to  be  chosen  cum 
plen£  potestate  pro  se  et  tota  communi- 
tate  comitatus  praedicti,  ad  consulendum 
et  consentiendum  pro  se  et  communitate 
ilia,  his  quae  comites,  barpnes,  et  proceres 
praedicti  concorditer  ordinaverint  in  prae- 
missis.  That  of  the  next  year  runsr  ad 
faciendum  tune  quod  de  communi  con- 
silio  ordinabitur  in  praemissis.  The  same 
words  are  inserted  in  the  writ  of  26  E.  I. 
In  that  of  28  E.  I.  the  knights  are  directed 
to  be  sent  cum  plena  potestate  audiendi 
et  faciendi  quae  ibidem  ordinari  eonti- 
gerint  pro  communi  commodo.  Several 
others  of  the  same  reign  have  the  words 
ad  faciendum.  The  difficulty  is  to  pro- 
nounce whether  this  term  is  to  be  inter- 
preted in  the  sense  of  performing  or  of 
enacting ;  whether  the  representatives  of 


*  Tallages  were  imposed  without  consent  of 
parliament  in  17  E.  I.,  Wykes,  p.  117;  and  in  32 
E.  I.,  Brady's  Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  ii.  In  the  latter 
instance  the  king  also  gave  leave  to  the  lay  and 
spiritual  nobility  to  set  a  tallage  on  their  own  ten- 
ants. This  was  subsequent  to  the  Confirmati- 
Chartarum,  and  unquestionably  illegal. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


371 


the  commons  were  merely  to  learn  from 
the  lords  what  was  to  be  done,  or  to  bear 
their  part  in  advising  upon  it.  The  ear- 
liest writ,  that  of  22  E.  I.,  certainly  im- 
plies the  latter ;  and  I  do  not  know  that 
any  of  the  rest  are  conclusive  to  the  con- 
trary. In  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  the 
words  ad  consentiendum  alone,  or  ad 
faciendum  et  consentiendum,  begin ;  and 
from  that  of  Edward  III.  this  form  has 
been  constantly  used.*  It  must  still 
however  be  highly  questionable,  whether 
the  commons,  who  had  so  recently  taken 
their  place  in  parliament,  gave  any  thing 
more  than  a  constructive  assent  to  the 
laws  enacted  during  this  reign.  They 
are  not  even  named  in  the  preamble  of 
any  statute  till  the  last  year  of  Edward 

I.  Upon  more  than  one  occasion,  the 
sheriffs  were  directed  to  return  the  same 
members  who  had  sat  in  the  last  parlia- 
ment, unless  prevented  by  death  or  in- 
firmity, f 

It  has  been  a  very  prevailing  opinion. 
At  what  that  parliament  was  not  divided 

time  parlia-  mto  two  houses  at  the  first  ad- 
divided  tnto  mission  of  the  commons.  If 
two  houses,  by  this  is  only  meant  that  the 
commons  did  not  occupy  a  separate  cham- 
ber till  some  time  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.,  the  proposition,  true  or  false,  will 
be  of  little  importance.  They  may  have 
sat  at  the  bottom  of  Westminster  Hall, 
while  the  lords  occupied  the  upper  end. 
But  that  they  were  ever  intermingled  in 
voting  appears  inconsistent  with  likeli- 
hood and  authority.  The  usual  object 
of  calling  a  parliament  was  to  impose 
taxes ;  and  these,  for  many  years  after 
the  introduction  of  the  commons,  were 
laid  in  different  proportions  upon  the 
three  estates  of  the  realm.  Thus  in  the 
23  E.  I.,  the  earls,  barons,  and  knights 
gave  the  king  an  eleventh,  the  clergy  a 
tenth ;  while  he  obtained  a  seventh  from 
the  citizens  and  burgesses ;  in  the  twenty- 
fourth  of  the  same  king,  the  two  former 
of  these  orders  gave  a  twelfth,  the  last 
an  eighth;  in  the  thirty-third  year,  a 
thirtieth  was  the  grant  of  the  barons  and 
knights,  and  of  the  clergy,  a  twentieth  of 
the  cities  and  towns  :  in  the  first  of  Ed- 
ward II.,  the  counties  paid  a  twentieth, 
the  towns  a  fifteenth;  in  the  sixth  of 
Edward  III.,  the  rates  were  a  fifteenth 

*  Prynne's  2d  Register.  It  may  be  remarked, 
that  writs  of  summons  to  great  councils  never  ran 
ad  faciendum,  but  ad  tractandum,  consulendum  et 
consentiendum ;  from  which  some  would  infer  that 
faciendum  had  the  sense  of  enacting ;  since  stat- 
utes could  not  be  passed  in  such  assemblies. — Id., 
p.  92. 

t  28  E.  I.,  in  Prynne's  4th  Register,?.  12 ;  9  E. 

II.  (a  great  council),  p.  4S. 

A  a  2 


and  a  tenth.*  These  distinct  grants  im- 
ply distinct  grantors ;  for  it  is  not  to  be 
imagined  that  the  commons  intermeddled 
in  those  affecting  the  lords,  or  the  lords 
in  those  of  the  commons.  In  fact,  how- 
ever, there  is  abundant  proof  of  their 
separate  existence  long  before  the  seven- 
teenth of  Edward  III.,  which  is  the  epoch 
assigned  by  Carte.f  or  even  the  sixth  of 
that  king,  which  has  been  chosen  by 
some  other  writers.  Thus  the  commons 
sat  at  Acton  Burnell  in  the  eleventh  of 
Edward  I.,  while  the  upper  house  was  at 
Shrewsbury.  In  the  eighth  of  Edward 
II.,  "the  commons  of  England  complain 
to  the  king  and  his  council,"  &c.J  These 
must  surely  have  been  the  commons  as- 
sembled in  parliament,  for  who  else  could 
thus  have  entitled  themselves  1  In  the 
nineteenth  of  the  same  king,  we  find 
several  petitions,  evidently  proceeding 
from  the  body  of  the  commons  in  parlia- 
ment, and  complaining  of  public  griev- 
ances.^ The  roll  of  1  E.  III.,  though 
mutilated,  is  conclusive  to  show  that 
separate  petitions  were  then  presented 
by  the  commons,  according  to  the  regu- 
lar usage  of  subsequent  times.  ||  And, 
indeed,  the  preamble  of  1  E.  HI.,  stat.  2, 
is  apparently  capable  of  no  other  infer- 
ence. 

As  the  knights  of  shires  correspond  to 
the  lower  nobility  of  other  feudal  coun- 
tries, we  have  less  cause  to  be  surprised 
that  they  belonged  originally  to  the  same 
branch  of  parliament  as  the  barons,  than 
at  their  subsequent  intermixture  with 
men  so  inferior  in  station  as  the  citizens 
and  burgesses.  It  is  by  no  means  easy 
to  define  the  point  of  time  when  this  dis- 
tribution was  settled  ;  but  I  think  it  may 
be  inferred  from  the  rolls  of  parliament, 
that  the  houses  were  divided,  as  they  are 
at  present,  in  the  eighth,  ninth,  and  nine- 
teenth years  of  Edward  IL^f  This  ap» 
pears,  however,  beyond  doubt,  in  the 
first  of  Edward  III.**  Yet  in  the  sixth 
of  the  same  prince,  though  the  knights 
and  burgesses  are  expressly  mentioned 
to  have  consulted  together,  the  former 
taxed  themselves  in  a  smaller  rate  of 
subsidy  than  the  latter. ff 

The  proper  business  of  the  house  of 
commons  was  to  petition  for  redress  of 
grievances,  as  much  as  to  provide  for 
the  necessities  of  the  crown.  In  the 


*  Brady's  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  40.  Par- 
liamentary History,  vol.  i.,  p.  206.  Rot.  Parlia- 
ment, t.  ii.,  p.  66. 

t  Carte,  vol.  ii.,  p.  45L  Parliamentary  History, 
vol.  i.,  p.  234. 

SRot.  Parl.,  v.  i.,  p.  289.  <J  Id.,  p.  430. 

Id.,  vol.  ii,,  p.  7-          f  Id-  P-  289,  351,  430. 
**  Id.,  p.  5.  ft  Id.,  p.  80. 


372 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


prudent  fiction  of  English  law,  no  wrong 
is  supposed  to  proceed  from  the  source 
of  right.  The  throne  is  fixed  upon  a 
pinnacle,  which  perpetual  beams  of  truth 
and  justice  irradiate,  though  corruption 
and  partiality  may  occupy  the  middle 
region,  and  cast  their  chill  shade  upon 
all  below.  In  his  high  court  of  parlia- 
ment, a  king  of  England  was  to  learn 
where  injustice  had  been  unpunished, 
and  where  right  had  been  delayed.  The 
common  courts  of  law,  if  they  were  suf- 
ficiently honest,  were  not  sufficiently 
strong  to  redress  the  subject's  injuries, 
where  the  officers  of  the  crown  or  the 
nobles  interfered.  To  parliament  he 
looked  as  the  great  remedial  court  for 
relief  of  private  as  well  as  public  griev- 
ances. For  this  cause  it  was  ordained 
in  the  fifth  of  Edward  II.,  that  the  king 
should  hold  a  parliament  once,  or,  if 
necessary,  twice  every  year ;  "  that  the 
pleas  which  have  been  thus  delayed,  and 
those  where  the  justices  have  differed, 
may  be  brought  to  a  close."*  And  a 
short  act  of  4  Edward  III.,  which  was 
not  very  strictly  regarded,  provides  that 
a  parliament  shall  be  held  "  every  year, 
or  oftener,  if  need  be."t  By  what  per- 
sons, and  under  what  limitations,  this 
jurisdiction  in  parliament  was  exercised, 
will  come  under  our  future  consideration. 
The  efficacy  of  a  king's  personal  char- 
acter, in  so  imperfect  a  state  of  govern- 
ment, was  never  more  strongly  exempli- 
fied than  in  the  two  first  Edwards.  The 
father,  a  little  before  his  death,  had  hum- 
bled his  boldest  opponents  among  the  no- 
bility; and  as  for  the  commons,  so  far 
from  claiming  a  right  of  remonstrating, 
we  have  seen  cause  to  doubt  whether  they 
Edward  IT.  were  accounted  effectual  mem- 
^ers  °^  t^ie  legislature  for  any 
purposes  but  taxation.  But  in 
reign.  the  very  second  year  of  the 
son's  reign,  they  granted  the  twenty-fifth 
penny  of  their  goods,  "  upon  this  condi- 
tion, that  the  king  should  take  advice 
and  grant  redress  upon  certain  articles 
wherein  they  are  aggrieved."  These 
were  answered  at  the  ensuing  parlia- 
ment, and  are  entered,  with  the  king's 
respective  promises  of  redress,  upon  the 
roll.  It  will  be  worth  while  to  extract 
part  of  this  record,  that  we  may  see 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i  ,  p.  285. 

t  4  E.  III.,  c.  14.  Annual  sessions  of  parlia- 
ment seem  fully  to  satisfy  the  words,  and  still 
more  the  spirit  of  this  act,  and  of  36  E.  III.,  c.  10  ; 
which,  however,  are  repealed  by  implication  from 
the  provisions  of  6  W.  III.,  c.  2.  But  it  was  very 
rare  under  the  Plantagenet  dynasty  for  a  parlia- 
ment to  continue  more  than  a  year. 


what  were  the  complaints  of  the  com- 
mons of  England,  and  their  notions  of 
right,  in  1309.  I  have  chosen,  on  this  as 
on  other  occasions,  to  translate  very  lit- 
erally, at  the  expense  of  some  stiffness, 
and  perhaps  obscurity  in  language. 

"  The  good  people  of  the  kingdom  who 
are  come  hither  to  parliament,  pray  our 
lord  the  king  that  he  will,  if  it  please 
him,  have  regard  to  his  poor  subjects, 
who  are  much  aggrieved  by  reason  that 
they  are  not  governed  as  they  should  be  ; 
especially  as  to  the  articles  of  the  Great 
Charter;  and  for  this,  if  it  please  him, 
they  pray  remedy.  Besides  which  they 
pray  their  lord  the  king  to  hear  what  has 
long  aggrieved  his  people,  and  still  does 
so  from  day  to  day,  on  the  part  of  those 
who  call  themselves  his  officers,  and  to 
amend  it,  if  he  pleases."  The  articles, 
eleven  in  number,  are  to  the  following 
purport: — 1.  That  the  king's  purveyors 
seize  great  quantities  of  victuals  without 
payment;  2.  That  new  customs  are  set 
on  wine,  cloth,  and  other  imports ;  3.  That 
the  current  coin  is  not  so  good  as  for- 
merly ;*  4,  5.  That  the  steward  and  mar- 
shal enlarge  their  jurisdiction  beyond 
measure  to  the  oppression  of  the  people  ; 

6.  That   the  commons  find  none  to  re- 
ceive petitions  addressed  to  the  council ; 

7.  That  the  collectors  of  the  king's  dues 
(pernours  des  prises)  in  towns  and  at  fairs, 
take  more  than  is  lawful;  8.  That  men 
are  delayed  in  their  civil  suits  by  writs  of 
protection ;    9.  That  felons  escape  pun- 
ishment  by  procuring   charters  of  par- 
don;   10.    That   the   constables   of  the 
king's  castles  take  cognizance  of  com- 
mon pleas;  11.  That  the  king's  escheat- 
ors  oust  men  of  lands  held  by  good  title, 
under  pretence  of  an  inquest  of  office.! 

These  articles  display  in  a  short  com- 
pass the  nature  of  those  grievances 
which  existed  under  almost  all  the 
princes  of  the  Plantagenet  dynasty,  and 
are  spread  over  the  rolls  of  parliament 
for  more  than  a  century  after  this  time. 
Edward  gave  the  amplest  assurances  of 
putting  an  end  to  them  all;  except  in 
one  instance,  the  augmented  customs  on 
imports,  to  which  he  answered  rather 
evasively,  that  he  would  take  them  off 
till  he  should  perceive  whether  himself 
and  his  people  derived  advantage  from 
so  doing,  and  act  thereupon  as  he  should 


*  This  article  is  so  expressed  as  to  make  it  ap- 
pear that  the  grievance  was  the  high  price  of  com- 
modities. But  as  this  was  the  natural  effect  of  a 
degraded  currency,  and  the  whole  tenour  of  these 
articles  relates  to  abuses  of  government,  I  think  it 
must  have  meant  what  I  have  said  in  the  text. 

t  Prynne's  2d  Register,  p.  68. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


373 


be  advised.  Accordingly,  the  next  year, 
he  issued  writs  to  collect  these  new 
customs  again.  But  the  Lords  Ordainers 
superseded  the  writs,  having  entirely  ab- 
rogated all  illegal  impositions.*  It  does 
not  appear,  however,  that,  regard  had  to 
the  times,  there  was  any  thing  very  ty- 
rannical in  Edward's  government.  He 
set  tallages  sometimes,  like  his  father, 
on  his  demesne  towns  without  assent  of 
parliament.!  In  the  nineteenth  year 
of  his  reign,  the  commons  show,  that 
"whereas  we  and  our  ancestors  have 
given  many  tallages  to  the  king's  ances- 
tors to  obtain  the  charter  of  the  forest, 
which  charter  we  have  had  confirmed 
by  the  present  king,  paying  him  large- 
ly on  our  part ;  yet  the  king's  officers  of 
the  forest  seize  on  lands,  and  destroy 
ditches,  and  oppress  the  people,  for  which 
they  pray  remedy,  for  the  sake  of  God 
and  his.  father's  soul."  They  complain  at 
the  same  time  of  arbitrary  imprisonment, 
against  the  law  of  the  land.|  To  both 
these  petitions  the  king  returned  a  prom- 
ise of  redress;  and  they  complete  the 
catalogue  of  customary  grievances  in  this 
period  of  our  constitution. 

During  the  reign  of  Edward^II.  the 
rolls  of  parliament  are  imperfect,  and 
we  have  not  much  assistance  from  other 
sources.  The  assent  of  the  commons, 
which  frequently  is  not  specified  in  the 
statutes  of  this  age,  appears  in  two  re- 
markable and  revolutionary  proceedings, 
the  appointment  of  the  Lords  Ordainers 
in  1312,§  and  that  of  Prince  Edward  as 
guardian  of  the  realm  in  the  rebellion 
which  ended  in  the  king's  dethronement. 
In  the  former  case,  it  indicates  that  the 
aristocratic  party  then  combined  against 
the  crown  were  desirous  of  conciliating 
popularity.  An  historian  relates,  that 
some  of  the  commons  were  consulted 
upon  the  ordinances  to  be  made  for  the 
reformation  of  government.  ||  In  the  lat- 
ter case,  the  deposition  of  Edward  II.,  I 
am  satisfied,  that  the  commons  assent 
was  pretended  in  order  to  give  more 
speciousness  to  the  transaction.^"  But  as 

*  Prynne's  2d  Register,  p.  75. 

t  Madox,  Firrna  Burgi,  p.  6.  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i., 
p.  449. 

\  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i.,  p.  430.        $  Id.,  p.  281. 

||  Walsingham,  p.  97. 

^[  A  record,  which  may  be  read  in  Brady's  His- 
tory of  England,  vol.  ii.,  Append.,  p.  66,  and  in 
Rymer,  t.  iv.,  p.  1237,  relative  to  the  proceedings 
on  Edward  II.  s  ilight  into  Wales  and  subsequent 
detention,  recites  "  that  the  king,  having  left  his 
kingdom  without  government,  and  gone  away  with 
notorious  enemies  of  the  queen,  prince,  and  realm ; 
divers  prelates,  earls,  barons,  and  knights  then  be- 
ing at  Bristol,  in  the  presence  of  the  said  queen 
and  duke  (Prince  Edward,  duke  of  Cornwall),  by 


this  proceeding,  however  violent,  bears 
evident  marks  of  having  been  conducted 
by  persons  conversant  in  law,  the  men- 
tion of  the  commons  may  be  deemed  a 
testimony  to  their  constitutidnal  right 
of  participation  with  the  peers  in  making 
provision  for  a  temporary  defect  of  what- 
ever nature  in  the  executive  government. 

During  the  long  and  prosperous  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  the  efforts  of  Edward  in. 
parliament  in  behalf  of  their 
country  were  rewarded  with 
success,  in  establishing  upon  a  rights. 
firm  footing  three  essential  principles  of 
our  government ;  the  illegality  of  raising 
money  without  consent ;  the  necessity 
that  the  two  houses  should  concur  for 
any  alterations  in  the  law ;  and,  lastly, 
the  right  of  the  commons  to  inquire 
into  public  abuses,  and  to  impeach  public 
counsellors.  By  exhibiting  proofs  of 
each  of  these  from  parliamentary  rec- 
ords, I  shall  be  able  to  substantiate  the 
progressive  improvement  of  our  free 
constitution,  which  was  principally  con- 
solidated during  the  reigns  of  Edward  III. 
and  his  two  next  successors.  Brady  in- 
deed, Carte,  and  the  authors  of  the  Par- 
liamentary History,  have  trod  already 
over  this  ground ;  but  none  of  the  three 
can  be  considered  as  familiar  to  the  gen- 
erality of  readers,  and  I  may  at  least 
take  credit  for  a  sincerer  love  of  liberty 
than  any  of  their  writings  display. 

In  the  sixth  year  of  Edward  III.  a  par- 
liament was  called  to  provide  for  the 
emergency  of  an  Irish  rebell-  Remonstran- 
iqn;  wherein,  "because  the  f^ ^ainst 
king  could  not  send  troops  and  rnoneygwith- 
money  to  Ireland  without  the  °ui  consent, 
aid  of  his  people,  the  prelates,  earls, 
barons,  and  other  great  men,  and  the 
knights  of  shires,  and  all  the  commons, 


the  assent  of  the  whole  commonalty  of  the  realm  there 
being,  unanimously  elected  the  said  duke  to  be 
guardian  of  the  said  kingdom  ;  so  that  the  said 
duke  and  guardian  should  rule  and  govern  the 
said  realm,  in  the  name  and  by  the  authority  of  the 
king  his  father,  he  being  thus  absent."  But  the 
king  being  taken  and  brought  back  into  England, 
the  power  thus  delegated  to  the  guardian  ceased 
of  course  ;  whereupon  the  Bishop  of  Hereford  was 
sent  to  press  the  king  to  permit  that  the  great  seal, 
which  he  had  with  him,  the  prince  having  only 
used  his  private  seal,  should  be  used  in  all  things 
that  required  it.  Accordingly  the  king  sent  the 
great  seal  to  the  queen  and  prince.  The  bishop  is 
said  to  have  been  thus  commissioned  to  fetch  the 
seal  by  the  prince  and  queen,  and  by  the  said  pre- 
lates and  peers,  with  the  assent  of  the  said  common- 
alty then  being  at  Hereford.  It  is  plain  that  these 
were  mere  words  of  course  ;  for  no  parliament 
had  been  convoked,  and  no  proper  representatives 
could  have  been  either  at  Bristol  or  Hereford. 
However,  this  is  a  very  curious  record,  inasmuch 
as  it  proves  the  importance  attached  to  the  forms 
of  the  constitution  at  this  period. 


374 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


of  their  free-will,  for  the  said  purpose, 
and  also  in  order  that  the  king  might 
live  of  his  own,  and  not  vex  his  people 
by  excessive  prises,  nor  in  other  man- 
ner, grant  to  him  the  fifteenth  penny,  to 
levy  of  the  commons,*  and  the  tenth 
from  the  cities,  towns,  and  royal  de- 
mesnes. And  the  king,  at  the  request 
of  the  same,  in  ease  of  his  people,  grants 
that  the  commissions  lately  made  to 
certain  persons  assigned  to  set  tallages 
on  cities,  towns,  and  demesnes  through- 
out England,  shall  be  immediately  repeal- 
ed; and  that  in  time  to  come  he  will 
not  set  such  tallage,  except  as  it  has 
been  done  in  the  time  of  his  ancestors, 
and  as  he  may  reasonably  do."f 

These  concluding  words  are  of  danger- 
ous implication,  and  certainly  it  was  not 
the  intention  of  Edward,  inferior  to  none 
of  his  predecessors  in  the  love  of  power, 
to  divest  himself  of  that  eminent  prerog- 
ative, which,  however  illegally  since  the 
Confirmatio  Chartarum,  had' been  exer- 
cised by  them  all.  But  the  parliament 
took  no  notice  of  this  reservation,  and 
continued  with  unshaken  perseverance  to 
insist  on  this  incontestable  and  funda- 
mental right,  which  he  was  prone  enough 
to  violate. 

In  the  thirteenth  year  of  this  reign,  the 
lords  gave  their  answer  to  commission- 
ers sent  to  open  the  parliament,  and  to 
treat  with  them  on  the  king's  part,  in  a 
sealed  roll.  This  contained  a  grant  of 
the  tenth  sheaf,  fleece,  and  lamb.  But, 
before  they  gave  it,  they  took  care  to 
have  letters  patent  showed  them,  by 
which  the  commissioners  had  power  "  to 
grant  some  graces  to  the  great  and 
small  of  the  kingdom."-—''  And  the  said 
lords,"  the  roll  proceeds  to  say,  "  will, 
that  the  imposition  (maletoste)  which 
flow  again  has  been  levied  upon  wool  be 
entirely  abolished,  that  the  old  customa- 
ry duty  be  kept,  and  that  they  may  have 
it  by  charter,  and  by  enrolment  in  par- 
liament, that  such  custom  be  never 
more  levied,  and  that  this  grant  now 
made  to  the  king,  or  any  other  made  in 
time  past,  shall  not  turn  hereafter  to  their 
charge  nor  be  drawn  into  precedent." 
The  commons,  who  gave  their  answers 
in  a  separate  roll,  declared  that  they 
could  grant  no  subsidy  without  consult- 
ing their  constituents;  and  therefore 
begged  that  another  parliament  might  be 
summoned,  and  in  the  meantime  they 
would  endeavour,  by  using  persuasion 

*  "  La  commonalt^e"  seems  in  this  place  to 
mean  the  tenants  of  land,  or  commons  of  the 
counties,  in  contradistinction  to  citizens  and  bur- 
f  Rot.  Parl.,  v.  ii.,  p.  66. 


with  the  people  of  their  respective  coun- 
ties, to  procure  the  grant  of  a  reasonable 
aid  in  the  next  parliament.*  They  de- 
manded also  that  the  imposition  on  wool 
and  lead  should  be  taken  as  it  used  to  be 
in  former  times,  "  inasmuch  as  it  is  en- 
hanced without  assent  of  the  commons, 
or  of  the  lords,  as  we  understand  ;  and 
if  it  be  otherwise  demanded,  that  any 
one  of  the  commons  may  refuse  it  (le 
puisse  arester),  without  being  troubled  on 
that  account  (saunz  estre  chalange").f 

Wool,  however,  the  staple  export  of 
that  age,  was  too  easy  and  tempting  a 
prey  to  be  relinquished  by  a  prince  en- 
gaged in  an  empoverishing  war.  Seven 
years  afterward,  in  20  E.  III.,  we  find  the 
commons  praying  that  the  great  subsidy 
of  forty  shillings  upon  the  sack  of  wool 
be  taken  off;  and  the  old  custom  paid  as 
heretofore  was  assented  to  and  granted. 
The  government  spoke  this  time  in  a 
more  authoritative  tone.  "As  to  this 
point  (the  answer  runs),  the  prelates  and 
others,  seeing  in  what  need  the  king  stood 
of  an  aid  before  his  passage  beyond  sea, 
to  recover  his  rights,  and  defend  his  king- 
dom of  England,  consented,  with  the 
concurrence  of  the  merchants,  that  he 
should  have,  in  aid  of  his  said  war,  and  in 
defence  of  his  said  kingdom,  forty  shil- 
lings of  subsidy  for  each  sack  of  wool 
that  should  be  exported  beyond  sea  for 
two  years  to  come.  And  upon  this  grant 
divers  merchants  have  made  many  ad- 
vances to  our  lord  the  king,  in  aid  of  his 
war ;  for  which  cause  this  subsidy  can- 
not be  repealed  without  assent  of  the 
king  and  his  lords. "J 

It  is  probable  that  Edward's  counsel- 
lors wished  to  establish  a  distinction,  long 
afterward  revived  by  those  of  James  I., 
between  customs  levied  on  merchandise 
at  the  ports  and  internal  taxes.  The 
statute  entitled  Confirmatio  Chartarum 
had  manifestly  taken  away  the  preroga- 
tive of  imposing  the  latter,  which  indeed 
had  never  extended  beyond  the  tenants 
of  the  royal  demesne.  But  its  language 
was  not  quite  so  explicit  as  to  the  former, 
although  no  reasonable  doubt  could  be 
entertained  that  the  intention  of  the  legis- 
lature was  to  abrogate  every  species  of 
imposition  unauthorized  by  parliament. 
The  thirtieth  section  of  Magna  Charta 
had  provided  that  foreign  merchants 
should  be  free  from  all  tributes,  except 
the  ancient  customs;  and  it  was  strange 
to  suppose  that  natives  were  excluded 
from  the  benefit  of  that  enactment.  Yet 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  104. 

t  Id.  ih»d.  J  Id.,  p.  161. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


375 


owing  to  the  ambiguous  and  elliptical 
style  so  frequent  in  our  older  laws,  this 
was  open  to  dispute,  and  could  perhaps 
only  be  explained  by  usage.  Edward  I., 
in  despite  of  both  these  statutes,  had 
set  a  duty  of  threepence  in  the  pound 
upon  goods  imported  by  merchant  stran- 
gers. This  imposition  was  noticed  as  a 
grievance  in  the  third  year  of  his  succes- 
sor, and  repealed  by  the  lords  ordainers. 
It  was  revived  however  by  Edward  III., 
and  continued  to  be  levied  ever  after- 
ward.* 

Edward  was  led  by  the  necessities  of 
his  unjust  and  expensive  war  into  anoth- 
er arbitrary  encroachment,  of  which  we 
find  as  many  complaints  as  of  his  pecuni- 
ary extortions.  The  commons  pray,  in 
the  same  parliament  of  20  E.  III.,  that 
commissions  should  not  issue  for  the  fu- 
ture out  of  chancery,  to  charge  the  peo- 
ple with  providing  men-at-arms,  hobelers 
(or  light  cavalry),  archers,  victuals,  or  in 
any  other  manner,  without  consent  of 
parliament.  It  is  replied  to  this  petition, 
that  "  it  is  notorious  how  in  many  parlia- 
ments the  lords  and  commons  had  prom- 
ised to  aid  the  king  in  his  quarrel  with 
their  bodies  and  goods  as  far  as  was  in 
their  power ;  wherefore  the  said  lords, 
seeing  the  necessity  in  which  the  king 
stood  of  having  aid  of  men-at-arms,  hobe- 
lers, and  archers,  before  his  passage  to 
recover  his  rights  beyond  sea,  and  to  de- 
fend his  realm  of  England,  ordained,  that 
such  as  had  five  pounds  a  year  or  more 
in  land  on  this  side  of  Trent,  should  fur- 
nish men-at-arms,  hobelers,  and  archers, 
according  to  the  proportion  of  the  land 
they  held,  to  attend  the  king  at  his  cost ; 
and  some  who  would  neither  go  them- 
selves nor  find  others  in  their  stead,  were 
willing  to  give  the  king  wherewithal 
he  might  provide  himself  with  some  in 
their  place.  And  thus  the  thing  has  been 
done,  and  no  otherwise.  And  the  king 
wills,  that  henceforth  what  has  been  thus 
done  in  this  necessity  be  not  drawn  into 
consequence  or  example."! 

The  commons  were  not  abashed  by 
these  arbitraiy  pretensions;  they  knew 
that  by  incessant  remonstrances  they 
should  gain  at  least  one  essential  point, 

*  Case  of  impositions  in  Howell's  State  Trials, 
vol.  ii.,  p.  371—519  ;  particularly  the  argument  of 
Mr.  Hakewill.  Male's  Treatise  on  the  Customs, 
in  Margrave's  Tracts,  vol.  i. 

Edward  III.  imposed  another  duty  on  cloth  ex- 
ported, on  the  pretence  that  as  the  wool  must  have 
paid  a  tax,  he  had  a  right  to  place  the  wrought  and 
unwrought  article  on  an  equality.  The  commons 
remonstrated  against  this :  but  it  was  not  repealed. 
This  took  place  about  22  E.  III.— Male's  Treatise, 
p.  175.  t  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  160. 


that  of  preventing  the  crown  from  claim- 
ing these  usurpations  as  uncontested  pre- 
rogatives. The  roll  of  parliament  in  the 
next  two  years,  the  21st  and  22d  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  is  full  of  the  same  complaints 
on  one  side,  and  the  same  allegations  of 
necessity  on  the  other.*  In  the  latter  year 
the  commons  grant  a  subsidy,  on  condi- 
tion that  no  illegal  levying  of  money 
should  take  place,  with  several  other 
remedial  provisions;  "and  that  these 
conditions  should  be  entered  on  the  roll 
of  parliament,  as  a  matter  of  record,  by 
which  they  may  have  remedy,  if  any 
thing  should  be  attempted  to  the  con- 
trary in  time  to  come."  From  this  year 
the  complaints  of  extortion  become  ra- 
ther less  frequent ;  and  soon  afterward  a 
statute  was  passed,  "  That  no  man  should 
be  constrained  to  find  men-at-arms,  hobe- 
lers, nor  archers,  other  than  those  which 
hold  by  such  services,  if  it  be  not  by 
common  assent  and  grant  made  in  parlia- 
ment."! Yet  even  in  the  last  year  of 
Edward's  reign,  when  the  boundaries  of 
prerogative  and  the  rights  of  parliament 
were  better  ascertained,  the  king  lays  a 
sort  of  claim  to  impose  charges  upon  his 
subjects  in  cases  of  great  necessity  and 
for  the  defence  of  his  kingdom.^  But  this 
more  humble  language  indicates  a  change 
in  the  spirit  of  government,  which,  after 
long  fretting  impatiently  at  the  curb,  be- 
gan at  length  to  acknowledge  the  con- 
trolling hand  of  law. 

These  are  the  chief  instances  of  a 
struggle  between  the  crown  and  com- 
mons as  to  arbitrary  taxation ;  but  there 
are  two  remarkable  proceedings  in  the 
45th  and  46th  of  Edward,  which,  though 
they  would  not  have  been  endured  in 
later  times,  are  rather  anomalies  arising 
out  of  the  unsettled  state  of  the  constitu- 
tion and  the  recency  of  parliamentary 
rights,  than  mere  encroachments  of  the 
prerogative.  In  the  former  year,  parlia- 
ment had  granted  a  subsidy  of  fifty  thou- 
sand pounds,  to  be  collected  by  an  assess- 
ment of  twenty-two  shillings  and  three- 
pence upon  every  parish,  on  a  presump- 
tion that  the  parishes  in  England  amount- 
ed to  forty-five  thousand,  whereas  they 
were  hardly  a  fifth  of  that  number.  This 
amazing  mistake  was  not  discovered  till 
the  parliament  had  been  dissolved.  Upon 
its  detection,  the  king  summoned  a  great 
council,^  consisting  of  one  knight,  citizen, 
and  burgess,  named  by  himself  out  of 
two  that  had  been  returned  to  the  last 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  161,  166,201. 
t  25  E.  III.,  stat.  v.,  c.  8. 
t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  366. 
$  Prynne's  4th  Register,  p.  289, 


376 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHiP.   VIII. 


parliament.  To  this  assembly  the  chan- 
cellor set  forth  the  deficiency  of  the  last 
subsidy,  and  proved  by  the  certificates  of 
all  the  bishops  in  England  how  strangely 
the  parliament  had  miscalculated  the 
number  of  parishes;  whereupon  they 
increased  the  parochial  assessment  by 
their  own  authority  to  one  hundred  and 
sixteen  shillings.*  It  is  obvious  that  the 
main  intention  of  parliament  was  carried 
into  effect  by  this  irregularity,  which 
seems  to  have  been  the  subject  of  no 
complaint.  In  the  next  parliament,  a 
still  more  objectionable  measure  was  re- 
sorted to ;  after  the  petitions  of  the  com- 
mons had  been  answered,  and  the  knights 
dismissed,  the  citizens  and  burgesses 
were  convened  before  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  the  lords  in  a  room  near  the 
white  chamber,  and  solicited  to  renew 
their  subsidy  of  forty  shillings  upon  the 
tun  of  wine,  and  sixpence  in  the  pound 
upon  other  imports,  for  safe  convoy  of 
shipping,  during  one  year  more  ;  to  which 
they  assented ;  "  and  so  departed."! 

The  second  constitutional  principle  es- 
Thecon-  tablished  in  the  reign  of  Ed- 
currence  of  war<}  ni.  was,  that  the  king  and 
huegisia3-68  two  houses  of  parliament  in 
tion  neces-  conjunction  possessed  exclu- 
sary.  sively  the  right  of  legislation. 

Laws  were  now  declared  to  be  made  by 
the  king  at  the  request  of  the  commons, 
and  by  the  assent  of  the  lords  and  pre- 
lates. Such  at  least  was  the  general 
form,  though  for  many  subsequent  ages 
there  was  no  invariable  regularity  in  this 
respect.  The  commons,  who  till  this 
reign  were  rarely  mentioned,  were  now 
as  rarely  omitted  in  the  enacting  clause. 
In  fact,  it  is  evident  from  the  rolls  of 
parliament,  that  statutes  were  almost 
always  founded  upon  their  petition. J 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  304. 

t  Idem,  p.  310.  In  the  mode  of  levying  sub- 
sidies, a  remarkable  improvement  took  place  ear- 
ly in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  Originally  two 
chief  taxers  were  appointed  by  the  king  for  each 
county,  who  named  twelve  persons  in  every  hun- 
dred to  assess  the  moveable  estate  of  all  inhabi- 
tants according  to  its  real  value.  But  in  8  E.  III., 
on  complaint  of  parliament,  that  thb«e  taxers  were 
partial,  commissioners  were  sent  round  to  com- 
pound with  every  town  and  parish  for  a  gross  sum, 
which  was  from  thenceforth  the  fixed  quota  of  sub- 
sidy, and  raised  by  the  inhabitants  themselves.— 
Brady  on  Boroughs,  p.  81. 

J  Laws  appear  to  have  been  drawn  up  and  pro- 
posed to  the  two  housessby  the  king,  down  to  the 
time  of  Edward  I.— Kale's  Hist,  of  Common  Law, 
p.  16. 

Sometimes  the  representatives  of  particular 
places  address  separate  petitions  to  the  king  and 
council ;  as  the  citizens  of  London,  the  commons 
of  Devonshire,  &c.  These  are  intermingled  with 
the  general  petitions,  and  both  together  are  for  the 


These  petitions,  with  the  respective  an- 
swers made  to  them  in  the  king's  name, 
w^ere  drawn  up  after  the  end  of  the  ses- 
sion in  the  form  of  laws,  and  entered 
upon  the  statute-roll.  But  here  it  must 
be  remarked,  that  the  petitions  were 
often  extremely  qualified  and  altered  by 
the  answer,  insomuch  that  many  statutes 
of  this  and  some  later  reigns  by  no 
means  express  the  true  sense  of  the  com- 
mons. Sometimes  they  contented  them- 
selves with  showing  their  grievance,  and 
praying  remedy  from  the  king  and  his 
council.  Of  this  one  eminent  instance 
is  the  great  statute  of  treasons.  In  the 
petition  whereon  this  act  is  founded,  it  is 
merely  prayed  that,  "  whereas  the  king's 
justices  in  different  counties  adjudge  per- 
sons endicted  before  them  to  be  traitors 
for  sundry  matters  not  known  by  the 
commons  to  be  treason,  it  would  please 
the  king  by  his  council,  and  by  the  great 
and  wise  men  of  the  land,  to  declare 
what  are  treasons  in  this  present  parlia- 
ment." The  answer  to  this  petition  con- 
tains the  existing  statute,  as  a  declara- 
tion on  the  king's  part.*  But  there  is  no 
appearance  that  it  received  the  direct  as- 
sent of  the  lower  house.  In  the  next 
reigns  we  shall  find  more  remarkable  in- 
stances of  assuming  a  consent  which  was 
never  positively  given. 

The  statute  of  treasons,  however,  was 
supposed  to  be  declaratory  of  the  ancient 
law ;  in  permanent  and  material  innova- 
tions, a  more  direct  concurrence  of  all 
the  estates  was  probably  required.  A 
new  statute,  to  be  perpetually  incorpo- 
rated with  the  law  of  England,  was  re- 
garded as  no.light  matter.  It  was  a  very 
common  answer  to  a  petition  of  the  com- 
mons, in  the  early  part  of  this  reign,  that 
it  could  not  be  granted  without  making  a 
new  law.  After  the  parliament  of  14  E. 
III.,  a  certain  number  of  prelates,  barons, 
and  counsellors,  with  twelve  knights  and 
six  burgesses,  were  appointed  to  sit  from 
day  to  day,  in  order  to  turn  such  petitions 
and  answers  as  were  fit  to  be  perpetual 
into  a  statute ;  but  for  such  as  were  of  a 
temporary  nature,  the  king  issued  his  let- 
ters patent.f  This  reluctance  to  inno- 
vate without  necessity,  and  to  swell  the 
number  of  laws  which  all  were  bound  to 
know  and  obey  with  an  accumulation  of 
transitory  enactments,  led  apparently  to 
the  distinction  between  statutes 
and  ordinances.  The  latter  are 
indeed  defined  by  some  law-  Jra0™e°srdi~ 
yers  to  be  regulations  proceed- 
most  part  very  numerous.  In  the  roll  of  50  Edw. 
III.  they  amount  to  140. 

.*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  239.        f  Idem,  p.  113. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


377 


ing  from  the  king  and  lords,  without  con- 
currence of  the  commons.  But  if  this 
be  applicable  to  some  ordinances,  it  is 
certain  that  the  word,  even  when  op- 
posed to  statute,  with  which  it  is  often 
synonymous,  sometimes  denotes  an  act 
of  the  whole  legislature.  In  the  37th  of 
Edward  III.,  when  divers  sumptuary  reg- 
ulations against  excess  of  apparel  were 
made  in  full  parliament,  "  it  was  demand- 
ed of  the  lords  and  commons,  inasmuch 
as  the  matter  of  their  petitions  was  novel 
and  unheard  of  before,  whether  they 
would  have  them  granted  by  way  of  or- 
dinance or  of  statute.  They  answered 
that  it  would  be  best  to  have  them  by 
way  of  ordinance  and  not  of  statute,  in 
order  that  any  thing  which  should  need 
amendment  might  be  amended  at  the 
next  parliament."*  So  much  scruple  did 
they  entertain  about  tampering  with  the 
statute  law  of  the  land. 

Ordinances,  which,  if  it  were  not  for 
their  partial  or  temporary  operation, 
could  not  well  be  distinguished  from 
laws,f  were  often  established  in  great 
councils.  These  assemblies,  which  fre- 
quently occurred  in  Edward's  reign,  were 
hardly  distinguishable,  except  in  name, 
from  parliaments,  being  constituted  not 
only  of  those  who  were  regularly  sum- 
moned to  the  house  of  lords,  but  of  dep- 
uties from  counties,  cities,  and  boroughs. 
Several  places  that  never  returned  bur- 
gesses to  parliament  have  sent  deputies 
to  some  of  these  councils. J  The  most 
remarkable  of  these  was  that  held  in  the 
27th  of  Edward  III.,  consisting  of  one 
knight  for  each  county,  and  of  deputies 
from  all  the  cities  and  boroughs,  wherein 
the  ordinances  of  the  staple  were  estab- 
lished. These  were  previously  agreed 
upon  by  the  king  and  lords,  and  copies 
given,  one  to  the  knights,  another  to  the 
burgesses.  The  roll  tells  us,  that  they 
gave  their  opinion  in  writing  to  the  coun- 
cil, after  much  deliberation,  and  that  this 
was  read  and  discussed  by  the  great  men. 
These  ordinances  fix  the  staple  of  wool 
in  particular  places  within  England,  pro- 
hibit English  merchants  from  exporting 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  280. 

t  "  If  there  be  any  difference  between  an  ordi- 
nance and  a  statute,  as  some  have  collected,  it  is 
but  only  this,  that  an  ordinance  is  but  temporary 
till  confirmed  and  made  perpetual ;  but  a  statute  is 
perpetual  at  first,  and  so  have  some  ordinances  also 
been." — Whitelocke  on  Parliamentary  Writ,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  297.  See  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  17  ;'vol.  iv., 
p.  35. 

t  These  may  be  found  in  Willis's  Notitia  Parlia- 
mentaria.  In  28  E.  I.,  the  universities  were  sum- 
moned to  send  members  to  a  great  council,  in  or- 
der to  defend  the  king's  right  to  the  kingdom  of 
Scotland.— 1  Prynne. 


that  article  under  pain  of  death,  inflict 
sundry  other  penalties,  create  jurisdic- 
tions, and,  in  short,  have  the  effect  of 
a  new  and  important  law.  After  they 
were  passed,  the  deputies  of  the  com- 
mons granted  a  subsidy  for  three  years, 
complained  of  grievances,  and  received 
answers,  as  if  in  a  regular  parliament. 
But  they  were  aware  that  these  proceed- 
ings partook  of  some  irregularity,  and 
endeavoured,  as  was  their  constant  meth- 
od, to  keep  up  the  legal  forms  of  the 
constitution.  In  the  last  petition  of  this 
council,  the  commons  pray,  "  because 
many  articles  touching  the  state  of  the 
king,  and  common  profit  of  his  kingdom, 
have  been  agreed  by  him,  the  prelates, 
lords,  and  commons  of  his  land,  at  this 
council,  that  the  said  articles  may  be  re- 
cited at  the  next  parliament,  and  entered 
upon  the  roll ;  for  this  cause,  that  ordi- 
nances and  agreements  made  in  council 
are  not  of  record,  as  if  they  had  been 
made  in  a  general  parliament."  This 
accordingly  was  done  at  the  ensuing  par- 
liament, when  these  ordinances  were  ex- 
pressly confirmed,  and  directed  to  be 
"  holden  for  a  statute  to  endure  al- 
ways."* 

It  must  be  confessed,  that  the  distinc- 
tion between  ordinances  and  statutes  is 
very  obscure,  and  perhaps  no  precise 
and  uniform  principle  can  be  laid  down 
about  it.  But  it  sufficiently  appears  that 
whatever  provisions  altered  the  common 
law  or  any  former  statute,  and  were  en- 
tered upon  the  statute-roll,  transmitted 
to  the  sheriffs,  and  promulgated  to  the 
people  as  general  obligatory  enactments, 
were  holden  to  require  the  positive  as- 
sent of  both  houses  of  parliament,  duly 
and  formally  summoned. 

Before  we  leave  this  subject,  it  will  be 
proper  to  take  notice  of  a  remarkable 
stretch  of  prerogative,  which,  if  drawn 
into  precedent,  would  have  effectually 
subverted  this  principle  of  parliamentary 
consent  in  legislation.  In  the  15th  of 
Edward  III.,  petitions  were  presented  of 
a  bolder  and  more  enervating  cast  than 
was  acceptable  to  the  court;  that  no  peer 
should  be  put  to  answer  for  any  trespass, 
except  before  his  peers;  that  commis- 
sioners should  be  assigned  to  examine 
the  accounts  of  such  as  had  received 
public  moneys  ;  that  the  judges  and  min- 
isters should  be  sworn  to  observe  the 
Great  Charter  and  other  laws  ;  and  that 
they  should  be  appointed  in  parliament. 
The  last  of  these  was  probably  the  most 
obnoxious ;  but  the  king,  unwilling  to  de- 
fer a  supply  which  was  granted  merely 


Rot.  Parl.,  p.  253,  257. 


378 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


upon  condition  that  these  petitions  should 
prevail,  suffered  them  to  pass  into  a  stat- 
ute, with  an  alteration  which  did  not  take 
off  much  from  their  efficacy;  namely, 
that  these  officers  should  indeed  be  ap- 
pointed by  the  king,  with  the  advice  of 
his  council,  but  should  surrender  their 
charges  at  the  next  parliament,  and  be 
there  responsible  to  any  who  should  have 
cause  of  complaint  against  them.  The 
chancellor,  treasurer,  and  judges  entered 
their  protestation  that  they  had  not  as- 
sented to  the  said  statutes,  nor  could  they  | 
observe  them  in  case  they  should  prove 
contrary  to  the  laws  and  customs  of  the 
kingdom,  which  they  were  sworn  to 
maintain.*  This  is  the  first  instance  of 
a  protest  on  the  roll  of  parliament  against 
the  passing  of  an  act.  Nevertheless  they 
were  compelled  to  swear  on  the  cross 
of  Canterbury  to  its  observance.! 

This  excellent  statute  was  attempted 
too  early  for  complete  success.  Ed- 
ward's ministers  plainly  saw  that  it  left 
them  at  the  mercy  of  future  parliaments, 
who  would  readily  learn  the  wholesome 
and  constitutional  principle  of  sparing  the 
sovereign  while  they  punished  his  advi- 
sers. They  had  recourse,  therefore,  to  a 
violent  measure,  but  which  was  likely  in 
those  times  to  be  endured.  By  a  procla- 
mation addressed  to  all  the  sheriffs,  the 
king  revokes  and  annuls  the  statute,  as 
contrary  to  the  laws  and  customs  of 
England,  and  to  his  own  just  rights  and 
prerogatives,  which  he  had  sworn  to  pre- 
serve ;  declaring  that  he  had  never  con- 
sented to  its  passing,  but  having  previous- 
ly protested  that  he  would  revoke  it,  lest 
^he  parliament  should  have  been  separa- 
ted in  wrath,  had  dissembled,  as  was  his 
duty,  and  permitted  the  great  seal  to  be 
affixed  ;  and  that  it  appeared  to  the  earls, 
barons,  and  other  learned  persons  of  his 
kingdom,  with  whom  he  had  consulted, 
that  as  the  said  statute  had  not  proceed- 
ed from  his  own  good-will,  it  was  null, 
and  could  not  have  the  name  or  force  of 
law.J  This  revocation  of  a  statute,  as 
the  price  of  which  a  subsidy  had  been 
granted,  was  a  gross  infringement  of  law, 
and  undoubtedly  passed  for  such  at  that 
time  ;  for  the  right  was  already  clear, 
though  the  remedy  was  not  always  at- 
tainable. Two  years  afterward  Ed- 
ward met  his  parliament,  when  that  ob- 
noxious statute  was  formally  repealed. 

Notwithstanding  the  king's  unwilling- 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  131.  f  Id.,  p.  128. 

J  Rytner,  t.  v.,  p.  282.  This  instrument  betrays 
in  its  language  Edward's  consciousness  of  the  vio- 
lent step  he  was  taking,  and  his  wish  to  excuse  it 
aa  much  as  possible. 


ness  to  permit  this  control  of  Advice  of 
parliament  over  his  administra-  parliament 
tion,  he  suffered,  or  rather  soli-  SSSfof" 
cited,  their  interference  in  mat-  war  and 
ters  which  have  since  been  Peace- 
reckoned  the  exclusive  province  of  the 
crown.  This  was  an  unfair  trick  of  his 
policy.  He  was  desirous,  in  order  to 
prevent  any  murmuring  about  subsidies, 
to  throw  the  war  upon  parliament  as 
their  own  act,  though  none  could  have 
been  commenced  more  selfishly  for  his 
own  benefit,  or  less  for  the  advantage  of 
the  people  of  England.  It  is  called  "  the 
war  which  our  lord  the  king  has  underta- 
ken against  his  adversary  of  France,  by 
common  assent  of  all  the  lords  and  com- 
mons of  his  realm  in  divers  parlia- 
ments."* And  he  several  times  referred 
it  to  them  to  advise  upon  the  subject  of 
peace.  But  the  commons  showed  their 
humility  or  discretion  by  treating  this  as 
an  invitation  which  it  would  show  good 
manners  to  decline,  though  in  the  18th  of 
the  king's  reign  they  had  joined  with  the 
lords  in  imploring  the  king  to  make  an 
end  of  the  war  by  a  battle  or  by  a  suita- 
ble peace. f  "  Most  dreaded  lord,"  they 
say  upon  one  occasion,  "  as  to  your  wTar, 
and  the  equipment  necessary  for  it,  we 
are  so  ignorant  and  simple  that  we  know 
not  how,  nor  have  the  power  to  devise  : 
wherefore  we  pray  your  grace  to  excuse 
us  in  this  matter,  and  that  it  please  you, 
with  advice  of  the  great  and  wise  persons 
of  your  council,  to  ordain  what  seems 
best  to  you  for  the  honour  and  profit  of 
yourself  and  your  kingdom ;  and  what- 
ever shall  be  thus  ordained  by  assent  and 
agreement  for  you  and  your  lords,  we 
readily  assent  to,  and  will  hold  it  firmly 
established."!  At  another  time,  after 
their  petitions  had  been  answered,  "  it 
was  showed  to  the  lords  and  commons 
by  Bartholomew  de  Burghersh,  the  king's 
chamberlain, -how  a  treaty  had  been  set 
on  foot  between  the  king  and  his  adver- 
sary of  France  ;  and  how  he  had  good 
hope  of  a  final  and  agreeable  issue  with 
God's  help  ;  to  which  he  would  not  come 
without  assent  of  the  lords  and  commons. 
Wherefore  the  said  chamberlain  inquired 
on  the  king's  part  of  the  said  lords  and 
commons  whether  they  would  assent  and 
agree  to  the  peace,  in  case  it  might  be 
had  by  treaty  between  the  parties.  To 
which  the  said  commons  with  one  voice 
replied,  that  whatever  end  it  should 
please  the  king  and  lords  to  make  of  the 
treaty,  would  be  agreeable  to  them.  On. 
which  answer  the  chamberlain  said  to 


*  Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  165. 
t  21  E.  III.,  p.  165. 


t  Id.,  p.  H8. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


379 


the  commons,  then  you  will  assent  to  a 
perpetual  treaty  of  peace  if  it  can  be  had. 
And  the  said  commons  answered  at  once 
and  unanimously,  yes,  yes."*  The  lords 
were  not  so  diffident.  Their  great  sta- 
tion as  hereditary  counsellors  gave  them 
weight  in  all  deliberations  of  govern- 
ment ;  and  they  seem  to  have  pretended 
to  a  negative  voice  in  the  question  of 
peace.  At  least  they  answer,  upon  the 
proposals  made  by  David,  king  of  Scots, 
in  1368,  which  were  submitted  to  them 
in  parliament,  that,  "  saving  to  the  said 
David  and  his  heirs  the  articles  contained 
therein,  they  saw  no  way  of  making  a 
treaty  which  would  not  openly  turn  to 
the  disherison  of  the  king  and  his  heirs, 
to  which  they  would  on  no  account  as- 
sent; and  so  departed  for  that  day."f  A 
few  years  before  they  had  made  a  sim- 
ilar answer  to  some  other  propositions 
from  Scotland. J  It  is  not  improbable, 
that  in  both  these  cases  they  acted  with 
the  concurrence  and  at  the  instigation  of 
the  king  ;  but  the  precedents  might  have 
been  remembered  in  other  circumstances. 
A  third  important  acquisition  of  the 
house  of  commons  during  this 
commons  il  reign  was  the  establishment  of 
inquire  into  their  right  to  investigate  and 
public  abu-  chastise  the  abuses  of  adminis- 
tration. In  the  fourteenth  of 
Edward  III.,  a  committee  of  the  lords' 
house  had  been  appointed  to  examine  the 
accounts  of  persons  responsible  for  the 
receipt  of  the  last  subsidy ;  but  it  does 
not  appear  that  the  commons  were  con- 
cerned in  this.fy  The  unfortunate  statute 
of  the  next  year  contained  a  similar  pro- 
vision, which  was  annulled  with  the  rest. 
Many  years  elapsed  before  the  commons 
tried  the  force  of  their  vindictive  arm. 
We  must  pass  onward  an  entire  generation 
of  man,  and  look  at  the  parliament  as- 
sembled in  the  fiftieth  of  Edward  III. 
Nothing  memorable  as  to  the  interfe- 
rence of  the  commons  in  government 
occurs  before,  unless  it  be  their  request, 
in  the  forty-fifth  of  the  king,  that  no 
clergyman  should  be  made  chancellor, 
treasurer,  or  other  great  officer ;  to  which 
the  king  answered,  that  he  would  do 
what  best  pleased  his  council.  || 

It  will  be  remembered  by  every  one 
Parliament  who  has  read  our  history,  that 
of  so  E.  in.  jn  the  latter  years  of  Edward's 
life,  his  fame  was  tarnished  by  the  as- 

*28  E.  III.,  p.  261. 

t  Id.,  p.  295.  Carte  says,  "  the  lords  and  com- 
mons giving  this  advice  separately,  declared,"  &c. 
— Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  518.  I  can  find  no 
mention  of  the  commons  doing  this  in  the  roll  of 
parliament.  t  Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  269. 

$  Id.,  p.  114.  I!  Id.,  p.  304. 


cendency  of  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  and 
Alice  Ferrers.  The  former,  a  man  of 
more  ambition  than  his  capacity  seems 
to  have  warranted,  even  incurred  the  sus- 
picion of  meditating  to  set  aside  the  heir 
of  the  crown,  when  the  Black  Prince 
should  have  sunk  into  the  grave.  Wheth- 
er he  was  wronged  or  not  by  these  con- 
jectures, they  certainly  appear  to  have 
operated  on  those  most  concerned  to 
take  alarm  at  them.  A  parliament  met 
in  April,  1376,  wherein  the  general  un- 
popularity of  the  king's  administration, 
or  the  influence  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
led  to  very  remarkable  consequences.* 
After  granting  a  subsidy,  the  commons, 
"  considering  the  evils  of  the  country, 
through  so  many  wars  and  other  causes, 
and  that  the  officers  now  in  the  king's 
service  are  insufficient  without  further  as- 
sistance for  so  great  a  charge,  pray  that 
the  council  be  strengthened  by  the  addi- 
tion of  ten  or  twelve  bishops,  lords,  and 
others,  to  be  constantly  at  hand,  so  that 
no  business  of  weight  should  be  despatch- 
ed without  the  consent  of  all ;  nor  small- 
er matters  without  that  of  four  or  six."f 
The  king  pretended  to  come  with  alacrity 
into  this  measure,  which  was  followed 
by  a  strict  restraint  on  them  and  all  other 
officers  from  taking  presents  in  the  course 
of  their  duty.  After  this,  "  the  said  com- 
mons appeared  in  parliament,  protesting 
that  they  had  the  same  good-will  as  ever 
to  assist  the  king  with  their  lives  and  for- 
tunes ;  but  that  it  seemed  to  them,  if 
their  said  liege  lord  had  always  possessed 
about  him  faithful  counsellors  and  good 
officers,  he  would  have  been  so  rich  that 
he  would  have  had  no  need  of  charging 
his  commons  with  subsidy  or  tallage, 
considering  the  great  ransoms  of  the 
French  and  Scotch  kings,  and  of  so 
many  other  prisoners;  and  that  it  ap- 
peared to  be  for  the  private  advantage 
of  some  near  the  king,  and  of  others  by 
their  collusion,  that  the  king  and  kingdom 
are  so  empoverished,  and  the  commons 
so  ruined.  And  they  promised  the  king 
that  if  he  would  do  speedy  justice  on 
such  as  should  be  found  guilty,  and  take 
from  them  what  law  and  reason  permit, 

*  Most  of  our  general  historians  have  slurred 
over  this  important  session.  The  best  view,  per- 
haps, of  its  secret  history  will  be  found  in  Lowth's 
Life  of  Wykeham ;  an  instructive  and  elegant 
work,  only  to  be  blamed  for  marks  of  that  aca- 
demical point  of  honour,  which  makes  a  fellow  of 
a  college  too  indiscriminate  an  encomiast  of  its 
founder.  Another  modern  book  may  be  named 
with  some  commendation,  though  very  inferior  in 
its  execution,  Godwin's  Life  of  Chaucer,  of  which 
the  Duke  of  Lancaster  is  the  political  hero. 

t  Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  322. 


380 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


with  what  had  been  already  granted  in 
parliament,  they  will  engage  that  he 
should  be  rich  enough  to  maintain  his 
wars  for  a  long  time,  without  much 
charging  his  people  in  any  manner." 
They  next  proceeded  to  allege  three 
particular  grievances ;  the  removal  of  the 
staple  from  Calais,  where  it  had  been  fixed 
by  parliament,  through  the  procurement 
and  advice  of  the  said  private  counsellors 
about  the  king;  the  participation  of  the 
same  persons  in  lending  money  to  the 
king  at  exorbitant  usury ;  and  their  pur- 
chasing at  a  low  rate  for  their  own  ben- 
efit old  debts  from  the  crown,  the  whole 
of  which  they  had  afterward  induced 
the  king  to  repay  to  themselves.  For 
these  and  for  many  more  misdemeanors, 
the  commons  accused  and  impeached  the 
lords  Latimer  and  Nevil,  with  four  mer- 
chants, Lyons,  Ellis,  Peachey,  and  Bury.* 
Latimer  had  been  chamberlain,  and  Nevil 
held  another  office.  The  former  was  the 
friend  and  creature  of  the  Duke  of  Lan- 
caster. Nor  was  this  parliament  at  all 
nice  in  touching  a  point  where  kings  least 
endure  their  interference.  An  ordinance 
was  made,  that  "  whereas  many  women 
prosecute  the  suits  of  others  in  courts 
of  justice  by  way  of  maintenance,  and  to 
get  profit  thereby,  which  is  displeasing  to 
the  king,  he  forbids  any  woman  hence- 
forward, and  especially  Alice  Ferrers,  to 
do  so,  on  pain  of  the  said  Alice  forfeiting 
all  her  goods,  and  suffering  banishment 
from  the  kingdom."! 

The  part  which  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
who  had  ever  been  distinguished  for  his 
respectful  demeanour  to.wards  Edward, 
bore  in  this  unprecedented  opposition,  is 
strong  evidence  of  the  jealousy  with 
which  he  regarded  the  Duke  of  Lancas- 
ter ;  and  it  was  led  in  the  house  of  com- 
mons by  Peter  de  la  Mare,  a  sefvant  of 
the  Earl  of  March,  who,  by  his  marriage 
with  Philippa,  heiress  of  Lionel,  duke 
of  Clarence,  stood  next  after  the  young 
prince  Richard  in  lineal  succession  to 
the  crown.  The  proceedings  of  this  ses- 
sion were  indeed  highly  popular.  But  no 
house  of  commons  would  have  gone  such 
lengths  on  the  mere  support  of  popular 
opinions,  unless  instigated  and  encoura- 
ged by  higher  authority.  Without  this, 
their  petitions  might  perhaps  have  ob- 
tained, for  the  sake  of  subsidy,  an  im- 
mediate consent;  but  those  who  took 
the  lead  in  preparing  them  must  have  re- 
mained unsheltered  after  a  dissolution, 
to  abide  the  vengeance  of  the  crown, 
with  no  assurance  that  another  parlia- 

*  Rymer,  t,  r.,  p.  332.  |  Id.,  p.  329. 


ment  would  espouse  their  cause  as  its 
own.  Such  indeed  was  their  fate  in  the 
present  instance.  Soon  after  the  disso- 
lution of  parliament,  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
who,  long  sinking  by  fatal  decay,  had 
rallied  his  expiring  energies  for  this  do- 
mestic combat,  left  his  inheritance  to  a 
child  ten  years  old,  Richard  of  Bordeaux. 
Immediately  after  this  event,  Lancaster 
recovered  his  influence ;  and  the  former 
favourites  returned  to  court.  Peter  de  la 
Mare  was  confined  at  Nottingham,  where 
he  remained  two  years.  The  citizens 
indeed  attempted  an  insurrection,  and 
threatened  to  burn  the  Savoy,  Lancaster's 
residence,  if  De  la  Mare  was  not  released ; 
but  the  Bishop  of  London  succeeded  in 
appeasing  them.*  A  parliament  met  next 
year,  which  overthrew  the  work  of  its 
predecessor,  restored  those  who  had  been 
impeached,  and  repealed  the  ordinance 
against  Alice  Perrers.f  So  little  secu- 
rity will  popular  assemblies  ever  afford 
against  arbitrary  power,  when  deprived 
of  regular  leaders  and  the  consciousness 
of  mutual  fidelity. 

The  policy  adopted  by  the  Prince  of 
Wales  and  Earl  of  March,  in  employing 
the  house  of  commons  as  an  engine  of 
attack  against  an  obnoxious  ministry, 
was  perfectly  novel,  and  indicates  a  sen- 
sible change  in  the  character  of  our  con- 
stitution. In  the  reign  of  Edward  II., 
parliament  had  little  share  in  resisting 
the  government ;  much  more  was  effected 
by  the  barons,  through  risings  of  their 
feudal  tenantry.  Fifty  years  of  authority 
better  respected,  of  law  better  enforced, 
had  rendered  these  more  perilous,  and  of 
a  more  violent  appearance  than  formerly. 
A  surer  resource  presented  itself  in  the 
increased  weight  of  the  lower  house  in 
parliament.  And  this  indirect  aristocrat- 
ical  influence  gave  a  surprising  impulse 
to  that  assembly,  and  particularly  tended 
to  establish  beyond  question  its  control 
over  public  abuses.  It  is  less  just  to  re- 
mark, that  it  also  tended  to  preserve  the 
relation  and  harmony  between  each  part 
and  the  other,  and  to  prevent  that  jarring 
of  emulation  and  jealousy,  which,  though 
generally  found  in  the  division  of  power 
between  a  noble  and  a  popular  estate,  has 
scarcely  ever  caused  a  dissension,  ex- 
cept in  cases  of  little  moment,  between 
our  two  houses  of  parliament  1 


*  Anonym.  Hist.  Edw.  III.,  ad  calcem  Heming- 
ford,  pp.  444,  448.  Walsingham  gives  a  different 
reason,  p.  192. 

f  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  374.  Not  more  than  six  or  seven 
of  the  knights  who  had  sat  in  the  last  parliament 
were  returned  to  this,  as  appears  by  the  writs  in 
Prynne's  4th  Register,  p.  302,  311. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


381 


The  commons  had  sustained  with  equal 
firmness  and  discretion  a  defen- 
n-'  s*ve  war  agamst  arbitrary  pow- 
creaseofthe  er  under  Edward  III. :  they 
power  of  the  a(}vanced  with  very  different 

commons.  ,       ,  .     J 

steps  towards  his  successor. 
Upon  the  king's  death,  though  Richard's 
coronation  tookjplace  without  delay,  and 
no  proper  regency  was  constituted,  yet 
a  council  of  twelve,  whom  the  great  offi- 
cers of  state  were  to  obey,  supplied  its 
place  to  every  effectual  intent.  Among 
these  the  Duke  of  Lancaster  was  not 
numbered ;  and  he  retired  from  court  in 
some  disgust.  In  the  first  parliament  of 
the  young  king,  a  large  proportion  of  the 
knights  who  had  sat  in  that  which  im- 
peached the  Lancasterian  party  were  re- 
turned.* Peter  de  la  Mare,  now  releas- 
ed from  prison,  was  elected  speaker ;  a 
dignity  which,  according  to  some,  he  had 
filled  in  the  Good  Parliament,  as  that  of 
the  fiftieth  of  Edward  III.  was  popular- 
ly styled ;  though  the  rolls  do  not  men- 
tion either  him  or  any  other  as  bearing 
that  honourable  name  before  Sir  Thomas 
Hungerford  in  the  parliament  of  the  fol- 
lowing year.f  The  prosecution  against 
Alice  Ferrers  was  now  revived ;  not,  as 
far  as  appears,  by  direct  impeachment  of 
the  commons ;  but  articles  were  exhibit- 
ed against  her  in  the  house  of  lords  on 
the  king's  part,  for  breaking  the  ordi- 
nance made  against  her  intermeddling  at 
court;  upon  which  she  received  judg- 
ment of  banishment  and  forfeiture. |  At 
the  request  of  the  lower  house,  the  lords 
in  the  king's  name  appointed  nine  per- 
sons of  different  ranks ;  three  bishops, 
two  earls,  two  bannerets,  and  two  bache- 
lors, to  be  a  permanent  council  about  the 
king,  so  that  no  business  of  importance 
should  be  transacted  without  their  unani- 
mous consent.  The  king  was  even  com- 
pelled to  consent  that,  during  his  minor- 
ity, the  chancellor,  treasurer,  judges,  and 
other  chief  officers  should  be  made  in 
parliament ;  by  which  provision,  combi- 
ned with  that  of  the  parliamentary  coun- 
cil, the  whole  executive  government  was 
transferred  to  the  two  houses.  A  peti- 
tion that  none  might  be  employed  in  the 
king's  service,  nor  belong  to  his  council, 
who  had  been  formerly  accused  upon 
good  grounds,  struck  at  Lord  Latimer, 
who  had  retained  some  degree  of  power 

*  Walsingham,  p.  200,  says  pene  omnes ;  but  the 
list  published  in  Prynne's  4th  Register  induces  me 
to  qualify  this  loose  expression.  Alice  Ferrers  had 
bribed,  he  tells  us,  many  of  the  lords,  and  all  the 
lawyers  of  England ;  yet  by  the  perseverance  of 
these  knights  she  was  convicted. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,p.  374. 

i  Idem,  vol.  iii.,  p.  12. 


in  the  new  establishment.  Another,  sug- 
gesting that  Gascony,  Ireland,  Artois,  and 
the  Scottish  marches  were  in  danger  of  be- 
ing lost  for  want  of  good  officers,  though 
it  were  so  generally  worded  as  to  leave 
the  means  of  remedy  to  the  king's  pleas- 
ure, yet  shows  a  growing  energy  and 
self-confidence  in  that  assembly,  which 
not  many  years  before  had  thought  the 
question  of  peace  or  war  too  high  for 
their  deliberation.  Their  subsidy  was 
sufficiently  liberal ;  but  they  took  care  to 
pray  the  Ijing  that  fit  persons  might  be 
assigned  for  its  receipt  and  disburse- 
ment, lest  it  should  any  way  be  diverted 
from  the  purposes  of  the  war.  Accord- 
ingly Walworth  and  Philpot,  two  eminent 
citizens  of  London,  were  appointed  to 
this  office  and  sworn  in  parliament  to  its 
execution.* 

But  whether  through  the  wastefulness 
of  government,  or  rather  because  Ed- 
ward's legacy,  the  French  war,  like  a 
ruinous  and  interminable  lawsuit,  ex- 
hausted all  public  contributions,  there 
was  an  equally  craving  demand  for  sub- 
sidy at  the  next  meeting  of  parliament. 
The  commons  now  made  a  more  serious 
stand.  The  speaker,  Sir  James  Picker- 
ing, after  the  protestation  against  giving 
offence,  which  has  since  become  more 
matter  of  form  than  perhaps  it  was  then 
considered,  reminded  the  lords  of  the 
council  of  a  promise  made  to  the  last 
parliament,  that,  if  they  would  help  the 
king  for  once  with  a  large  subsidy  so  as 
to  enable  him  to  undertake  an  expedition 
against  the  enemy,  he  trusted  not  to  call 
on  them  again,  but  to  support  the  war 
from  his  own  revenues ;  in  faith  of  which 
promise  there  had  been  granted  the  lar- 
gest sum  that  any  king  of  England  had 
ever  been  suffered  to  levy  within  so  short 
a  time,  to  the  utmost  loss  and  inconve- 
nience of  the  commons ;  part  of  which 
ought  still  to  remain  in  the  treasury,  and 
render  it  unnecessary  to  burden  anew 
the  exhausted  people.  To  this  Scrope, 
lord-steward  of  the  household,  protesting 
that  he  knew  not  of  any  such  promise, 
made  answer  by  order  of  the  king,  that, 
"  saving  the  honour  and  reverence  of  our 
lord  the  king  and  the  lords  there  pres- 
ent, the  commons  did  not  speak  truth  in 
asserting  that  part  of  the  last  subsidy 
should  be  still  in  the  treasury ;  it  being 
notorious  that  every  penny  had  gone  into 
the  hands  of  Walworth  and  Philpot,  ap- 
pointed and  sworn  treasurers  in  the  last 
parliament,  to  receive  and  expend  it  upon 
the  purposes  of  the  war,  for  which  they 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  12. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


had  in  effect  disbursed  the  whole,"  Not 
satisfied  with  this  general  justification,  the 
commons  pressed  for  an  account  of  the 
expenditure.  Scrope  was  again  commis- 
sioned to  answer,  that "  though  it  had  nev- 
er been  seen,  that  of  a  subsidy  or  other 
grant  made  to  the  king  in  parliament  or 
out  of  parliament  by  the  commons,  any 
account  had  afterward  been  rendered  to 
the  commons,  or  to  any  other  except  the 
king  and  his  officers,  yet  the  king,  to  grat- 
ify them,  of  his  own  accord,  without  do- 
ing it  by  way  of  right,  would  have  Wai- 
worth,  along  with  certain  persons  of  the 
council,  exhibit  to  them  in  writing  a  clear 
account  of  the  receipt  and  expenditure, 
upon  condition  that  this  should  never  be 
used  as  a  precedent,  nor  inferred  to  be 
done  otherwise  than  by  the  king's  spon- 
taneous command."  The  commons  were 
again  urged  to  provide  for  the  public  de- 
fence, being  their  own  concern  as  much 
as  that  of  the  king.  But  they  merely 
shifted  their  ground  and  had  recourse  to 
other  pretences.  They  requested  that 
five  or  six  peers  might  come  to  them,  in 
order  to  discuss  this  question  of  subsidy. 
The  lords  entirely  rejected  this  proposal, 
and  affirmed  that  such  a  proceeding  had 
never  been  known  except  in  the  three 
last  parliaments  ;  but  allowed  that  it  had 
been  the  course  to  elect  a  committee  of 
eight  or  ten  from  each  house,  to  confer 
easily  and  without  noise  together.  The 
commons  acceded  to  this,  and  a  commit- 
tee of  conference  was  appointed,  though 
no  result  of  their  discussion  appears  upon 
the  roll. 

Upon  examining  the  accounts  submit- 
ted to  them,  these  sturdy  commoners 
raised  a  new  objection.  It  appeared  that 
large  sums  had  been  expended  upon  gar- 
risons in  France  and  Ireland,  and  other 
places  beyond  the  kingdom,  of  which 
they  protested  themselves  not  liable  to 
bear  the  charge.  It  was  answered  that 
Gascony  and  the  king's  other  dominions 
beyond  sea  were  the  outworks  of  Eng- 
land, nor  could  the  people  ever  be  secure 
from  war  at  their  thresholds  unless  these 
were  maintained.  They  lastly  insisted 
that  the  king  ought  to  be  rich  through  the 
wealth  that  had  devolved  on  him  from 
his  grandfather.  But  this  was  affirmed, 
in  reply,  to  be  merely  sufficient  for  the 
payment  of  Edward's  creditors.  Thus 
driven  from  all  their  arguments,  the  com- 
mons finally  consented  to  a  moderate  ad- 
ditional imposition  upon  the  export  of 
wool  and  leather,*  which  were  already 
subject  to  considerable  duties,  apologi- 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  35—38. 


zing  on  account  of  their  poverty  for  the 
slenderness  of  their  grant. 

The  necessities  of  government,  how- 
ever, let  their  cause  be  what  it  might, 
were  by  no  means  feigned ;  and  a  new 
parliament  was  assembled  about  seven 
months  after  the  last,  wherein  the  king, 
without  waiting  for  a  petition,  informed 
the  commons  that  the  treasurers  were 
ready  to  exhibit  their  accounts  before 
them.  This  was  a  signal  victory  after 
the  reluctant  and  ungracious  concession 
made  to  the  last  parliament.  Nine  per- 
sons of  different  ranks  were  appointed  at 
the  request  of  the  commons  to  investi- 
gate the  state  of  the  revenue,  and  the  dis- 
position which  had  been  made  of  the  late 
king's  personal  estate.  They  ended  by 
granting  a  poll-tax,  which  they  pretended 
to  think  adequate  to  the  supply  required.* 
But  in  those  times  no  one  possessed  any 
statistical  knowledge,  and  every  calcula- 
tion which  required  it  was  subject  to 
enormous  error,  of  which  we  have  al- 
ready seen  an  eminent  example. f  In 
the  next  parliament  (3  Ric.  II.)  it  was  set 
forth  that  only  £22,000  had  been  collect- 
ed by  the  poll-tax,  while  the  pay  of  the 
king's  troops  hired  for  the  expedition  to 
Britany,  the  pretext  of  the  grant,  had 
amounted  for  but  half  a  year  to  .£50,000. 
The  king,  in  short,  was  more  straitened 
than  ever.  His  distresses  gave  no  small 
advantage  to  the  commons.  Their  speak- 
er was  instructed  to  declare  that,  as  it 
appeared  to  them,  if  the  affairs  of  their 
liege  lord  had  been  properly  conducted 
at  home  and  abroad,  he  could  not  have 
wanted  aid  of  his  commons,  who  are  now 
poorer  than  before.  They  pray  that,  as 
the  king  was  so  much  advanced  in  age 
and  discretion,  his  perpetual  council  (ap- 
pointed in  his  first  parliament)  might  be 
discharged  of  their  labours ;  and  that,  in- 
stead of  them,  the  five  chief  officers  of 
state,  to  wit,  the  chancellor,  treasurer, 
keeper  of  the  privy  seal,  chamberlain, 
and  steward  of  the  household,  might  be 
named  in  parliament,  and  declared  to  the 
commons  as  the  king's  sole  counsellors, 
not  removable  before  the  next  -parlia- 
ment. They  required  also  a  general 
commission  to  be  made  out,  similar  to 
that  in  the  last  session,  giving  powers  to 
a  certain  number  of  peers  and  other  dis- 
tinguished persons,  to  inquire  into  the 
state  of  the  household,  as  well  as  into  all 
receipts  and  expenses  since  the  king's 
accession.  The  former  petition  seems 
to  have  been  passed  over  :J  but  a  com- 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  57.  t  See  ante,  p.  375. 

J  Nevertheless,  the  commons  repeated  it  in  their 
schedule  of  petitions ;  and  received  an  evasive  an- 


PART  III  ] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


883 


mission  as  requested  was  made  out  to 
three  prelates,  three  earls,  three  banner- 
ets, three  knights,  and  three  citizens.* 
After  guarding  thus,  as  they  conceived, 
against  malversation,  but  in  effect  rath- 
er protecting  their  posterity  than  them- 
selves, the  commons  prolonged  the  last 
imposition  on  wool  and  leather  for  an- 
other year. 

It  would  be  but  repetition  to  make  ex- 
tracts from  the  rolls  of  the  two  next 
years ;  we  have  still  the  same  tale ;  de- 
mand of  subsidy  on  one  side,  remon- 
strance and  endeavours  at  reformation  on 
the  other.  After  the  tremendous  insur- 
rection of  the  villeins,  in  1382,  a  parlia- 
ment was  convened  to  advise  about  re- 
pealing the  charters  of  general  manumis- 
sion, extorted  from  the  king  by  the  pres- 
sure of  circumstances.  In  this  measure 
all  concurred  ;  but  the  commons  were  not 
afraid  to  say  that  the  late  risings  had  been 
provoked  by  the  burdens  which  a  prodi- 
gal court  had  called  for  in  the  preceding 
session.  Their  language  is  unusually 
bold.  "  It  seemed  to  them,  after  full  de- 
liberation," they  said,  "that  unless  the 
administration  of  the  kingdom  were 
speedily  reformed,  the  kingdom  itself 
would  be  utterly  lost  and  ruined  for  ever, 
and  therein  their  lord  the  king,  with  all 
the  peers  and  commons,  which  God  for- 
bid. For  true  it  is  that  there  are  such 
defects  in  the  said  administration,  as  well 
about  the  king's  person  and  his  house- 
hold, as  in  his  courts  of  justice ;  and 
by  grievous  oppressions  in  the  country 
through  maintainers  of  suits,  who  are,  as 
it  were,  kings  in  the  country,  that  right 
and  law  are  come  to  nothing,  and  the  poor 
commons  are  from  time  to  time  so  pil- 
laged and  ruined,  partly  by  the  king's  pur- 
veyors of  the  household,  and  others  who 
pay  nothing  for  what  they  take,  partly  by 
the  subsidies  and  tallages  raised  upon 
them,  and  besides  by  the  oppressive  be- 
haviour of  the  servants  of  the  king  and 
other  lords,  and  especially  of  the  afore- 
said maintainers  of  suits,  that  they  are 
reduced  to  greater  poverty  and  discom- 
fort than  ever  they  were  before.  And 
moreover,  though  great  sums  have  been 
continually  granted  by  and  levied  upon 
them  for  the  defence  of  the  kingdom, 
yet  they  are  not  the  better  defended 
against  their  enemies,  but  every  year  are 

swer,  referring  to  an  ordinance  made  in  the  first 
parliament  of  the  king,  the  application  of  which  is 
indefinite,  p.  379. 

*  See  ante,  p.  377.  In  Rymer,  t.  viii.,  p.  250,  the 
Archbishop  of  York's  name  appears  among  these 
commissioners,  which  makes  their  number  sixteen. 
But  it  is  plain  by  the  instrument  that  only  fifteen 
were  meant  to  be  appointed. 


plundered  and  wasted  by  sea  and  land, 
without  any  relief.  Which  calamities 
the  said  poor  commons,  who  lately  used 
to  live  in  honour  and  prosperity,  can  no 
longer  endure.  And  to  speak  the  real 
truth,  these  injuries  lately  done  to  the 
poorer  commons  more  than  they  ever 
suffered  before,  caused  them  to  rise,  and 
to  commit  the  mischief  done  in  their  late 
riot;  and  there  is  still  cause  to  fear 
greater  evils,  if  sufficient  remedy  be  not 
timely  provided  against  the  outrages  and 
oppressions  aforesaid.  Wherefore  may 
it  please  our  lord  the  king,  and  the  noble 
peers  of  the  realm  now  assembled  in  this 
parliament,  to  provide  such  remedy  and 
amendment  as  to  the  said  administration, 
that  the  state  and  dignity  of  the  king  in 
the  first  place,  and  of  the  lords  may  be 
preserved,  as  the  commons  have  always 
desired,  and  the  commons  may  be  put  in 
peace ;  removing,  as  soon  as  they  can  be 
detected,  evil  ministers  and  counsellors, 
and  putting  in  their  stead  the  best  and 
most  sufficient,  and  taking  away  all  the 
bad  practices  which  have  led  to  the  last 
rising,  or  else  none  can  imagine  that 
this  kingdom  can  longer  subsist  without 
greater  misfortunes  than  it  ever  endured. 
And  for  God's  sake  let  it  not  be  forgot- 
ten, that  there  be  put  about  the  king  and 
of  his  council  the  best  lords  and  knights 
that  can  be  found  in  the  kingdom. 

"  And  be  it  known  (the  entry  proceeds), 
that  after  the  king  our  lord,  with  the 
peers  of  the  realm  and  his  council,  had 
taken  advice  upon  these  requests  made 
to  him  for  his  good  and  his  kingdom's 
as  it  really  appeared  to  him,  willed  and 
granted,  that  certain  bishops,  lords,  and 
others  should  be  appointed  to  survey, 
and  examine  in  privy  council  both  the 
government  of  the  king's  person  and  of 
his  household,  and  to  suggest  proper 
remedies  wherever  necessary,  and  re- 
port them  to  the  king.  And  it  was  said 
by  the  peers  in  parliament,  that  as  it 
seemed  to  them,  if  reform  of  government 
were  to  take  place  throughout  the  king- 
dom,it  should  begin  by  the  chief  member, 
which  is  the  king  himself,  and  so  from 
person  to  person,  as  well  churchmen  as 
others,  and  place  to  place,  from  higher  to 
lower,  without  sparing  any  degree."*  A 
considerable  number  of  commissioners 
were  accordingly  appointed,  whether  by 
the  king  alone  or  in  parliament  does  not 
appear ;  the  latter,  however,  is  more 
probable.  They  seem  to  have  made 
some  progress  in  the  work  of  reforma- 
tion, for  we  find  that  the  officers  of  the 
household  were  sworn  to  observe  their 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  5  R.  II.,  p.  100. 


384 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


regulations.  But  in  all  likelihood  these 
were  soon  neglected. 

It  is  not  wonderful,  that  with  such  feel- 
ings of  resentment  towards  the  crown, 
the  commons  were  backward  in  granting 
subsidies.  Perhaps  the  king  would  not 
have  obtained  one  at  all  if  he  had  not 
withheld  his  charter  of  pardon  for  all  of- 
fences committed  during  the  insurrec- 
tion. This  was  absolutely  necessary  to 
restore  quiet  among  the  people ;  and 
though  the  members  of  the  commons  had 
certainly  not  been  insurgents,  yet  inevi- 
table irregularities  had  occurred  in  quel- 
ling the  tumults,  which  would  have  put 
them  too  much  in  the  power  of  those  un- 
worthy men  who  filled  the  benches  of 
justice  under  Richard.  The  king  de- 
clared that  it  was  unusual  to  grant  a  par- 
don without  a  subsidy ;  the  commons 
still  answered  that  they  would  consider 
about  the  matter ;  and  the  king  instantly 
rejoined  that  he  would  consider  about 
his  pardon  (s'aviseroit  de  sa  dite  grace) 
till  they  had  done  what  they  ought. 
They  renewed  at  length  the  usual  tax  on 
wool  and  leather.* 

This  extraordinary  assumption  of  pow- 
er by  the  commons  was  not  merely  ow- 
ing to  the  king's  poverty.  It  was  en- 
couraged by  the  natural  feebleness  of  a 
disunited  government.  The  high  rank 
and  ambitious  spirit  of -Lancaster  gave 
him  no  little  influence,  though  contending 
with  many  enemies  at  court,  as  well  as 
the  ill-will  of  the  people.  Thomas  of 
Woodstock,  the  king's  youngest  uncle, 
more  able  and  turbulent  than  Lancaster, 
became,  as  he  grew  older,  an  eager 
competitor  for  power,  which  he  sought 
through  the  channel  of  popularity.  The 
earls  of  March,  Arundel,  and  Warwick 
bore  a  considerable  part,  and  were  the 
favourites  of  parliament.  Even  Lancas- 
ter, after  a  few  years,  seems  to  have  fal- 
len into  popular  courses,  and  recovered 
some  share  of  public  esteem.  He  was 
at  the  head  of  the  reforming  commission 
in  the  fifth  of  Richard  II.,  though  he 
had  been  studiously  excluded  from  those 
preceding.  We  cannot  hope  to  disentan- 
gle the  intrigues  of  this  remote  age,  as 
to  which  our  records  are  of  no  service, 
and  the  chroniclers  are  very  slightly  in- 
formed. So  far  as  we  may  conjecture, 
Lancaster,  finding  his  situation  insecure 
at  court,  began  to  solicit  the  favour  of  the 
commons,  whose  hatred  of  the  admin- 
istration abated  their  former  hostility  to- 
wards him.f 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  5  R.  II,  p.  104. 
f  The  commons  granted  a  subsidy,  7  R.  II.,  to 
support  Lancaster's  war  in  Castile.— R.  P.,  p.  284. 


The  character  of  Richard  II.  was  now 
developing  itself,  and  the  hopes  Character  of 
excited  by  his  remarkable  pres*  Riphard. 
ence  of  mind  in  confronting  the  rioters  on 
Blackheath  were  rapidly  destroyed.  Not 
that  he  was  wanting  in  capacity,  as  has 
been  sometimes  imagined.  For  if  we 
measure  intellectual  power  by  the  great- 
est exertion  it  ever  displays,  rather  than 
by  its  average  results,  Richard  II.  was  a 
man  of  considerable  talents.  He  pos- 
sessed, along  with  much  dissimulation,  a 
decisive  promptitude  in  seizing  the  criti- 
cal moment  for  action.  Of  this  quality, 
besides  his  celebrated  behaviour  towards 
the  insurgents,  he  gave  striking  evidence 
in  several  circumstances  which  we  shall 
have  shortly  to  notice.  But  his  ordinary 
conduct  belied  the  abilities  which  on 
these  rare  occasions  shone  forth,  and 
rendered  them  ineffectual  for  his  securi- 
ty. Extreme  pride  and  violence,  with  an 
inordinate  partiality  for  the  most  worth- 
less favourites,  were  his  predominant 
characteristics.  In  the  latter  quality, 
and  in  the  events  of  his  reign,  he  forms 
a  pretty  exact  parallel  to  Edward  II. 
Scrope,  lord  chancellor,  who  had  been 
appointed  in  parliament,  and  was  under- 
stood to  be  irremoveable  without  its  con- 
currence, lost  the  great  seal  for  refusing 
to  set  it  to  some  prodigal  grants.  Upon 
a  slight  quarrel  with  Archbishop  Court- 
ney, the  king  ordered  his  temporalities  to 
be  seized,  the  execution  of  which  Mi- 
chael de  la  Pole,  his  new  chancellor,  and 
a  favourite  of  his  own,  could  hardly  pre- 
vent. This  was  accompanied  with  inde- 
cent and  outrageous  expressions  of  an- 
ger, unworthy  of  his  station  and  of  those 
whom  he  insulted.* 

Though  no  king  could  be  less  respect- 
able than  Richard,  yet  the  con-  He  acqnirea 
stitution  invested  a  sovereign  more  power 
with  such  ample  prerogative,  °"rifisma" 
that  it  was  far  less  easy  to  re-  Jon 
sist  his  personal  exercise  of  power  than 
the  unsettled  councils  of  a  minority.  In 
the  parliament  6  R.  II.,  sess.  2,  the  com- 
mons pray  certain  lords  whom  they 
name,  to  be  assigned  as  their  advisers. 
This  had  been  permitted  in  the  two  last 
sessions  without  exception.!  But  the 
king,  in  granting  their  request,  reserved 


Whether  the  populace  changed  their  opinion  of 
him,  I  know  not.  He  was  still  disliked  by  them 
two  years  before.  The  insurgents  of  1382  are  said 
to  have  compelled  men  to  swear  that  they  would 
obey  King  Richard  and  the  commons,  and  that  they 
would  accept  no  king  named  John. — Walsingham, 
p.  248. 

*  Walsingham,  pp.  290,  315,  317. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  5  R>  II.,  p.  100.  6  R.  II.,  sess,  1, 
p.  134. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


his  right  of  naming  any  others.*  Though 
the  commons  did  not  relax  in  their  im 
portunities  for  the  redress  of  genera 
grievances,  they  did  not  venture  to  inter- 
meddle as  before  with  the  conduct  of  ad- 
ministration. They  did  not  even  objec 
to  the  grant  of  the  marquisate  of  Dublin 
with  almost  a  princely  dominion  over 
Ireland;  which  enormous  donation  was 
confirmed  by  act  of  parliament  to  Vere, 
a  favourite  of  the  king.f  A  petition  that 
the  officers  of  state  should  annually  visit 
and  inquire  into  his  household,  was  an- 
swered, that  the  king  would  do  what  he 
pleased. J  Yet  this  was  little  in  compar 
ison  with  their  former  proceedings. 

There  is  nothing,  however,  more  de- 
Proceedings  ceitful  to  a  monarch,  unsupport- 

menMn'the   G^  ^  an  armec^  f°rce>  an(l  d 

tenthd?  e  titute  of  wary  advisers,  than 
Richard.  this  submission  of  his  people. 
A  single  effort  was  enough  to  overturn 
his  government.  Parliament  met  in  the 
tenth  year  of  his  reign,  steadily  deter- 
mined to  reform  the  administration,  and 
especially  to  punish  its  chief  leader,  Mi- 
.  chael  de  la  Pole,  earl  of  Suffolk,  and  lord 
f  chancellor.  According  to  the  remarka- 
\  ble  narration  of  a  contemporary  histori- 
an,^ too  circumstantial  to  be  rejected,  but 
rendered  somewhat  doubtful  by  the  si- 
lence of  all  other  writers  and  of  the  par- 
liamentary roll,  the  king  was  loitering  at 
his  palace  at  Eltham  when  he  received 
a  message  from  the  two  houses  request- 
ing the  dismissal  of  Suffolk,  since  they 
had  matter  to  allege  against  him  that 
they  could  not  move  while  he  kept  the 
office  of  chancellor.  Richard,  with  his 
usual  intemperance,  answered  that  he 
would  not  for  their  request  remove  the 
meanest  scullion  from  his  kitchen.  They 
returned  a  positive  refusal  to  proceed  on 
any  public  business  until  the  king  should 
appear  personally  in  parliament,  and  dis- 
place the  chancellor.  The  king  required 
forty  knights  to  be  deputed  from  the  rest, 
to  inform  him  clearly  of  their  wishes. 
But  the  commons  declined  a  proposal,  in 
which  they  feared,  or  affected  to  fear, 
some  treachery.  At  length  the  Duke  of 
Glocester,  and  Arundel,  bishop  of  Ely, 
were  commissioned  to  speak  the  sense 
of  parliament,  and  they  delivered  it,  if 
we  may  still  believe  what  we  read,  in 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  9  R.  II,,  p.  145.          f  Id.,  p.  209. 

J  Id.,  p.  213.  It  is  however  asserted  in  the  arti- 
cles of  impeachment  against  Suffolk,  and  admitted 
by  his  defence,  that  nine  lords  had  been  appointed 
in  the  last  parliament,  viz.,  9  R.  II.,  to  inquire 
into  the  state  of  the  household,  and  reform  what- 
ever was  amiss.  But  nothing  of  this  appears  in 
the  roll. 

$  Knyghton,  in  Twysden,  x.  Script.,  col.  2680. 
Bb 


very  extraordinary  language,  asserting 
that  there  was  an  ancient  statute,  accord- 
ing to  which,  if  the  king  absented  him- 
self from  parliament  without  just  cause 
during  forty  days,  which  he  had  now  ex- 
ceeded, every  man  might  return  without 
permission  to  his  own  country;  and 
moreover  there  was  another  statute,  and 
(as  they  might  more  truly  say)  a  prece- 
dent of  no  remote  date,  that  if  a  king,  by- 
bad  counsel,  or  his  own  folly  and  obsti- 
nacy, alienated  himself  from  his  people, 
and  would  not  govern  according  to  the 
laws  of  the  land  and  the  advice  of  the 
peers,  but  madly  and  wantonly  followed 
his  own  single  will,  it  should  be  lawful 
for  them,  with  the  common  assent  of  the 
people,  to  expel  him  from  his  throne,  and 
elevate  to  it  some  near  kinsman  of  the 
royal  blood.  By  this  discourse  the  king 
was  induced  to  meet  his  parliament, 
where  Suffolk  was  removed  from  his  of- 
fice, and  the  impeachment  against  him 
commenced.* 

The  charges  against  this  minister, 
without  being  wholly  frivolous,  impeach- 
were  not  so  weighty  as  the  clam-  mem  of 
our  of  the  commons  might  have  s 
led  us  to  expect.  Besides  forfeiting  all 
his  grants  from  the  crown,  he  was  com- 
mitted to  prison,  there  to  remain  till  he 
should  have  paid  such  fine  as  the  king 
might  impose ;  a  sentence  that  would 
have  been  outrageously  severe  in  many 
cases,  though  little  more  than  nugatory  in 
the  present.f 

This  was  the  second  precedent  of  that 
grand  constitutional  resource,  commission 
parliamentary  impeachment  :  °f  reform, 
and  more  remarkable,  from  the  emi* 
nence  of  the  person  attacked^  than  that 
of  Lord  Latimer,  in  the  fiftieth  year  of 


Upon  full  consideration,  I  am  much  inclined 
;o  give  credit  to  this  passage  of  Knyghton  as  to 
;he  main  facts  ;  and,  perhaps,  even  the  speech  of 
~locester  and  the  Bishop  of  Ely  is  more  likely  to 
have  been  made  public  by  them,  than  invented  by 
so  jejune  an  historian.  Walsingham  indeed  says 
nothing  of  the  matter  ;  but  he  is  so  unequally  in- 
formed, and  so  frequently  defective,  that  we  can 
draw  no  strong  inference  from  his  silence.  What 
most  weighs  with  me  is  that  parliament  met  on 
Dct.  1,  1387,  and  was  not  dissolved  till  Nov.  28 ;  a 
onger  period  than  the  business  done  in  it  seems  to 
lave  required  ;  and  also  that  Suffolk,  who  opened 
he  session  as  chancellor,  is  styled  "  darrein  chan- 
cellor" in  the  articles  of  impeachment  against  him ; 
o  that  he  must  have  been  removed  in  the  interval, 
which  tallies  with  Knyghton's  story.  Besides,  it 
s  plain,  from  the  famous  question  subsequently 
>ut  by  the  king  to  his  judges  at  Nottingham,  that 
>oth  the  right  of  retiring  without  a  regular  dissolu- 
ion  and  the  precedent  of  Edward  II.  had  been  dis- 
:ussed  in  parliament,  which  does  not  appear  any- 
where else  than  in  Knyghton. 
f  Rot.  Pad.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  219. 


386 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


Edward  III.*  The  commons  were  con- 
tent to  waive  the  prosecution  of  any  oth- 
er ministers  ;  but  they  rather  chose  a 
scheme  of  reforming  the  administration, 
which  should  avert  both  the  necessity  of 
punishment,  and  the  malversations  which 
provoked  it.  They  petitioned  the  king 
to  ordain  in  parliament  certain  chief  offi- 
cers of  his  household,  and  other  lords  of 
his  council,  with  power  to  reform  those 
abuses,  by  which  his  crown  was  so  much 
blemished,  that  the  laws  were  not  kept, 
and  his  revenues  were  dilapidated,  con- 
firming by  a  statute  a  commission  for  a 
year,  and  forbidding,  under  heavy  penal- 
ties, any  one  from  opposing,  in  private 
or~  openly,  what  they  should  ad  vise,  f 
With  this  the  king  complied,  and  a  com- 
mission founded  upon  the  prayer  of  par- 
liament was  established  by  statute.  It 
comprehended  fourteen  persons  of  the 
highest  eminence  for  rank  and  general 
estimation ;  princes  of  the  blood  and  an- 
cient servants  of  the  crown,  by  whom  its 
prerogatives  were  not  likely  to  be  unne- 
cessarily impaired.  In  fact,  the  principle 
of  this  commission,  without  looking 
back  at  the  precedents  in  the  reign  of 
John,  Henry  III.,  and  Edward  II.,  which 
yet  were  not  without  their  weight  as 
constitutional  analogies,  was  merely  that 
which  the  commons  had  repeatedly  main- 
tained during  the  minority  of  the  present 
king,  and  which  had  produced  the  former 
commissions  of  reform  in  the  third  and 
fifth  years  of  his  reign.  These  were 
upon  the  whole  nearly  the  same  in  their 
operation.  It  must  be  owned  there  was 
a  more  extensive  sway  virtually  given  to 
the  lords  now  appointed,  by  the  penal- 
ties imposed  on  any  who  should  endeav- 
our to  obstruct  what  they  might  advise ; 
the  design  as  well  as  tendency  of  which 
was  no  doubt  to  throw  the  whole  admin- 
istration into  their  hands  during  the  peri- 
od of  this  commission. 

Those  who  have  written  our  history 
with  more  or  less  of  a  tory  bias  exclaim 
against  this  parliamentary  commission 
as  an  unwarrantable  violation  of  the 
king's  sovereignty,  and  even  impartial 
men  are  struck  at  first  sight  by  a  meas- 
ure that  seems  to  overset  the  natural 
balance  of  our  constitution.  But  it 
would  be  unfair  to  blame  either  those 

*  Articles  had  been  exhibited  by  the  chancellor 
before  the  peers,  in  the  seventh  of  the  king,  against 
Spencer,  bishop  of  Norwich,  who  had  led  a  con- 
siderable army  into  a  disastrous  expedition  against 
the  Flemings,  adherents  to  the  antipope  Clement, 
in  the  schism.  This  crusade  had  been  exceeding- 
ly popular,  but  its  ill  success  had  the  usual  effect. 
The  common  s  were  not  parties  in  this  proceeding. 
—Rot.  Parl,  p.  153,  t  Id.,  p.  221. 


concerned  in  this  commission,  some  of 
whose  names  at  least  have  been  handed 
down  with  unquestioned  respect,  or  those 
high-spirited  representatives  of  the  people 
whose  patriot  firmness  has  been  hitherto 
commanding  all  our  sympathy  and  grat- 
itude, unless  we  could  distinctly  pro- 
nounce by  what  gentler  means  they  could 
restrain  the  excesses  of  government. 
Thirteen  parliaments  had  already  met 
since  the  accession  of  Richard ;  in  all  the 
same  remonstrances  had  been  repeated, 
and  the  same  promises  renewed.  Subsi- 
dies, more  frequent  than  in  any  former 
reign,  had  been  granted  for  the  supposed 
exigences  of  the  war  ;  but  this  was  no 
longer  illuminated  by  those  dazzling  vic- 
tories, which  give  to  fortune  the  mien 
of  wisdom  ;  the  coasts  of  England  were 
perpetually  ravaged,  and  her  trade  de- 
stroyed ;  while  the  administration  incur- 
red the  suspicion  of  diverting  to  private 
uses  that  treasure  which  they  so  feebly 
and  unsuccessfully  applied  to  the  public 
service.  No  voice  of  his  people,  until  it 
spoke  in  thunder,  would  stop  an  intoxi- 
cated boy  in  the  wasteful  career  of  dissi- 
pation. He  loved  festivals  and  pageants, 
the  prevailing  folly  of  his  time,  with  unu- 
sual frivolity ;  and  his  ordinary  living  is 
represented  as  beyond  comparison  more 
showy  and  sumptuous  than  even  that  of 
his  magnificent  and  chivalrous  predeces- 
sor. Acts  of  parliament  were  no  ade- 
quate barriers  to  his  misgovernment. 
"  Of  what  avail  are  statutes,"  says  Wal- 
singham,  "  since  the  king  with  his  privy 
council  is  wont  to  abolish  what  par- 
liament has  just  enacted1?"*  The  con- 
stant prayer  of  the  commons  in  every 
session,  that  former  statutes  might  be 
kept  in  force,  is  no  slight  presumption 
that  they  were  not  secure  of  being  re- 

farded.  It  may  be  true,  that  Edward 
II. 's  government  had  been  full  as  arbi- 
trary, though  not  so  unwise,  as  his  grand- 
son's; but  this  is  the  strongest  argu- 
ment, that  nothing  less  than  an  extraor- 
dinary remedy  could  preserve  the  still 
unstable  liberties  of  England. 

The  best  plea  that  could  be  made  for 
Richard  was  his  inexperience,  and  the  mis- 
guided suggestions  of  favourites.  This, 
however,  made  it  more  necessary  to  re- 
move those  false  advisers,  and  to  supply 
that  inexperience.  Unquestionably  the 
choice  of  ministers  is  reposed  in  the  sov- 
ereign ;  a  trust,  like  every  other  attribute 
of  legitimate  power,  for  the  public  good  ; 
not,  what  no  legitimate  power  can  ever 
be,  the  instrument  of  selfishness  or  ca- 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  281. 


III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


price.  There  is  something  more  sacred 
than  the  prerogative,  or  even  than  the 
constitution ;  the  public  weal,  for  which 
all  powers  are  granted,  and  to  which  they 
must  all  be  referred.  For  this  public 
weal  it  is  confessed  to  be  sometimes  ne- 
cessary to  shake  the  possessor  of  the 
throne  out  of  his  seat ;  could  it  never  be 
permitted  to  suspend,  though  but  indi- 
rectly and  for  a  time,  the  positive  exer- 
cise of  misapplied  prerogatives  '!  He  has 
learned  in  a  very  different  school  from 
myself,  who  denies  to  parliament  at  the 
present  day  a  preventive  as  well  as  vin- 
dictive control  over  the  administration 
of  affairs ;  a  right  of  resisting,  by  those 
means  which  lie  within  its  sphere,  the 
appointment  of  unfit  ministers.  These 
means  are  now  indirect ;  they  need  not 
to  be  the  less  effectual,  and  they  are 
certainly  more  salutary  on  that  account. 
But  we  must  not  make  our  notions  of  the 
constitution,  in  its  perfect  symmetry  of 
manhood,  the  measure  of  its  infantine  pro- 
portions, nor  expect  from  a  parliament 
just  struggling  into  life,  and  "  pawing  to 
get  free  its  hinder  parts,"  the  regularity 
of  definite  and  habitual  power. 

It  is  assumed  rather  too  lightly  by 
some  of  those  historians  to  whom  I  have 
alluded,  that  these  commissioners,  though 
but  appointed  for  a  twelvemonth,  design- 
ed to  retain  longer,  or  would  not  in  fact 
have  surrendered  their  authority.  There 
is  certainly  a  danger  in  these  delegations 
of  pre-eminent  trust ;  but  I  think  it  more 
formidable  in  a  republican  form  than 
under  such  a  government  as  our  own. 
The  spirit  of  the  people,  the  letter  of  the 
law,  were  both  so  decidedly  monarchical, 
that  no  glaring  attempt  of  the  commis- 
sioners to  keep  the  helm  continually  in 
their  hands,  though  it  had  been  in  the 
king's  name,  would  have  had  a  fair  prob- 
ability of  success.  And  an  oligarchy 
of  fourteen  persons,  different  in  rank 
and  profession,  even  if  we  should  impute 
criminal  designs  to  all  of  them,  was  ill 
calculated  for  permanent  union.  Indeed, 
the  facility  with  which  Richard  reassu- 
med  his  full  powers  two  years  afterward, 
when  misconduct  had  rendered  his  cir- 
cumstances far  more  unfavourable,  gives 
the  corroboration  of  experience  to  this 
reasoning.  By  yielding  to  the  will  of 
his  parliament,  and  to  a  temporary  sus- 
pension of  prerogative,  this  unfortunate 
prince  might  probably  have  reigned  long 
and  peacefully;  the  contrary  course  of 
acting  led  eventually  to  his  deposition 
and  miserable  death. 

Before  the  dissolution  of  parliament, 
Richard  made  a  verbal  protestation,  that 
Bb2 


nothing  done  therein  should  be  Answers  of 
in  prejudice  of  his  rights ;  a  re-  the  judges 
servation  not  unusual  when  ^JJJJJJ*'8 
any  remarkable  concession  was 
made,  but  which  could  not  decently  be 
interpreted,  whatever  he  might  mean,  as 
a  dissent  from  the  statute  just  passed. 
Some  months  had  intervened,  when  the 
king,  who  had  already  released  Suffolk 
from  prison  and  restored  him  to  his  fa- 
vour, procured  from  the  judges  whom  he 
had  summoned  to  Nottingham  a  mos-t 
convenient  set  of  answers  to  questions 
concerning  the  late  proceedings  in  par- 
liament. Tresilian  and  Belknap,  chief 
justices  of  the  King's  Bench  and  Com- 
mon Pleas,  with  several  other  judges, 
gave  it  under  their  seals,  that  the  late 
statute  and  commission  were  derogatory 
to  the  prerogative ;  that  all  who  procured 
it  to  be  passed,  or  persuaded  or  compell* 
ed  the  king  to  consent  to  it,  were  guilty 
of  treason ;  that  the  king's  business  must 
be  proceeded  upon  before  any  other  in 
parliament;  that  he  may  put  an  end  to 
the  session  at  his  pleasure ;  that  his  min- 
isters cannot  be  impeached  without  his 
consent ;  that  any  members  of  parlia- 
ment contravening  the  three  last  articles 
incur  the  penalties  of  treason,  and  espe^ 
cially  he  who  moved  for  the  sentence  of 
deposition  against  Edward  II.  to  be  read  5 
and  that  the  judgment  against  the  Earl 
of  Suffolk  might  be  revoked  as  altogether 
erroneous. 

These  answers,  perhaps  extorted  by 
menaces,  as  all  the  judges  ex-  Subsequent 
cept  Tresilian  protested  before  revolution, 
the  next  parliament,  were  for  the  most 
part  servile  and  unconstitutional.  The 
indignation  which  they  excited,  and  the 
measures  successfully  taken  to  withstand 
the  king's  designs,  belong  to  general  his- 
tory ;  but  I  shall  pass  slightly  over  that 
season  of  turbulence,  which  afforded  no 
legitimate  precedent  to  our  constitutional 
annals.  Of  the  five  lords  appellants  as 
they  were  called,  Glocester,  Derby,  Not- 
tingham, Warwick,  and  Arundel,  the  three 
former,  at  least,  have  little  claim  to  pur 
esteem ;  but  in  every  age,  it  is  the  sophism 
of  malignant  and  peevish  men  to  traduce 
the  cause  of  freedom  itself,  on  account 
of  the  interested  motives  by  which  its 
ostensible  advocates  have  frequently  been 
actuated.  The  parliament,  who  had  the 
country  thoroughly  with  them,  acted  no 
doubt  honestly,  but  with  an  inattention  to 
the  rules  of  law,  culpable  indeed,  yet  from 
which  the  most  civilized  of  their  succes^ 
sors,  in  the  heat  of  passion  and  trittmph, 
have  scarcely  been  exempt.  Whether 
all  with  whom  they  dealt  severely,  some 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


of  them  apparently  of  good  previous  rep- 
utation, merited  such  punishment,  is  more 
than,  upon  uncertain  evidence,  a  modern 
writer  can  profess  to  decide.* 

Notwithstanding  the  death  or  exile  of 
all  Richard's  favourites,  and  the  oath 
taken  not  only  by  parliament,  but  by 
every  class  of  the  people,  to  stand  by 
the  lords  appellants,  we  find  him,  af- 
ter about  a  year,  suddenly  annihilating 
their  pretensions,  and  snatching  the  reins 
again  without  obstruction.  The  secret 
cause  of  this  event  is  among  the  many 
obscurities  that  attend  the  history  of  his 
reign.  It  was  conducted  with  a  spirit 
and  activity  which  broke  out  two  or  three 
times  in  the  course  of  his  imprudent  life  ; 
but  we  may  conjecture  that  he  had  the 
advantage  of  disunion  among  his  ene- 
mies. For  some  years  after  this,  the 
king's  administration  was  prudent.  The 
great  seal,  which  he  took  away  from 
Archbishop  Arundel,  he  gave  to  Wyke- 
ham,  bishop  of  Winchester,  another 
member  of  the  reforming  commission, 
but  a  man  of  great  moderation  and  polit- 
ical experience.  Some  time  after  he  re- 
stored the  seal  to  Arundel,  and  reinstated 
the  Duke  of  Glocester  in  the  council. 
The  Duke  of  Lancaster,  who  had  been 
absent  during  the  transactions  of  the 
tenth  and  eleventh  years  of  the  king,  in 
prosecution  of  his  Castilian  war,  formed 
a  link  between  the  parties,  and  seems  to 
have  maintained  some  share  of  public 
favour. 

There  was  now  a  more  apparent  har- 
mony between  the  court  and 
monTbe-  the  parliament.  It  seems  to 
tweenthe  have  been  tacitly  agreed  that 
payment  they  should  not  interfere  with 
the  king's  household  expenses ; 
and  they  gratified  him  in  a  point  where 
his  honour  had  been  most  wounded,  de- 
claring his  prerogative  to  be  as  high  and 
unimpaired  as  that  of  his  predecessors, 
and  repealing  the  pretended  statute  by 
virtue  of  which  Edward  II.  was  said  to 
have  been  deposed,  f  They  were  provi- 
dent enough,  however,  to  grant  condi- 
tional subsidies,  to  be  levied  only  in  case 
of  a  royal  expedition  against  the  enemy ; 
and  several  were  accordingly  remitted 
by  proclamation,  this  condition  not  being 
fulfilled.  Richard  never  ventured  to  re- 
call his  favourites,  though  he  testified  his 
unabated  affection  for  Vere  by  a  pompous 

*  The  judgment  against  Simon  de  Burley,  one 
of  those  who  were  executed  on  this  occasion,  upon 
impeachment  of  the  commons,  was  reversed  under 
Henry  IV. ;  a  fair  presumption  of  its  injustice. — 
Rot.  Parl.,  voL  iii.,  p.  464. 

f  Rott  Parl.,  14  R.  II.,  p.  279.     15  R.  II.,  p.  286. 


funeral.  Few  complaints,  unequivocally 
affecting  the  ministry,  were  presented  by 
the  commons.  In  one  parliament,  the 
chancellor,  treasurer,  and  council  resign- 
ed their  offices,  submitting  themselves  to 
its  judgment,  in  case  any  matter  of  ac- 
cusation should  be  alleged  against  them. 
The  commons,  after  a  day's  deliberation, 
probably  to  make  their  approbation  ap- 
pear more  solemn,  declared  in  full  par- 
liament that  nothing  amiss  had  been 
found  in  the  conduct  of  these  ministers, 
and  that  they  held  them  to  have  faithful- 
ly discharged  their  duties.  The  king  re- 
instated them  accordingly ;  with  a  prot- 
estation that  this  should  not  be  made  a 
precedent,  and  that  it  was  his  right  to 
change  his  servants  at  pleasure.* 

But  this  summer  season  was  not  to  last 
for  ever.  Richard  had  but  dis- 
sembled  with  those  concerned 
in  the  transactions  of  1388,  leading 
none  of  whom  he  could  ever  peel 
forgive.  These  lords  in  lapse  of  time 
were  divided  among  each  other.  The 
earls  of  Derby  and  Nottingham  were 
brought  into  the  king's  interest.  The 
Earl  of  Arundel  came^to  an  open  breach 
with  the  Duke  of  Lancaster,  whose  par- 
don he  was  compelled  to  ask  for  an  un- 
founded accusation  in  parliament.!  Glo- 
cester's  ungoverned  ambition,  elated  by 
popularity,  could  not  brook  the  ascend- 
ency of  his  brother  Lancaster,  who  was 
much  less  odious  to  the  king.  He  had 
constantly  urged  and  defended  the  con- 
cession of  Guienne  to  this  prince,  to  be 
held  for  life,  reserving  only  his  liege  hom- 
age to  Richard  as  king  of  France  ;|  a 
grant  as  unpopular  among  the  natives 
of  that  country  as  it  was  derogatory  to 
the  crown ;  but  Lancaster  was  not  much 
indebted  to  his  brother  for  assistance, 
which  was  only  given  in  order  to  dimin- 
ish his  influence  in  England.  The  truce 
with  France,  and  the  king's  French  mar- 
riage, which  Lancaster  supported,  were 
passionately  opposed  by  Glocester.  And 
the  latter  had  given  keener  provocation, 
by  speaking  contemptuously  of  that  mis- 
alliance with  Katherine  Swineford,  which 
contaminated  the  blood  of  Plantagenet. 
To  the  parliament  summoned  in  the  20th 
of  Richard,  one  object  of  which  was  to 
legitimate  the  Duke  of  Lancaster's  ante- 
nuptial children  by  this  lady,  neither  Glo- 
cester nor  Arundel  would  repair.  There 
passed  in  this  assembly  something  re- 
markable, as  it  exhibits  not  only  the  ar- 
bitrary temper  of  the  king,  a  point  by  no 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  13  R.  II.,  p.  258. 

fid.,  17R.II.,  p.  313. 

t  Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  583,  659. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


means  doubtful,  but  the  inefficiency  o 
the  commons  to  resist  it,  without  suppor 
from  political  confederacies  of  the  nobil 
ity.     The  circumstances  are  thus  related 
in  the  record. 

During  the  session,  the  king  sent  fo 
Richards  the  lords  into  parliament  one 
prosecution  afternoon,  and  told  them  how 
c  Haxey.  he  nad  near(i  Of  certain  articles 
of  complaint  made  by  the  commons  ir 
conference  with  them  a  few  days  before 
some  of  which  appeared  to  the  king 
against  his  royalty,  estate,  and  liberty 
and  commanded  the  chancellor  to  inform 
him  fully  as  to  this.  The  chancellor 
accordingly  related  the  whole  matter 
which  consisted  of  four  alleged  grievan- 
ces ;  namely,  that  sheriffs  and  escheators, 
notwithstanding  a  statute,  are  continued 
in  their  offices  beyond  a  year  ;*  that  the 
Scottish  marches  were  not  well  kept; 
that  the  statute  against  wearing  great 
men's  liveries  was  disregarded ;  and,  last- 
ly, that  the  excessive  charges  of  the 
king's  household  ought  to  be  diminished, 
arising  from  the  multitude  of  bishops  and 
of  ladies  who  are  there  maintained  at  his 
cost. 

Upon  this  information  the  king  de- 
clared to  the  lords,  that  through  God's 
gift  he  is  by  lineal  right  of  inheritance 
king  of  England,  and  will  have  the  royal- 
ty and  freedom  of  his  crown,  from  which 
some  of  these  articles  derogate.  The 
first  petition,  that  sheriffs  should  never 
remain  in  office  beyond  a  year,  he  re- 
jected ;  but,  passing  lightly  over  the  rest, 
took  most  offence,  that  the  commons, 
who  are  his  lieges,  should  take  on  them- 
selves to  make  any  ordinance  respecting 
his  royal  person  or  household,  or  those 
whom  he  might  please  to  have  about  him. 
He  enjoined,  therefore,  the  lords  to  de- 
clare plainly  to  the  commons  his  pleas- 
ure in  this  matter ;  and  especially  direct- 
ed the  Duke  of  Lancaster  to  make  the 
speaker  give  up  the  name  of  the  person 
who  presented  a  bill  for  this  last  article 
in  the  lower  house. 

The  commons  were  in  no  state  to  re- 
sist this  unexpected  promptitude  of  ac- 

*  Hume  has  represented  this  as  if  the  commons 
had  petitioned  for  the  continuance  of  sheriffs  be- 
yond a  year,  and  grounds  upon  this  mistake  part 
of  his  defence  of  Richard  II.  (note  to  vol.  ii.,  p.  270, 
4to.  edit.)  For  this  he  refers  to  Cotton's  Abridg- 
ment ;  whether  rightly  or  not  I  cannot  say,  being 
little  acquainted  with  that  inaccurate  book,  upon 
which  it  is  unfortunate  that  Hume  relied  so  much. 
The  passage  from  Walsingham  in  the  same  note 
is  also  wholly  perverted,  as  the  reader  will  discov- 
er without  further  observation.  An  historian  must 
be  strangely  warped,  who  quotes  a  passage  expli- 
citly complaining  of  illegal  acts  in  order  to  infer 
that  those  very  acts  were  legal 


tion  in  the  king.  They  surrendered  the 
obnoxious  bill,  with  its  proposer,  one 
Thomas  Haxey,  and  with  great  humility 
made  excuse,  that  they  never  designed  to 
give  offence  to  his  majesty,  nor  to  inter- 
fere with  his  household  or  attendants, 
knowing  well  that  such  things  do  not  be- 
long to  them,  but  to  the  king  alone;  but 
merely  to  draw  his  attention,  that  he 
might  act  therein  as  should  please  him 
best.  The  king  forgave  these  pitiful  sup- 
pliants ;  but  Haxey  was  adjudged  in  par- 
liament to  suffer  death  as  a  traitor.  As, 
however,  he  was  a  clerk,*  the  Archbishop 
of  Canterbury,  at  the  head  of  the  pre- 
lates, obtained  of  the  king  that  his  life 
might  be  spared,  and  that  they  might 
have  the  custody  of  his  person ;  protest- 
ing that  this  was  not  claimed  by  way  of 
right,  but  merely  of  the  king's  grace. f 

This  was  an  open  defiance  of  parlia- 
ment, and  a  declaration  of  arbitrary  pow- 
er. For  it  would  be  impossible  to  con- 
tend, that  after  the  repeated  instances  of 
control  over  public  expenditure  by  the 
commons  since  the  50th  of  Edward  III., 
this  principle  was  novel  and  unauthorized 
by  the  constitution ;  or  that  the  right  of 
free  speech  demanded  by  them  in  every 
parliament  was  not  a  real  and  indisputa- 
ble privilege.  The  king,  however,  was 
completely  successful,  and  hav-  Arbitrary 
ing  proved  the  feebleness  of  measures  of 
the  commons,  fell  next  upon  th 
those  he  more  dreaded.  By  a  skilful 
piece  of  treachery  he  seized  the  Duke 
of  Glocester,  and  spread  consternation 
among  all  his  party.  A  parliament  was 
summoned,  in  which  the  only  struggle 
was  to  outdo  the  king's  wishes,  and  thus 
to  efface  their  former  transgressions.^ 


*  The  church  would  perhaps  have  interfered  in 
behalf  of  Haxey,  if  he  had  only  received  the  ton- 
sure. But  it  seems  that  he  was  actually  in  orders ; 
for  the  record  calls  him  Sir  Thomas  Haxey,  a  title 
at  that  time  regularly  given  to  the  parson  of  a  par- 
sh.  If  this  be  so,  it  is  a  remarkable  authority  for 
he  clergy's  capacity  of  sitting  in  parliament. 

t  Rot.  Par!.,  20  R.  II.,  p.  339.  In  Henry  IV.'a 
first  parliament,  the  commons  petitioned  for  Hax- 
ey's  restoration,  and  truly  say,  that  his  sentence 
was  en  aneantissement  des  custumes  de  la  com- 
mune, p.  434.  His  judgment  was  reversed  by  both 
louses,  as  having  past  de  volonte  du  Roy  Richard 
en  centre  droit,  et  la  course  quel  avoit  este  devant 
en  parlement,  p.  480.  There  can  be  no  doubt  with 
any  man  who  looks  attentively  at  the  passages 
relative  to  Haxey,  that  he  was  a  member  of  par- 
liament ;  though  this  was  questioned  a  few  years 
igo  by  the  committee  of  the  house  of  commons 
vho  made  a  report  on  the  right  of  the  clergy  to  be 
elected  ;  a  right  which,  I  am  inclined  to  believe, 
did  exist  down  to  the  Reformation,  as  the  grounds 
alleged  for  Nowell's  expulsion  in  the  first  of  Mary, 
>esides  this  instance  of  Haxey,  conspire  to  prove, 
hough  it  has  since  been  lost  by  disuse. 

This  assembly,  if  we  may  trust  the  anony. 


390 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII. 


Glocester,  who   had  been   murdered  a 
Calais,   was   attainted   after  his    death 
Arundel  was  beheaded,  his  brother  th< 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury  deposed  and 
banished,  Warwick  and  Cobham  sent  be 
yond  sea.    The  commission  of  the  tenth 
the   proceedings   in   parliament   of  the 
eleventh  year  of  the  king,  were  annulled 
The  answers  of  the  judges  to  the  ques- 
tions put  at  Nottingham,  which  had  beer 
punished  with  death  and  exile,  were  pro- 
nounced by  parliament  to  be  just  and  le- 
gal.    It  was  declared  high  treason  to  pro- 
cure the  repeal  of  any  judgment  against 
persons  therein  impeached.    Their  issue 
male  were  disabled  from  ever  sitting  in 
parliament,  or  holding  place  in  council. 
These  violent  ordinances,  as  if  the  pre- 
cedent they  were  then  overturning  had 
not  shielded  itself  with  the  same  sanc- 
tion, were  sworn  to  by  parliament  upon 
the  cross  of  Canterbury,  and  confirmed 
by  a  national  oath,  with  the  penalty  of 
excommunication  denounced  against  its 
infringers.     Of  those  recorded  to  have 
bound  themselves  by  this  adjuration  to 
Richard,  far  the  greater  part  had  touched 
the  same  relics  for  Glocester  and  Arun- 
del ten  years  before,  and  two  years  after- 
ward swore  allegiance  to  Henry  of  Lan- 
caster.* 

In  the  fervour  of  prosecution  this  par- 
liament could  hardly  go  beyond  that 
whose  acts  they  were  annulling ;  and 
each  is  alike  unworthy  to  be  remembered 
in  the  way  of  precedent.  But  the  leaders 
of  the  former,  though  vindictive  and  tur- 
bulent, had  a  concern  for  the  public  in- 
terest; and  after  punishing  their  ene- 
mies, left  the  government  upon  its  right 
foundation.  In  this  all  regard  for  liberty 
was  extinct ;  and  the  commons  set  the 
dangerous  precedent  of  granting  the  king 
a  subsidy  upon  wool  during  his  life.  This 
remarkable  act  of  severity  was  accompa- 
nied by  another,  less  unexampled,  but, 
as  it  proved,  .of  more  ruinous  tendency. 
The  petitions  of  the  commons  not  having 
been  answered  during  the  session,  which 
they  were  always  anxious  to  conclude,  a 
commission  was  granted  for  twelve  peers 
and  six  commoners  to  sit  after  the  dissolu- 
tion, and  "examine,  answer,  and  fully 
determine  as  well  all  the  said  petitions, 
an(J  the  matters  therein  comprised,  as  all 
other  matters  and  things  moved  in  the 
king's  presence,  and  all  things  incident 
thereto  not  yet  determined,  as  shall  seem 
best  to  them."f  The  "  other  matters" 

mous  author  of  the  life  of  Richard  II.,  published 
by  Hearne,  was  surrounded  by  the  king's  troops, 
p.  133. 

*  Rot.  Par!.,  21  R.  II.,  p.  347.      f  Id..  p.  3$Q.      , 


mentioned  above  were,  I  suppose,  pri- 
vate petitions  to  the  king's  council  in  par- 
liament, which  had  been  frequently  de- 
spatched after  a  dissolution.     For  in  the 
statute  which  establishes  this   commis- 
sion, 21  R.  II.,  c.  16,  no  powers  are  com- 
mitted but  those  of  examining  petitions  ; 
which,  if  it  does  not  confirm  the  charge 
afterward  alleged  against  Richard  of  fal- 
sifying the  parliament  roll,  must  at  least 
be  considered  as  limiting  and  explaining 
the  terms  of  the  latter.     Such  a  trust  had 
been   committed  to  some  lords  of  the 
council  eight  years  before,  in  very  peace^ 
ful  times;   and  it  was  even  requested 
that  the   same  might  be  done  in  future 
parliaments.*     But  it  is  obvious  what  a 
latitude  this  gave  to  a  prevailing  faction. 
These  eighteen  commissioners,  or  some 
of  them  (for  there  were  who  disliked  the 
turn  of  affairs),  usurped  the  full  rights  of 
the  legislature,  which  undoubtedly  were 
only  delegated  in  respect  of  business  al- 
ready  commenced.!     They  imposed   a 
perpetual  oath  on  prelates  and  lords  for 
all  time  to  come,  to  be  taken  before  ob- 
taining livery  of  their  lands,  that  they 
would   maintain  the   statutes  and  ordi- 
nances made  by  this  parliament,  or  "  af- 
terward by  the  lords  and  knights  having 
Dower  committed  to  them  by  the  same.'1 
They  declared  it  high  treason  to  disobey 
their  ordinances.     They  annulled  the  pa- 
ints of  the  dukes  of  Hereford  and  Nor- 
folk, and  adjudged  Henry  Bowet,  the  for- 
mer's chaplain,  who  had  advised  him  to 
)etition  for  his  inheritance,  to  the  penal- 
ies  of  treason.^    And  thus,  having  obr- 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  13  R.  II.,  p.  256. 

t  This  proceeding  was  made  one  of  the  articles 
>f  charge  against  Richard  in  the  following  terms  : 
tem,  in  parliamento  ultimo  celebrato  apud  Salo- 
>iam,  idem  Rex  proponens  opprimere  populum 
uum  procuravit  subtiliter  et  fecit  concedi,  quod 
otestas  parliamenti  de  consensu  omnium  statuum 
egni  sui  rernaneret  apud  quasdam  certas  personas 
d  terminandum,  dissoluto  parliamento,  certas  per 
itiones  in  eodem  parliamento  porrectas  protunc 
ninime  expeditas.  Cujus  concessionis  colore  per- 
onae  sic  deputatae  processerunt  ad  alia  generaliter 
arliamentum  illud  tangentia ;  et  hoc  de  vqluntate 
egis ;  in  derogationem  status  parliamenti,  et  in 
magnum  incommodum  totius  regni  et  perniciosum 
xemplum.  Et  ut  super  factis  eorum  hujusmodi 
liquem  colorem  et  auctoritatem  viderentur  habere, 
ex  fecit  rotulos  parliamenti  pro  voto  suo  mutari  et 
eleri,  contra  effectum  consensionis  praedictae. — 
lot.  Parl.,  1  H.  IV.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  418.  Whether  the 
ast  accusation,  of  altering  the  parliamentary  roll, 
e  true  or  not,  there  is  enough  left  in  it  to  prove 
very  thing  I  have  asserted  in  the  text.  From  this 
;  is  sufficiently  manifest  how  unfairly  Carte  and 
Jume  have  drawn  a  parallel  between  this  self- 
eputed  legislative  commission,  and  that  appointed 
y  parliament  to  reform  the  administration  eleven 
ears  before. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  1  H.  IV.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  372,  385. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


391 


tained  a  revenue  for  life,  and  the  power 
of  parliament  being  notoriously  usurped 
by  a  knot  of  his  creatures,  the  king  was 
little  likely  to  meet  his  people  again,  and 
became  as  truly  absolute  as  his  ambition 
could  require. 

It  had  been  necessary  for  this  purpose 
Quarrel  to  subjugate  the  ancient  nobility, 
of  the  For  the  English  constitution  gave 
Hereford  them  suc^  paramount  rights,  that 
and  Nor-  it  was  impossible  either  to  make 
Iolk-  them  surrender  their  country's 
freedom,  or  to  destroy  it  without  their 
consent.  But  several  of  the  chief  men 
had  fallen,  or  were  involved,  with  the 
party  of  Glocester.  Two  who,  having 
once  belonged  to  it,  had  lately  plunged 
into  the  depths  of  infamy  to  ruin  their 
former  friends,  were  still  perfectly  ob- 
noxious to  the  king,  who  never  forgave 
their  original  sin.  These  two,  Henry  of 
Bolingbroke,  earl  of  Derby,  and  Mow- 
bray,  earl  of  Nottingham,  now  dukes  of 
Hereford  and  Norfolk,  the  most  power- 
ful of  the  remaining  nobility,  were,  by  a 
singular  conjuncture,  thrown,  as  it  were, 
at  the  king's  feet.  Of  the  political  mys- 
teries which  this  reign  affords,  none  is 
more  inexplicable  than  the  quarrel  of 
these  peers.  In  the  parliament  at  Shrews- 
bury in  1398,  Hereford  was  called  upon 
by  the  king  to  relate  what  had  passed 
between  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  and  him- 
self in  slander  of  his  majesty.  He  de- 
tailed a  pretty  long  and  not  improbable 
conversation,  in  which  Norfolk  had  as- 
serted the  king's  intention  of  destroying 
them  both,  for  their  old  offence  in  im- 
peaching his  ministers.  Norfolk  had 
only  to  deny  the  charge,  and  throw  his 
gauntlet  at  the  accuser.  It  was  referred 
to  the  eighteen  commissioners  who  sat 
after  the  dissolution,  and  a  trial  by  com- 
bat was  awarded.  But  when  this,  after 
many  delays,  was  about  to  take  place  at 
Coventry,  Richard  interfered,  and  settled 
the  dispute  by  condemning  Hereford  to 
banishment  for  ten  years,  and  Norfolk 
for  life.  This  strange  determination, 
which  treated  both  as  guilty  where  only 
one  could  be  so,  seems  to  admit  no  other 
solution  than  the  king's  desire  to  rid 
himself  of  two  peers  whom  he  feared 
and  hated  at  a  blow.  But  it  is  difficult 
to  understand  by  what  means  he  drew 
the  crafty  Bolingbroke  into  his  snare.* 

*  Besides  the  contemporary  historians,  we  may 
read  a  full  narrative  of  these  proceedings  in  the 
rolls  of  parliament,  vol.  iii.,  p.  382.  It  appears  that 
Mowbray  was  the  most  offending  party;  since,  in- 
dependently of  Hereford's  accusation,  he  is  char- 
ged with  openly  maintaining  the  appeals  made  in 
the  false  parliament  of  the  eleventh  of  the  king, 
But  the  banishment  of  his  accuser  was  wholly  uu- , 


However  this  might  have  been,  he  now 
threw  away  all  appearance  of  moderate 
government.  The  indignities  he  had  suf- 
fered in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign 
were  still  at  his  heart,  a  desire  to- re- 
venge which  seems  to  have  been  the 
main  spring  of  his  conduct.  Though  a 
general  pardon  of  those  proceedings  had 
been  granted,  not  only  at  the  time,  but 
in  his  own  last  parliament,  he  made  use 
of  them  as  a  pretence  to  extort  money 
from  seventeen  counties,  to  whom  he 
imputed  a  share  in  the  rebellion.  He 
compelled  men  to  confess,  under  their 
seals,  that  they  had  been  guilty  of  trea- 
son, and  to  give  blank  obligations,  which 
his  officers  filled  up  with  large  sums.* 
Upon  the  death  of  the  Duke  of  Lancas- 
ter, who  had  passively  complied  through- 
out all  these  transactions,  Richard  re- 
fused livery  of  his  inheritance  to  Here- 
ford, whose  exile  implied  no  crime,  and 
who  had  letters  patent  enabling  him  to 
make  his  attorney  for  that  purpose  du- 
ring its  continuance.  In  short,  his  gov- 
ernment for  nearly  two  years  was  Necessity 
altogether  tyrannical ;  and,  upon  for  depo- 
the  same  principles  that  cost  sin«him. 
James  II.  his  throne,  it  was  unquestion- 
ably far  more  necessary,  unless  our  fa- 
thers would  have  abandoned  all  thought 
of  liberty,  to  expel  Richard  II.  Far  be  it 
from  us  to  extenuate  the  treachery  of 
the  Percies  towards  this  unhappy  prince, 
or  the  cruel  circumstances  of  his  death, 
or  in  any  way  to  extol  either  his  succes- 
sor or  the  chief  men  of  that  time,  most 
of  whom  were  ambitious  and  faithless ; 
but  after  such  long  experience  of  the 
king's  arbitrary,  dissembling,  and  revenge- 
ful temper,  I  see  no  other  safe  course  in 
the  actual  state  of  the  constitution  than 
what  the  nation  concurred  in  pursuing. 
The  reign  of  Richard  II.  is,  in  a  consti- 
tutional light,  the  most  interesting  part 
of  our  earlier  history,  and  it  has  been 
the  most  imperfectly  written.  Some 
have  misrepresented  the  truth  through 
prejudice,  and  others  through  careless- 
ness. It  is  only  to  be  understood,  and 
indeed  there  are  great  difficulties  in  the 
way  of  understanding  it  at  all,  by  a  peru- 
sal of  the  rolls  of  parliament,  with  some 
assistance  from  the  contemporary  histo- 


justifiable  by  any  motives  that  we  can  discover. 
It  is  strange  that  Carte  should  express  surprise  at 
the  sentence  upon  the  Duke  of  Norfolk,  while  he 
seems  to  consider  that  upon  Hereford  as  very 
equitable.  But  he  viewed  the  whole  of  this  reign, 
and  of  those  that  ensued,  with  the  jaundiced  eye 
of  Jacobitism. 

*  Rot.  Par!.,  1  H.  IV.,  p.  420,  426.  Walsing* 
ham,  p.  353,  357.  Otterburn,  p.  199  Vita  Rie, 
II,  »  HT. 


392 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII. 


rians,  Walsingham,  Knyghton,  the  anony- 
mous biographer  published  by  Hearne, 
and  Froissart.  These,  I  must  remark, 
except  occasionally  the  last,  are  ex- 
tremely hostile  to  Richard ;  and  although 
we  are  far  from  being  bound  to  acqui- 
esce in  their  opinions,  it  is  at  least  un- 
warrantable in  modern  writers  to  sprinkle 
their  margins  with  references  to  such 
authority  in  support  of  positions  deci- 
dedly opposite.* 

The  revolution  which  elevated  Henry 
circumstan-  IV.  to  the  throne  was  certainly 
ces  attend-  so  far  accomplished  by  force, 
iyg's  accL  that  the  king  was  in  captivity, 
sion.  and  those  who  might  still  ad- 

here to  him  in  no  condition  to  support 
his  authority.  But  the  sincere  concur- 
rence which  most  of  the  prelates  and 
nobility,  with  the  mass  of  the  people, 
gave  to  changes  that  could  not  have 
been  otherwise  effected  by  one  so  un- 
provided with  foreign  support  as  Henry, 
proves  this  revolution  to  have  been,  if 
not  an  indispensable,  yet  a  national  act, 
and  should  prevent  our  considering  the 
Lancastrian  kings  as  usurpers  of  the 
throne.  Nothing  indeed  looks  so  much 
like  usurpation  in  the  whole  transaction 
as  Henry's  remarkable  challenge  of  the 
crown,  insinuating,  though  not  avowing, 
as  Hume  has  justly  animadverted  upon 
it,  a  false  and  ridiculous  title  by  right 
line  of  descent,  and  one  equally  unwar- 
rantable by  conquest.  The  course  of 
proceedings  is  worthy  of  notice.  As 
the  renunciation  of  Richard  might  well 
pass  for  the  effect  of  compulsion,  there 
was  a  strong  reason  for  propping  up  its 
instability  by  a  solemn  deposition  from 
the  throne,  founded  upon  specific  charges 
of  misgovernment,  Again,  as  the  right 
of  dethroning  a  monarch  was  nowhere 
found  in  the  law,  it  was  equally  requisite 
to  support  this  assumption  of  power  by 
an  actual  abdication.  But  as  neither  one 
nor  the  other  filled  the  Duke  of  Lancas- 
ter's wishes,  who  was  not  contented 
with  owing  a  crown  to  election,  nor 
seemed  altogether  to  account  for  the  ex- 
clusion of  the  house  of  March,  he  devi- 
sed this  claim,  which  was  preferred  in 
the  vacancy  of  the  throne,  Richard's  ces- 
sion having  been  read  and  approved  in 
parliament,  and  the  sentence  of  depo- 
sition, "  out  of  abundant  caution,  and  to 

*  It  is  fair  to  observe,  that  Froissart's  testimony 
makes  most  in  favour  of  the  king,  or  rather  against 
his  enemies,  where  it  is  most  valuable,  that  is,  in 
his  account  of  what  he  heard  in  the  English  court 
in  1395, 1.  iv.,  c.  62,  where  he  gives  a  very  differ- 
ent character  of  the  Duke  of  Glocester.  Jn  gen- 
eral, this  writer  is  ill  informed  of  English  affairs, 
and  undeserving  to  be  quoted  as  an  authority. 


remove  all  scruple,"  solemnly  passed  by 
seven  commissioners  appointed  out  of 
the  several  estates.  "  After  which  chal- 
lenge and  claim,"  says  the  record,  "  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  all  the 
estates  there  present,  being  asked  sep- 
arately and  together  what  they  thought 
of  the  said  challenge  and  claim,  the  said 
estates,  with  the  whole  people,  without 
any  difficulty  or  delay,  consented  that 
the  said  duke  should  reign  over  them."* 
The  claim  of  Henry,  as  opposed  to  that 
of  the  Earl  of  March,  was  indeed  ridicu- 
lous ;  but  it  is  by  no  means  evident  that, 
in  such  cases  of  extreme  urgency  as 
leave  no  security  for  the  common  weal 
but  the  deposition  of  a  reigning  prince, 
there  rests  any  positive  obligation  upon 
the  estates  of  the  realm  to  fill  his  place 
with  the  nearest  heir.  A  revolution  of 
this  kind  seems  rather  to  defeat  and 
confound  all  prior  titles,  though  in  the 
new  settlement  it  will  commonly  be  pru- 
dent, as  well  as  equitable,  to  treat  them 
with  some  regard.  Were  this  otherwise, 
it  would  be  hard  to  say  why  William 
III.  reigned  to  the  exclusion  of  Anne,  or 
even  of  the  Pretender,  who  had  surely 
committed  no  offence  at  that  time ;  or 
why  (if  such  indeed  be  the  true  con- 
struction of  the  Act  of  Settlement)  the 
more  distant  branches  of  the  royal  stock, 
descendants  of  Henry  VII.  and  earlier 
kings,  have  been  cut  off  from  their  hope 
of  succession  by  the  restriction  to  the 
heirs  of  the  Princess  Sophia. 

In  this  revolution  of  1399  there  was  as 
remarkable  an  attention  shown  to  the  for- 
malities of  the  constitution,  allowance 
made  for  the  men  and  the  times,  as  in 
that  of  1688.  The  parliament  was  not 
opened  by  commission ;  no  one  took  the 
office  of  president ;  the  commons  did  not 
adjourn  to  their  own  chamber;  they 
chose  no  speaker ;  the  name  of  parlia- 
ment was  not  taken,  but  that  only  of  es- 
tates of  the  realm.  But  as  it  would  have 
been  a  violation  of  constitutional  princi- 
ples to  assume  a  parliamentary  character 
without  the  king's  commission,  though 
summoned  by  his  writ,  so  it  was  still 
more  essential  to  limit  their  exercise  of 
power  to  the  necessity  of  circumstances. 
Upon  the  cession  of  the  king,  as  upon  his 
death,  the  parliament  was  no  more ;  its 
existence,  as  the  council  of  the  sover- 
eign, being  dependant  upon  his  will.  The 
actual  convention  summoned  by  the  writs 
of  Richard  could  not  legally  become  the 
parliament  of  Henry  ;  and  the  validity  of 
a  statute  declaring  it  to  be  such  would 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  423. 


PART  HI.} 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


probably  have  been  questionable  in  that 
age,  when  the  power  of  statutes  to  alter 
the  original  principles  of  the  common 
law  was  by  no  means  so  thoroughly  rec- 
ognised as  at  the  Restoration  and  Revo- 
lution. Yet  Henry  was  too  well  pleased 
with  his  friends  to  part  with  them  so 
readily ;  and  he  had  much  to  effect  be- 
fore the  fervour  of  their  spirits  should 
abate.  Hence  an  expedient  was  devised 
of  issuing  writs  for  a  new  parliament,  re- 
turnable in  six  days.  These  neither  were 
nor  could  be  complied  with  ;  but  the  same 
members  as  had  deposed  Richard  sat  in 
the  new  parliament,  which  was  regularly 
opened  by  Henry's  commissioner,  as  if 
they  had  been  duly  elected.*  In  this 
contrivance,  more  than  in  all  the  rest,  we 
may  trace  the  hand  of  lawyers. 

If  we  look  back  from  the  accession  of 
Retrospect  Henry  IV.  to  that  of  his  prede- 
re  shofPthf  cessor»  tne  constitutional  au- 
constitutum  thority  of  the  house  of  corn- 
under  Rich-  mons  will  be  perceived  to  have 
made  surprising  progress  du- 
ring the  course  of  twenty-two  years.  Of 
the  three  capital  points  in  contest  while 
Edward  reigned,  that  money  could  not 
be  levied,  or  laws  enacted,  without  the 
commons'  consent,  and  that  the  adminis- 
tration of  government  was  subject  to 
their  inspection  and  control,  the  first  was 
absolutely  decided  in  their  favour,  the 
second  was  at  least  perfectly  admitted  in 
principle,  and  the  last  was  confirmed  by 
frequent  exercise.  The  commons  had 
acquired  two  additional  engines  of  im- 
mense efficiency;  one,  the  right  of  di- 
recting the  application  of  subsidies,  and 
calling  accountants  before  them;  the 
other,  that  of  impeaching  the  king's  min- 
isters for  misconduct.  All  these  vigor- 
ous shoots  of  liberty  throve  more  and 
its  advances  more  under  the  three  kings  of 
under  the  the  house  of  Lancaster,  and 
Lancaster  drew  such  strength  and  nour- 
ishment from  the  generous 
heart  of  England,  that  in  after  times  and 
in  a  less  prosperous  season,  though 
checked  and  obstructed  in  their  growth, 
neither  the  blasts  of  arbitrary  power 
could  break  them  off,  nor  the  mildew  of 
servile  opinion  cause  them  to  wither.  I 
shall  trace  the  progress  of  parliament  till 
the  civil  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster ;  1, 
in  maintaining  the  exclusive  right  of  tax- 
ation; 2,  in  directing  and  checking  the 
public  expenditure  ;  3,  in  making  sup- 

*  If  proof  could  be  required  of  any  thing  so  self- 
evident  as  that  these  assemblies  consisted  of  ex- 
actly the  same  persons,  it  may  be  found  in  their 
writs  of  expenses,  as  published  by  Prynne.  4th 
Register,  p.  450. 


plies  depend  on  the  redress  of  grievan- 
ces ;  4,  in  securing  the  people  against  il- 
legal ordinances  and  interpolations  of  the 
statutes ;  5,  in  controlling  the  royal  ad- 
ministration ;  6,  in  punishing  bad  minis- 
ters ;  and  lastly,  in  establishing  their  own 
immunities  and  privileges. 

1.  The  pretence  of  levying  money 
without  consent  of  parliament  expired 
with  Edward  III.,  who  had  asserted  it,  as 
we  have  seen,  in  the  very  last  year  of 
his  reign.  A  great  council  of  lords  and 
prelates,  summoned  in  the  second  year 
of  his  successor,  declared  that  they  could 
advise  no  remedy  for  the  king's  necessi- 
ties, without  laying  taxes  on  the  people, 
which  could  only  be  granted  in  parlia- 
ment.* Nor  was  Richard  ever  accused 
of  illegal  tallages,  the  frequent  theme  of 
remonstrance  under  Edward,  unless  we 
may  conjecture  that  this  charge  is  im- 
plied in  an  act  (11  R.  II.,  c.  9),  which  an- 
nuls all  impositions  on  wool  and  leather, 
without  consent  of  parliament,  if  any 
there  be.\  Doubtless  his  innocence  in  this 
respect  was  the  effect  of  weakness ;  and 
if  the  revolution  of  1399  had  not  put  an 
end  to  his  newly-acquired  despotism,  this, 
like  every  other  right  of  his  people, 
would  have  been  swept  away.  A  less 
palpable  means  of  evading  the  consent 
of  the  commons  was  by  the  extortion  of 
loans,  and  harassing  those  who  refused 
to  pay  by  summonses  before  the  council. 
These  loans,  the  frequent  resource  of 
arbitrary  sovereigns  in  later  times,  are 
first  complained  of  in  an  early  parliament 
of  Richard  II. ;  and  a  petition  is  granted 
that  no  man  shall  be  compelled  to  lend  the 
king  money.:}:  But  how  little  this  was 
regarded  we  may  infer  from  a  writ  di- 
rected in  1386  to  some  persons  in  Boston, 
enjoining  them  to  assess  every  person 
who  had  goods  and  chattels  to  the  amount 
of  twenty  pounds,  in  his  proportion  of 
two  hundred  pounds,  which  the  town  had 
promised  to  lend  the  king;  and  giving 
an  assurance  that  this  shall  be  deducted 
from  the  next  subsidy  to  be  granted  by 
parliament.  Among  other  extraordinary 
parts  of  this  letter  is  a  menace  of  forfeit- 
ing life,  limbs,  and  property,  held  out 
against  such  as  should  not  obey  these 
commissioners. $  After  his  triumph  over 


*  2  R.  II.,  p.  56. 

t  It  is  positively  laid  down  by  the  assertors  of 
civil  liberty  in  the  great  case  of  impositions 
(Howell's  State  Trials,  vol.  ii.,  p.  443,  507),  that 
no  precedents  for  arbitrary  taxation  of  exports  or 
imports  occur  from  the  accession  of  Richard  II.  to 
the  reign  of  Mary. 

t  2  R.  II.,  p.  62.  This  did  not  find  its  way  to  the 
statute  book. 

$  Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  544. 


394 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


the  popular  party  towards  the  end  of  his 
reign,  he  obtained  large  sums  in  this 
way. 

Under  the  Lancastrian  kings,  there  is 
much  less  appearance  of  raising  money 
in  an  unparliamentary*  course.  Henry 
IV.  obtained  an  aid  from  a  great  council 
in  the  year  1400 ;  but  they  did  not  pre- 
tend to  charge  any  besides  themselves ; 
though  it  seems  that  some  towns  after- 
ward gave  the  king  a  contribution.*  A 
few  years  afterward,  he  directs  the  sher- 
iffs to  call  on  the  richest  men  in  their 
counties  to  advance  the  money  voted  by 
parliament.  This,  if  any  compulsion  was 
threatened,  is  an  instance  of  overstrained 
prerogative,  though  consonant  to  the 
practice  of  the  late  reign. f  There  is, 
however,  an  instance  of  very  arbitrary 
conduct  with  respect  to  a  grant  of  money 
in  the  minority  of  Henry  VI.  A  subsidy 
had  been  granted  by  parliament  upon 
goods  imported,  under  certain  restrictions 
in  favour  of  the  merchants,  with  a  provi- 
sion, that  if  these  conditions  be  not  ob- 
served on  the  king's  part,  then  the  grant 
should  be  void  and  of  no  effect.^  But 
an  entry  is  made  on  the  roll  of  the  next 
parliament,  that  "whereas  some  disputes 
have  arisen  about  the  grant  of  the  last 
subsidy ;  it  is  declared  by  the  Duke  of 
Bedford  and  other  lords  in  parliament, 
with  advice  of  the  judges  and  others  learn- 
ed in  the  law,  that  the  said  subsidy  was  at 
all  events  to  be  collected  and  levied  for 
the  king's  use ;  notwithstanding  any  con- 
ditions in  the  grant  of  the  said  subsidy 
contained. "§  The  commons,  however, 
in  making  the  grant  of  a  fresh  subsidy  in 

tthis  parliament,  renewed  their  former 
conditions,  with  the  addition  of  another, 
that  "  it  ne  no  part  thereof  be  beset  ne 
dispensed  to  no  other  use,  but  only  in 
and  for  the  defense  of  the  said  rpialme."|| 
2.  The  right  of  granting  supplies  would 
Appropn-  have  been  very  incomplete,  had 
ation;of  it  not  been  accompanied  with 
jupphes.  ^^  Q£.  Directing  their  application. 
This  principle  of  appropriating  public 
moneys  began,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the 
minority  of  Richard;  and  was  among 
the  best  fruits  of  that  period.  It  was 
steadily  maintained  under  the  new  dy- 
nasty. The  parliament  of  6  H.  IV. 
granted  two  fifteenths  and  two  tenths, 
with  a  tax  on  skins  and  wool,  on  con- 


*  Carte,  vol.  ii.,  p.  640.  Sir  M.  Hale  observes 
that  he  finds  no  complaints  of  illegal  impositions 
under  the  kings  of  the  house  of  Lancaster. — Har- 
grave's  Tracts,  vol.  i.,  p.  184. 

t  Rymer,  t.  viii.,  p.  412,  488. 

J  Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  216. 

$  Id.,  p.  301.  ||  Id.,  p.  302. 


dition  that  it  should  be  expended  in 
the  defence  of  the  kingdom,  and  not 
otherwise,  as  Thomas  Lord  Furnival 
and  Sir  John  Pelham,  ordained  treasurers 
of  war  for  this  parliament,  to  receive 
the  said  subsidies,  shall  account  and  an- 
swer to  the  commons  at  the  next  parlia- 
ment. These  treasurers  were  sworn  in 
parliament  to  execute  their  trust.*  A 
similar  precaution  was  adopted  in  the 
next  session.f 

3.  The  commons  made  a  bold  attempt 
in  the  second  year  of  Henry  Attempt  to 
IV.  to  give  the  strongest  securi-  make  sup- 
ty  to  their  claims  of  redress,  *$  rdeedpreen8g 
by  inverting  the  usual  course  ofgriev- 
of  parliamentary  proceedings.  ances- 
It  was  usual  to  answer  their  petitions 
on  the  last  day  of  the  session,  which 
put  an  end  to  all  further  discussion 
upon  them,  and  prevented  their  making 
the  redress  of  grievances  a  necessary 
condition  of  supply.  They  now  request- 
ed that  an  answer  might  be  given  before 
they  made  their  grant  of  subsidy.  This 
was  one  of  the  articles  which  Richard 
II. 's  judges  had  declared  it  high  treason 
to  attempt.  Henry  was  not  inclined  to 
make  a  concession  which  would  virtual- 
ly have  removed  the  chief  impediment 
to  the  ascendency  of  parliament.  He 
first  said  that  he  would  consult  with  the 
lords,  and  answer  according  to  their  ad- 
vice. On  the  last  day  of  the  session 
the  commons  were  informed,  that "  it  had 
never  been  known,  in  the  time  of  his  an- 
cestors, that  they  should  have  their  peti- 
tions answered  before  they  had  done  all 
their  business  in  parliament,  whether  of 
granting  money  or  any  other  concern ; 
wherefore  the  king  will  not  alter  the 
good  customs  and  usages  of  ancient 
times. "J 

Notwithstanding  the  just  views  these 
parliaments  appear  generally  to  have  en- 
tertained of  their  power  over  the  public 
purse,  that  of  the  third  of  Henry  V.  fol- 
lowed a  precedent  from  the  worst  times 
of  Richard  II.,  by  granting  the  king  a 
subsidy  on  wool  and  leather  during  his 
life.$  This,  an  historian  tells  us,  Henry 
IV.  had  vainly  laboured  to  obtain  ;||  but 
the  taking  of  Harfleur  intoxicated  the 
English  with  new  dreams  of  conquest  in 
France,  which  their  good  sense  and  con- 
stitutional jealousy  were  not  firm  enough 
to  resist.  The  cffttinued  expenses  of  the 
war,  however,  prevented  this  grant  from 
becoming  so  dangerous  as  it  might  have 
been  in  a  season  of  tranquillity.  Henry 


Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  546. 

Id,,  p.  568.  t  W.,  p.  453. 

fl 


Id.,  voL  iv.,  p.  63. 


Walsingham,  p.  379. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


395 


V.,  like  his  father,  convoked  parliament 
almost  in  every  year  of  his  reign. 

4.  It  had  long  been  out  of  all  question, 
Legislative  that  the  legislature  consisted  of 
tKonf  tne  kingj  lords,  and  commons  ; 
mons  es-  or,  in  stricter  language,  that  the 
tabiished.  king  could  not  make  or  repeal 
statutes  without  the  consent  of  parlia- 
ment. But  this  fundamental  maxim  was 
still  frequently  defeated  by  various  acts 
of  evasion  or  violence ;  which,  though 
protested  against  as  illegal,  it  was  a  diffi- 
cult task  to  prevent.  The  king  some- 
times exerted  a  power  of  suspending  the 
observance  of  statutes ;  as  in  the  ninth 
of  Richard  II.,  when  a  petition  that  all 
statutes  might  be  confirmed  is  granted 
with  an  exception  as  to  one  passed  in 
the  last  parliament,  forbidding  the  judges 
to  take  fees,  or  give  counsel  in  cases 
where  the  king  was  a  party ;  which, 
**  because  it  was  too  severe,  and  needs 
declaration,  the  king  would  have  of  no 
effect  till  it  should  be  declared  in  parlia- 
ment."* The  apprehension  of  this  dis- 
pensing prerogative  and  sense  of  its  ille- 
gality are  manifested  by  the  wary  terms 
wherein  the  commons,  in  one  of  Rich- 
ard's parliaments,  "  assent  that  the  king 
made  such  sufferance  respecting  the 
statute  of  provisors  as  shall  seem  rea- 
sonable to  him,  so  that  the  said  statute 
be  not  repealed ;  and  moreover  that  the 
commons  may  disagree  thereto  at  the 
next  parliament,  and  resort  to  the  stat- 
ute;" with  a  protestation  that  this  as- 
sent, which  is  a  novelty,  and  never  done 
before,  shall  not  be  drawn  into  prece- 
dent ;  praying  the  king  that  this  pro- 
testation may  be  entered  on  the  roll  of 
parliament.!  A  petition  in  one  of  Henry 
IV.'s  parliaments,  to  limit  the  number 
of  attorneys,  and  forbid  filazers  and  pro- 
thonotaries  from  practising,  having  been 
answered  favourably  as  to  the  first  point, 
we  find  a  marginal  entry  in  the  roll  that 
the  prince  and  council  had  respited  the 
execution  of  this  act.| 

The  dispensing  power,  as  exercised  in 
Dispensing  favour  of  individuals,  is  quite 
power  of  °  of  a  different  character  from 
crown.  ^jg  generai  suspension  of  stat- 
utes, but  indirectly  weakens  the  sov- 
ereignty of  the  legislature.  This  pow- 
er was  exerted,  and  even  recognised, 
throughout  all  the  reigns  of  the  Planta- 
genets.  In  the  first  of  Henry  V.  the  com- 

*  Walsingham,  p.  210.  Ruffhead  observes  in 
the  margin  upon  this  statute  8  R.  II.,  c.  3,  that  it 
is  repealed,  but  does  not  take  notice  what  sort  of 
repeal  it  had. 

t  15  R.  II.,  p.  285.  See  too  16  R.  II.,  p.  301, 
where  the  same  power  is  renewed  in  H.  IV.'s 


parliaments. 


13  H.  IV.,  p.  643. 


mpns  pray,  that  the  statute  for  driving 
aliens  out  of  the  kingdom  be  executed. 
The  king  assents,  saving  his  prerogative, 
and  his  right  of  dispensing  with  it  when 
he  pleased.  To  which  the  commons 
replied,  that  their  intention  was  never 
otherwise,  nor,  by  God's  help,  ever 
should  be.  At  the  same  time  one  Rees 
ap  Thomas  petitions  the  king  to  modify 
or  dispense  with  the  statute  prohibiting 
Welshmen  from  purchasing  lands  in 
England,  or  the  English  towns  in  Wales, 
which  the  king  grants.  In  the  same  par- 
liament the  commons  pray  that  no  grant 
or  protection  be  made  to  any  one  in  con- 
travention of  the  statute  of  provisors, 
saving  the  king's  prerogative.  He  mere- 
ly answers,  "  Let  the  statutes  be  observ- 
ed :"  evading  any  allusion  to  his  dispen- 
sing power.* 

It  has  been  observed  under  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.,  that  the  practice  of  leav- 
ing statutes  to  be  drawn  up  by  the 
judges,  from  the  petition  and  answer 
jointly,  after  a  dissolution  of  parliament, 
presented  an  opportunity  of  falsifying 
the  intention  of  the  legislature,  whereof 
advantage  was  often  taken.  Some  very 
remarkable  instances  of  this  fraud  oc- 
curred in  the  succeeding  reigns. 

An  ordinance  was  put  upon  the  roll  of 
parliament,  in  the  fifth  of  Richard  II., 
empowering  sheriffs  of  counties  to  arrest 
preachers  of  heresy  and  their  abetters, 
and  detain  them  in  prison  until  they 
should  justify  themselves  before  the 
church.  This  was  introduced  into  the 
statutes  of  the  year;  but  the  assent  of 
lords  and  commons  is  not  expressed.  In 
the  next  parliament,  the  commons,  reci- 
ting this  ordinance,  declare  that  it  was 
never  assented  to  or  granted  by  them, 
but  what  had  been  proposed  in  this  mat- 
ter was  without  their  concurrence  (that 
is,  as  I  conceive,  had  been  rejected  by 
them),  and  pray  that  this  statute  be  an- 
nulled, for  it  was  never  their  intent  to 
bind  themselves  or  their  descendants  to 
the  bishops  more  than  their  ancestors 
had  been  bound  in  times  past.  The  king 
returned  an  answer  agreeing  to  this  pe- 
tition. Nevertheless  the  pretended  stak 
ute  was  untouched,  and  remains  still 
among  our  laws  :f  unrepealed,  except 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  v.  4  H.  V.,  p.  6,  9. 

t  5  R.  II.,  stat.  2,  c.  5  ;  Rot.  Parl.,  6  R.  II.,  p. 
141.  Some  other  instances  of  the  commons  at- 
tempting to  prevent  these  unfair  practices  are  ad- 
duced by  Ruffhead  in  his  preface  to  the  Statutes, 
and  in  Prynne's  preface  to  Cotton's  Abridgment 
of  the  Records.  The  act  13  R.  II.,  stat.  1,  c.  15, 
that  the  king's  castles  and  jails  which  had  been 
separated  from  the  body  of  the  adjoining  counties, 
should  be  reunited  to  them,  is  not  founded  upon 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII. 


by  desuetude,  and  by  inference  from  the 
acts  of  much  later  times. 

This  commendable  reluctance  of  the 
commons  to  let  the  clergy  forge  chains 
for  them  produced,  as  there  is  much  ap- 
pearance, a  similar  violation  of  their  le- 
gislative rights  in  the  next  reign.  The 
statute  against  heresy  in  the  second  of 
Henry  IV.  is  not  grounded  upon  any  pe- 
tition of  the  commons,  but  only  upon  one 
of  the  clergy.  It  is  said  to  be  enacted 
by  consent  of  the  lords,  but  no  notice  is 
taken  of  the  lower  house  in  the  parlia- 
ment roll,  though  the  statute  reciting  the 
petition  asserts  the  commons  to  have 
joined  in  it.*  The  petition  and  the  stat- 
ute are  both  in  Latin,  which  is  unusual 
in  the  laws  of  this  time.  In  a  subse- 
quent petition  of  the  commons,  this  act 
is  styled  "  the  statute  made  in  the  second 
year  of  your  majesty's  reign,  at  the  re- 
quest of  the  prelates  and  clergy  of  your 
kingdom ;"  which  affords  a  presumption 
that  it  had  no  regular  assent  of  parlia- 
ment, f  And  the  spirit  of  the  commons 
during  this  whole  reign  being  remark- 
ably hostile  to  the  church,  it  would  have 
been  hardly  possible  to  obtain  their  con- 
sent to  so  penal  a  law  against  heresy. 
Several  of  their  petitions  seem  designed 
indirectly  to  weaken  its  efficacy.J 

These  infringements  of  their  most  es- 
sential right  were  resisted  by  the  com- 
mons in  various  ways,  according  to  the 
measure  of  their  power.  In  the  fifth  of 
Richard  II.,  they  request  the  lords  to  let 
them  see  a  certain  ordinance  before  it  is 
engrossed. §  At  another  time  they  pro- 
cured some  of  their  own  members,  as 
well  as  peers,  to  be  present  at  engrossing 
the  roll.  At  length  they  spoke  out  une- 
quivocally in  a  memorable  petition,  which, 
besides  its  intrinsic  importance,  is  de- 
serving of  notice  as  the  earliest  instance 
in  which  the  house  of  commons  adopted 


any  petition  that  appears  on  the  roll ;  and  probably 
by  making  search  other  instances  equally  flagrant 
might  be  discovered. 

*  There  had  been,  however,  a  petition  of  the 
commons  on  the  same  subject,  expressed  in  very 
general  terms,  on  which  this  terrible  superstruc- 
ture might  artfully  be  raised,  p.  474. 

i  P.  626. 

j  We  find  a  remarkable  petition  in  8  H.  IV., 
professedly  aimed  against  the  Lollards,  but  in- 
tended, as  I  strongly  suspect,  in  their  favour.  It 
condemns  persons  preaching  against  the  Catholic 
faith  or  sacraments  to  imprisonment  till  the  next 
parliament,  where  they  were  to  abide  such  judg- 
ment as  should  be  rendered  by  the  king  and  peers  of 
the  realm.  This  seems  to  supersede  the  burning 
statute  of  2  H.  IV.,  and  the  spiritual  cognizance 
of  heresy.— Rot.  Parl.,  p.  583.  See  too  p.  626. 
The  petition  was  expressly  granted  ;  but  the  cler- 
gy, I  suppose,  prevented  its  appearing  on  the  stat- 
ute-roll. $  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  102. 


the  English  language.  I  shall  present  its 
venerable  orthography  without  change. 

"  Oure  soverain  lord,  youre  humble  and 
trewe  lieges  that  ben  come  for  the  co- 
mune  of  youre  lond  bysechyn  onto  youre 
rizt  riztwesnesse,  That  so  as  hit  hath 
ever  be  thair  libte  and  fredom,  that  thar 
sholde  no  statut  no  lawe  be  made  offlasse 
than  they  yaf  therto  their  assent :  con- 
sideringe  that  the  commie  of  youre  lond, 
the  whiche  that  is,  and  ever  hath  be,  a 
membre  of  youre  parlemente,  ben  as  well 
assenters  as  peticioners,  that  fro  this 
tyme  foreward,  by  compleynte  of  the 
comune  of  any  myschief  axknyge  reme- 
die  by  mouthe  of  their  speker  for  the  co- 
mune, other  ellys  by  petition  writen,  that 
ther  never  be  no  lawe  made  theruppon, 
and  engrossed  as  statut  and  lawe,  nother 
by  addicions,  nother  by  diminucions,  by 
no  manner  of  terme  ne  termes,  the  whiche 
that  sholde  chaunge  the  sentence,  and  the 
entente  axked  by  the  speker  mouthe,  or 
the  petitions  beforesaid  yeven  up  yn  wri- 
tyng  by  the  manere  forsaid,  withoute  as- 
sent of  the  forsaid  comune.  Consider- 
inge  oure  soverain  lord,  that  it  is  not  in 
no  wyse  the  entente  of  youre  comunes, 
zif  yet  be  so  that  they  axke  you  by  spek- 
yng,  or  by  writyng,  two  thynges  or  three, 
or  as  manye  as  theym  lust :  But  that  ever 
it  stande  in  the  fredom  of  youre  hie  re- 
galie,  to  graunte  whiche  of  thoo  that  you 
lust,  and  to  werune  the  remanent. 

"  The  kyng  of  his  grace  especial  graunt- 
eth  that  fro  hensforth  nothyng  be  enacted 
to  the  peticions  of  his  comune,  that  be 
contrarie  of  hir  askyng,  wharby  they 
shuld  be  bounde  withoute  their  assent. 
Savyng  alwey  to  our  liege  lord  his  real 
prerogatif,  to  graunte  and  denye  what 
him  lust  of  their  petitions  and  askynges 
aforesaide."* 

Notwithstanding  the  fulness  of  this  as- 
sent to  so  important  a  petition,  we  find 
no  vestige  of  either  among  the  statutes, 
and  the  whole  transaction  is  unnoticed 
by  those  historians  who  have  not  looked 
into  our  original  records.  If  the  com- 
pilers of  the  statute-roll  were  able  to  keep 
out  of  it  the  very  provision  that  was  in- 
tended to  check  their  fraudulent  machi- 
nations, it  was  in  vain  to  hope  for  redress 
without  altering  the  established  practice 
in  this  respect ;  and,  indeed,  where  there 
was  no  design  to  falsify  the  roll,  it  was 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  22.  It  is  curious  that  the 
authors  of  the  Parliamentary  history  say  that  the 
roll  of  this  parliament  is  lost,  and  consequently 
suppress  altogether  this  important  petition.  Instead 
of  which  they  give,  as  their  fashion  is,  impertinent 
speeches  out  of  Holingshed,  which  are  certainly 
not  genuine,  and  would  be  of  no  value  if  they  were 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION-. 


397 


impossible  to  draw  up  statutes  whic 
should  be  in  truth  the  acts  of  the  whol 
legislature,  so  long  as  the  king  contin 
ued  to  grant  petitions  in  part,  and  t 
ingraft  new  matter  upon  them.  Sue 
was  still  the  case,  till  the  commons  hi 
upon  an  effectual  expedient  for  screen 
ing  themselves  against  these  encroach 
ments,  which  has  lasted  without  altera 
tion  to  the  present  day.  This  was  th< 
introduction  of  complete  statutes,  unde 
the  name  of  bills,  instead  of  the  old  pe 
titions;  and  these,  containing^  the  roya 
assent,  and  the  whole  form  of  a  law,  i 
became,  though  not  quite  immediately, 
a  constant  principle,  that  the  king  mus 
admit  or  reject  them  without  qualification 
This  alteration,  which  wrought  an  ex 
traordinary  effect  on  the  character  01 
our  constitution,  was  gradually  introdu 
ced  in  Henry  VI. 's  reign.f 

From  -  the  first  years  of  Henry  V. 
though  not,  I  think,  earlier,  the  com 
mons  began  to  concern  themselves  with 
the  petitions  of  individuals  to  the  lords 
or  council.  The  nature  of  the  jurisdic 
tion  exercised  by  the  latter  will  be  treat 
ed  more  fully  hereafter.  It  is  only  ne 
cessary  to  mention  in  this  place,  tha 
many  of  the  requests  preferred  to  them 
were  such  as  could  not  be  granted  with- 
out transcending  the  boundaries  of  law 
A  jus  I  inquietude  as  to  the  encroach- 
ments of  the  king's  council  had  long  been 
manifested  by  the  commons ;  and,  find- 


*  Henry  VI.  and  Edward  IV.  in  some  cases  pass 
cd  bills  with  sundry  provisions  annexed  by  them- 
selves. Thus  the  act  for  resumption  of  grants,  4 
E.  IV.,  was  encumbered  with  289  clauses  in  fa- 
vour of  so  many  persons  whom  the  king  meant  to 
exempt  from  its  operation  ;  and  the  same  was  done 
in  other  acts  of  the  same  description. — Rot.  Parl., 
vol.  v.,  p.  517. 

t  The  variations  of  each  statute,  as  n9w  printed, 
from  the  parliamentary  roll,  whether  in  form,  or 
substance,  are  noticed  in  Cotton's  Abridgment.  It 
may  be  worth  while  to  consult  the  preface  to  Ruff- 
head's  edition  of  the  Statutes,  where  this  subject 
is  treated  at  some  length. 

Perhaps  the  triple  division  of  our  legislature  may 
be  dated  from  this  innovation.  For  as  it  is  impos- 
sible to  deny  that,  while  the  king  promulgated  a 
statute  founded  upon  a  mere  petition,  he  was  him- 
self the  real  legislator,  so  I  think  it  is  equally  fair 
to  assert,  notwithstanding  the  formal  preamble  of 
our  statutes,  that  laws  brought  into  either  house 
of  parliament  in  a  perfect  shape,  and  receiving  first 
the  assent  of  lords  and  commons,  and  finally  that 
of  the  king,  who  has  no  power  to  modify  them, 
must  be  deemed  to  proceed,  and  derive  their  effica- 
cy, from  the  joint  concurrence  of  all  the  three.  It 
is"  said  indeed  at  a  much  earlier  time,  that  le  ley  de 
la  terre  est  fait  en  parlement  par  le  roi,  et  les  seig- 
neurs espirituels  et  temporels,  et  tout  la  commu- 
naute  du  royaume. — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  293. 
But  this  I  must  allow  was  in  the  violent  session 
of  11  Ric.  II.,  the  constitutional  authority  of  which 
is  not  to  be  highly  prized. 


ing  remonstrances  ineffectual,  they  took 
measures  for  preventing  such  usurpations 
of  legislative  power,  by  introducing  their 
own  consent  to  private  petitions.  These 
were  now  presented  by  the  hands  of  the 
commons,  and  in  very  many  instances 
passed  in  the  form  of  statutes  with  the 
express  assent  of  all  parts  of  the  legisla- 
ture. Such  was  the  origin  of  private 
bills,  which  occupy  the  greater  part  of 
the  rolls  in  Henry  V.  and  VI. 's  parlia- 
ment. The  commons  once  made  an  in- 
effectual endeavour  to  have  their  consent 
to  all  petitions  presented  to  the  council 
in  parliament  rendered  necessary  by  law ; 
if  I  rightly  apprehend  the  meaning  of  the 
roll  in  this  place,  which  seems  obscure 
or  corrupt.* 

5.  If  the  strength  of  the  commons  had 
lain  merely  in   the  weakness  interference 
of  the  crown,  it  might  be  in-  of  parliament 
ferred  that  such  harassing  in-  S'expendi^" 
terference   with  the  adminis-  ture. 
tration  of  affairs,  as  the  youthful  and  friv- 
olous Richard  was  compelled  to  endure, 
would  have  been  sternly  repelled  by  his 
experienced  successor.     But,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  spirit  of  Richard  might  have 
rejoiced  to  see   that  his  mortal  enemy 
suffered  as  hard  usage  at  the  hands  of 
parliament  as  himself.    After  a  few  years, 
the   government  of  Henry  became  ex- 
tremely  unpopular.     Perhaps  his  dissen- 
sion with  the  great  family  of  Percy,  which 
had  placed  him  on  the  throne,  and  was 
regarded  with  partiality  by  the  people,! 
chiefly  contributed  to  this  alienation  of 
their   attachment.      The    commons   re- 
quested, in  the  fifth  of  his  reign,  that  cer- 
;ain  persons  might  be  removed  from  the 
court ;  the  lords  concurred  in  displacing 
bur  of  these,  one  being  the  king's  con- 
essor.     Henry  came  down  to  parliament 
and  excused  these  four  persons,  as  know- 
'ng  no  special  cause  why  they  should  be 
•emoved;  yet,  well   understanding  that 
tfhat  the  lords  and  commons  should  or- 
lain  would  be  for  his  and  his  kingdom's 
nterest,  and  therefore  anxious   to  con- 
orm  himself  to  their  wishes,  consented 
o  the  said  ordinance,  and   charged  the 
)ersons  in  question  to  leave  his  palace ; 
.dding  that  he  would  do  as  much  by  any 
>ther  about  his  person  whom  he  should 
nd  to  have  incurred  the  ill  affection  of 
is  people. J    It  was  in  the  same  session 
hat  the  Archbishop  of  Canterbury  was 
ommanded  to  declare  before  the  lords 


*  8  H.  V.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  127. 

i  The  house  of  commons  thanked  the  king  for 
ardoning  Northumberland,  whom,  as  it  proved, 
e  had  just  cause  to  suspect.— f  H.  IV.,  p,  525. 

|  5  H.  IV.,  p.  595. 


398 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIH. 


the  king's  intentions  respecting  his  ad- 
ministration ;  allowing  that  some  things 
had  been  done  amiss  in  his  court  and 
household ;  and,  therefore,  wishing  to 
conform  to  the  will  of  God  and  laws  of 
the  land,  protested  that  he  would  let  in  fu- 
ture no  letters  of  signet  or  privy  seal  go  in 
disturbance  of  law,  beseeched  the  lords  to 
put  his  household  in  order,  so  that  every 
one  might  be  paid,  and  declared  that  the 
money  granted  by  the  commons  for  the 
war  should  be  received  by  treasurers  ap- 
pointed in  parliament,  and  disbursed  by 
them  for  no  other  purpose,  unless  in  case 
of  rebellion.  At  the  request  of  the  com- 
mons, he  named  the  merribers  of  his  pri- 
vy council ;  and  did  the  same,  with  some 
variation  of  persons,  two  years  afterward. 
These,  though  not  nominated  with  the 
express  consent,  seem  to  have  had  the 
approbation  of  the  commons ;  for  a  sub- 
sidy is  granted  in  7  H.  IV.,  among  other 
causes,  for  "the  great  trust  that  the 
commons  have  in  the  lords  lately  chosen, 
and  ordained  to  be  of  the  king's  continual 
council,  that  there  shall  be  better  man- 
agement than  heretofore."* 

In  the  sixth  year  of  Henry,  the  parlia- 
ment, which  Sir  E.  Coke  derides  as  un- 
learned, because  lawyers  were  excluded 
from  it,  proceeded  to  a  resumption  of 
grants,  and  a  prohibition  of  alienating  the 
ancient  inheritance  of  the  crown  without 
consent  of  parliament ;  in  order  to  ease 
the  commons  of  taxes,  and  that  the  king 
might  live  on  his  own.f  This  was  a  fa- 
vourite, though  rather  chimerical  project. 
In  a  later  parliament,  it  was  requested 
that  the  king  would  take  his  council's  ad- 
vice how  to  keep  within  his  own  revenue. 
He  answered  that  he  wrould  willingly  com- 
ply, as  soon  as  it  should  be  in  his  power.J 

But  no  parliament  came  near,  in  the 
number  and  boldness  of  its  demands,  to 
that  held  in  the  eighth  year  of  Henry  IV. 
The  commons  presented  thirty-one  arti- 
cles, none  of  which  the  king  ventured  to 
refuse,  though  pressing  very  severely 
upon  his  prerogative.  He  was  to  name 
sixteen  counsellors,  by  whose  advice  he 
was  solely  to  be  guided,  none  of  them  to 
be  dismissed  without  conviction  of  misde- 
meanor. The  chancellor  and  privy  seal 
to  pass  no  grants  or  other  matter,  contra- 
ry to  law.  Any  persons  about  the  court 
stirring  up  the  king  or  queen's  minds 
against  their  subjects,  and  duly  convicted 
thereof,  to  lose  their  offices  and  be  fined. 
The  king's  ordinary  revenue  was  wholly 
appropriated  to  his  household  and  the 
payment  of  his  debts ;  no  grant  of  ward- 

*  Rot.  Par!.,  v.  iii .,  p.  529,  568,  573. 

t  Id.,  p.  547.  J  13  H.  IV.,  p.  624. 


ship  or  other  profit  to  be  made  thereout, 
nor  any  forfeiture  to  be  pardoned.  The 
king,  "  considering  the  wise  government 
of  other  Christian  princes,  and  conform- 
ing himself  thereto,"  was  to  assign  two 
days  in  the  week  for  petitions,  "  it  being 
an  honourable  and  necessary  thing,  that 
his  lieges  who  desired  to  petition  him 
should  be  heard."  No  judicial  officer, 
nor  any  in  the  revenue  or  household,  to 
enjoy  his  place  for  life  or  term  of  years. 
No  petition  to  be  presented  to  the  king 
by  any  of  his  household  at  times  when 
the  council  were  not  sitting.  The  coun- 
cil to  determine  nothing  cognizable  at 
common  law,  unless  for  a  reasonable 
cause  and  with  consent  of  the  judges. 
The  statutes  regulating  purveyance  were 
affirmed  ;  abuses  of  various  kinds  in  the 
council  and  in  courts  of  justice  enumera- 
ted and  forbidden;  elections  of  knights 
for  counties  put  under  regulation.  The 
council  and  officers  of  state  were  sworn 
to  observe  the  common  law,  and  all  stat- 
utes, those  especially  just  enacted,* 

It  must  strike  every  reader  that  these 
provisions  were  of  themselves  a  noble 
fabric  of  constitutional  liberty,  and  hardly 
perhaps  inferior  to  the  petition  of  right 
under  Charles  I.  We  cannot  account  for 
the  submission  of  Henry  to  conditions 
far  more  derogatory  than  ever  were  im- 
posed on  Richard,  because  the  secret 
politics  of  his  reign  are  very  imperfectly 
understood.  Towards  its  close  he  man- 
ifested more  vigour.  The  speaker,  Sir 
Thomas  Chaucer,  having  made  the  usual 
petition  for  liberty  of  speech,  the  king 
answered  that  he  might  speak  as  others 
had  done  in  the  time  of  his  (Henry's)  an- 
cestors and  his  own,  but  not  otherwise ; 
for  he  would  by  no  means  have  any  in- 
novation, but  be  as  much  at  his  liberty 
as  ^  any  of  his  ancestors  had  ever  been. 
Some"  time  after  he  sent  a  message  to 
the  commons,  complaining  of  a  law  pass- 
ed at  the  last  parliament,  infringing  his 
liberty  and  prerogative,  which  he  re- 
quested their  consent  to  repeal.  To  this 
the  commons  agreed,  and  received  the 
king's  thanks,  who  declared  at  the  same 
time  that  he  would  keep  as  much  free- 
dom and  prerogative  as  any  of  his  an- 
cestors. It  does  not  appear  what  was 
the  particular  subject  of  complaint;  but 
there  had  been  much  of  the  same  re- 
monstrating soirit  in  the  last  parliament, 
that  was  manifested  on  preceding  occa- 
sions. The  commons,  however,  for  rea- 
sons we  cannot  explain,  were  rather  dis- 
mayed. Before  their  dissolution  they 
petition  the  king,  that,  whereas  he  was 

"~*  RotTParlTs  H.  IV.,  p.  585. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


399 


reported  to  be  offended  at  some  of  his 
subjects  in  this  and  in  the  preceding  par- 
liament, he  would  openly  declare  that  he 
held  them  all  for  loyal  subjects.  Henry 
granted  this  "  of  his  special  grace  ;"  and 
thus  concluded  his  reign  more  trium- 
phantly with  respect  to  his  domestic  bat- 
tles than  he  had  gone  through  it.* 

Power  deemed  to  be  ill  gotten  is  natu- 
Henry  v.  rally  precarious ;  and  the  instance 
his  popu-  of  Henry  IV.  has  been  well  quoted 
ruy'       to  prove  that  public  liberty  flour- 
ishes with  a  bad  title  in  the  sovereign. 
None  of  our  kings  seem  to  have  been 
less  beloved ;   and  indeed  he  had  little 
claim  to  affection.     But  what  men  denied 
to  the  reigning  king,  they  poured  in  full 
measure   upon  the   heir  of  his   throne. 
The  virtues  of  the  Prince  of  Wales  are 
almost  invidiously   eulogized   by   those 
parliaments  who   treat  harshly   his  fa- 
ther ;f  and  these  records  afford  a  strong 
presumption  that  some  early  petulance 
or  riot  has  been  much  exaggerated  by 
the  vulgar  minds  of  our  chroniclers.    One 
can  scarcely  understand  at  least,  that  a 
prince,  who  was  three  years  engaged  in 
quelling  the   dangerous  insurrection  of 
Glendour,  and  who,  in  the  latter  time  of 
his  father's  reign,  presided  at  the  council, 
was  so  lost  in  a  cloud  of  low  debauchery 
as   common   fame   represents. ;{:    Loved 
he  certainly  was  throughout  his  life,  as 
so  intrepid,  affable,  and  generous  a  tem- 
per well  deserved;  and  this  sentiment 
was  heightened  to  admiration  by  suc- 
cesses still  more  rapid  and  dazzling  than 
those  of  Edward  III.     During  his  reign 
there   scarcely  appears   any  vestige  of 
dissatisfaction  in  parliament ;  a  circum- 
stance very  honourable,  whether  we  as- 
cribe it  to  the  justice  of  his  administra- 
tion, or  to  the  affection  of  his  people. 
Perhaps  two  exceptions,  though  they  are 
rather  one  in  spirit,  might  be  made :  the 
first,  a  petition  to  the  Duke  of  Glocester. 
then  holding  parliament  as  guardian  of 
England,  that  he  would  move  the  king 
and  queen  to  return,  as  speedily  as  might 
please  them,  in  relief  and  comfort  of  the 
commons  ;§  the  second,  a  request  that 
their  petitions  might  not  be  sent  to  the 
king  beyond   sea,  but  altogether  deter- 
mined "  within  this  kingdom  of  England 
during  this  parliament;"    and  that  this 
ordinance  might  be  of  force  in  all  future 
parliaments  to  be  held  in  England. ||     This 

*  13  H.  IV.,  p.  648,  658. 

f  Rot.  Parl ,  vol.  iii.,  p.  549,  568,  574,  611. 

j  This  passage  was  written  before  I  was  aware 
that  the  same  opinion  had  been  elaborately  main- 
tained by  Mr.  Luders,  in  one  of  his  valuable  essays 
upon  points  of  constitutional  history. 

$  8  H.  V,,  vol.  iv.,  p.  125.     |]  Id.  ibid.,  p.  128. 


prayer,  to  which  the  guardian  declined  to 
accede,  evidently  sprang  from  the  appre- 
hensions, excited  in  their  minds  by  the 
treaty  of  Troyes,  that  England  might  be- 
come a  province  of  the  French  crown, 
which  led  them  to  obtain  a  renewal  of 
the  statute  of  Edward  III.,  declaring  the 
independence  of  this  kingdom.* 

It  has  been  seen  already,  that  even 
Edward  III.  consulted  his  par-  Parliament 
liament  upon  the  expediency  consulted 
of    negotiations    for     peace  ;  °»  aji  public 
though  at  that  time  the  com-  affair8' 
mons  had  not  acquired  boldness  enough 
to  tender  their  advice.     In  Richard  II. 's 
reign  they  answered  to  a  similar  propo- 
sition with  a  little  more  confidence,  that 
the  dangers  each  way  were  so  considera- 
ble they  dared  not  decide,  though  an  hon- 
ourable peace  would  be  the  greatest  com- 
fort they  could  have ;  and  concluded  by 
hoping  that  the  king  would  not  engage  to 
do  homage  for  Calais  or  the  conquered 
country.f    The  parliament  of  the  tenth 
of  his  reign  was  expressly  summoned  in 
order  to  advise   concerning  the  king's 
intended  expedition  beyond  sea ;  a  great 
council,  which  had  previously  been  as- 
sembled at  Oxford,  having  declared  their 
ncompetence  to  consent  to  this  measure 
without  the  advice  of  parliament.  J    Yet 
a  few  years  afterward,  on  a  similar  ref- 
rence,  the  commons  rather  declined  to 
give  any  opinion. §    They  confirmed  the 
eague  of  Henry  V.  with  the  Emperor 
Sigismund.||     And  the  treaty  of  Troyes, 
which  was  so  fundamentally  to  change 
the  situation  of  Henry  and  his  successors, 
obtained,  as   it   evidently  required,  the 
sanction  of  both  houses  of  parliament. ^f 
These  precedents   conspiring   with   the 
weakness  of  the  executive  government, 
in  the  minority  of  Henry  VI.,  to  fling  an 
increase  of  influence  into  the  scale  of 
the  commons,  they  made  their  concur- 
rence necessary  to  all  important  business, 
both  of  a  foreign  and  domestic  nature. 
Thus  commissioners  were  appointed  to 
treat  of  the  deliverance  of  the  King  of 
Scots,  the  dutchesses  of  Bedford  and  Glo- 
cester were  made  denizens,  and  mediators 
were  appointed  to  reconcile  the  dukes  of 
Glocester  and  .Burgundy,  by  authority 
of  the  three  estates  assembled  in  parlia- 
ment.**    Leave  was  given  to  the  dukes 
of  Bedford  and  Glocester,  and  others  in 
the  king's  behalf,  to  treat  of  peace  with 
France,  by  both  houses  of  parliament,  in 


*  8  H.  V.,  vol.  iv..  p.  130. 

t  7  R.  II.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  170.      $  Id.  ibid.,  p.  215. 

$  17  R.  II.,  p.  315. 

II  4  H.  V.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  98.        t  Id.  ibid.,  p.  135, 

**  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  211,  242,  277. 


400 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


pursuance  of  an  article  in  the  treaty  of 
Troyes,  that  no  treaty  should  be  set  on 
foot  with  the  dauphin  without  consent 
of  the  three  estates  of  both  realms.* 
This  article  was  afterward  repealed. f 

Some  complaints  are  made  by  the 
commons,  even  during  the  first  years  of 
Henry's  minority,  that  the  king's  subjects 
underwent  arbitrary  imprisonment,  and 
were  vexed  by  summonses  before  the 
council,  and  by  the  newly-invented  writ 
of  subpoena  out  of  chancery. J  But  these 
are  not  so  common  as  formerly ;  and,  so 
far  as  the  rolls  lead  us  to  any  inference, 
there  was  less  injustice  committed  by  the 
government  under  Henry  VI.  and  his 
father  than  at  any  former  period.  Waste- 
fulness indeed  might  justly  be  imputed  to 
the  regency,  who  had  scandalously  lav- 
ished the  king's  revenue. §  This  ulti- 
mately led  to  an  act  for  resuming  all 
grants  since  his  accession,  founded  upon 
a  public  declaration  of  the  great  officers 
of  the  crown,  that  his  debts  amounted  to 
£372,000,  and  the  annual  expense  of  the 
household  to  .£24,000,  while  the  ordinary 
revenue  was  not  more  than  £5000. || 

6.  But  before  this  time  the  sky  had  be- 
gun to  darken,  and  discontent  with  the 
actual  administration  pervaded  every 
rank.  The  causes  of  this  are  familiar; 
impeachments  the  unpopularity  of  the  king's 
of  ministers,  marriage  with  Margaret  of 
Anjou,  and  her  impolitic  violence  in  the 
conduct  of  affairs,  particularly  the  impu- 
ted murder  of  the  people's  favourite,  the 
Duke  of  Glocester.  This  provoked  an 
attack  upon  her  own  creature,  the  Duke 
of  Suffolk.  Impeachment  had  lain  still, 
like  a  sword  in  the  scabbard,  since  the 
accession  of  Henry  IV.  ;  when  the  com- 
mons, though  not  preferring  formal  arti- 
cles of  accusation,  had  petitioned  the 
king  that  Justice  Rickhill,  who  had  been 
employed  to  take  the  Duke  of  Gloces- 
ter's  confession  at  Calais,  and  the  lords 
appellants  of  Richard  II. 's  4ast  parlia- 
ment, should  be  put  on  their  defence  be- 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  371. 

t  23  H.  VI.,  vol.  v.,  p.  102.  There  is  rather  a 
curious  instance  in  3  H.  VI.,  of  the  jealousy  with 
which  the  commons  regarded  any  proceedings  in 
parliament,  where  they  were  not  concerned.  A 
controversy  arose  between  the  earls  marshal  and 
of  Warwick  respecting  their  precedence ;  founded 
upon  the  royal  blood  of  the  first,  and  long  posses- 
sion of  the  second.  In  this  the  commons  could 
not  affect  to  interfere  judicially ;  but  they  found  a 
singular  way  of  meddling,  by  petitioning  the  king 
to  confer  the  dukedom  of  Norfolk  on  the  earl 
marshal,  vol.  iv.,  p.  273. 

}  Rot.  Parl.,  1  H.  VI.,  p.  189.  3  H,  VI.,  p.  292. 
8  H.  VI.,  p.  343. 

6  Id.,  vol.  v.,  18  H.  VI.,  p.  17. 

II  Id.  ibid.,  28  H.  VI.,  p.  185. 


fore  the  lords.*  In  Suffolk's  case,  the 
commons  seem  to  have  proceeded  by  bill 
of  attainder,  or  at  least  to  have  designed 
the  judgment  against  that  minister  to  be 
the  act  of  the  whole  legislature.  For 
they  delivered  a  bill  containing  articles 
against  him  to  the  lords,  with  a  request 
that  they  would  pray  the  king's  majesty 
to  enact  that  bill  in  parliament,  and  that 
the  said  duke  might  be  proceeded  against 
upon  the  said  articles  in  parliament  ac  • 
cording  to  the  law  and  custom  of  Eng- 
land. These  articles  contained  charges 
of  high  treason;  chiefly  relating  to  his 
conduct  in  France,  which,  whether  trea- 
sonable or  not,  seems  to  have  been  gross- 
ly against  the  honour  and  advantage  of 
the  crown.  At  a  later  day,  the  commons 
presented  many  other  articles  of  misde- 
meanor. To  the  former  he  made  a  de- 
fence, in  presence  of  the  king  as"  well 
as  the  lords,  both  spiritual  and  temporal ; 
and  indeed  the  articles  of  impeachment 
were  directly  addressed  to  the  king, 
which  gave  him  a  reasonable  pretext  to 
interfere  in  the  judgment.  But,  from  ap- 
prehension, as  it  is  said,  that  Suffolk 
could  not  escape  conviction  upon  at  least 
some  part  of  these  charges,  Henry  anti- 
cipated with  no  slight  irregularity  the 
course  of  legal  trial ;  and  summoning  the 
peers  into  a  private  chamber,  informed 
the  Duke  of  Suffolk,  by  mouth  of  his 
chancellor,  that,  inasmuch  as  he  had  not 
put  himself  upon  his  peerage,  but  submit- 
ted wholly  to  the  royal  pleasure,  the  king, 
acquitting  him  of  the  first  articles  contain- 
ing matter  of  treason,  by  his  own  advice, 
and  not  that  of  the  lords,  nor  by  way  of 
judgment,  not  being  in  a  place  where 
judgment  could  be  delivered,  banished 
him  for  five  years  from  his  dominions. 
The  lords  then  present  besought  the  king 
to  let  their  protest  appear  on  record,  that 
neither  they  nor  their  posterity  might 
lose  their  rights  of  peerage  by  this  prece- 
dent. It  was  justly  considered  as  an  ar- 
bitrary stretch  of  prerogative,  in  order  to 
defeat  the  privileges  of  parliament,  and 
screen  a  favourite  minister  from  punish- 
ment. But  the  course  of  proceeding  by 
bill  of  attainder,  instead  of  regular  im- 
peachment, was  not  judiciously  chosen 
by  the  commons.! 

7.  Privilege  of  parliament,  an  extensive 
and  singular  branch  of  our  con-  privilege  of 
stitutional  law,  begins  to  attract  Parliament, 
attention  under  the  Lancastrian  princes. 
It  is  true  indeed,  that  we  can  trace  long 
before  by  records,  and  may  infer  with 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  430,  449. 

*  28  H.  VI.,  vol.  v.,  p.  176. 


PAR?  JII.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


401 


probability  as  to  times  whose  records 
have  not  survived,  one  considerable  im- 
munity, a  freedom  from  arrest  for  persons 
transacting  the  king's  business  in  his  na- 
tional council.*  Several  authorities  may 
be  found  in  Mr.  Hatsell's  precedents  ;  of 
which  one,  in  the  9th  of  Edward  II.,  is 
conclusive. f  But  in  those  rude  times, 
members  of  parliament  were  not  always 
respected  by  the  officers  executing  legal 
process,  and  still  less  by  the  violators  of 
law.  After  several  remonstrances,  which 
the  crown  had  evaded,!  the  commons  ob- 
tained the  statute  11  H.  VI.,  c.  11,  for 
the  punishment  of  such  as  assault  any  on 
their  way  to  the  parliament,  giving  double 
damages  to  the  party.  §  They  had  more 
difficulty  in  establishing,  notwithstanding 
the  old  precedents  in  their  favour,  an  im- 
munity from  all  criminal  process,  except 
in  charges  of  treason,  felony,  and  breach 
of  the  peace,  which  is  their  present 
measure  of  privilege.  The  truth  was, 
that  with  a  right  pretty  clearly  recog- 
nised, as  is  admitted  by  the  judges  in 
Thorp's  case,  the  house  of  commons  had 
no  regular  compulsory  process  at  their 
command.  In  the  cases  of  Lark,  servant 
of  a  member,  in  the  8th  of  Henry  VI., || 
and  of  Clerke,  himself  a  burgess,  in  the 
39th  of  the  same  king,^[  it  was  thought 
necessary  to  effect  their  release  from  a 
civil  execution  by  special  acts  of  parlia- 
ment. The  commons,  in  a  former  in- 
stance, endeavoured  to  make  the  law 
general,  that  no  members  nor  their  ser- 
vants might  be  taken,  except  for  treason, 
felony,  and  breach  of  peace  ;  but  the  king 
put  a  negative  upon  this  part  of  their  pe- 
tition. 

The  most  celebrated,  however,  of  these 
early  cases  of  privilege  is  that  of  Thomas 
Thorp,  speaker  of  the  commons  in  31  H. 
VI.  This  person,  who  was  moreover  a 
baron  of  the  exchequer,  had  been  impris- 
oned on  an  execution  at  suit  of  the  Duke 
of  York.  The  commons  sent  some  of 
their  members  to  complain  of  a  violation 
of  privilege  to  the  king  and  lords  in  par- 

*  If  this  were  to  rest  upon  antiquity  of  prece- 
dent, one  might  be  produced  that  would  challenge 
all  competition.  In  the  laws  of  Ethelbert,  the  first 
Christian  king  of  Kent,  at  the  end  of  the  sixth  cen- 
tury, we  find  this  provision:  "  If  the  king  call  his 
people  to  him  (i.  e.  in  the  wittenagemot),  and  any 
one  does  an  injury  to  one  of  them,  let  him  pay  a 
fine."— Wilkins,  Leges  Anglo-Saxon.,  p.  2. 

+  Hatsell,  vol.  i.,  p.  12. 

\  Rot.  Parl.,  5  H.  IV.,  p.  541. 

t)  The  clergy  had  got  a  little  precedence  in  this. 
An  act  passed  8  H.  VI.,  c.  1,  granting  privilege 
from  arrest  for  themselves  and  servants  on  their 
way  to  convocation. 

II  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  357. 

f  Id.,  vol.v.,  p.  374. 
C  C 


liament,  and  to  demand  Thorp's  release. 
It  was  alleged  by  the  Duke  of  York's 
council,  that  the  trespass  done  by  Thorp 
was  since  the  beginning  of  the  parlia- 
ment, and  the  judgment  thereon  given  in 
time  of  vacation,  and  not  during  the  sit- 
ting. The  lords  referred  the  question  to 
the'  judges,  who  said,  after  deliberation, 
that  "  they  ought  not  to  answer  to  that 
question,  for  it  hath  not  be  used  afore- 
tyme,  that  the  judges  should  in  any  wise 
determine  the  privilege  of  this  high  court 
of  parliament;  for  it  is  so  high  and  so 
mighty  in  his  nature,  that  it  may  make 
law,  and  that  that  is  law  it  may  make  no 
law;  and  the  determination  and  knowl- 
edge of  that  privilege  belongeth  to  the 
lords  of  the  parliament,  and  not  to  the 
justices."  They  went  on,  however,  after 
observing  that  a  general  writ  of  superse- 
deas  of  all  processes  upon  ground  of 
privilege  had  not  been  known,  to  say, 
that,  "  if  any  person  that  is  a  member  of 
this  high  court  of  parliament  be  arrested 
in  such  cases  as  be  not  for  treason  or  fel- 
ony, or  surety  of  the  peace,  or  for  a  con- 
demnation had  before  the  parliament,  it 
is  used  that  all  such  persons  should  be 
released  of  such  arrests  and  make  an  at- 
torney, so  that  they  may  have  their  free- 
dom and  liberty,  freely  to  intend  upon  the 
parliament." 

Notwithstanding  this  answer  of  the 
judges,  it  was  concluded  by  the  lords 
that  Thorp  should  remain  in  prison,  with- 
out regarding  the  alleged  privilege ;  and 
the  commons  were  directed  in  the  king's 
name  to  proceed  "  with  all  goodJy  haste 
and  speed"  to  the  election  of  a  new 
speaker.  It  is  curious  to  observe,  that 
the  commons,  forgetting  their  grievances, 
or  content  to  drop  them,  made  such  haste 
and  speed  according  to  this  command, 
that  they  presented  a  new  speaker  for  ap- 
probation the  next  day.* 

This  case,  as  has  been  strongly  said, 
was  begotten  by  the  iniquity  of  the  times. 
The  state  was  verging  fast  towards  civil 
war;  and  Thorp,  who  afterward  distin- 
guished himself  for  the  Lancastrian  cause, 
was  an  inveterate  enemy  of  the  Duke  of 
York.  That  prince  seems  to  have  been 
swayed  a  little  from  his  usual  temper  in 
procuring  so  unwarrantable  a  determina- 
tion. In  the  reign  6f  Edward  IV.,  the 
commons  claimed  privilege  against  any 
civil  suit  during  the  time-of  their  session ; 
but  they  had  recourse,  as  before,  to  a 
particular  act  of  parliament  to  obtain  a 
writ  of  supersedeas  in  favour  of  one  At- 
well,  a  member,  who  had  been  sued. 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  239.    Hatsell's  Prece- 
dents, p.  29. 


402 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES, 


[CHAP.   VJ1I. 


The  present  law  of  privilege  seems  not 
to  have  been  fully  established,  or  at  least 
effectually  maintained,  before  the  reign 
of  Henry  VIII.* 

No  privilege  of  the  commons  can  be 
so  fundamental  as  liberty  of  speech. 
This  is  claimed  at  the  opening  of  every 
parliament  by  their  speaker,  and  could 
never  be  infringed  without  shaking  the 
ramparts  of  the  constitution.  Richard 
II. 's  attack  upon  Haxey  has  been  already 
mentioned  as  a  flagrant  evidence  of  his 
despotic  intentions.  No  other  case  oc- 
curs until  the  33d  year  of  Henry  VI., 
when  Thomas  Young,  member  for  Bris- 
tol, complained  to  the  commons,  that, 
"  for  matters  by  him  shewed  in  the  house 
accustomed  for  the  commons  in  the  said 
parliaments,  he  was  therefore  taken,  ar- 
rested, and  rigorously  in  open  wise  led 
to  the  Tower  of  London,  and  there  griev- 
ously in  great  duress  long  time  impris- 
oned against  the  said  freedom  and  liber- 
ty," with  much  more  to  the  like  effect. 
The  commons  transmitted  this  petition 
to  the  lords,  and  the  king  "  willed  that 
the  lords  of  his  council  do  and  provide 
for  the  said  suppliant,  as  in  their  discre- 
tion shall  be  thought  convenient  and  rea- 
sonable." This  imprisonment  of  Young, 
however,  had  happened  six  years  before, 
in  consequence  of  a  motion  made  by  him, 
that  the  king  then  having  no  issue,  the 
Duke  of  York  might  be  declared  heir-ap- 
parent to  the  crown.  In  the  present  ses- 
sion, when  the  duke  was  protector,  he 
thought  it  well-timed  to  prefer  his  claim 
to  remuneration. f 

There  is  a  remarkable  precedent  in  the 
9th  of  Henry  IV.,  and  perhaps  the  earliest 
authority  for  two  eminent  maxims  of  par- 
liamentary law ;  that  the  commons  pos- 
sess an  exclusive  right  of  originating 
money  bills,  and  that  the  king  ought  not 
to  take  notice  of  matters  pending  in  par- 
liament. A  quarrel  broke  out  between 
the  two  houses  upon  this  ground ;  and  as 
we  have  not  before  seen  the  commons 
venture  to  clash  openly  with  their  supe- 
riors, the  circumstance  is  for  this  addi- 
tional reason  worthy  of  attention.  As  it 
has  been  little  noticed,  I  shall  translate 
the  whole  record. 

"  Friday,  the  second  day  of  December, 
which  was  the  last  day  of  the  parliament, 
the  commons  came  before  the  king  and 
the  lords  in  parliament,  and  there,  by 

*  Upon  this  subject  the  reader  should  have  re- 
course to  Hatsell's  Precedents,  vol.  i.,  chap.  i. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  337.  W.  Worcester,  p. 
475.  Mr.  Hatsell  seems  to  have  overlooked  this 
case,  for  he  mentions  that  of  Strickland,  in  1571,  as 
the  earliest  instance  of  the  crown's  interference 
with  freedom  of  speech  in  parliament,  vol.  i.,  p.  85. 


command  of  the  king,  a  schedule  of  in- 
demnity touching  a  certain  altercation 
moved  between  the  lords  and  commons 
was  read ;  and  on  this  it  was  command- 
ed by  our  said  lord  the  king,  that  the 
said  schedule  should  be  entered  of  record 
in  the  roll  of  parliament ;  of  which  sched- 
ule the  tenour  is  as  follows  :  be  it  remem- 
bered, that  on  Monday,  the  21st  day  of 
November,  the  king  our  sovereign  lord 
being  in  the  council-chamber  in  the  ab- 
bey of  Glocester,*  the  lords  spiritual  and 
temporal  for  this  present  parliament  as- 
sembled being  then  in  his  presence,  a 
debate  took  place  among  them  about  the 
state  of  the  kingdom,  and  its  defence  to 
resist  the  malice  of  the  enemies  who  on 
every  side  prepare  to  molest  the  said 
kingdom  and  its  faithful  subjects,  and 
how  no  man  can  resist  this  malice,  un- 
less, for  the  safeguard  and  defence  of  his 
said  kingdom,  our  sovereign  lord  the  king 
has  some  notable  aid  and  subsidy  granted 
to  him  in  his  present  parliament.  And 
therefore  it  was  demanded  of  the  said 
lords  by  way  of  question,  what  aid  would 
be  sufficient  and  requisite  in  these  cir- 
cumstances ]  To  which  question  it  was 
answered  by  the  said  lords  severally,  that, 
considering  the  necessity  of  the  king  on 
one  side,  and  the  poverty  of  his  people 
on  the  other,  no  less  aid  could  be  suffi- 
cient than  one  tenth  and  a  half  from 
cities  and  towns,  and  one  fifteenth  and  a 
half  from  all  other  lay  persons ;  and  be- 
sides, to  grant  a  continuance  of  the  sub- 
sidy on  wool,  woolfells,  and  leather,  and 
of  three  shillings  on  the  tun  (of  wine), 
and  twelve  pence  on  the  pound  (of  other 
merchandise),  from  Michaelmas  next  en- 
suing for  two  years  thenceforth.  Where- 
upon, by  command  of  our  said  lord  the 
king,  a  message  was  sent  to  the  com- 
mons of  this  parliament,  to  cause  a  cer- 
tain number  of  their  body  to  come  before 
our  said  lord  the  king  and  the  lords,  in 
order  to  hear  and  report  to  their  com- 
panions what  they  should  be  commanded 
by  our  said  lord  the  king.  And  upon  this 
the  said  commons  sent  into  the  presence 
of  our  said  lord  the  king  and  the  said 
lords  twelve  of  their  companions;  to 
whom,  by  command  of  our  said  lord  the 
king,  the  said  question  was  declared, 
with  the  answer  by  the  said  lords  sever- 
ally given  to  it.  Which  answer  it  was 
the  pleasure  of  our  said  lord  the  king, 
that  they  should  report  to  the  rest  of 
their  fellows,  to  the  end  that  they  might 
take  the  shortest  course  to  comply  with 
the  intention  of  the  said  lords.  Which 


This  parliament  sat  at  Glocester. 


PART  III.} 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


403 


report  being  thus  made  to  the  said  com- 
mons, they  were  greatly  disturbed  at  it, 
saying  and  asserting  it  to  be  much  to  the 
prejudice  and  derogation  of  their  liber- 
ties. And  after  that  our  said  lord  the 
king  had  heard  this,  not  willing  that  any 
thing  should  be  done  at  present,  or  in 
time  to  come,  that  might  anywise  turn 
against  the  liberty  of  the  estate,  for 
which  they  are  come  to  parliament,  nor 
against  the  liberties  of  the  said  lords, 
wills,  and  grants,  and  declares,  by  the  ad- 
vice and  consent  of  the  said  lords,  as  fol- 
lows ;  to  wit,  that  it  shall  be  lawful  for 
the  lords  to  debate  together  in  this  pres- 
ent parliament,  and  in  every  other  for 
time  to  come,  in  the  king's  absence,  con- 
cerning the  condition  of  the  kingdom, 
and  the  remedies  necessary  for  it.  And 
in  like  manner  it  shall  be  lawful  for  the 
commons,  on  their  part,  to  debate  to- 
gether concerning  the  said  condition  and 
remedies.  Provided  always,  that  neither 
the  lords  on  their  part,  nor  the  commons 
on  theirs,  do  make  any  report  to  our  said 
lord  the  king  of  any  grant  granted  by  the 
commons,  and  agreed  to  by  the  lords,  nor 
of  the  communications  of  the  said  grant, 
before  that  the  said  lords  and  commons 
are  of  one  accord  and  agreement  in  this 
matter,  and  then  in  manner  and  form  ac- 
customed, that  is  to  say,  by  the  mouth  of 
the  speaker  of  the  said  commons  for  the 
time  being,  to  the  end  that  the  said  lords 
and  commons  may  have  what  they  desire 
(avoir  puissent  leur  gree)  of  our  said 
lord  the  king.  Our  said  lord  the  king 
willing,  moreover,  by  the  consent  of  the 
said  lords,  that  the  communication  had 
in  this  present  parliament  as  above  be 
not  drawn  into  precedent  in  time  to 
come,  nor  be  turned  to  the  prejudice  or 
derogation  of  the  liberty  of  the  estate,  for 
which  the  said  commons  are  now  come, 
neither  in  this  present  parliament,  nor  in 
any  other  time  to  come.  But  wills  that 
himself,  and  all  the  other  estates,  should 
be  as  free  as  they  were  before.  Also, 
the  said  last  day  of  parliament,  the  said 
speaker  prayed  our  said  lord  the  king  on 
the  part  of  the  said  commons,  that  he 
would  grant  the  said  commons,  that  they 
should  depart  in  as  great  liberty  as  other 
commons  had  done  before.  To  which 
the  king  answered,  that  this  pleased  him 
well,  and  that  at  all  times  it  had  been  his 
desire."* 

Every  attentive  reader  will  discover 
this  remarkable  passage  to  illustrate  sev- 
eral points  of  constitutional  law.  For 
hence  it  may  be  perceived :  first,  that 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  v.  iii.,  p.  611. 
C  c2 


the  king  was  used  in  those  times  to  be 
present  at  debates  of  the  lords,  personal* 
ty  advising  with  them  upon  the  public 
business;  which  also  appears  by  many 
other  passages  on  record  ;  and  this  prac- 
tice, I  conceive,  is  not  abolished  by  the 
king's  present  declaration,  save  as  to 
_rants  of  money,  which  ought  to  be  of 
the  free-will  of  parliament,  and  without 
that  fear  or  influence  which  the  pres- 
ence of  so  high  a  person  might  create  : 
secondly,  that  it  was  already  the  estab- 
lished law  of  parliament,  that  the  lords 
should  consent  to  the  commons'  grant, 
and  not  the  commons  to  the  lords ;  since 
it  is  the  inversion  of  this  order  whereof 
the  commons  complain,  and  it  is  said  ex- 
pressly that  grants  are  made  by  the  com- 
mons, and  agreed  by  the  lords  :  thirdly, 
that  the  lower  house  of  parliament  is 
not,  in  proper  language,  an  estate  of  the 
realm,  but  rather  the  image  and  repre- 
sentative of  the  commons  of  England ; 
who,  being  the  third  estate,  with  the  no- 
bility and  clergy,  make  up  and  constitute 
the  people  of  this  kingdom  and  liege  sub- 
jects of  the  crown.* 


*  A  notion  is  entertained  by  many  people,  and 
not  without  the  authority  of  some  very  respecta- 
ble names,  that  the  king  is  one  of  the  three  estates 
of  the  realm,  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal 
forming  together  the  second,  as  the  commons  in 
parliament  do  the  third.  This  is  contradicted  by 
the  general  tenour  of  our  ancient  records  and  law- 
books  ;  and  indeed  the  analogy  of  other  govern- 
ments ought  to  have  the  greatest  weight,  even  if 
more  reason  for  doubt  appeared  upon  the  face  of 
our  own  authorities.  But  the  instances  where  the 
three  estates  are  declared  or  implied  to  be  the  no- 
bility, clergy,  and  commons,  or  at  least  their  rep>- 
resentatives  in  parliament,  are  too  numerous  for 
insertion.  This  land  standeth,  says  the  Chancel- 
lor Stillington,  in  7th  Edward  IV.,  by  three  states, 
and  above  that  one  principal,  that  is,  to  wit,  lords 
spiritual,  lords  temporal,  and  commons,  and  over 
that,  state  royal,  as  our  sovereign  lord  the  king. — 
Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  622.  Thus  too  it  is  declared 
that  the  treaty  of  Staples  in  1492  was  to  be  con- 
firmed per  tres  status  regni  Angliae  rite  et  debite 
convocatos,  videlicet  per  prelates  et  clerum,  nobi- 
les  et  communitates  ejusdem  regni. — Rymer,  t. 
xii.,  p.  508. 

I  will  not,  however,  suppress  one  passage,  and 
the  only  instance  that  has  occurred  in  my  reading, 
where  the  king  does  appear  to  have  been  reckoned 
among  the  three  estates.  The  commons  say,  in 
the  2d  of  Henry  IV.,  that  the  states  of  the  realm 
may  be  compared  to  a  trinity,  that  is,  the  king,  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  and  the  commons. — 
Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  459.  In  this  expression, 
however,  the  sense  shows,  that  by  estates  of  the 
realm  they  meant  members,  or  necessary  parts  of 
the  parliament. 

Whitelocke,  on  the  Parliamentary  Writ,  vol.  ii., 
p.  43,  argues  at  length,  that  the  three  estates  are 
king,  lords,  and  commons,  which  seems  to  have 
been  a  current  doctrine  among  the  popular  lawyers 
of  the  seventeenth  century.  His  reasoning  is 
chiefly  grounded  on  .the  baronial  tenure  of  bishops, 
the  validity  of  acts  passed  against  their  consent, 


404 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII, 


At  the  next  meeting  of  parliament,  in 
allusion  probably  to  this  disagreement 
between  the  houses,  the  king  told  them, 
that  the  states  of  parliament  were  come 
together  for  the  common  profit  of  the 
king  and  kingdom,  and  for  unanimity's 
sake  and  general  consent ;  and  therefore 
he  was  sure  the  commons  would  not  at- 
tempt nor  say  any  thing  but  what  should 
be  fitting  and  conducive  to  unanimity; 
commanding  them  to  meet  together,  and 
communicate  for  the  public  service.* 

It  was  not  only  in  money  bills  that  the 
originating  power  was  supposed  to  reside 
in  the  commons.  The  course  of  pro- 
ceedings in  parliament,  as  has  been 
seen,  from  the  couimencement  at  least 
of  Edward  III.'s  reign,  was  that  the 
commons  presented  petitions,  which  the 
lords  by  themselves,  or  with  the  assist- 
ance of  the  council,  having  duly  consid- 
ered, the  sanction  of  the  king  was  noti- 
fied or  withheld.  This  was  so  much  ac- 
cording to  usage,  that,  on  one  occasion, 
when  the  commons  requested  the  advice 
of  the  other  house  on  a  matter  before 
them,  it  was  answered,  that  the  ancient 
custom  and  form  of  parliament  had  ever 
been  for  the  commons  to  report  their 
own  opinion  to  the  king  and  lords,  and 
not  to  the  contrary  ;  and  the  king  would 
have  the  ancient  and  laudable  usages  of 
parliament  maintained.!  It  is  singular 
that,  in  the  terror  of  innovation,  the  lords 
did  not  discover  how  materially  this 
usage  of  parliament  took  off  from  their 
own  legislative  influence.  The  rule, 

and  other  arguments  of  the  same  kind  ;  which 
might  go  to  prove  that  there  are  only  at  present 
two  estates,  but  can  never  turn  the  king  into 
one. 

The  source  of  this  error  is  an  inattention  to  the 
primary  sense  of  the  word  estate  (status),  which 
means  an  order  or  condition  into  which  men  are 
classed  by  the  institutions  of  society.  It  is  only  in 
a  secondary,  or  rather  an  elliptical  applicatiqp,  that 
it  can  be  referred  to  their  representatives  in  parlia- 
ment or  national  councils.  The  lords  temporal, 
indeed,  of  England  are  identical  with  the  estate 
of  the  nobility  ;  but  the  house  of  commons  is  not, 
strictly  speaking,  the  estate  of  commonalty,  to 
which  its  members  belong,  and  from  which  they 
are  deputed.  So  the  whole  body  of  the  clergy  are 
properly  speaking  one  of  the  estates,  and  are  de- 
scribed as  such  in  the  older  authorities,  21  Ric. 
II.,  Rot.  Parl.,  v.  iii.,  p.  348,  though  latterly  the 
lords  spiritual  in  parliament  acquired,  with  less 
correctness,  that  appellation. — Hody  on  Convoca- 
tions, p.  426.  The  bishops,  indeed,  may  be  said 
constructively  to  represent  the  whole  of  the  cler- 
gy, with  whose  grievances  they  are  supposed  to  be 
best  acquainted,  and  whose  rights  it  is  their  pecu- 
liar duty  to  defend.  And  I  do  not  find  that  the  in- 
ferior clergy  had  any  other  representation  in  the 
cortes  of  Castile  and  Aragon,  where  the  ecclesi- 
astical order  was  always  counted  among  the  es- 
tates of  the  realm. 

*  P.  623.          t  Rot.  Parl.,  5  R.  II.,  p.  100. 


however,  was  not  observed  in  succeed- 
ing times ;  bills  originated  indiscrimi- 
nately in  either  house  ;  and  indeed  some 
acts  of  Henry  V.,  which  do  not  appear 
to  be  grounded  on  any  petition,  may  be 
suspected,  from  the  manner  of  their  in- 
sertion in  the  rolls  of  parliament,  to  have 
been  proposed  on  the  king's  part  to  the 
commons.*  But  there  is  one  manifest 
instance  in  the  18th  of  Henry  VI.,  where 
the  king  requested  the  commons  to  give 
their  authority  to  such  regulations!  as 
his  council  might  have  provided  for  re- 
dressing the  abuse  of  purveyance;  to 
which  they  assented. 

If  we  are  to  choose  constitutional  pre- 
cedents from  seasons  of  tranquillity  rath- 
er than  disturbance,  which  surely  is  the 
only  means  of  preserving  justice  or  con- 


*  Stat.  2  H.  V.,  c.  6,  7,  8,  9.    4  H.  VI.,  c.  7. 

f  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  7.  It  appears  by  a  case 
in  the  year-book  of  the  thirty-third  of  Henry  VI., 
that,  where  the  lords  made  only  some  minor  alter- 
ations in  a  bill  sent  up  to  them  from  the  commons, 
even  if  it  related  to  a  grant  of  money,  the  custom 
was  not  to  remand  it  for  their  assent  to  the  amend- 
ment. —  Brooke's  Abridgment  :  Parliament.  4. 
The  passage  is  worth  extracting,  in  order  to  illus- 
trate the  course  of  proceeding  in  parliament  at 
that  time.  Case  fuit  que  Sir  J.  P.  fuit  attaint  de 
certeyn  trespas  par  acte  de  parliament,  dont  les 
commons  furerit  assentus,  quesil  ne  vient  eins  per 
tiel  jour  que  il  forfeytera  tiel  summe,  et  les  seign- 
eurs done  plus  longe  jour,  et  le  bil  nient  rebaile  al 
commons  arrere  ;  et  per  Kirby,  clerk  des  roles  del 
parliament,  1'use  del  parliament  est,  que  si  bil 
vient  primes  a  les  commons,  et  ils  passent  ceo,  il 
est  use  d'endorser  ceo  en  tiel  forme ;  Soit  bayle  as 
seigniors  ;  et  si  les  seigniors  ne  le  roy  ne  alteront  le 
bil,  donques  est  use  a  liverer  ceo  al  clerke  del  par- 
liament destre  enrol  saunz  endorser  ceo  . .  .  Et  si 
es  seigniors  volent  alter  un  bil  in  ceo  que  poet  es- 
toye  ore  le  bil,  ils  poyent  saunz  remandre  ceo  al 
commons,  come  si  les  commons  graunte  poundage 
pur  quatuor  ans,  et  les  grantent  nisi  par  deux  ans, 
ceo  ne  serra  rebayle  al  commons ;  mes  si  les  com- 
mons grauntent  nisi  pur  deux  ans,  et  les  seigneurs 
pur  quatre  ans,  la  ceo  serra  reliver  al  commons,  et 
;n  cest  case  les  seigniors  doyent  faire  un  sedule  de 
our  intent,  ou  d'endorser  le  bil  en  ceste  forme, 
Les  seigneurs  ceo  assentent  pur  durer  par  quatuor 
ans ;  et  quant  les  commons  ount  le  bil  arrere,  et  ne 
volent  assenter  a  ceo,  ceo  ne  poet  estre  un  actre, 
mes  si  les  commons  volent  assenter,  donques  ils 
ndorse  leur  respons  sur  le  mergent  ne  basse  deins 
e  bil  en  tiel  forme,  Les  commons  sont  ass.entans  al 
sedul  des  seigniors,  a  mesme  cesty  bil  annexe,  et 
donques  sera  bayle  ad  clerke  del  parliament,  ut 
supra.  Et  si  un  bil  soit  primes  liver  al  seigniors, 
et  le  bil  passe  eux,  ils  ne  usont  de  fayre  ascun  en- 
dorsement, mess  de  mitter  le  bil  as  commons,  et 
donques  si  le  bil  passe  les  commons,  il  est  use 
destre  issint  endorce,  Les  commons  sont  assent- 
ants,  et  ceo  prove  que  il  ad  passe  les  seigniors  de- 
vant,  et  lour  assent  est  a  cest  passer  del  seigniors  ; 
et  ideo  cest  acte  supra  nest  bon,  pur  ceo  que  ne 
fuit  rebaile  as  commons. 

A  singular  assertion  is  made  in  the  year-book  21 
E.  IV.,  p.  48  (Maynard's  edit.),  that  a  subsidy 
granted  by  the  commons  without  assent  of  the 
peers  is  good  enough.  This  cannot  surely  have 
been  law  at  that  time. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


sistency,  but  little  intrinsic  authority  can 
be  given  to  the  following  declaration  of 
parliamentary  law  in  the  llth  of  Richarc 
II.  "In  this  parliament  (the  roll  says) 
all  the  lords  as  well  spiritual  and  tem- 
poral there  present,  claimed  as  their  lib- 
erty and  privilege,  that  the  great  matters 
moved  in  this  parliament,  and  to  be  moved 
in  other  parliaments  for  time  to  come, 
touching  the  peers  of  the  land,  should  be 
treated,  adjudged,  and  debated  according 
to  the  course  of  parliament,  and  not  by 
the  civil  law,  nor  the  common  law  of  the 
land,  used  in  the  other  lower  courts  of 
the  kingdom ;  which  claim,  liberty,  and 
privileges,  the  king  graciously  allowed 
and  granted  them  in  full  parliament."1 
It  should  be  remembered  that  this  asser- 
tion of  paramount  privilege  was  made  in 
very  irregular  times,  when  the  king  was 
at  the  mercy  of  the  Duke  of  Glocester 
and  his  associates,  and  that  it  had  a  view 
to  the  immediate  object  of  justifying  their 
violent  proceedings  against  the  opposite 
party,  and  taking  away  the  restraint  of 
the  common  law.  It  stands  as  a  danger- 
ous rock  to  be  avoided,  not  a  lighthouse 
to  guide  us  along  the  channel.  The  law 
of  parliament,  as  determined  by  regular 
custom,  is  incorporated  into  our  constitu- 
tion ;  but  not  so  as  to  warrant  an  indef- 
inite, uncontrollable  assumption  of  pow- 
er in  any  case,  least  of  all  in  judicial  pro- 
cedure, where  the  form  and  the  essence 
of  justice  are  inseparable  from  each  oth- 
er. And,  in  fact,  this  claim  of  the  lords, 
whatever  gloss  Sir  E.  Coke  may  put  upon 
it,  was  never  intended  to  bear  any  rela- 
tion to  the  privileges  of  the  lower  house. 
I  should  not  perhaps  have  noticed  this 
passage  so  strongly  if  it  had  not  been 
made  the  basis  of  extravagant  assertions 
as  to  the  privileges  of  parliament  ;f  the 
spirit  of  which  exaggerations  might  not 
be  ill  adapted  to  the  times  wherein  Sir  E. 
Coke  lived,  though  I  think  they  produced 
at  several  later  periods  no  slight  mis- 
chief, some  consequences  of  which  we 
may  still  have  to  experience. 
The  want  of  all  judicial  authority,  ei- 

Contested   tner  *?  issue  process  or  to  exam- 
elections    ine  witnesses,  together  with  the 

howde-      usual  shortness   Of  Sessions,   de- 
termined. ,   .,  -  - 

pnved  the  house  of  commons  of 
what  is  now  considered  one  of  its  most 
fundamental  privileges,  the  cognizance 
of  disputed  elections.  Upon  a  false  re- 
turn by  the  sheriff,  there  was  no  remedy 
but  through  the  king  or  his  council.  Six 
instances  only,  I  believe,  occur  during  the 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  244. 
i  Coke'a  4th  Institute,  p.  15. 


reigns  of  the  Plantagenet  family,  where- 
in the  misconduct  or  mistake  of  the  sher- 
iff is  recorded  to  have  called  for  a  spe- 
cific animadversion,  though  it  was  fre- 
quently the  ground  of  general  complaint, 
and  even  of  some  statutes.  The  first  is 
in  the  12th  of  Edward  II.,  when  a  petition 
was  presented  to  the  council  against  a 
false  return  for  the  county  of  Devon,  the 
petitioner  having  been  duly  elected.  It 
was  referred  to  the  court  of  exchequer 
to  summon  the  sheriff  before  them.*  The 
next  occurs  in  the  36th  of  E.  III.,  when 
a  writ  was  directed  to  the  sheriff  of  Lan- 
cashire, after  the  dissolution  of  parlia- 
ment, to  inquire  at  the  county-court  into 
the  validity  of  the  election ;  and  upon  his 
neglect,  a  second  writ  issued  to  the  jus- 
tices of  the  peace  to  satisfy  themselves 
about  this  in  the  best  manner  they  could, 
and  report  the  truth  into  chancery.  This 
inquiry  after  the  dissolution  was  on  ac- 
count of  the  wages  for  attendance,  to 
which  the  knights  unduly  returned  could 
have  no  pretence. f  We  find  a  third  case 
in  the  7th  of  Richard  II.,  when  the  king 
took  notice  that  Thomas  de  Camoys, 
who  was  summoned  by  writ  to  the  house 
of  peers,  had  been  elected  knight  for 
Surry,  and  directed  the  sheriff  to  return 
another.;}:  In  the  same  year,  the  town  of 
Shaftsbury  petitioned  the  king,  lords,  and 
commons  against  a  false  return  of  the 
sheriff  of  Dorset,  and  prayed  them  to  or- 
der remedy.  Nothing  further  appears  re- 
specting this  petition. §  This  is  the  first 
instance  of  the  commons  being  noticed 
in  matters  of  election.  But  the  next 
case  is  more  material :  in  the  5th  of  Hen- 
ry IV.,  the  commons  prayed  the  king  and 
lords  in  parliament,  that  because  the  writ 
of  summons  to  parliament  was  not  suffi- 
ciently returned  by  the  sheriff  of  Rut- 
iand,  this  matter  might  be  examined  in 
parliament,  and  in  case  of  default  found 
therein,  an  exemplary  punishment  might 
3e  inflicted ;  whereupon  the  lords  sent 
for  the  sheriff  and  Oneby,  the  knight  re- 
turned, as  well  as  for  Thorp,  who  had  been 
duly  elected,  and  having  examined  into 
;he  facts  of  the  case,  directed  the  return  to 
be  amended,  by  the  insertion  of  Thorp's 
name,  and  committed  the  sheriff  to  the 
Fleet,  till  he  should  pay  a  fine  at  the 
ting's  pleasure.  ||  The  last  passage  that 
[  can  produce  is  from  the  roll  of  18  H. 
VI.,  where  "  it  is  considered  by  the  king, 
with  the  advice  and  assent  of  the  lords 


*  Glanvil's  Reports  of  Elections,  edit.  1774.    In- 
roduction,  p,  12.  f  4  Prynne,  p.  261. 

t  Glanvil*s  Reports,  ibid.,  from  Prynne. 
$  Id.  ibid. 
II  Ibid.,  and  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  530. 


406 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAt>.    VIII. 


spiritual  and  temporal,"  that  whereas  no 
knights  have  been  returned  for  Cam- 
bridgeshire, the  sheriff  shall  be  directed, 
by  another  writ,  to  hold  a  court  and  to 
proceed  to  an  election,*  proclaiming  that 
no  person  shall  come  armed,  nor  any  tu- 
multuous proceeding  take  place;  some- 
thing of  which  sort  appears  to  have  ob- 
structed the  execution  of  the  first  writ. 
It  is  to  be  noticed  that  the  commons  are 
not  so  much  as  named  in  this  entry.* 
But  several  provisions  were  made  by  stat- 
ute under  the  Lancastrian  kings,  when 
seats  in  parliament  became  much  more 
an  object  of  competition  than  before,  to 
check  the  partiality  of  the  sheriffs  in  ma- 
king undue  returns.  One  act  (11  H.  IV., 
c.  1)  gives  the  justices  of  assize  power 
to  inquire  into  this  matter,  and  inflicts  a 
penalty  of  one  hundred  pounds  on  the 
sheriff.  Another  (6  H.  VI.,  c.  4)  miti- 
gates the  rigour  of  the  former,  so  far  as 
to  permit  the  sheriff  or  the  knights  re- 
turned by  him  to  traverse  the  inquests 
before  the  justices ;  that  is,  to  be  heard 
in  their  own  defence,  which,  it  seems, 
had  not  been  permitted  to  them.  An- 
other (23  H.  VI.,  c.  14)  gives  an  addi- 
tional penalty  upon  false  returns  to  the 
party  aggrieved.  These  statutes  con- 
spire with  many  other  testimonies  to 
manifest  the  rising  importance  of  the 
house  of  commons,  and  the  eagerness 
with  which  gentlemen  of  landed  estates 
(whatever  might  be  the  case  in  petty 
boroughs)  sought  for  a  share  in  the  na- 
tional representation. 

Whoever  may  have  been  the  original 
in  whom  voters  for  county  representa- 

louSfor0f  tives'  the  first  s^tute  that  regu- 
knights  re-  lates  their  election,  so  far  from 
sided.  limiting  the  privilege  to  tenants 
in  capite,  appears  to  place  it  upon  a  very 
large  and  democratical  foundation.  For 
(as  I  rather  conceive,  though  not  without 
much  hesitation),  not  only  all  freeholders, 
but  all  persons  whatever  present  at  the 
county-court,  were  declared  or  rendered 
capable  of  voting  for  the  knight  of  their 
shire.  Such  at  least  seems  to  be  the 
inference  from  the  expressions  of  7  H. 
IV.,  c.  15,  "  all  who  are  there  present,  as 
well  suiters  duly  summoned  for  that 
cause  as  others,"!  And  this  acquires 

*  Rot.  Pad.,  vol.  v.,  p.  7. 

t  3  Prynne's  Register,  p,  187.  This  hypothesis, 
though  embraced  by  Prynne,  is,  I  confess,  much 
opposed  to  general  opinion  ;  and  a  very  respectable 
living  writer  treats  such  an  interpretation  of  the 
statute  7  H.  IV.  as  .chimerical.  The  words  cited 
in  the  text  "as  others,"  mean  only,  according  to 
him,  suiters  not  duly  summoned. — Heywood  on 
Elections,  yol.  i.,  p.  20.  But,  as  I  presume,  the 
aummons  to  freeholders  was  by  general  proclama- 


some  degree  of  confirmation  from  the 
later  statute,  8  H.  VI.,  c.  7,  which,  re- 
citing that  "  elections  of  knights  of  shires 
have  now  of  late  been  made  by  very 
great,  outrageous,  and  excessive  number 
of  people  dwelling  within  the  same  coun- 
ties, of  the  which  most  part  was  people 
of  small  substance  and  of  no  value,"  con- 
fines the  elective  franchise  to  freeholders 
of  lands  or  tenements  to  the  value  of 
forty  shillings. 

The  representation  of  towns  in  parlia- 
ment was  founded  upon  two  Elections  of 
principles ;  of  consent  to  public  Burgesses, 
burdens  and  of  advice  in  public  meas- 
ures, especially  such  as  related  to  trade 
and  shipping.  Upon  both  these  accounts 
it  was  natural  for  the  kings  who  first 
summoned  them  to  parliament,  little  fore- 
seeing that  such  half-emancipated  burgh- 
ers would  ever  clip  the  loftiest  plumes 
of  their  prerogative,  to  make  these  as- 
semblies numerous,  and  summon  mem- 
bers from  every  town  of  consideration 
in  the  kingdom.  Thus  the  writ  of  23  E. 
I.  directs  the  sheriffs  to  cause  deputies 
to  be  elected  to  a  general  council  from 
every  city,  borough,  and  trading  town. 
And  although  the  last  words  are  omitted 
in  subsequent  writs,  yet  their  spirit  was 
preserved ;  many  towns  having  constant- 
ly returned  members  to  parliament  by 
regular  summonses  from  the  sheriffs, 
which  were  no  chartered  boroughs,  nor 
had  apparently  any  other  claim  than  their 
populousness  or  commerce.  These  are 
now  called  boroughs  by  prescription.* 


tion  ;  so  that  it  is  not  easy  to  perceive  what,  differ- 
ence there  could  be  between  summoned  and  un- 
summoned  suiters.  And  if  the  words  are  supposed 
to  glance  at  the  private  summonses  to  a  few  friends, 
by  means  of  which  the  sheriffs  were  accustomed 
to  procure  a  clandestine  election,  one  can  hardly 
imagine  that  such  persons  would  be  styled  "  duly 
summoned."  It  is  not  unlikely,  however,  that 
these  large  expressions  were  inadvertently  used, 
and  that  they  led  to  that  inundation  of  voters  with- 
out property,  which  rendered  the  subsequent  act 
of  Henry  VI.  necessary.  That  of  Henry  IV.  had 
itself  been  occasioned  by  an  opposite  evil,  the  close 
election  of  knights  by  a  few  persons  in  the  name 
of  the  county. 

Yet  the  consequence  of  the  statute  of  Henry  IV. 
was  not  to  let  in  too  many  voters,  or  to  render  elec- 
tions tumultuous,  in  the  largest  of  English  coun- 
ties, whatever  it  might  be  in  others.  Prynne  has 
published  some  singular  sheriffs'  indentures  for  the 
county  of  York,  all  during  the  interval  between  the 
acts  of  Henry  IV.  and  Henry  VI.,  which  are  sealed 
by  a  few  persons  calling  themselves  the  attorneys 
of  some  peers  and  ladies,  who,  as  far  as  appears, 
had  solely  returned  the  knights  of  that  shire. — 3 
Prynne,  p.  152.  What  degree  of  weight  these 
anomalous  returns  ought  to  possess,  I  leave  to  the 
reader. 

*  The  majority  of  prescriptive  boroughs  have 
prescriptive  corporations,  which  carry  the  legal, 
which  is  not  always  the  moral  presumption  of  an 


PART  HI.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


407 


Besides  these  respectable  towns,  there 
were  some  of  a  less  eminent  figure, 
which  had  writs  directed  to  them  as  an- 
cient demesnes  of  the  crown.  During 
times  of  arbitrary  taxation,  the  crown 
had  set  tallages  alike  upon  its  chartered 
boroughs  and  upon  its  tenants  in  de- 
mesne. When  parliamentary  consent 
became  indispensable,  the  free  tenants  in 
ancient  demesne,  or  rather  such  of  them 
as  inhabited  some  particular  vills,  were 
called  to  parliament  among  the  other 
representatives  of  the  commons.  They 
are  usually  specified  distinctly  from  the 
other  classes  of  representatives  in  grants 
of  subsidies  throughout  the  parliaments 
of  the  two  first  Edwards,  till,  about  the 
beginning  of  the  Third's  reign,  they 
were  confounded  with  ordinary  burges- 
ses.* This  is  the  foundation  of  that  par- 
ticular species  of  elective  franchise  inci- 
dent to  what  we  denominate  burgage 
tenure ;  which,  however,  is  not  confined 
to  the  ancient  demesne  of  the  crown.f 

The  proper  constituents  therefore  of 
the  citizens  and  burgesses  in  parliament 
appear  to  have  been — 1.  All  chartered 
boroughs,  whether  they  derived  their 
privileges  from  the  crown  or  from  a 
mesne  lord,  as  several  in  Cornwall  did 
from  Richard,  king  of  the  Romans  ;|  2. 
All  towns  which  were  the  ancient  or  the 
actual  demesne  of  the  crown;  3.  All 
considerable  places,  though  unincorpo- 
rated, which  could  afford  to  defray  the 
expenses  of  their  representatives,  and 
had  a  notable  interest  in  the  public  wel- 
fare. But  no  parliament  ever  perfectly 
corresponded  with  this  theory.  The 


original  charter.  But  "  many  boroughs  and  towns 
in  England  have  burgesses  by  prescription,  that 
never  were  incorporated." — Ch.  J.  Hobart  in  Dun- 
gannon  Case,  Hobart's  Reports,  p.  15.  And  Mr. 
Luders  thinks,  I  know  not  how  justly,  that  in  the 
age  of  Edward  I.,  which  is  most  to  our  immediate 
purpose,  "  there  were  not  perhaps  thirty  corpora- 
tions in  the  kingdom." — Reports  of  Elections,  vol. 
i.,  p.  98.  But  I  must  allow  that,  in  the  opinion  of 
many  sound  lawyers,  the  representation  of  unchar- 
tered,  or  at  least  unincorporated  boroughs,  was  rath- 
er a  real  privilege,  and  founded  upon  tenure,  than 
one  arising  out  of  their  share  in  public  contributions. 
— Ch.  J.  Holt  in  Ashby  v.  White,  2  Ld.  Raymond, 
951.  Hey  wood  on  Borough  Elections,  p.  11.  This 
inquiry  is  very  obscure  ;  and  perhaps  the  more  so, 
because  the  learning  directed  towards  it  has  more 
frequently  been  that,  of  advocates  pleading  for  their 
clients  than  of  unbiased  antiquaries.  If  this  be 
kept  in  view,  the  lover  of  constitutional  history 
will  find  much  information  in  several  of  the  re- 
ported cases  on  controverted  elections ;  particu- 
larly those  of  Tewksbury  and  Liskeard  in  Peck- 
well's  Reports,  vol.  i. 

*  Brady  on  Boroughs,  p.  75,  80,  and  163.  Case 
of  Tewksbury,  in  Peckwell's  Reports,  vol.  i.,  p. 
178. 

t  Littleton,  s.  162,  163.  t  Brady,  p.  97. 


writ  was  addressed  in  general  Power  of 
terms  to  the  sheriff,  requiring  the  sheriff 
him  to  cause  two  knights  to  be  foomil. 
elected  out  of  the  body  of  the 
county,  two  citizens  from  every  city,  and 
two  burgesses  from  every  borough.  It 
rested  altogether  upon  him  to  determine 
what  towns  should  exercise  this  fran- 
chise ;  and  it  is  really  incredible,  with  all 
the  carelessness  and  ignorance  of  those 
times,  what  frauds  the  sheriffs  ventured 
to  commit  in  executing  this  trust.  Though 
parliaments  met  almost  every  year,  and 
there  could  be  no  mistake  in  so  notori- 
ous a  fact,  it  was  the  continual  practice 
of  sheriffs  to  omit  boroughs  that  had 
been  in  recent  habit  of  electing  mem- 
bers, and  to  return  upon  th«  writ  that 
there  were  no  more  within  their  county. 
Thus,  in  the  12th  of  Edward  III.,  the  sher- 
iff of  Wiltshire,  after  returning  two  citi- 
zens for  Salisbury,  and  burgesses  for  two 
boroughs,  concludes  with  these  words: 
"  There  are  no  other  cities  or  boroughs 
within  my  bailiwick."  Yet  in  fact  eight 
other  towns  had  sent  members  to  pre- 
ceding parliaments.  So  in  the  6th  of 
Edward  II.,  the  sheriff  of  Bucks  declared 
that  he  had  no  borough  within  his  county 
except  Wycomb ;  though  Wendover,  Ag- 
mondesham,  and  Marlow  had  twice  made 
returns  since  that  king's  accession.*  And 
from  this  cause  alone  it  has  happened 
that  many  towns  called  boroughs,  and 
having  a  charter  and  constitution  as  such, 
have  never  returned  members  to  parlia- 
ment; some  of  which  are  now  among 
the  most  considerable  in  England,  as 
Leeds,  Birmingham,  and  Macclesfield.-j- 

It  has  been  suggested,  indeed,  by  Bra- 
dy,! that  these  returns  may  not  appear  so 
false  and  collusive  if  we  suppose  the  sher- 
iff to  mean  only  that  there  were  no  res- 
ident burgesses  within  these  boroughs  fit 
to  be  returned,  or  that  the  expense  of 
their  wages  would  be  too  heavy  for  the 
place  to  support.  And  no  doubt  the  lat- 
ter plea,  whether  implied  or  not  in  the  re- 
turn, was  very  frequently  an  inducement 
to  the  sheriffs  to  spare  the  smaller  bor- 

*  Brady  on  Boroughs,  p.  110.  3  Prynne,  p.  231. 
The  latter  even  argues  that  this  power  of  omitting 
ancient  boroughs  was  legally  vested  in  the  sheriff' 
before  the  5th  of  Richard  II.,  and  though  the  lan- 
guage of  that  act  implies  the  contrary  of  this  posi- 
tion, yet  it  is  more  than  probable  that  most  of  our 
parliamentary  boroughs  by  prescription,  especially 
such  as  were  then  unincorporated,  are  indebted 
for  their  privileges  to  the  exercise  of  the  sheriff's 
discretion  ;  not  founded  on  partiality,  which  would 
rather  have  led  him  to  omit  them,  but  on  the  broad 
principle  that  they  were  sufficiently  opulent  and 
important  to  send  representatives  to  parliament. 

t  Willis,  Notitia  Parliamentaria,  vol.  i.,  preface, 
p.  35.  J  P.  117, 


408 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


oughs.  The  wages  of  knights  were  four 
shillings  a  day,  levied  on  all  freeholders, 
or  at  least  on  all  holding  by  knight-ser- 
vice, within  the  county.*  Those  of  bur- 
gesses were  half  that  sum  ;f  but  even  this 
pittance  was  raised  with  reluctance  and 
difficulty  from  miserable  burghers,  little 
solicitous  about  political  franchises.  Pov- 
erty, indeed,  seems  to  have  been  accepted 
as  a  legal  excuse.  In  the  6th  of  E.  II., 
the  sheriff  of  Northumberland  returns  to 
the  writ  of  summons,  that  all  his  knights 
are  not  sufficient  to  protect  the  county ; 
and  in  the  1st  of  E.  III.,  that  they  were 
too  much  ravaged  by  their  enemies  to 
send  any  members  to  parliament.!  The 
sheriffs  'of  Lancashire,  after  several  re- 

*  It  is  a  perplexing  question,  whether  freehold- 
ers in  soccage  were  liable  to  contribute  towards 
the  wages  of  knights;  and  authorities  might  be 
produced  on  both  sides.  The  more  probable  sup- 
position is  that  they  were  not  exempted.  See  the 
various  petitions  relating  to  the  payment  of  wages 
in  Prynne's  fourth  Register.  This  is  not  uncon- 
nected with  the  question  as  to  their  right  of  suf- 
frage. See  ante,  p.  360.  Freeholders  within  fran- 
chises made  repeated  endeavours  to  exempt  them- 
selves from  payment  of  wages.  Thus  in  9  H.  IV. 
it  was  settled  by  parliament,  that,  to  put  an  end  to 
the  disputes  on  this  subject  between  the  people  of 
Cambridgeshire  and  those  of  the  Isle  of  Ely,  the 
latter  should  pay  200Z.  and  be  quit  in  future  of  all 
charges  on  that  account. — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p. 
383.  By  this  means  the  inhabitants  of  that  fran- 
chise seem  to  have  purchased  the  right  of  suffrage, 
which  they  still  enjoy,  though  not,  I  suppose,  suit- 
ers to  the  county-court.  In  most  other  franchises, 
and  in  many  cities  erected  into  distinct  counties, 
the  same  privilege  of  voting  for  knights  of  the 
shire  is  practically  exercised;  but  whether  this 
has  not  proceeded  as  much  from  the  tendency  of 
returning  officers  and  of  parliament  to  favour  the 
right  of  election  in  doubtful  cases,  as  from  the 
merits  of  their  pretensions,  may  be  a  question. 

t  The  wages  of  knights  and  burgesses  were  first 
reduced  to  this  certain  sum  by  the  writs  De  levan- 
dis  expensis,  16  E.  II. — Prynne's  fourth  Register, 
p.  53.  These  were  issued  at  the  request  of  those 
who  had  served  after  the  dissolution  of  parliament, 
and  included  a  certain  number  of  days,  according 
to  the  distance  of  the  county  whence  they  came, 
for  going  and  returning.  It  appears  by  these  that 
thirty-five  or  forty  miles  were  reckbned  a  day's 
journey ;  which  may  correct  the  exaggerated  no- 
tions of  bad  roads  and  tardy  locomotions  that  are 
sometimes  entertained.— See  Prynne's  fourth  part, 
and  Willis's  Notitia  Parliamentaria,  passim. 

The  latest  entries  of  writs  for  expenses  in  the 
close  rolls  are  of  2  H.  V. ;  but  they  may  be  proved  to 
have  issued  much  longer  ;  and  Prynne  traces  them 
to  the  end  of  Henry  VIII. 's  reign,  p.  495.  With- 
out the  formality  of  this  writ,  a  very  few  instances 
of  towns  remunerating  their  burgesses  for  attend- 
ance in  parliament  are  known  to  have  occurred  in 
later  times.  Andrew  Marvel  is  commonly  said  to 
have  been  the  last  who  received  this  honourable 
salary.  A  modern  book  asserts  that  wages  were 
paid  in  some  Cornish  boroughs  as  late  as  the 
eighteenth  century.— Lyson's  Cornwall,  preface,  p. 
xxxii. ;  but  the  passage  quoted  in  proof  of  this  is 
not  precise  enough  to  support  so  unlikely  a  fact. 

t  3  Prynne,  p.  165. 


turns  that  they  had  no  boroughs  within 
their  county,  though  Wigan,  Liverpool, 
and  Preston  were  such,  alleged  at  length 
that  none  ought  to  be  called  upon  on  ac- 
count of  their  poverty.  This  return  was 
constantly  made,  from  36  E.  III.  to  the 
reign  of  Henry  VI.* 

The  elective  franchise  was  deemed  by 
the  boroughs  no  privilege  or 
blessing,  but  rather,  during  the  ofViroughs 
chief  part  of  this  period,  an  in-  to  send 
tolerable  grievance.  Where  they  ir 
could  not  persuade  the  sheriff  to  omit 
sending  his  writ  to  them,  they  set  it  at 
defiance  by  sending  no  return.  And  this 
seldom  failed  to  succeed,  so  that  after 
one  or  two  refusals  to  comply,  which 
brought  no  punishment  upon  them,  they 
were  left  in  quiet  enjoyment  of  their  in- 
significance. The  town  of  Torrington, 
in  Devonshire,  went  farther,  and  obtained 
a  charter  of  exemption  from  sending  bur- 
gesses, grounded  upon  what  the  charter 
asserts  to  appear  on  the  rolls  of  chance- 
ry, that  it  had  never  been  represented 
before  the  21st  of  E.  III.  This  is  abso- 
lutely false,  and  is  a  proof  how  little  we 
can  rely  upon  the  veracity  of  records, 
Torrington  having  made  not  less  than 
twenty-two  returns  before  that  time.  It 
is  curious,  that  in  spite  of  this  charter,  the 
town  sent  members  to  the  two  ensuing 
parliaments,  and  then  ceased  for  ever.f 
Richard  II.  gave  the  inhabitants  of  Col- 
chester a  dispensation  from  returning  bur- 
gesses for  five  years,  in  consideration  of 
the  expenses  they  had  incurred  in  forti- 
fying the  town  4  But  this  immunity, 
from  whatever  reason,  was  not  regarded, 
Colchester  having  continued  to  make  re- 
turns as  before. 

The  partiality  of  sheriffs  in  leaving  out 
boroughs  which  were  accustomed  in  old 
time  to  come  to  the  parliament,  was  re- 
pressed, as  far  as  law  could  repress  it,  by 
a  statute  of  Richard  II.,  which  imposed  a 
fine  on  them  for  such  neglect,  and  upon 
any  member  of  parliament  who  should 
absent  himself  from  his  duty.§  But  it  is, 
I  think,  highly  probable,  that  a  great  part 
of  those  who  were  elected  from  the  bor- 
oughs did  not  trouble  themselves  with  at- 
tendance in  parliament.  The  sheriff  even 
found  it  necessary  to  take  sureties  for 
their  execution  of  so  burdensome  a  duty, 
whose  names  it  was  usual,  down  to  the 
end  of  the  fifteenth  century,  to  endorse 
upon  the  writ  along  with  those  of  the 
elected. ||  This  expedient  is  not  likely  to 


*  4  Prynne,  p.  317. 
J  3  Prynne,  p.  241, 


t  Id.,  p.  320. 


§  5  R.  II.,  stat.  ii.,  c.  4. 

Luders's  Reports,  vol.  i.,  p.  15.     Sometimes 
an  elected  burgess  absolutely  refused  to  go  to  par- 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


409 


have  been  very  successful ;  and  the  small 
number,  comparatively  speaking,  of  writs 
for  expenses  of  members  for  boroughs 
which  have  been  published  by  Prynne, 
while  those  for  the  knights  of  shires  are 
almost  complete,  leads  to  a  strong  pre- 
sumption that  their  attendance  was  very 
defective.  This  statute  of  Richard  II. 
produced  no  sensible  effect. 

By  what  person  the  election  of  bur- 
wiothe  gesses  was  usually  made  is  a 
eiectorsln  question  of  great  obscurity, 
borougha  which  is  still  occasionally  deba- 
ted before  committees  of  parlia- 
ment. It  appears  to  have  been  the  com- 
mon practice  for  a  very  few  of  the  prin- 
cipal members  of  the  corporation  to  make 
the  election  in  the  county-court ;  and  their 
names,  as  actual  electors,  are  generally 
returned  upon  the  writ  by  the  sheriff.* 
But  we  cannot  surely  be  warranted  by 
this  to  infer  that  they  acted  in  any  other 
capacity  than  as  deputies  of  the  whole 
body,  and  indeed  it  is  frequently  ex- 
pressed that  they  chose  such  and  such 
persons  by  the  assent  of  the  communi- 
ty ;f  by  which  word,  in  an  ancient  cor- 
porate borough,  it  seems  natural  to  un- 
derstand the  freemen  participating  in  its 
general  franchises,  rather  than  the  ruling 
body,  which,  in  many  instances  at  pres- 
ent, and  always  perhaps  in  the  earliest 
age  of  corporations,  derived  its  authority 
by  delegation  from  the  rest.  The  con- 
sent, however,  of  the  inferior  freemen 
we  may  easily  believe  to  have  been 
merely  nominal ;  and  from  being  nomi- 
nal, it  would  in  many  places  come  by  de- 
grees not  to  be  required  at  all ;  the  cor- 
poration, specially  so  denominated,  or 
municipal  government,  acquiring  by 
length  of  usage  an  exclusive  privilege  in 
election  of  members  of  parliament,  as 
they  did  in  local  administration.  This, 
at  least,  appears  to  me  a  more  probable 
hypothesis  than  that  of  Dr.  Brady,  who 
limits  the  original  right  of  election  in  all 
corporate  boroughs  to  the  aldermen  or 
other  capital  burgesses. | 

The  members  of  the  house  of  corn- 
Members  of  nions,  from  this  occasional  dis- 
the  House  use  of  ancient  boroughs,  as 
.r  commons.  we[\  as  from  the  creation  of 
new  ones,  underwent  some  fluctuation 
during  the  period  subject  to  our  review. 
Two  hundred  citizens  and  burgesses  sat 
in  the  parliament  held  by  Edward  I.  in 

liament,  and  drove  his  constituents  to  a  fresh 
choice. — 3  Prynne,  p.  277. 

*  3  Prynne,  p.  252. 

t  Idem,  p.  257,  de  asaensu  totius  communita- 
tis  predictae  elegerunt  R.  W.,  so  in  several  other 
instances  quoted  in  the  ensuing  pages. 

J  Brady  on  Boroughs,  p.  132,  &c. 


his  twenty-third  year,  the  earliest  epoch 
of  acknowledged  representation.  But  in 
the  reigns  of  Edward  III.  and  his  three 
successors,  about  ninety  places,  on  an 
average,  returned  members,  so  that  we 
may  reckon  this  part  of  the  commons  at 
one  hundred  and  eighty.*  These,  if  reg- 
ular in  their  duties,  might  appear  an  over- 
balance for  the  seventy-four  knights  who 
sat  with  them.  But  the  dignity  of  an- 
cient lineage,  territorial  wealth,  and  mil- 
itary character,  in  times  when  the  feudal 
spirit  was  hardly  extinct,  and  that  of 
chivalry  at  its  height,  made  these  burgh- 
ers veil  their  heads  to  the  landed  aris- 
tocracy. It  is  pretty  manifest  that  the 
knights,  though  doubtless  with  some  sup- 
port from  the  representatives  of  towns, 
sustained  the  chief  brunt  of  battle  against 
the  crown.  The  rule  and  intention  of 
our  old  constitution  was,  that  each  coun- 
ty, city,  or  borough  should  elect  deputies 
out  of  its  own  body,  resident  among 
themselves,  and  consequently  acquainted 
with  their  necessities  and  grievances.! 
It  would  be  very  interesting  to  discover 
at  what  time,  and  by  what  degrees,  the 
practice  of  election  swerved  from  this 
strictness.  But  I  have  not  been  able  to 
trace  many  steps  of  the  transition.  The 
number  of  practising  lawyers  who  sat  in 
parliament,  of  which  there  are  several 
complaints,  seems  to  afford  an  inference 
that  it  had  begun  in  the  reign  of  Edward 
III.  Besides  several  petitions  of  the 
commons,  that  none  but  knights  or  repu- 
table squires  should  be  returned  for 
shires,  an  ordinance  was  made  in  the 
forty-sixth  of  his  reign  that  no  lawyer 
practising  in  the  king's  court,  nor  sheriff 
during  his  shrievalty,  be  returned  knight 
for  a  county ;  because  these  lawyers  put 
forward  many  petitions  in  the  name  of 
the  commons,  which  only  concerned  their 
clients.!  This  probably  was  truly  al- 
leged, as  we  may  guess  from  the  vast 
number  of  proposals  for  changing  the 
course  of  legal  process  which  fill  the 


*  Willis,  Notitia  Parliamentaria,  vol.  iii.,  p.  96, 
&c.    3  Prynne,  p.  224,  &c. 

f  In  4  Edw.  II.,  the  sheriff  of  Rutland  made  this 
return  :  Eligi  feci  in  pleno  comitatu,  loco  duorum 
militum,  eo  quod'  milites  non  sunt  in  hoc  comitatu 
commorantes,  duos  homines  de  comitatu  Rutland, 
de  discretioribus  et  ad  laborandum  potentioribus, 
&c. — 3  Prynne,  p.  170.  But  this  deficiency  of  ac- 
tual knights  soon  became  very  common.  In  19  E. 
II.  there  were  twenty-eight  members  returned 
from  shires  who  were  not  knights,  and  but  twen- 
ty-seven who  were  such.  The  former  had  at  this 
time  only  two  shillings  or  three  shillings  a  day  for 
their  wages,  while  the  real  knights  had  four  shil- 
inga. — 4  Prynne,  p.  53,  74.  But  in  the  next  reign 
their  wages  were  put  on  a  level, 
Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  310. 


410 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


rolls  during  this  reign.  It  is  not  to  be 
doubted,  however,  that  many  practising 
lawyers  were  men  of  landed  estate  in 
their  respective  counties. 

An  act  in  the  first  year  of  Henry  V. 
directs  that  none  be  chosen  knights,  citi- 
zens, or  burgesses,  who  are  not  resident 
within  the  place  for  which  they  are  re- 
turned on  the  day  of  the  date  of  the 
writ.*  This  statute  apparently  indicates 
a  point  of  time  when  the  deviation  from 
the  line  of  law  was  frequent  enough  to 
attract  notice,  and  yet  not  so  established 
as  to  pass  for  an  unavoidable  irregulari- 
ty. It  proceeded,  however,  from  great 
and  general  causes,  which  new  laws,  in 
this  instance,  very  fortunately,  are  utter- 
ly incompetent  to  withstand.  There  can- 
not be  a  more  opposite  proof  of  the  inef- 
ficacy  of  human  institutions  to  struggle 
against  the  steady  course  of  events,  than 
this  unlucky  statute  of  Henry  V.,  which 
is  almost  a  solitary  instance  in  the  law 
of  England,  wherein  the  principle  of  de- 
suetude has  been  avowedly  set  up  against 
an  unrepealed  enactment.  I  am  not 
aware,  at  least,  of  any  other,  which  not 
only  the  house  of  commons,  but  the  court 
of  king's  bench  has  deemed  itself  at  lib- 
erty to  declare  unfit  to  be  observed.! 
Even  at  the  time  when  it  was  enacted, 
the  law  had  probably,  as  such,  very  little 
effect.  But  still  the  plurality  of  elections 
were  made,  according  to  ancient  usage 
as  well  as  statute,  out  of  the  constituent 
body.  The  contrary  instances  were  ex- 
ceptions to  the  rule ;  but  exceptions  in- 
creasing continually,  till  they  subverted 
the  rule  itself.  Prynne  has  remarked, 
that  we  chiefly  find  Cornish  surnames 
among  the  representatives  of  Cornwall, 
and  those  of  northern  families  among  the 
returns  from  the  north.  Nor  do  the 
members  for  shires  and  towns  seem  to 
have  been  much  interchanged ;  the  names 
of  the  former  belonging  to  the  most  an- 
cient families,  while  those-  of  the  latter 
have  a  more  plebeian  cast.  J  In  the  reign 
of  Edward  IV.,  and  not  before,  a  very  few 
of  the  burgesses  bear  the  addition  of  es- 
quire in  the  returns  ;  which  became  uni- 
versal in  the  middle  of  the  succeeding 
century.  § 

*  1  H.  V.,  c.  1. 

t  See  the  case  of  Dublin  -university,  in  the  first 
volume  of  Peckwell's  Reports  of  contested  elec- 
tions. Note  D.,  p.  53.  The  statute  itself  was  re- 
pealed by  14  G.  HI.,  c.  58. 

t  By  23  H.  VI.,  c.  15,  none  but  gentlemen  born, 
generosi  a  nativitate,  are  capable  of  sitting  in  par- 
liament as  knights  of  counties;  an  election  was 
set  aside  39  H.  VI.,  because  the  person  returned 
was  not  of  gentle  birth. — Prynne's  3d  Reg.,  p.  16] . 

$  Willis,  Notitia  Parliamentaria.    Prynne's  4th 


Even  county  elections  seem  in  gener- 
al, at  least  in  the  fourteenth  cen-  irregularity 
tury,  to  have  been  ill  attend-  of  elections, 
ed,  and  left  to  the  influence  of  a  few 
powerful  and  active  persons.  A  petition- 
er against  an  undue  return  in  the  12th  of 
Edward  II.  complains  that,  whereas  he 
had  been  chosen  knight  for  Devon,  by  Sir 
William  Martin,  bishop  of  Exeter,  with 
the  consent  of  the  county,  yet  the  sheriff 
had  returned  another.*  In  several  in- 
dentures of  a  much  later  date,  a  few  per- 
sons only  seem  to  have  been  concerned 
in  the  election,  though  the  assent  of  the 
community  be  expressed.!  These  ir- 
regularities, which  it  would  be  exceed- 
ingly erroneous  to  convert,  with  Hume, 
into  lawful  customs,  resulted  from  the 
abuses  of  the  sheriffs  power,  which, 
when  parliament  sat  only  for  a  few  weeks, 
with  its  hands  full  of  business,  were  al- 
most sure  to  escape  with  impu-  influence  of 
nity.  They  were  sometimes  the  crown 
also  countenanced,  or  rather  in-  upon  them- 
stigated  by  the  crown,  which,  having  re- 
covered in  Edward  II.'s  reign  the  prerog- 
ative of  naming  the  sheriffs,  surrendered 
by  an  act  of  his  father,^  filled  that  office 
with  its  creatures,  and  constantly  disre- 
garded the  statute  forbidding  their  con- 
tinuance beyond  a  year.  Without  search- 
ing for  every  passage  that  might  illus- 
trate the  interference  of  the  crown  in  elec- 
tions, I  will  mention  two  or  three  leading 
instances.  When  Richard  II.  was  medi- 
tating to  overturn  the  famous  commis- 
sion of  reform,  he  sent  for  some  of  the 
sheriffs,  and  required  them  to  permit  no 
knight  or  burgess  to  be  elected  to  the 
next  parliament  without  the  approbation 
of  the  king  and  his  council.  The  sheriffs 
replied,  that  the  commons  would  main- 
tain their  ancient  privilege  of  electing 

Register,  p.  1184.  A  letter  in  that  authentic  and 
interesting  accession  to  our  knowledge  of  ancient 
times,  the  Paston  collection,  shows  that  eager 
canvass  was  sometimes  made  by  country  gentle- 
men in  Edward  IV.'s  reign  to  represent  boroughs. 
This  letter  throws  light  at  the  same  time  on  the 
creation  or  revival  of  boroughs.  The  writer  tells 
Sir  John  Paston :  "  If  ye  miss  to  be  burgess  of 
Maiden,  and  my  lord  chamberlain  will,  ye  may  be 
in  another  place ;  there  be  a  dozen  towns  in  Eng- 
land that  choose  no  burgess  which  ought  to  do  it ; 
ye  may  be  set  in  for  one  of  those  towns  an'  ye  be 
friended."  This  was  in  1472,  vol.  ii.,  p.  107. 

*  Glanvil's  Reports  of  Elections,  edit.  1774.  In- 
troduction, p.  xii. 

t  Prynne's  3d  Register,  p.  171. 

j  28  E.  I.,  c.  8.  9  E.  II.  It  is  said  that  the 
sheriff  was  elected  by  the  people  of  his  county  in 
the  Anglo-Saxon  period ;  no  instance  of  this,  how- 
ever, according  to  Lord  Lyttleton,  occurs  after  the 
conquest.  Shrievalties  were  commonly  sold  by 
the  Norman  kings.— Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
921. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


411 


their  own  representatives.*  The  parlia- 
ment of  1397,  which  attainted  his  ene- 
mies, and  left  the  constitution  at  his  mer- 
cy, was  chosen,  as  we  are  told,  by  dint 
of  intimidation  and  influence.!  Thus 
also  that  of  Henry  VI.,  held  at  Coventry 
in  1460,  wherein  the  Duke  of  York  and 
his  party  were  attainted,  is  said  to  have 
been  unduly  returned  by  the  like  means. 
This  is  rendered  probable  by  a  petition 
presented  to  it  by  the  sheriffs,  praying 
indemnity  for  all  which  they  had  done  in 
relation  thereto  contrary  to  law.|  An 
act  passed  according  to  their  prayer,  and 
in  confirmation  of  elections.  A  few 
years  before,  in  1455,  a  singular  letter 
under  the  king's  signet  is  addressed  to 
the  sheriffs,  reciting  that "  we  be  enfourm- 
ed  there  is  busy  labour  made  in  sondry 
wises  by  certaine  persons  for  the  che- 

syng  of  the  said  knights, of  which 

labour  we  marvaille  greatly,  insomuche 
as  it  is  nothing  to  the  honour  of  the  la- 
borers, but.  ayenst  their  worship;  it  is 
also  ayenst  the  lawes  of  the  lande,"  with 
more  to  that  effect;  and  enjoining  the 
sheriffs  to  let  elections  be  free  and  the 
peace  kept.$  There  was  certainly  no 
reason  to  wonder  that  a  parliament, 
which  was  to  shift  the  virtual  sovereign- 
ty of  the  kingdom  into  the  hands  of  one 
whose  claims  were  known  to  extend 
much  farther,  should  be  the  object  of  tol- 
erably warm  contests.  Thus  in  the  Pas- 
ton  letters,  we  find  several  proofs  of  the 
importance  attached  to  parliamentary 
elections  by  the  highest  nobility.  || 

The  house  of  lords,  as  we  left  it  in  the 
constitu-  reign  of  Henry  III.,  was  entirely 
tionofthe  composed  of  such  persons  hold- 
Lord?  °f  in£  lands  bv  barony  as  were  sum- 
moned by  particular  writ  of  par- 
liament.T[  Tenure  and  summons  were 
both  essential  at  this  time  in  order  to 
render  any  one  a  lord  of  parliament ;  the 
first  by  the  ancient  constitution  of  our 
feudal  monarchy  from  the  conquest ;  the 

*  Vita  Ricardi  II.,  p.  85. 

f  Otterbourne,  p.  191.  He  says  of  the  knights 
returned  on  this  occasion,  that  they  were  not  elect- 
ed per  communitatem  ut  mos  exigit,  sed  per  regi- 
am  voluntatem. 

t  Prynne's  2d  Reg.,  p.  141.  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v., 
p.  367.  $  Id.,  p.  450. 

I!  Vol.  i.,  p.  96,  98;  vol.  ii.,  p.  99,  105;  vol.  ii., 
p.  243. 

^f  Upon  this  dry  and  obscure  subject  of  inquiry, 
the  nature  and  constitution  of  the  house  of  lords 
during  this  period,  I  have  been  much  indebted  to 
the  first  part  of  Prynne's  Register,  and  to  West's 
Inquiry  into  the  manner  of  creating  peers ;  which, 
though  written  with  a  party  motive,  to  serve  the 
ministry  of  1719  in  the  peerage  bill,  deserves,  for 
the  perspicuity  of  the  method  and  style,  to  be  reck- 
oned among  the  best  of  our  constitutional  disserta- 
tions. 


second  by  some  regulation  or  usage  of 
doubtful  origin,  which  was  thoroughly 
established  before  the  conclusion  of  Hen- 
ry III.'s  reign.  This  produced,  of  course, 
a  very  marked  difference  between  the 
greater  and  the  lesser,  or  unparliament- 
ary barons.  The  tenure  of  the  latter, 
however,  still  subsisted,  and  though  too 
inconsiderable  to  be  members  of  the  le- 
gislature, they  paid  relief  as  barons,  they 
might  be  challenged  on  juries,  and,  .as  I 
presume,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  vfere 
entitled  to  trial  by  their  peerage.  Tfcese 
lower  barons,  or,  more  commonly,  ten- 
ants by  parcels  of  baronies,*  may;be 
dimly  traced  to  the  latter  years  of  Ed- 
ward Ill.f  But  many  of  them  were  sucr 
cessively  summoned  to  parliament,  and 
thus  recovered  the  former  lustre  of  their 
rank ;  while  the  rest  fell  gradually  into 
the  station  of  commoners,  as  tenants  by 
simple  knight-service. 

As  tenure  without  summons  did  not 
entitle  any  one  to  the  privileges  Baronial 
of  a  lord  of  parliament,  so  no  teu™erj  J£ 
spiritual  person  at  least  ought  to  Srdsspir- 
have  been  summoned  without  ituai. 
baronial  tenure.  The  prior  of  St.  James 
at  Northampton,  having  been  summoned 
in  the  twelfth  of  Edward  II.,  was  dis- 
charged upon  his  petition,  because  he 
held  nothing  of  the  king  by  barony,  but 
only  in  frankalmoign.  The  prior  of  Brid- 
lington,  after  frequent  summonses,  was 
finally  left  out,  with  an  entry  made  in  the 
roll  that  he  held  nothing  of  the  king. 
The  abbot  of  Leicester  had  been  called 
to  fifty  parliaments :  yet,  in  the  25th  of 


*  Baronies  were  often  divided  by  descent  among 
females  into  many  parts,  each  retaining  its  charac- 
ter as  a  fractional  member  of  a  barony.  The  ten- 
ants in  such  case  were  said  to  hold  of  the  king  by 
the  third,  fourth,  or  twentieth  part  of  a  barony,  and 
did  service  or  paid  relief  in  such  proportion. 

t  Madox,  BaroniaAnglica,p.42and58.  West's 
Inquiry,  p.  28,  33.  That  a  baron  could  only  be 
tried  by  his  fellow-barons,  was  probably  a  rule  as 
old  as  the  trial  per  pais  of  a  commoner.  In  4  E. 
III.,  Sir  Simon  Bereford  having  been  accused  be- 
fore the  lords  in  parliament  of  aiding  and  advising 
Mortimer  in  his  treasons,  they  declared  with  one 
voice  that  he  was  not  their  peer  ;  wherefore  they 
were  not  bound  to  judge  him  as  a  peer  of  the  land ; 
but  inasmuch  as  it  was  notorious  that  he  had  been 
concerned  in  usurpation  of  royal  powers  and  mur- 
der of  the  liege  lord  (as  they  styled  Edward  II.), 
the  lords,  as  judges  of  parliament,  by  assent  of  the 
king  in  parliament,  awarded  and  adjudged  him  to 
oe  hanged.  A  like  sentence,  with  a  like  protesta- 
tion, was  passed  on  Mautravers  and  Gournay. 
There  is  a  very  remarkable  anomaly  in  the  case  of 
Lord  Berkley,  who,  though  undoubtedly  a  baron, 
his  ancestors  having  been  summoned  from  the  ear- 
iiest  date  of  writs,  put  himself  on  his  trial  in  par- 
liament by  twelve  knights  of  the  county  of  Glo- 
cester.— Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  53.  Rymer,  t.  iv., 
p.  734. 


412 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIM. 


Edward  III.,  he  obtained  a  charter  of  per- 
petual exemption,  reciting  that  he  held 
no  lands  or  tenements  of  the  crown  by 
barony,  or  any  such  service  as  bound  him 
to  attend  parliaments  or  councils.*  But 
great  irregularities  prevailed  in  the  rolls 
of  chancery,  from  which  the  writs  to 
spiritual  and  temporal  peers  were  taken ; 
arising  in  part,  perhaps,  from  negligence 
in  part  from  wilful  perversion :  so  that 
many  abbots  and  priors,  who  like  these 
had  no  baronial  tenure,  were  summoned 
at  times  and  subsequently  omitted,  of 
wh6se  actual  exemption  we  have  no 
record.  Out  of  one  hundred  and  twen- 
ty-two abbots  and  forty-one  priors,  who 
at  some  time  or  other  sat  in  parliament, 
but  twenty-five  of  the  former  and  two 
of  the  latter  were  constantly  summoned ; 
the  names  of  forty  occur  only  once,  and 
those  of  thirty-six  others  not  more  than 
five  times. f  Their  want  of  baronial  te- 
nure, in  all  probability,  prevented  the  rep- 
etition of  writs  which  accident  or  occa- 
sion had  caused  to  issue. £ 

The  ancient  temporal  peers  are  sup- 
Barons  posed  to  have  been  intermingled 
called  by  with  persons  who  held  nothing  of 
wnt>  the  crown  by  barony,  but  attended 
in  parliament  solely  by  virtue  of  the 
king's  prerogative  exercised  in  the  writ 
of  summons. §  These  have  been  called 
barons  by  writ ;  and  it  seems  to  be  denied 
by  no  one,  that,  at  least  under  the  three 
first  Edwards,  there  were  some  of  this 
description  in  parliament.  But  after  all 
the  labours  of  Dugdale  and  others  in 
tracing  the  genealogies  of  our  ancient 

*  Prynne,  p.  142,  &c.    West's  Inquiry. 

t  Prynne,  p.  141. 

J  It  is  worthy  of  observation,  that  the  spiritual 
peers  summoned  to  parliament  were  in  general 
considerably  more  numerous  than  the  temporal. — 
Prynne,  p.  1 14.  This  appears,  among  other  causes, 
to  have  saved  the  church  from  that  sweeping  ref- 
ormation of  its  wealth,  and  perhaps  of  its  doc- 
trines, which  the  commons  were -thoroughly  in- 
clined to  make  under  Richard  II.  and  Henry  IV. 
Thus  the  reduction  of  the  spiritual  lords  by  the 
dissolution  of  monasteries  was  indispensably  re- 
quired to  bring  the  ecclesiastical  order  into  due 
subjection  to  the  state. 

f)  Perhaps  it  can  hardly  be  said  that  the  king's 
prerogative  compelled  the  party  summoned,  not 
being  a  tenant  by  barony,  to  take  his  seat.  But 
though  several  spiritual  persons  appear  to  have 
been  discharged  from  attendance  on  account  of 
their  holding  nothing  by  barony,  as  has  been  justly 
observed,  yet  there  is,  I  believe,  no  istance  of  any 
layman's  making  such  an  application.  The  terms 
of  the  ancient  writ  of  summons,  however,  in  fide  et 
hpmagio  quibus  nobis  tenemini,  afford  a  presump- 
tion that  a  feudal  tenure  was,  in  construction  of 
law,  the  basis  of  every  lord's  attendance  in  parlia- 
ment. This  form  was  not  finally  changed  to  the 
present,  in  fide  et  ligentia,  till  the  46th  of  Edw.  III. 
— Prynne's  1st  Register,  p.  206. 


aristocracy,  it  is  a  problem  of  much  diffi- 
culty to  distinguish  these  from  the  terri- 
torial barons.  As  the  latter  honours  de- 
scended to  female  heirs,  they  passed  into 
new  families  and  new  names,  so  that  we 
can  hardly  decide  of  one  summoned  for 
the  first  time  to  parliament,  that  he  did 
not  inherit  the  possession  of  a  feudal 
barony.  Husbands  of  baronial  heiresses 
were  almost  invariably  summoned  in 
their  wives'  right,  though  frequently  by 
their  own  names.  They  even  sat  after 
the  death  of  their  wives,  as  tenants  by 
the  courtesy.*  Again,  as  lands,  though 
not  the  subject  of  frequent  transfer,  were, 
especially  before  the  statute  de  donis, 
not  inalienable,  we  cannot  positively  as- 
sume that  all  the  right  heirs  of  original 
barons  had  preserved  those  estates  upon 
which  their  barony  had  depended.!  If 
we  judge,  however,  by  the  lists  of  those 
summoned,  according  to  the  best  means 
in  our  power,  it  will  appear  that  the  reg- 
ular barons  by  tenure  were  all  along  very 
far  more  numerous  than  those  called  by 
writ :  and  that,  from  the  end  of  Edward 
III.'s  reign,  no  spiritual  persons,  and  few 
if  any  laymen,  except  peers  created  by 
patent,  were  summoned  to  parliament, 
who  did  not  hold  territorial  baronies.  J 

With  respect  to  those  who  were  in- 
debted for  their  seats  among  the  lords 


e  Collins's  Proceedings  on  Claims  of  Baronies, 
p.  24  and  73. 

f  Prynne  speaks  of  "  the  alienation  of  baronies 
y  sale,  gift,  or  marriage,  after  which  the  new  pur- 
chasers were  summoned  instead,"  as  if  it  frequently 
happened. — 1st  Register,  p.  239.  And  several  in- 
stances are  mentioned  in  the  Bergavenny  case 
Collins's  Proceedings,  p.  113),  where  land-baro- 
nies having  been  entailed  by  the  owners  on  their 
heirs  male,  the  heirs  general  have  been  excluded 
rom  inheriting  the  dignity. 

It  is  well  known,  notwithstanding  these  ancient 
precedents,  that  the  modern  doctrine  does  not  ad- 
nit  any  right  in  the  purchaser  of  a  territorial  peer- 
age, such  as  Arundel,  to  a  writ  of  summons,  or 
consequently  to  any  privilege  as  a  lord  of  parlia- 
ment. But  it  might  be  a  speculative  question, 
whether  such  a  purchaser  could  not  become  a  real 
;hough  unparliamentary  baron,  and  entitled  as  such 
;o  a  trial  by  the  peers.  For  though  the  king,  as- 
sisted, if  he  please,  by  the  advice  of  the  house  of 
ords,  is  finally  and  exclusively  to  decide  upon 
claims  to  parliamentary  privileges,  yet  the  dignity 
of  peerage,  whether  derived  under  ancient  tenure 
jr  a  royal  patent,  is  vested  in  the  possessor  by  act 
)f  law,  whereof  the  ordinary  courts  of  justice  may 
ncidentally  take  cognizance.  See  the  case  of  R. 
;.  Knowles,  Salkeld's  Reports,  p.  509,  the  princi- 
ples of  which  will  never  be  controverted  by  any 
ne  acquainted  with  the  original  constitution  of 
his  country. 

t  Prynne's  1st  Register,  p.  237.  This  must  be 
understood  to  mean  that  no  new  families  were 
ummoned  ;  for  the  descendants  of  some  who  are 
lot  supposed  to  have  held  land-baronies  may  con- 
tantly  be  found  in  later  lists. 


PART  III] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


413 


to  the  king's  writ,  there  are  two  materi- 
al questions  ;  whether  they  acquired  an 
hereditary  nobility  by  virtue  of  the  writ : 
and,  if  this  be  determined  against  them, 
whether  they  had  a  decisive,  or  merely  a 
deliberative  voice  in  the  house.  Now, 
for  the  first  question,  it  seems  that,  if  the 
writ  of  summons  conferred  an  estate  of 
inheritance,  it  must  have  done  so  either  by 
virtue  of  its  terms,  or  by  established  con- 
struction and  precedent.  But  the  writ 
contains  no  words  by  which  such  an  es- 
tate can  in  law  be  limited ;  it  summons 
the  person  addressed  to  attend  in  parlia- 
ment in  order  to  give  his  advice  on  the 
public  business,  but  by  no  means  implies 
that  his  advice  will  be  required  of  his 
heirs,  or  even  of  himself,  on  any  other 
occasion.  The  strongest  expression  is 
"  vobiscum  et  cateris  praelatis,  magnati- 
bus  et  proceribus,"  which  appears  to 
place  the  party  on  a  sort  of  level  with 
the  peers.  But  the  word  magnates  and 
proceres  are  used  very  largely  in  ancient 
language,  and,  down  to  the  time  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  comprehend  the  king's  ordina- 
ry council  as  well  as  his  barons.  Nor 
can  these,  at  any  rate,  be  construed  to 
pass  an  inheritance,  which,  in  the  grant 
of  a  private  person,  much  more  of  the 
king,  would  require  express  words  of 
limitation.  In  a  single  instance,  the 
writ  of  summons  to  Sir  Henry  de  Brom- 
flete  (27  H.  VI.),  we  find  these  remarka- 
ble words  :  Volumus  enim  vos  et  haere- 
des  vestros  masculos  de  corpore  vestro 
legitime  exeuntes  barones  de  Vescy  ex- 
istere.  But  this  Sir  Henry  de  Bromflete 
was  the  lineal  heir  of  the  ancient  barony 
de  Vesci.*  And  if  it  were  true  that  the 
writ  of  summons  conveyed  a  barony  of 
itself,  there  seems  no  occasion  to  have 
introduced  these  extraordinary  words  of 
creation  or  revival.  Indeed  there  is  less 
necessity  to  urge  these  arguments  from 
the  nature  of  the  writ,  because  the  mod- 
ern doctrine,  which  is  entirely  opposite 
to  what  has  here  been  suggested,  asserts 
that  no  one  is  ennobled  by  the  mere 
summons,  unless  he  has  rendered  it  op- 
erative by  taking  his  seat  in  parliament ; 
distinguishing  it  in  this  from  a  patent  of 
peerage,!  which  requires  no  act  of  the 

*  West's  Inquiry.  Prynne,  who  takes  rather 
lower  ground  than  West,  and  was  not  aware  of 
Sir  Henry  de  Bromflete's  descent,  admits  that  a 
writ  of  summons  to  any  one,  naming  him  baron,  or 
dominus,  as  Baroni  de  Greystoke,  Domino  de 
Furnival,  did  give  an  inheritable  peerage  ;  not  so  a 
writ  generally  worded,  naming  the  party  knight 
or  esquire,  unless  he  held  by  barony. 

t  Lord  Abergavenny's  case,  12  Coke's  Reports ; 
and  Collins's  Proceedings  on  claims  of  baronies  by 
writ,  p.  61. 


party  for  its  completion.  But  this  dis- 
tinction could  be  suppor|pd  by  nothing 
except  long  usage.  If,  however,  we  re- 
cur to  the  practice  of  former  times,  we 
shall  find  that  no  less  than  ninety-eight 
laymen  were  summoned  once  only  to 
parliament,  none  of  their  names  occur- 
ring afterward ;  and  fifty  others  two, 
three,  or  four  times.  Some  were  con- 
stantly summoned  during  their  lives, 
none  of  whose  posterity  ever  attained 
that  honour.*  The  course  of  proceed- 
ing, therefore,  previous  to  the  accession 
of  Henry  VII.,  by  no  means  warrants 
the  doctrine  which  was  held  in  the  lat- 
ter end  of  Elizabeth's  reign,f  and  has 
since  been  too  fully  established  by  re- 
peated precedents  to  be  shaken  by  any 
reasoning.  The  foregoing  observations 
relate  to  the  more  ancient  history  of  our 
constitution,  and  to  the  plain  matter  of 
fact  as  to  those  times,  without  consider- 
ing what  political  cause  there  might  be 
to  prevent  the  crown  from  introducing 
occasional  counsellors  into  the  house  of 
lords. 

It  is  manifest  by  many  passages  in 
these  records,  that  bannerets  Bannerets 
were  frequently  summoned  to  summou- 
the  upper  house  of  parliament,  5ouselof 
constituting  a  distinct  class  in-  lords. 
ferior  to  barons,  though  generally  named 
together,  and  ultimately  confounded  with 
them. |  Barons  are  distinguished  by  the 
appellation  of  Sire,  bannerets  have  only 
that  of  Monsieur,  as  le  Sire  de  Berkeley, 
le  Sire  de  Fitzwalter,  Monsieur  Richard 
Scrop,  Monsieur  Richard  Stafford.  In 
the  7th  of  Richard  II.,  Thomas  Camoys 
having  been  elected  knight  of  the  shire 
for  Surrey,  the  king  addresses  a  writ  to 
.he  sheriff,  directing  him  to  proceed  to 
a  new  election,  cum  hujusmodi  banne- 
retti  ante  haec  tempora  in  milites  comita- 
tus  ratione  alicujus  parliament!  eligi  min- 
ime  consueverunt.  Camoys  was  sum- 
moned by  writ  to  the  same  parliament. 
It  has  been  inferred  from  hence  by  Sel- 
den  that  he  was  a  baron,  and  that  the 
word  banneret  is  merely  synonymous. $ 


*  Prynne's  1st  Register,  p.  232.  Elsynge,  who 
strenuously  contends  against  the  writ  of  summons 
conferring  an  hereditary  nobility,  is  of  opinion  that 
the  party  summoned  was  never  omitted  in  subse- 
quent parliaments,  and  consequently  was  a  peer 
or  life,  p.  43.  But  more  regard  is  due  to  Prynne's 
alter  inquiries. 

t  Case  of  Willoughby,  Collins,  p.  8:  of  Dacres, 
p.  41 :  of  Abergavenny,  p.  119.  But  see  the  case 
of  Grey  de  Ruthyn,  p.  222  and  230,  where  the  con- 
trary position  is  stated  by  Selden  upon  better 
grounds. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.ii.,  p.  147,  309  ;  vol.'lii.,  p.  100, 
386,  424 ;  vol.  iv.,  p.  374.     Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  161. 
Selden's  Works,  vol.  iii.,  p.   764.    Selden's 


414 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


But  this  is  contradicted  by  too  many 
passages.  Bannerets  had  so  far  been 
considered  as  commoners  some  years  be- 
fore, that  they  could  not  be  challenged 
on  juries.*  But  they  seem  to  have 
been  more  highly  estimated  at  the  date 
of  this  writ. 

The  distinction  however  between  bar- 
ons and  bannerets  died  away  by  degrees. 
In  the  3d  of  Henry  VL,f  Scrop  of  Bolton 
is  called  le  Sire  de  Scrop ;  a  proof  that 
he  was  then  reckoned  among  the  barons. 
The  bannerets  do  not  often  appear  after- 
ward by  that  appellation  as  members  of 
the  upper  house.  Bannerets,  or,  as  they 
are  called,  banrents,  are  enumerated 
among  the  orders  of  Scottish  nobility  in 
the  year  1428,  when  the  statute  directing 
the  common  lairds  or  tenants  in  capite  to 
send  representatives  was  enacted  ;  and 
a  moderate  historian  justly  calls  them 
an  intermediate  order  between  the  peers 
and  lairds. |  Perhaps  a  consideration  of 
these  facts,  which  have  frequently  been 
overlooked,  may  tend  in  some  measure 
to  explain  the  occasional  discontinuance, 
or  sometimes  the  entire  cessation,  of 
writs  of  summons  to  an  individual  or  his 
descendants ;  since  we  may  conceive 
that  bannerets,  being  of  a  dignity  much 
inferior  to  that  of  barons,  had  no  such 
inheritable  nobility  in  their  blood  as  ren- 
dered their  parliamentary  privileges  a 
matter  of  right.  But  whether  all  those 
who,  without  any  baronial  tenure,  receiv- 
ed their  writs  of  summons  to  parliament 
belonged  to  the  order  of  bannerets,  I 
cannot  pretend  to  affirm :  though  some 
passages  in  the  rolls  might  rather  lead  to 
such  a  supposition. 

The  second  question  relates  to  the  right 
of  suffrage  possessed  by  these  temporary 
members  of  the  upper  house.  It  might 
seem  plausible  certainly  to  conceive,  that 
the  real  and  ancient  aristocracy  would  not 
permit  their  powers  to  be  impaired  by 
numbering  the  votes  of  such  as  the  king 
might  please  to  send  among  them,  how- 


opinion  that  bannerets  in  the  lords'  house  were  the 
same  as  barons,  may  seem  to  call  on  me  for  some 
contrary  authorities,  in  order  to  support  my  own 
assertion,  besides  the  passages  above  quoted  from 
the  rolls,  of  which  he  would  naturally  be  sup- 
posed a  more  competent  judge.  I  refer  therefore 
to  Spelman's  Glossary,  p.  74 ;  Whitelocke  on  Par- 
liamentary Writ,  vol.  i.,  p.  313  ;  and  Elsynge's 
Method  of  holding  parliaments,  p.  65. 

*  Puis  un  fut  chalenge  puree  qu'il  fut  a  ban- 
niere,  et  non  allocatur,,  car  s'il  soit  a  banniere,  et 
ne  tient  pas  par  baronie,  il  sera  en  1'assise. — Year- 
book, 22  Edw.  III.,  fol.  18,  a.apud  West's  Inquiry, 
p.  22. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  201. 

t  Pinkerton's  Hist,  of  Scotland,  vol.  i.,  p.  35 
and  365. 


ever  they  might  allow  them  to  assist  in 
their  debates.  But  I  am  much  more  in- 
clined to  suppose  that  they  were  in  all 
respects  on  an  equality  with  other  peers 
during  their  actual  attendance  in  parlia- 
ment. For,  1.  They  are  summoned  by 
the  same  writ  as  the  rest,  and  their  names 
are  confused  among  them  in  the  lists  ; 
whereas  the  judges  and  ordinary  coun- 
sellors are  called  by  a  separate  writ,  vo- 
bifcum  et  caeteris  de  consilio  nostro,  and 
their  names  are  entered  after  those  of 
the  peers.*  2.  Some,  who  do  not  appear 
to  have  held  land-baronies,  were  con- 
stantly summoned  from  father  to  son, 
and  thus  became  hereditary  lords  of  par- 
liament, through  a  sort  of  prescriptive 
right,  which  probably  was  the  foundation 
of  extending  the  same  privilege  after- 
ward to  the  descendants  of  all  who  had 
once  been  summoned.  There  is  no  evi- 
dence that  the  family  of  Scrope,  for  ex- 
ample, which  was  eminent  under  Edward 
III.  and  subsequent  kings,  and  gave  rise 
to  two  branches,  the  lords  of  Bolton  and 
Masham,  inherited  any  territorial  hon- 
o.ur.f  3.  It  is  very  difficult  to  obtain  any 
direct  proof  as  to  the  right  of  voting,  be- 
cause the  rolls  of  parliament  do  not  take 
notice  of  any  debates ;  but  there  happens 


*  West,  whose  business  it  was  to  represent  the 
barons  by  writ  as  mere  assistants  without  suffrage, 
cites  the  writ  to  them  rather  disingenuously,  as  if 
it  ran  vobiscum  et  cum  prelatis,  magnatibus  ac 
proceribus,  omitting  the  important  word  cseteris,  p. 
35.  Prynne,  however,  from  whom  West  has  bor- 
rowed a  great  part  of  his  arguments,  does  not  seem 
to  go  the  length  of  denying  the  right  of  suffrage 
to  persons  so  summoned. — 1st  Register,  p.  237. 

f  These  descended  from  two  persons,  each  na- 
med Geoffrey  le  Scrope,  chief-justices  of  K.  B.  and 
C.  B.  at  the  beginning  of  Edward  III.'s  reign.  The 
name  of  one  of  them  is  once  found  among  the  bar- 
ons, but  I  presume  this  to  have  been  an  accident 
or  mistake  in  the  roll,  as  he  is  frequently  mentioned 
afterward  among  the  judges.  Scrope,  chief-jus- 
tice of  K.  B.,  was  made  a  banneret  in  14  E.  III. 
He  was  the  father  of  Henry  Scrope  of  Masham,  a 
considerable  person  in  Edward  III.  and  Richard 
II.'s  government,  whose  grandson,  Lord  Scrope  of 
Masham,  was  beheaded  for  a  conspiracy  against 
Henry  V.  There  was  a  family  of  Scrupe  as  old 
as  the  reign  of  Henry  II. ;  but  it  is  not  clear,  not- 
withstanding Dugdale's  assertion,  that  the  Scropes 
descended  from  them,  or  at  least  that  they  held 
the  same  lands  :  nor  were  the  Scrupes  barons,  as 
appears  by  their  paying  a  relief  of  only  sixty  marks 
for  three  knights'  fees. — Dugdale's  Baronage,  p. 
654. 

The  want  of  consistency  in  old  records  throws 
much  additional  difficulty  over  this  intricate  sub- 
ject. Thus  Scrope  of  Masham,  though  certainly 
a  baron,  and  tried  next  year  by  the  peers,  is  called 
Chevalier  in  an  instrument  of  1  H.  V. — Rymer,  t. 
ix.,  p.  13.  So,  in  the  endictment  against  Sir  John 
Oldcastle,  he  is  constantly  styled  knight,  though 
he  had  been  summoned  several  times  as  Lord  Cob- 
ham,  in  right  of  his  wife,  who  inherited  that  bar- 
ony.—Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  107. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


415 


to  exist  one  remarkable  passage,  in  which 
the  suffrages  of  the  lords  are  individual- 
ly specified.  In  the  first  parliament  of 
Henry  IV.,  they  were  requested  by  the 
Earl  of  Northumberland  to  declare  what 
should  be  done  with  the  late  King  Rich- 
ard. The  lords  then  present  agreed  that 
he  should  be  detained  in  safe  custody; 
and  on  account  of  the  importance  of  this 
matter,  it  seems  to  have  been  thought  ne- 
cessary to  enter  their  names  upon  the 
roll  in  these  words :  The  names  of  the 
lords  concurring  in  their  answer  to  the 
said  question  here  follow;  to  wit,  the 
Archbishop  of  Canterbury,  and  fourteen 
other  bishops  ;  seven  abbots  ;  the  Prince 
of  Wales,  the  Duke  of  York,  and  six 
earls;  nineteen  barons,  styled  thus:  le 
Sire  de  Roos,  or  le  Sire  de  Grey  de  Ru- 
thyn.  Thus  far  the  entry  has  nothing 
singular;  but  then  follow  these  nine 
names :  Monsieur  Henry  Percy,  Mon- 
sieur Richard  Scrop,  le  Sire  Fitz-hugh,  le 
Sire  de  Bergeveny,  le  Sire  de  Lomley,  le 
Baron  de  Greystock,  le  Baron  de  Hilton, 
Monsieur  Thomas  Erpyngham,  Chamber- 
layn,  Monsieur  Mayhewe  Gournay.  Of 
these  nine,  five  were  undoubtedly  bar- 
ons, from  whatever  cause  misplaced  in 
order.  Scrop  was  summoned  by  writ; 
but  his  title  of  Monsieur,  by  which  he  is 
invariably  denominated,  would  of  itself 
create  a  strong  suspicion  that  he  was  no 
baron,  and  in  another  place  we  find  him 
reckoned  among  the  bannerets.  The 
other  three  do  not  appear  to  have  been 
summoned,  their  writs  probably  being 
lost.  One  of  them,  Sir  Thomas  Erpyng- 
ham, a  statesman  well  known  in  the  his- 
tory of  those  times,  is  said  to  have  been 
a  banneret  ;*  certainly  he  was  not  a  bar- 
on. It  is  not  unlikely  that  the  two  oth- 
ers, Henry  Percy  (Hotspur),  and  Gour- 
nay, an  officer  of  the  household,  were 
also  bannerets ;  they  cannot  at  least  be 
supposed  to  be  barons,  neither  were  they 
ever  summoned  to  any  subsequent  par- 
liament. Yet  in  the  only  record  we  pos- 
sess of  votes  actually  given  in  the  house 
of  lords,  they  appear  to  have  been  reck- 
oned among  the  rest.f 

The  next  method  of  conferring  an  hon- 
Creation  of  9ur  of  peerage  was  by  creation 
peers  by  in  parliament.  This  was  adopt- 

ute-  ed  by  Edward  III.  in  several  in- 
stances, though  always,  1  believe,  for  the 
higher  titles  of  duke  or  earl.  It  is  laid 
down  by  lawyers,  that  whatever  the  king 
is  said,  in  an  ancient  record,  to  have  done 
in  full  parliament,  must  be  taken  to  have 

*  Blomefield's  Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  iii.,  p.  645 
(folio  edit.).  !  Rot.  Parl.,  v.  iii.,  p.  427. 


proceeded  from  the  whole  legislature. 
As  a  question  of  fact,  indeed,  it  might  be 
doubted  whether,  in  many  proceedings 
where  this  expression  is  used,  and  espe- 
cially in  the  creation  of  peers,  the  assent 
of  the  commons  was  specifically,  and  de- 
liberately given.  It  seems  hardly  con- 
sonant to  the  circumstances  of  their  or- 
der under  Edward  III.  to  suppose  their 
sanction  necessary,  in  what  seemed  so 
little  to  concern  their  interest.  Yet  there 
is  an  instance,  in  the  fortieth  year  of  that 
prince,  where  the  lords  individually,  and 
the  commons  with  one  voice,  are  decla- 
red to  have  consented,  at  the  king's  re- 
quest, that  the  Lord  de  Coucy,  who  had 
married  his  daughter,  and  was  already 
possessed  of  estates  in  England,  might  be 
raised  to  the  dignity  of  an  earl,  whenev- 
er the  king  should  determine  what  earl- 
dom he  would  confer  upon  him.*  Under 
Richard  II.,  the  marquisate  of  Dublin  is 
granted  to  Vere  by  full  consent  of  all  the 
estates.  But  this  instrument,  besides  the 
unusual  name  of  dignity,  contained  an 
extensive  jurisdiction  and  authority  over 
Ireland.f  In  the  same  reign  Lancaster 
was  made  Duke  of  Guienne,  and  the 
Duke  of  York's  son  created  Earl  of  Rut- 
land, to  hold  during  his  father's  life. 
The  consent  of  the  lords  and  commons  is 
expressed  in  their  patents,  and  they  are 
entered  upon  the  roll  of  parliament.^: 
Henry  V.  created  his  brothers  dukes  of 
Bedford  and  Glocester,  by  request  of  the 
lords  and  commons.^  But  the  patent  of 
Sir  John  Cornwall,  in  the  10th  of  Henry 
VI.,  declares  him  to  be  made  Lord  Fan- 
hope,  "by  consent  of  the  lords,  in  the 
presence  of  the  three  estates  of  parlia- 
ment ;"  as  if  it  were  designed  to  show 
that  the  commons  had  not  a  legislative 
voice  in  the  creation  of  peers.  || 

The  mention  I  have  made  of  creating 
peers  by  act  of  parliament  has  And  by 
partly  anticipated  the  modern  form  patent. 
of  letters  patent,  with  which  the  other 
was  nearly  allied.  The  first  instance  of 
a  barony  conferred  by  patent  was  in  the 
tenth  year  of  Richard  II.,  when  Sir  John 
Holt,  a  judge  of  the  Common  Pleas,  was 
reated  Lord  Beauchamp  of  Kiddermin- 
ster. Holt's  patent,  however,  passed 
while  Richard  was  endeavouring  to  act 
in  an  arbitrary  manner;  and  in  fact  he 
never  sat  in  parliament,  having  been  at- 
tainted in  that  of  the  next  year  by  the 
name  of  Sir  John  Holt.  In  a  number  of 
subsequent  patents  down  to  the  reign  of 
Henry  VII.,  the  assent  of  parliament  is 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  290. 

t  Id.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  209.  J  Id.,  p.  263,  264. 

$  Id.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  17.  (I  Id.,  p.  401. 


416 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


expressed,  though  it  frequently  happens 
that  no  mention  of  it  occurs  in  the  par- 
liamentary roll.  And,  in  some  instances, 
the  roll  speaks  to  the  consent  of  parlia- 
ment, where  the  patent  itself  is  silent.* 

It  is  now  perhaps  scarcely  known  by 
Clergy  sum-  many  persons  not  unversed  in 
moncd  to  the  constitution  of  their  coun- 
attendpar-  try5  that,  besides  the  bishops 
and  baronial  abbots,  the  infe- 
rior clergy  were  regularly  summoned  at 
every  parliament.  In  the  writ  of  sum- 
mons to  a  bishop,  he  is  still  directed  to 
cause  the  dean  of  his  cathedral  church, 
the  archdeacon  of  his  diocess,  with  one 
proctor  from  the  chapter  of  the  former, 
and  two  from  the  body  of  his  clergy,  to 
attend  with  him  at  the  place  of  meeting. 
This  might,  by  an  inobservant  reader,  be 
confounded  with  the  summons  to  the 
convocation,  which  is  composed  of  the 
same  constituent  parts,  and,  by  modern 
usage,  is  made  to  assemble  on  the  same 
day.  But  it  may  easily  be  distinguish- 
ed by  this  difference  ;  that  the  convoca- 
tion is  provincial,  and  summoned  by  the 
metropolitans  of  Canterbury  and  York ; 
whereas  the  clause  commonly  denomi- 
nated praemimientes  (from  its  first  word), 
in  the  writ  to  each  bishop,  proceeds  from 
the  crown,  and  enjoins  the  attendance 
of  the  clergy  at  the  national  council  of 
parliament.! 

The  first  unequivocal  instance  of  rep- 
resentatives appearing  for  ^the  lower 
clergy  is  in  the  year  1255,  when  they  are 
expressly  named  by  the  author  of  the  An- 
nals of  Burton. J  They  preceded,  there- 
fore, by  a  few  years,  the  house  of  com- 
mons ;  but  the  introduction  of  each  was 
founded  upon  the  same  principle.  The 
king  required  the  clergy's  money,§  but 

*  West's  Inquiry,  p.  65.  -  This  writer  does  not 
allow  that  the  king  possessed  the  prerogative  of 
creating  new  peers  without  consent  of  parliament. 
But  Prynne  (1st  Register,  p.  225),  who  generally 
adopts  the  same  theory  of  peerage  as  West,  strong- 
ly asserts  the  contrary  ;  and  the  party  views  of  the 
latter's  treatise,  which  I  mentioned  above,  should 
be  kept  in  sight.  It  was  his  object  to  prove,  that 
the  pending  bill  to  limit  the  members  of  the  peer- 
age was  conformable  to  the  original  constitution. 

t  Hody's  History  of  Convocations,  p.  12.  Dis- 
sertatio  de  antiqua  et  moderna  Synodi  Anglicani 
constitutione,  prefixed  to  Wilkins's  Concilia,  t.  i. 

J  2  Gale,  Scriptores  Rer.  Anglic.,  t.  ii.,  p.  355. 
Hody ,  p.  345.  A  tterbury  ( Rights  of  Convocations, 
p.  295, 315)  endeavours  to  show  that  the  clergy  had 
been  represented  in  parliament  from  the  conquest, 
as  well  as  before  it.  Many  of  the  passages  he 
quotes  are  very  inconclusive ;  but  possibly  there 
may  be  some  weight  in  one  from  Matthew  Paris, 
ad  ann.  1247,  and  two  or  three  writs  of  the  reign 
of  Henry  III. 

,    §  Hody,  p.  381.    Atterbury's  Rights  of  Convo- 
cations, p.  221. 


dared  not  take  it  without  their  consent. 
In  the  double  parliament,  if  so  we  may 
call  it,  summoned  in  the  eleventh  of  Ed- 
ward I.  to  meet  at  Northampton  and 
York,  and  divided  according  to  the  two 
ecclesiastical  provinces,  the  proctors  of 
chapters  for  each  province,  but  not  those 
of  the  diocesan  clergy,  were  summoned 
through  a  royal  writ  addressed  to  the 
archbishops.  Upon  account  of  the  ab- 
sence of  any  deputies  from  the  lower 
clergy,  these  assemblies  refused  to  grant 
a  subsidy.  The  proctors  of  both  descrip- 
tions appear  to  have  been  summoned  by 
the  praemunientes  clause  in  the  22d,  23d, 
24th,  28th,  and  35th  years  of  the  same 
king;  but  in  some  other  parliaments  of 
his  reign  the  praemunientes  clause  is 
omitted.*  The  same  irregularity  contin- 
ued under  his  successor ;  and  the  con- 
stant usage  of  inserting  this  clause  in  the 
bishop's  writ  is  dated  from  the  twenty- 
eighth  of  Edward  Ill.f 

It  is  highly  probable  that  Edward  I., 
whose  legislative  mind  was  engaged  in 
modelling  the  constitution  on  a  compre- 
hensive scheme,  designed  to  render  the 
clergy  an  effective  branch  of  parliament, 
however  their  continual  resistance  may 
have  defeated  the  accomplishment  of  this 
intention.^  We  find  an  entry  upon  the 
roll  of  his  parliament  at  Carlisle,  con- 
taining a  list  of  all  the  proctors  deputed 
to  it  by  the  several  diocesses  of  the  king- 
dom. This  may  be  reckoned  a  clear 
proof  of  their  parliamentary  attendance 
during  his  reign  under  the  praemunientes 
clause  ;  since  the  province  of  Canterbury 
could  not  have  been  present  in  convoca- 
tion at  a  city  beyond  its  limits. §  And 
indeed  if  we  were  to  found  our  judgment 
merely  on  the  language  used  in  these 
writs,  it  would  be  hard  to  resist  a  very 
strange  paradox,  that  the  clergy  were  not 
only^me  of  the  three  estates  of  the  realm, 
but  as  essential  a  member  of  the  legisla- 
ture by  their  representatives  as  the  com- 
mons.||  They  are  summoned  in  the  ear- 


*  Hody,  p.  386.    Atterbury,  p.  222. 

f  Hody,  p.  391. 

i  Gilbert's  Hist,  of  Exchequer,  p.  47. 

$  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i.,  p.  189.    Atterbury,  p.  229. 

||  The  lower  house  of  convocation,  in  1547,  ter- 
rified at  the  progress  of  reformation,  petitioned 
that, "  according  to  the  tenour  of  the  king's  writ  and 
the  ancient  customs  of  the  realm,  they  might  have 
room  and  place,  and  be  associated  with  the  com- 
mons in  the  nether  house  of  this  present  parlia- 
ment, as  members  of  the  commonwealth  and  the 
king's  most  humble  subjects." — Burnet's  Hist,  of 
Reformation,  vol.  ii.,  Appendix,  No.  17.  This  as- 
sertion that  the  clergy  had  ever  been  associated  as 
one  body  with  the  commons  is  not  borne  out  by 
any  thing  that  appears  on  our  records,  and  is  con- 
tradicted by  many  passages.  But  it  is  said  that 


PART  111.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


417 


liestyear  extant  (23  E.  I.),  ad  tractandum, 
ordinandum  et  faciendum  nobiscum,  et 
cum  cseteris  praelatis,  proceribus,  ac  aliis 
incolis  regni  nostri ;  in  that  of  the  next 
year,  ad  ordinandum  de  quantitate  et 
modo  subsidii;  in  that  of  the  twenty- 
eighth,  ad  faciendum  et  consentiendum 
his,  qua?  tune  de  communi  consilio  ordi- 
nari  contigerit.  In  later  times,  it  ran 
sometimes  ad  faciendum  et  consentien- 
dum, sometimes  only  ad  consentiendum  ; 
which,  from  the  fifth  of  Richard  II.,  has 
been  the  term  invariably  adopted.*  Now, 
as  it  is  usual  to  infer  from  the  same  words, 
when  introduced  into  the  writs  for  elec- 
tion of  the  commons,  that  they  possessed 
an  enacting  power  implied  in  the  words 
ad  faciendum,  or  at  least  to  deduce  the 
necessity  of  their  assent  from  the  words 
ad  consentiendum,  it  should  seem  to  fol- 
low that  the  clergy  were  invested,  as  a 
branch  of  the  parliament,  with  rights  no 
less  extensive.  It  is  to  be  considered 
how  we  can  reconcile  these  apparent  at- 
tributes of  political  power  with  the  un- 
questionable facts,  that  almost  all  laws, 
even  while  they  continued  to  attend, 
were  passed  without  their  concurrence, 
and  that,  after  some  time,  they  ceased 
altogether  to  comply  with  the  writ.f 

The  solution  of  this  difficulty  can  only 
be  found  in  that  estrangement  from  the 
common  law  and  the  temporal  courts, 
which  the  clergy  throughout  Europe 
were  disposed  to  affect.  In  this  coun- 
try, their  ambition  defeated  its  own  ends ; 
and  while  they  endeavoured  by  privileges 
and  immunities  to  separate  themselves 
from  the  people,  they  did  not  perceive 
that  the  line  of  demarcation  thus  strongly 
traced  would  cut  them  off  from  the  sym- 
pathy of  common  interests.  Every  thing 
which  they  could  call  of  ecclesiastical 
cognizance  was  drawn  into  their  own 
courts  ;  while  the  administration  of  what 
they  contemned  as  a  barbarous  system, 
the  temporal  law  of  the  land,  fell  into  the 
hands  of  lay  judges.  But  these  were 
men  not  less  subtle,  not  less  ambitious, 
not  less  attached  to  their  profession  than 
themselves ;  and  wielding,  as  they  did  in 
the  courts  of  Westminster,  the  delegated 

the  clergy  were  actually  so  united  with  the  com- 
mons in  the  Irish  parliament  till  the  reformation. — 
Gilbert's  Hist,  of  the  Exchequer,  p.  57. 

*  Hody,  p.  392. 

•f  The  prsemunientes  clause  in  a  bishop's  writ  of 
summons  was  so  far  regarded  down  to  the  Reform- 
ation, that  proctors  were  elected,  and  their  names 
returned  upon  the  writ ;  though  the  clergy  never 
attended  from  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, and  gave  their  money  only  in  convocation. 
Since  the  Reformation,  the  clause  has  been  pre- 
served for  form  merely  hi  the  writ. — Wilkins,  Dis- 
sertatio,  ubi  supra. 
Dd 


sceptre  of  judicial  sovereignty,  they  soon 
began  to  control  the  spiritual  jurisdic- 
tion) and  to  establish  the  inherent  su- 
premacy of  the  common  law.  From  this 
time  an  inveterate  animosity  subsisted 
between  the  two  courts,  the  vestiges  of 
which  have  only  been  effaced  by  the  lib- 
eral wisdom  of  modern  ages.  The  gen- 
eral love  of  the  common  law,  however, 
with  the  great  weight  of  its  professors  in 
the  king's  council  and  in  parliament,  kept 
the  clergy  in  surprising  subjection.  None 
of  our  kings  after  Henry  III.  were  big- 
ots ;  and  the  constant  tone  of  the  com- 
mons serves  to  show,  that  the  English 
nation  was  thoroughly  averse  to  ecclesi- 
astical influence,  whether  of  their  own 
church  or  the  see  of  Rome. 

It  was  natural  therefore  to  withstand 
the  interference  of  the  clergy  summoned 
to  parliament  in  legislation,  as  much  as 
that  of  the  spiritual  court  in  temporal  ju- 
risdiction. With  the  ordinary  subjects, 
indeed,  of  legislation  they  had  little  con- 
cern. The  oppressions  of  the  king's 
purveyors,  or  escheators,  or  officers  of 
the  forests,  the  abuses  or  defects  of  the 
common  law,  the  regulations  necessary 
for  trading  towns  and  seaports,  were 
matters  that  touched  them  not,  and  to 
which  their  consent  was  never  required* 
And,  as  they  well  knew  there  was  no  de- 
sign in  summoning  their  attendance  but 
to  obtain  money,  it  was  with  great  re- 
luctance that  they  obeyed  the  royal  writ, 
which  was  generally  obliged  to  be  en- 
forced by  an  archiepiscopal  mandate.* 
Thus,  instead  of  an  assembly  of  deputies 
from  an  estate  of  the  realm,  they  became 
a  synod  or  convocation.  And  it  seems 
probable  that  in  most,  if  not  all,  instances 
where  the  clergy  are  said  in  the  roll  of 
parliament  to  have  presented  their  peti- 
tions, or  are  otherwise  mentioned  as  a 
deliberative  body,  we  should  suppose  the 
convocation  alone  of  the  province  of 
Canterbury  to  be  interided.f  For  that  of 
York  seems  to  have  been  always  consid- 
ered as  inferior,  and  even  ancillary  to 


*  Hody,  p.  396,  403,  &c.  In  1314,  the  clergy 
protest  even  against  the  recital  of  the  king's  writ 
to  the  archbishop,  directing  him  to  summon  the 
clergy  of  his  province,  in  his  letters  mandatory,  de- 
claring that  the  English  clergy  had  not  been  ac- 
customed, nor  ought  by  right,  to  be  convoked  by 
the  king's  authority. — Atterbury>  p.  230. 

t  Hody,  p.  425.  Atterbury,  p.  42,  233.  The 
latter  seems  to  think  that  the  clergy  of  both  prov- 
inces never  actually  met  in  a  national  council  or 
house  of  parliament,  under  the  praemunientes  writ, 
after  the  reign  of  Edward  IL,  though  the  proctors 
were  duly  returned.  But  Hody  does  not  go  quite 
so  far,  and  Atterbury  had  a  particular  motive  to 
enhance  the  influence  of  the  convocation  for  Can* 
terbury, 


418 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Yllf, 


the  greater  province,  voting  subsidies, 
and  even  assenting  to  canons,  without 
deliberation,  in  compliance  with  the  ex- 
ample of  Canterbury  ;*  the  convocation 
of  which  province  consequently  assumed 
the  importance  of  a  national  council.  But 
in  either  point  of  view  the  proceedings 
of  this  ecclesiastical  assembly,  collateral 
in  a  certain  sense  to  parliament,  yet  very 
intimately  connected  with  it,  whether 
sitting  by  virtue  of  the  praemunientes 
clause  or  otherwise,  deserve  some  notice 
in  a  constitutional  history. 

In  the  sixth  year  of  Edward  III.,  the 
proctors  of  the  clergy  are  specially  men- 
tioned as  present  at  the  speech  pro- 
nounced by  the  king's  commissioner,  and 
retired,  along  with  the  prelates,  to  con- 
sult together  upon  the  business  submitted 
to  their  deliberation.  They  proposed 
accordingly  a  sentence  of  excommunica- 
tion against  disturbers  of  the  peace,  which 
was  assented  to  by  the  lords  and  com- 
mons. The  clergy  are  said  afterward  to 
have  had  leave,  as  well  as  the  knights, 
citizens,  and  burgesses,  to  return  to  their 
homes ;  the  prelates  and  peers  continu- 
ing with  the  king.f  This  appearance  of 
the  clergy  in  full  parliament  is  not  per- 
haps so  decisively  proved  by  any  later 
record.  But  in  the  eighteenth  of  the 
same  reign  several  petitions  of  the  clergy 
are  granted  by  the  king  and  his  council, 
entered  on  the  roll  of  parliament,  and 
even  the  statute  roll,  and  in  some  re- 
spects are  still  part  of  our  law.J  To 
these  it  seems  highly  probable  that  the 
commons  gave  no  assent ;  and  they  may 
be  reckoned  among  the  other  infringe- 
ments of  their  legislative  rights.  It  is 
remarkable  that  in  the  same  parliament 
the  commons,  as  if  apprehensive  of  what 
was  in  preparation,  besought  the  king 
that  no  petition  of  the  clergy  might  be 
granted  till  he  and  his  council  should 
have  considered  whether  it  would  turn  to 
the  prejudice  of  the  lords  or,  commons. § 

A  series  of  petitions  from  the  clergy, 
in  the  twenty-fifth  of  Edward  III.,  had 
not  probably  any  real  assent  of  the  com- 
mons, though  it  is  once  mentioned  in  the 
enacting  words,  when  they  were  drawn 
into  a  statute. ||  Indeed,  the  petitions  cor- 
respond so  little  with  the  general  senti- 
ment of  hostility  towards  ecclesiastical 


*  Atterbury,  p.  46. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  64,  65. 

t  18  E.  III.,  stat.  3.  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  151. 
This  is  the  parliament  in  which  it  is  very  doubtful 
whether  any  deputies  from  cities  and  boroughs 
had  a  place.  The  pretended  statutes  were  there- 
fore every  way  null ;  being  falsely  imputed  to  an 
incomplete  parliament. 

Ibid.  I!  25  E.  III.,  stat,  3. 


privileges  manifested  by  the  lower  house 
of  parliament,  that  they  would  not  easily 
have  obtained  its  acquiescence.  The 
convocation  of  the  province  of  Canterbu- 
ry presented  several  petitions  in  the  fif- 
tieth year  of  the  same  king,  to  which  they 
received  an  assenting  answer ;  but  they 
are  not  found  in  the  statute-book.  This 
however  produced  the  following  remon- 
strance from  the  commons  at  the  next 
parliament :  "  Also  the  said  commons  be- 
seech their  lord  the  king,  that  no  statute 
nor  ordinance  be  made  at  the  petition  of 
the  clergy,  unless  by  assent  of  your  com- 
mons; and  that  your  commons  be  not 
bound  by  any  constitutions  which  they 
make  for  their  own  profit  without  the 
commons'  assent.  For  they  will  not  be 
bound  by  any  of  your  statutes  or  ordi- 
nances made  without  their  assent."*  The 
king  evaded  a  direct  answer  to  this  peti- 
tion. But  the  province  of  Canterbury 
did  not  the  less  present  their  own  griev- 
ances to  the  king  in  that  parliament,  and 
two  among  the  statutes  of  the  year  seem 
to  be  founded  upon  no  other  authority.! 
In  the  first  session  of  Richard  II.,  the 
prelates  and  clergy  of  both  provinces  are 
said  to  have  presented  their  schedule  of 
petitions,  which  appear  upon  the  roll,  and 
three  of  which  are  the  foundation  of  stat- 
utes unassented  to  in  all  probability  by  the 
commons. J  If  the  clergy  of  both  prov- 
inces were  actually  present,  as  is  here 
asserted,  it  must  of  course  have  been  as 
a  house  of  parliament,  and  not  of  convo- 
cation. It  rather  seems,  so  far  as  we 
can  trust  to  the  phraseology  of  records, 
that  the  clergy  sat  also  in  a  national  as- 
sembly under  the  king's  writ  in  the  sec- 
ond year  of  the  same  king.$  Upon  other 
occasions  during  the  same  reign,  where 
the  representatives  of  the  clergy  are  al- 
luded to  as  a  deliberative  body,  sitting  at 
the  same  time  with  the  parliament,  it  is 
impossible  to  ascertain  its  constitution  ; 
and  indeed,  even  from  those  already  cited, 
we  cannot  draw  any  positive  inference. |j 

*  P.  368.  The  word  they  is  ambiguous  ;  White- 
locke  (on  Parliamentary  Writ,  vol.  ii.,  p.  346)  in- 
terprets it  of  the  commons :  I  should  rather  sup- 
pose  it  to  mean  the  clergy. 

t  50  E.  III.,  c.  4  and  5. 

j  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  25.  A  nostre  tres  ex- 
cellent seigneur  le  roy  supplient  humblement  ses 
devotes  oratours,  les  prelats  et  la  clergie  de  la 
province  de  Canterbirs  etd'Everwyk,  stat.  1  R.  II., 
c.  13, 14,  15.  But  see  Hody,  p.  425 ;  Atterbury, 
p.  329.  $  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  37. 

j|  It  might  be  argued,  from  a  passage  in  the  par- 
liament-roll of  21  R.  II.,  that  the  clergy  of  both 
provinces  were  not  only  present,  but  that  they  were 
accounted  an  essential  part  of  parliament  in  tem- 
poral matters,  which  is  contrary  to  the  whole  ten- 
our  of  our  laws.  The  commons  are  there  said 
to  have  prayed,  that  "  whereas  many  judgments 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


419 


But  whether  in  convocation  or  in  parlia- 
ment, they  certainly  formed  a  legislative 
council  in  ecclesiastical  matters,  by  the 
advice  and  consent  of  which  alone,  with- 
out that  of  the  commons  (I  can  say  noth- 
ing as  to  the  lords),  Edward  III.,  and 
even  Richard  II.,  enacted  laws  to  bind  the 
laity.  I  have  mentioned  in  a  different 
place  a  still  more  conspicuous  instance 
of  this  assumed  prerogative  ;  namely,  the 
memorable  statute  against  heresy  in  the 
second  of  Henry  IV.  ;  which  can  hardly 
be  deemed  any  thing  else  than  an  in- 
fringement of  the  rights  of  parliament, 
more  clearly  established  at  that  time  than 
at  the  accession  of  Richard  II.  Petitions 
of  the  commons  relative  to  spiritual  mat- 
ters, however  frequently  proposed,  in  few 
or  no  instances  obtained  the  king's  assent 
so  as  to  pass  into  statutes,  unless  ap- 
proved by  the  convocation.*  But,  on  the 
other  hand,  scarcely  any  temporal  laws 
appear  to  have  passed  by  the  concurrence 
of  the  clergy.  Two  instances  only,  so 
far  as  I  know,  are  on  record :  the  parlia- 
ment held  in  the  llth  of  Richard  II.  is 
annulled  by  that  in  the  twenty-first  of  his 
reign,  "  with  the  assent  of  the  lords  spir- 
itual and  temporal,  and  the  proctors  of  the 
clergy,  and  the  commons  ;"f  and  the 
statute  entailing  the  crown  on  the  chil- 


and  ordinances  formerly  made  in  parliament  had 
been  annulled,  because  the  estate  of  clergy  had  not 
been  present  thereat,  the  prelates  and  clergy  might 
make  a  proxy  with  sufficient  power  to  consent  in 
their  name  to  all  things  done  in  this  parliament. 
Whereupon  the  spiritual  lords  agreed  to  intrust 
their  powers  to  Sir  Thomas  Percy,  and  gave  him 
a  procuration,  commencing  in  the  following  words : 
'  Nos  Thomas  Cantuar'  et  Robertas  Ebor'  archi- 
episcopi,  ac  praelati  et  clerus  utriusque  provincioe  Can- 
tuar' et  Ebor'  jure  ecclesiarum  nostrarum  et  temporali- 
um  earundem  habentes  jus  interessendi  in  singulis  par- 
liamentis  domini  nostri  regis  et  regni  Angliae  pro 
tempore  celebrandis,necnon  tractandi  et  expediendi 
in  eisdem  quantum  ad  singula  in  instanti  parlia- 
mento  pro  statu  et  honore  domini  nostri  regis,  nec- 
non  regaliae  suae,  ac  quiete,  pace,  et  tranquillitate 
regni  judicialiter  justificandis,  venerabili  viro  do- 
mino Thomae  de  Percy  militi,  nostram  plenarie 
committimus  potestatem.'  "  It  may  be  perceived 
by  these  expressions,  and  more  unequivocally  by 
the  nature  of  the  case,  that  it  was  the  judicial 
power  of  parliament  which  the  spiritual  lords  del- 
egated to  their  proxy.  Many  impeachments  for 
capital  offences  were  coming  on,  at  which,  by 
their  canons,  the  bishops  could  not  assist.  But  it 
can  never  be  conceived  that  the  inferior  clergy 
had  any  share  in  this  high  judicature.  And,  upon 
looking  attentively  at  the  words  above  printed  in 
italics,  it  will  be  evident  that  the  spiritual  lords 
holding  by  barony  are  the  only  persons  designated; 
whatever  may  have  been  meant  by  the  singular 
phrase,  as  applied  to  them,  clerus  utriusque  pro- 
vinciae.— Rot.  ParL,  vol.  iii.,  p.  348. 

*  Atterbury,  p.  346. 

t  21  Rich.  II.,  c.  12.    Burnet's  Hist,  of  Refor- 
mation (vol.  ii.,  p.  47)  led  me  to  this  act,  which  I 
had  overlooked. 
Dd2 


dren  of  Henry  IV.  is  said  to  be  enacted 
on  the  petition  of  the  prelates,  nobles, 
clergy,  and  commons.*  Both  these  were 
stronger  exertions  of  legislative  authority 
than  ordinary  acts  of  parliament,  and 
were  very  likely  to  be  questioned  in  suc- 
ceeding times. 

The  supreme  judicature,  which  had 
been  exercised  by  the  king's  Jurisdiction 
court,  was  diverted,  about  the  oftheking'a 
reign  of  John,  into  three  chan-  council, 
nels ;  the  tribunals  of  King's  Bench, 
Common  Pleas,  and  the  Exchequer.! 
These  became  the  regular  fountains  of 
justice,  which  soon  almost  absorbed  the 
provincial  jurisdictions  of  the  sheriff  and 
lord  of  manor.  But  the  original  institu- 
tion, having  been  designed  for  ends  of 
state,  police,  and  revenue,  full  as  much 
as  for  the  determination  of  private  suits, 
still  preserved  the  most  eminent  parts 
of  its  authority.  For  the  king's  ordinary 
or  privy  council,  which  is  the  usual  style 
from  the  reign  of  Edward  I.,  seems  to 
have  been  no  other  than  the  king's  court 
(curia  regis)  of  older  times,  being  com- 
posed of  the  same  persons,  and  having, 
in  a  principal  degree,  the  same  subjects 
of  deliberation.  It  consisted  of  the  chief 
ministers;  as  the  chancellor,  treasurer, 
lord  steward,  lord  admiral,  lord  marshal, 
the  keeper  of  the  privy  seal,  the  cham- 
berlain, treasurer  and  comptroller  of  the 
household,  the  chancellor  of  the  exche- 
quer, the  master  of  the  wardrobe;  and 
of  the  judges,  king's  sergeant  and  attor- 
ney-general, the  master  of  the  rolls,  and 
justices  in  eyre,  who  at  that  time  were 
not  the  same  as  the  judges  at  Westmin- 
ster. When  all  these  were  called  togeth- 
er, it  was  a  full  council ;  but  where  the 
business  was  of  a  more  contracted  nature, 
those  only  who  were  fittest  to  advise 
were  summoned;  the  chancellor  and 
judges,  for  matters  of  law;  the  officers 
of  state  for  what  concerned  the  revenue 
or  household. 

The  business  of  this  council,  out  of 
parliament,  may  be  reduced  to  two  heads ; 
its  deliberative  office,  as  a  council  of  ad- 
vice, and  its  decisive  power  of  jurisdic- 
tion. With  respect  to  the  first,  it  obvi- 
ously comprehended  all  subjects  of  polit- 
ical deliberation,  which  were  usually  re- 
ferred to  it  by  the  king :  this  being  in  fact 
the  administration  or  governing  council  of 
state,  the  distinction  of  a  cabinet  being  in- 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  582.  Atterbttfy,  P-  6L 
t  The  ensuing  sketch  of  the  jurisdiction  exer- 
cised by  the  king's  council  has  been  chiefly  derived 
from  Sir  Matthew  Hale's  Treatise  of  the  Juris- 
diction of  the  Lords'  House  in  Parliament,  publish- 
ed by  Mr.  Hargrave. 


420 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VJII. 


troduced  in  comparatively  modern  times. 
But  there  were  likewise  a  vast  number 
of  petitions  continually  presented  to  the 
council,  upon  which  they  proceeded  no 
farther  than  to  sort,  as  it  were,  and  for- 
ward them  by  endorsement  to  the  proper 
courts,  or  advise  the  suiter  what  remedy 
he  had  to  seek.  Thus  some  petitions 
are  answered,  "this  cannot  be  done 
without  a  new  law ;"  some  were  turned 
over  to  the  regular  court,  as  the  chancery 
or  king's  bench;  some  of  greater  mo- 
ment were  endorsed  to  be  heard  "  before 
the  great  council;"  some,  concerning 
the  king's  interest,  were  referred  to  the 
chancery,  or  select  persons  of  the  coun- 
cil. 

The  coercive  authority  exercised  by 
this  standing  council  of  the  king  was  far 
more  important.  It  may  be  divided  into 
acts  legislative  and  judicial.  As  for  the 
first,  many  ordinances  were  made  in 
council ;  sometimes  upon  request  of  the 
commons  in  parliament,  who  felt  them- 
selves better  qualified  to  state  a  griev- 
ance than  a  remedy ;  sometimes  without 
any  pretence,  unless  the  usage  of  govern- 
ment, in  the  infancy  of  our  constitution, 
may  be  thought  to  afford  one.  These  were 
always  of  a  temporary  or  partial  nature, 
and  were  considered  as  regulations  not 
sufficiently  important  to  demand  a  new 
statute.  Thus,  in  the  second  year  of  Rich- 
ard II.,  the  council,  after  hearing  read  the 
statute-roll  of  an  act  recently  passed, 
conferring  a  criminal  jurisdiction  in  cer- 
tain cases  upon  justices  of  the  peace,  de- 
clared that  the  intention  of  parliament, 
though  not  clearly  expressed  therein,  had 
been  to  extend  that  jurisdiction  to  certain 
other  cases  omitted,  which  accordingly 
they  caused  to  be  inserted  in  the  commis- 
sions made  to  these  justices  under  the 
great  seal.*  But  they  frequently  so 
much  exceeded  what  the  growing  spirit 
of  public  liberty  would  permit,  that  it 
gave  rise  to  complaint  in  'parliament. 
The  commons  petition,  in  13  R.  II.,  that 
"neither  the  chancellor  nor  the  king's 
council,  after  the  close  of  parliament, 
may  make  any  ordinance  against  the 
common  law,  or  the  ancient  customs  of 
the  land,  or  the  statutes  made  heretofore 
or  to  be  made  in  this  parliament;  but 
that  the  common  law  have  its  course  for 
all  the  people,  and  no  judgment  be  ren- 
dered without  due  legal  process."  The 
king  answers,  "  Let  it  be  done  as  has 
been  usual  heretofore,  saving  the  prerog- 
ative ;  and  if  any  one  is  aggrieved,  let 
him  show  it  specially,  and  right  shall  be 
done  him."t  This  unsatisfactory  an- 


Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  84. 


Id.,  p.  269. 


swer  proves  the  arbitrary  spirit  in  which 
Richard  was  determined  to  govern. 

The  judicial  power  of  the  council  was  in 
some  instances  founded  upon  particular 
acts  of  parliament,  giving  it  power  to  hear 
and  determine  certain  causes.  Many  pe- 
titions likewise  were  referred  to  it  from 
parliament,  especially  where  they  were 
left  unanswered  by  reason  of  a  dissolu- 
tion. But,  independently  of  this  dele- 
gated authority,  it  is  certain  that  the 
king's  council  did  anciently  exercise,  as 
well  out  of  parliament  as  in  it,  a  very- 
great  jurisdiction,  both  in  causes  crimi- 
nal and  civil.  Some,  however,  have  con- 
tended, that  whatever  they  did  in  this 
respect  was  illegal,  and  an  encroachment 
upon  the  common  law  and  Magna  Charta. 
And  be  the  common  law  what  it  may,  it 
seems  an  indisputable  violation  of  the 
charter,  in  its  most  admirable  and  essen- 
tial article,  to  drag  men  in  questions  of 
their  freehold  or  liberty  before  a  tribu- 
nal which  neither  granted  them  a  trial 
by  their  peers,  nor  always  respected  the 
law  of  the  land.  Against  this  usurpation 
the  patriots  of  those  times  never  ceased 
to  lift  their  voices.  A  statute  of  the  fifth 
year  of  Edward  III.  provides  that  no 
man  shall  be  attached,  nor  his  property 
seized  into  the  king's  hands  against  the 
form  of  the  great  charter  and  the  law  of 
the  land.  In  the  twenty-fifth  of  the  same 
king,  it  was  enacted,  that  "  none  shall  be 
taken  by  petition  or  suggestion  to  the 
king  or  his  council,  unless  it  be  by  en- 
dictment  or  presentment,  or  by  writ  ori- 
ginal at  the  common  law,  nor  shall  be  put 
out  of  his  franchise  or  freehold,  unless 
he  be  duly  put  to  answer,  and  forejudged 
of  the  same  by  due  course  of  law."* 
This  was  repeated  in  a  short  act  of  the 
twenty-eighth  of  his  reign  ;|  but  both,  in 
all  probability,  were  treated  with  neglect ; 
for  another  was  passed  some  years  after- 
ward, providing  that  no  man  shall  be  put 
to  answer  without  presentment  before 
justices,  or  matter  of  record,  or  by  due 
process  and  writ  original  according  to  the 
old  law  of  the  land.  The  answer  to  the 
petition  whereon  this  statute  is  grounded, 


*  25  E.  III.,  stat.  5,  c.  4.  See  the  petition  Rot. 
Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  228,  which  extends  farther  than 
the  king's  answer  or  the  statute.  Probably  this 
fifth  statute  of  the  25th  of  Edward  III.  is  the  most 
extensively  beneficial  act  in  the  whole  body  of  our 
laws.  It  established  certainty  in  treasons,  regu- 
lated purveyance,  prohibited  arbitrary  imprison- 
ment, and  the  determination  of  pleas  of  freehold 
before  the  council,  took  away  the  compulsory  find- 
ing of  men-at-arms  and  other  troops,,  confirmed  the 
reasonable  aid  of  the  king's  tenants  fixed  by  3  E. 
I.,  and  provided  that  the  king's  protection  should 
not  hinder  civil  process  or  execution. 

f  28  E.  III.,  c.  3. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


421 


in  the  parliament-roll,  expressly  declares 
this  to  be  an  article  of  the  great  charter.* 
Nothing,  however,  would  prevail  on  the 
council  to  surrender  so  eminent  a  power, 
and,  though  usurped,  yet  of  so  long  a 
continuance.  Cases  of  arbitrary  impris- 
onment frequently  occurred,  and  were 
remonstrated  against  by  the  commons. 
The  right  of  every  freeman  in  that  car- 
dinal point  was  as  indubitable,  legally 
speaking,  as  at  this  day ;  but  the  courts 
of  law  were  afraid  to  exercise  their  re- 
medial functions  in  defiance  of  so  power- 
ful a  tribunal.  After  the  accession  of 
the  Lancastrian  family,  these,  like  other 
grievances,  became  rather  less  frequent ; 
but  the  commons  remonstrate  several 
times,  even  in  the  minority  of  Henry  VI., 
against  the  council's  interference  in  mat- 
ters cognizable  at  common  law.f  In 
these  later  times,  the  civil  jurisdiction 
of  the  council  was  principally  exercised 
in  conjunction  with  the  chancery,  and 
accordingly  they  are  generally  named 
together  in  the  complaint.  The  chan- 
cellor having  the  great  seal  in  his  custody, 
the  council  usually  borrowed  its  process 
from  his  court.  This  was  returnable  into 
chancery  even  where  the  business  was 
depending  before  the  council.  Nor  were 
the  two  jurisdictions  less  intimately  allied 
in  their  character ;  each  being  of  an  equi- 
table nature ;  and  equity,  as  then  prac- 
tised, being  little  less  than  innovation  and 
encroachment  on  the  course  of  law. 
This  part,  long  since  the  most  important, 
of  the  chancellor's  judicial  function,  can- 
not be  traced  beyond  the  time  of  Richard 
II.,  when  the  practice  of  feoffments  to 
uses  having  been  introduced,  without 
any  legal  remedy  to  secure  the  cestui 


*  42  E.  III.,  c.  3,  and  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  295. 
It  is  not  surprising  that  the  king's  council  should 
have  persisted  in  these  transgressions  of  their  law- 
ful authority,  when  we  find  a  similar  jurisdiction 
usurped  by  the  officers  of  inferior  persons.  Com- 
plaint is  made  in  the  18th  of  Richard  II.,  that,  men 
were  compelled  to  answer  before  the  council  of  di- 
vers lords  and  ladies,  for  their  freeholds  and  other 
matters  cognizable  at  common  law,  and  a  remedy 
for  this  abuse  is  given  by  petition  in  chancery,  stat. 
15  R.  II.,  c.  12.  This  act  is  confirmed  with  a  pen- 
alty on  its  contraveners  the  next  year. — 16  R.  II., 
c.  2.  The  private  jails  which  some  lords  were  per- 
mitted by  law  to  possess,  and  for  which  there  was 
always  a  provision  in  their  castles,  enabled  them  to 
render  this  oppressive  jurisdiction  effectual. 

f  Rot.  Parl.,  17  R.  II.,  vol.  hi.,  p.  319;  4  H.  IV., 
p.  507  ;  1  H.  VI.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  189 ;  3  H.  VI.,  p.  292 ; 
8  H.  VI.,  p.  343  ;  10  H.  VI.,  p.  403 ;  15  H.  VI.,  p. 
501.  To  one  of  these  (10  H.  VI.),  "that  none 
should  be  put  to  answer  for  his  freehold  in  parlia- 
ment, nor  before  any  court  or  council  where  such 
things  are  not  cognizable  by  the  law  of  the  land," 
the  king  gave  a  denial.  As  it  was  less  usual  to 
refuse  promises  of  this  kind  than  to  forget  them 
afterward,  I  do  not  understand  the  motive  of  this. 


que  use,  or  usufructuary,  against  his  fe- 
offees, the  court  of  chancery  undertook 
to  enforce  this  species  of  contract  by 
process  of  its  own.* 

Such  was  the  nature  of  the  king's  ordi- 
nary council  in  itself,  as  the  organ  of  his 
executive  sovereignty  ;  and  such  the  ju- 
risdiction which  it  habitually  exercised. 
But  it  is  also  to  be  considered  in  its  rela- 
tion to  the  parliament,  during  whose  ses- 
sion, either  singly,  or  in  conjunction  with 
the  lords'  house,  it  was  particularly  con- 
spicuous. The  great  officers  of  state, 
whether  peers  or  not,  the  judges,  the 
king's  sergeant,  and  attorney- general, 
were,  from  the  earliest  times,  as  the 
latter  still  continue  to  be,  summoned  by 
special  writs  to  the  upper  house.  But 
while  the  writ  of  a  peer  runs,  ad  tractan- 
dum  nobiscum  et  cum  caeteris  prselatis, 
magnatibus  et  proceribus;  that  directed 
to  one  of  the  judges  is  only,  ad  tractan- 
dum  nobiscum  et  cum  ca3teris  de  consilio 
nostro ;  and  the  seats  of  the  latter  are 
upon  the  woolsacks  at  one  extremity  of 
the  house. 

In  the  reigns  of  Edward  I.  and  II.,  the 
council  appear  to  have  been  the  regular 
advisers  of  the  king  in  passing  laws,  to 
which  the  houses  of  parliament  had  as- 
sented. The  preambles  of  most  statutes 
during  this  period  express  their  concur- 
rence. Thus,  the  statute  Westm.  I.  is 
said  to  be  the  act  of  the  king,  by  his 
council,  and  by  the  assent  of  archbishops, 
bishops,  abbots,  priors,  earls,  barons,  and 
all  the  commonalty  of  the  realm  being 
hither  summoned.  The  statute  of  es- 
cheators,  29  E.  I.,  is  said  to  be  agreed  by 
the  council,  enumerating  their  names,  all 
whom  appear  to  be  judges  or  public  offi- 
cers. Still  more  striking  conclusions  are 
to  be  drawn  from  the  petitions  addressed 
to  the  council  by  both  houses  of  parlia- 
ment. In  the  8th  of  Edward  II.  there 
are  four  petitions  from  the  commons  to 
the  king  and  his  council,  one  from  the 


*  Hale's  Jurisdiction  of  Lords'  House,  p.  46. 
Coke,  2  Inst.,  p.  553.  The  last  author  places  this 
a  little  later.  There  is  a  petition  of  the  commons, 
in  the  roll  of  the  4th  of  Henry  IV.,  p.  511,  that 
whereas  many  grantees  and  feoffees  in  trust  for 
;heir  grantors  and  feoffers,  alienate  or  charge  the 
tenements  granted,  in  which  case  there  is  no  remedy, 
unless  one  is  ordered  by  parliament,  that  the  king 
and  lords  would  provide  a  remedy.  This  petition 
s  referred  to  the  king's  council  to  ad  vise  of  a  rem- 
edy against  the  ensuing  parliament.  It  may  per- 
haps be  inferred  from  hence,  that  the  writ  of  sub- 
poena out  of  chancery  had  not  yet  been  applied  to 
jrotect  the  cestui  que  use.  But  it  is  equally  pos- 
sible that  the  commons,  being  disinclined  to  what 
hey  would  deem  an  illegal  innovation,  were  en- 
deavouring to  reduce  these  fiduciary  estates  within 
the  pale  of  the  common  law,  as  was  afterward 
done  by  the  statute  of  uses. 


422 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES, 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


lords  alone,  and  one  in  which  both  appear 
to  have  joined.  Later  parliaments  of  the 
same  reign  present  us  with  several  more 
instances  of  the  like  nature.  Thus,  in  18 
E.  II.,  a  petition  begins :  "  To  our  lord 
the  king,  and  to  his  council,  the  arch- 
bishops, bishops,  prelates,  earls,  barons, 
and  others  of  the  commonalty  of  Eng- 
land, show,"  &c.* 

But  from  the  beginning  of  Edward 
III.'s  reign,  it  seems  that  the  council  and 
the  lords'  house  in  parliament  were  often 
blended  together  into  one  assembly. 
This  was  denominated  the  great  council, 
being  the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal, 
with  the  king's  ordinary  council  annexed 
to  them,  as  a  council  within  a  council. 
And  even  in  much  earlier  times,  the 
lords,  as  hereditary  counsellors,  were, 
either  whenever  they  thought  fit  to  at- 
tend, or  on  special  summonses  by  the 
king  (it  is  hard  to  say  which),  assistant 
members  of  this  council,  both  for  advice 
and  for  jurisdiction.  This  double  capa- 
city of  the  peerage,  as  members  of  the 
parliament  or  legislative  assembly,  and 
of  the  deliberative  and  judicial  council, 
throws  a  very  great  obscurity  over  the 
subject.  However,  we  find  that  private 
petitions  for  redress  were,  even  under 
Edward  I.,  presented  to  the  lords  in  par- 
liament as  much  as  to  the  ordinary  coun- 
cil. The  parliament  was  considered  a 
high  court  of  justice,  where  relief  was  to 
be  given  in  cases  where  the  course  of 
law  was  obstructed,  as  well  as  where  it 
was  defective.  Hence  the  intermission 
of  parliaments  was  looked  upon  as  a  de- 
lay of  justice,  and  their  annual  meeting 
is  demanded  upon  that  ground.  "The 
king,"  says  Fleta,  **  has  his  court  in  his 
council,  in  his  parliaments,  in  the  pres- 
ence of  bishops,  earls,  barons,  lords,  and 
other  wise  men,  where  the  doubtful  cases 
of  judgments  are  resolved,  and  new  rem- 
edies are  provided  against  new  injuries, 
and  justice  is  rendered  to  every  man  ac- 
cording to  his  desert."!  In  the  third  year 
of  Edward  II.,  receivers  of  petitions 
began  to  be  appointed  at  the  opening  of 
every  parliament,  who  usually  transmit- 
ted them  to  the  ordinary,  but  in  some  in- 
stances to  the  great  council.  These  re- 
ceivers were  commonly  three  for  Eng- 
land, and  three  for  Ireland,  Wales,  Gas^ 
cony,  and  other  foreign  dominions. 
There  were  likewise  two  corresponding 
classes  of  auditors,  or  triers  of  petitions. 
These  consisted  partly  of  bishops  or 
peers,  partly  of  judges  and  other  mem- 
bers of  the  council;  and  they  seem  to 

*  Rot.  Par!,,  v.  i.,  p.  416.        f  Id.,  1.  ii.,  c.  2. 


have  been  instituted  in  order  to  disbur- 
den the  council,  by  giving  answers  to 
some  petitions.  But  about  the  middle  of 
Edward  III.'s  time  they  ceased  to  act 
juridically  in  this  respect,  and  confined 
themselves  to  transmitting  petitions  to 
the  lords  of  the  council. 

The  great  council,  according  to  the  def- 
inition we  have  given,  consisted  of  the 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal,  in  conjunc- 
tion with  the  ordinary  council,  or,  in  oth- 
er words,  of  all  who  were  severally  sum- 
moned to  parliament,  exercised  a  consid- 
erable jurisdiction,  as  well  civil  as  crim- 
inal. In  this  jurisdiction,  it  is  the  opin- 
ion of  Sir  M.  Hale  that  the  council, 
though  not  peers,  had  right  of  suffrage ; 
an  opinion  very  probable,  when  we  rec- 
ollect that  the  council,  by  themselves, 
both  in  and  out  of  parliament,  possessed, 
in  fact,  a  judicial  authority  little  inferior; 
and  that  the  king's  delegated  sovereignty 
in  the  administration  of  justice,  rather 
than  any  intrinsic  right  of  the  peerage, 
is  the  foundation  on  which  the  judicature 
of  the  lords  must  be  supported.  But  in 
the  time  of  Edward  III.  or  Richard  II., 
the  lords,  by  their  ascendency,  threw  the 
judges  and  rest  of  the  council  into  shade, 
and  took  the  decisive  jurisdiction  entirely 
to  themselves,  making  use  of  their  for- 
mer colleagues  but  as  assistants  and  ad- 
visers, as  they  still  continue  to  be  held 
in  all  the  judicial  proceedings  of  that 
house. 

Those  statutes  which  restrain  the 
king's  ordinary  council  from  disturbing 
men  in  their  freehold  rights,  or  question- 
ing them  for  misdemeanors,  have  an 
equal  application  to  the  lords'  house  in 
parliament,  though  we  do  not  frequently 
meet  with  complaints  of  the  encroach- 
ments made  by  that  assembly.  There  was, 
however,  one  class  of  cases  tacitly  ex- 
cluded from  the  operation  of  those  acts, 
in  which  the  coercive  jurisdiction  of  this 
high  tribunal  had  great  convenience ; 
namely,  where  the  ordinary  course  of 
justice  was  so  much  obstructed  by  the 
defending  party,  through  riots,  combina- 
tions of  maintenance,  or  overawing  influ- 
ence, that  no  inferior  court  would  find  its 
process  obeyed.  Those  ages,  disfigured 
in  their  quietest  season  by  rapine  and 
oppression,  afforded  no  small  number  of 
cases  that  called  for  this  interposition  of 
a  paramount  authority,*  They  do  not 


*  This  is  remarkably  expressed  in  one  of  the 
articles  agreed  in  parliament  8  H,  VI.,  for  the  reg- 
ulation of  the  council.  "  Item,  that  alle  the  billes 
that  comprehend  matters  terminable  atte  the  com- 
mon lawe,  shall  be  remitted  ther  to  be  determin- 
ed ;  but  if  so  be  that  the  discresion  of  the  coun- 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


423 


occur  so  frequently,  however,  in  the  rolls 
of  parliament  after  the  reign  of  Henry 
IV.;  whether  this  be  attributed  to  the 
gradual  course  of  civilization,  and  to 
the  comparative  prosperity  which  Eng- 
land enjoyed  under  the  line  of  Lancaster, 
or  rather  to  the  discontinuance  of  the 
lords'  jurisdiction.  Another  indubitable 
branch  of  this  jurisdiction  was  in  writs 
of  error :  but  it  may  be  observed,  that 
their  determination  was  very  frequently 
left  to  a  select  committee  of  peers  and 
counsellors.  These,  too,  cease  almost 
entirely  with  Henry  IV. ;  and  were 
scarcely  revived  till  the  accession  of 
James  I. 

Some  instances  occur  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  III.,  where  records  have  been 
brought  into  parliament,  and  annulled 
with  assent  of  the  commons  as  well  as 
the  rest  of  the  legislature.*  But  these 
were  attainders  of  treason,  which  it 
seemed  gracious  and  solemn  to  reverse 
in  the  most  authentic  manner.  Certainly 
the  commons  had  neither  by  the  nature 
of  our  constitution,  nor  the  practice  of 
parliament,  any  right  of  intermeddling  in 
judicature ;  save  where  something  was 
required  beyond  the  existing  law,  or 
where,  as  in  the  statute  of  treasons,  an 
authority  of  that  kind  was  particularly 
reserved  to  both  houses.  This  is  fully 
acknowledged  by  themselves  in  the  first 
year  of  Henry  IV. f  But  their  influence 
upon  the  balance  of  government  became 
so  commanding  in  a  few  years  afterward, 
that  they  contrived,  as  has  been  men- 
tioned already,  to  have  petitions  directed 
to  them  rather  than  to  the  lords  or  coun- 
cil, and  to  transmit  them  either  with  a 
tacit  approbation,  or  in  the  form  of  acts, 
to  the  upper  house.  Perhaps  this  en- 
croachment of  the  commons  may  have 
contributed  to  the  disuse  of  the  lords'  ju- 
risdiction, who  would  rather  relinquish 
their  ancient  and  honourable,  but  labori- 
ous function,  than  share  it  with  such  bold 
usurpers. 

seill  fele  to  grete  myght  on  that  o  syde,  and  un- 
myght  on  that  other,  or  elles  other  cause  resona- 
ble  yat  shal  move  him." — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iv., 
p.  343. 

*  The  judgment  against  Mortimer  was  reversed 
at  the  suit  of  his  son,  28  E.  III.,  because  he  had 
not  been  put  on  his  trial.  The  peers  had  adjudged 
him  to  death  in  his  absence,  upon  common  notori- 
ety of  his  guilt.— 4  E.  III.,  p.  53.  In  the  same 
session  of  28  E.  III.,  the  Earl  of  Arundel's  attain- 
der was  also  reversed,  which  had  passed  in  1  E. 
III.,  when  Mortimer  was  at  the  height  of  his  pow- 
er. These  precedents,  taken  together,  seem  to 
have  resulted  from  no  partiality,  but  a  true  sense 
of  justice  in  respect  of  treasons,  animated  by  the 
recent  statute. — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  250. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  427. 


Although  the  restraining  hand  of  par- 
liament was  continually  grow-  General  char- 
ing more  effectual,  and  the  actveer°fthet 
notions  of  legal  right  acqui-  f^Sse16" 
ring  more  precision  from  the  ages, 
time  of  Magna  Charta  to  the  civil  wars 
under  Henry  VI.,  we  may  justly  say,  that 
the  general  tone  of  administration  was 
not  a  little  arbitrary.  The  whole  fabric 
of  English  liberty  rose  step  by  step, 
through  much  toil  and  many  sacrifices  ; 
each  generation  adding  some  new  secu- 
rity to  the  work,  and  trusting  that  pos- 
terity would  perfect  the  labour  as  well 
as  enjoy  the  reward.  A  time  perhaps 
was  even  then  foreseen,  in  the  visions 
of  generous  hope,  by  the  brave  knights 
of  parliament,  and  by  the  sober  sages 
of  justice,  when  the  proudest  ministers 
of  the  crown  should  recoil  from  those 
barriers  which  were  then  daily  pushed 
aside  with  impunity. 

There  is  a  material  distinction  to  be  ta- 
ken between  the  exercise  of  the  king's 
undeniable  prerogative,  however  repug- 
nant to  our  improved  principles  of-  free- 
dom, and  the  abuse  or  extension  of  it  to 
oppressive  purposes.  For  we  cannot 
fairly  consider  as  part  of  pur  ancient 
constitution  what  the  parliament  was 
perpetually  remonstrating  against,  and 
the  statute-book  is  full  of  enactments  to 
repress.  Doubtless  the  continual  acqui- 
escence of  a  nation  in  arbitrary  govern- 
ment may  ultimately  destroy  all  privi- 
leges of  positive  institution,  and  leave 
them  to  recover,  by  such  means  as  op- 
portunity shall  offer,  the  natural  and  im- 
prescriptible rights  for  which  human  so- 
cieties were  established.  And  this  may 
perhaps  be  the  case  at  present  with  many 
European  kingdoms.  But  it  would  be 
necessary  to  shut  our  eyes  with  deliber- 
ate prejudice  against  the  whole  tenpur 
of  the  most  unquestionable  authorities, 
against  the  petitions  of  the  commons,  the 
acts  of  the  legislature,  the  testimony  of 
historians  and  lawyers,  before  we  could 
assert  that  England  acquiesced  in  those 
abuses  and  oppressions,  which  it  must  be 
owned  she  was  unable  fully  to  prevent. 

The  word  prerogative  is  of  a  peculiar 
import,  and  scarcely  understood  by  those 
who  come  from  the  studies  of  political 
philosophy.  We  cannot  define  it  by  any 
theory  of  executive  functions.  All  these 
may  be  comprehended  in  it,  but  also  a 
great  deal  more.  It  is  best  perhaps  to  be 
understood  by  its  derivation;  and  has 
been  said,  to  be  that  law  in  case  of  the 
king*  which  is  law  in  no  case  of,  the  sub- 

*  Blackstone's  Com.  from  Finch,  vol.  i.,  c,  7. 


424 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII. 


ject.  Of  the  higher  and  more  sovereign 
prerogatives  I  shall  here  say  nothing  : 
they  result  from  the  nature  of  a  mon- 
archy, and  have  nothing  very  peculiar  in 
their  character.  But  the  smaller  rights 
of  the  crown  show  better  the  original 
lineaments  of  our  constitution.  It  is 
said  commonly  enough,  that  all  preroga- 
tives are  given  for  the  subject's  good.  I 
must  confess  that  no  part  of  this  asser- 
tion corresponds  with  my  view  of  the 
subject.  It  neither  appears  to  me  that 
these  prerogatives  were  ever  given,  nor 
that  they  necessarily  redound  to  the 
subject's  good.  Prerogative,  in  its  old 
sense,  might  be  defined  an  advantage  ob- 
tained by  the  crown  over  the  subject, 
in  cases  where  their  interests  came  into 
competition,  by  reason  of  its  greater 
strength.  This  sprang  from  the  nature 
of  the  Norman  government,  which  rath- 
er resembled  a  scramble  of  wild  beasts, 
where  the  strongest  takes  the  best  share, 
than  a  system  founded  upon  principles  of 
common  utility.  And,  modified  as  the 
exercise  of  most  prerogatives  has  been 
by  the  more  liberal  tone  which  now  per- 
vades our  course  of  government,  who- 
ever attends  to  the  common  practice  of 
courts  of  justice,  and,  still  more,  whoev- 
er consults  the  law-books,  will  not  only 
be  astonished  at  their  extent  and  multi- 
plicity, but  very  frequently  at  their  in- 
justice and  severity. 

The  real  prerogatives  that  might  for- 
Purvey.  merly  be  exerted  were  sometimes 
ance.  of  so  injurious  a  nature,  that  we 
can  hardly  separate  them  from  their 
abuse  :  a  striking  instance  is  that  of  pur- 
veyance, which  will  at  once  illustrate  the 
definition  above  given  of  a  prerogative, 
the  limits  within  which  it  was  to  be  ex- 
ercised, and  its  tendency  to  transgress 
them.  This  was  a  right  of  purchasing 
whatever  was  necessary  for  the  king's 
household,  at  a  fair  price,  in  preference 
to  every  competitor,  and  without  the  con- 
sent of  the  owner.  By  the  same  pre- 
rogative, carriages  and  horses  were  im- 
pressed for  the  king's  journeys,  and 
lodgings  provided  for  his  attendants. 
This  was  defended  on  a  pretext  of  neces- 
sity, or  at  least  of  great  convenience 
to  the  sovereign,  and  was  both  of  high 
antiquity  and  universal  practice  through- 
out Europe.  But  the  royal  purveyors 
had  the  utmost  temptation,  and  doubt- 
less no  small  store  of  precedents,  to 
stretch  this  power  beyond  its  legal 
boundary ;  and  not  only  to  fix  their  own 
price  too  low,  but  to  seize  what  they 
wanted  without  any  payment  at  all,  or 
with  tallies  which  were  carried  in  vain 


to  an  empty  exchequer.*  This  gave 
rise  to  a  number  of  petitions  from  the 
commons,  upon  which  statutes  were 
often  framed  ;  but  the  evil  was  almost 
incurable  in  its  nature,  and  never  ceased 
till  that  prerogative  was  itself  abolished. 
Purveyance,  as  I  have  already  said,  may 
serve  to  distinguish  the  defects  from  the 
abuses  of  our  constitution.  It  was  a  re- 
proach to  the  law,  that  men  should  be 
compelled  to  send  their  goods  without 
their  consent ;  it  was  a  reproach  to  the 
administration,  that  they  were  deprived 
of  them  without  payment. 

The  right  of  purchasing  men's  goods 
for  the  use  of  the  king  was  extended  by 
a  sort  of  analogy  to  their  labour.  Thus 
Edward  III.  announces  to  all  sheriffs,  that 
William  of  Walsingham  had  a  commis- 
sion to  collect  as  many  painters  as  might 
suffice  for  "  our  works  in  St,  Stephen's 
chapel,  Westminster,  to  be  at  our  wages 
as  long  as  shall  be  necessary  ;"  and  to 
arrest  and  keep  in  prison  all  who  should 
refuse  or  be  refractory ;  and  enjoins  them 
to  lend  their  assistance.!  Windsor  Cas« 
tie  owes  its  massive  magnificence  to  la- 
bourers impressed  from  every  part  of  the 
kingdom.  There  is  even  a  commission 
from  Edward  IV.  to  take  as  many  work- 
men in  gold  as  were  wanting,  and  em- 
ploy them  at  the  king's  cost  upon  the 
trappings  of  himself  and  his  household. :£ 

Another  class  of  abuses  intimately 
connected  with  unquestionable,  Abusegof 
though  oppressive,  rights  of  the  feudal 
crown,  originated  in  the  feudal  rishts- 
tenure  which  bound  all  the  lands  of  the 
kingdom.  The  king  had  indisputably  a 
right  to  the  wardship  of  his  tenants  in 
chivalry,  and  to  the  escheats  or  forfeit-? 
ures  of  persons  dying  without  heirs  or 
attainted  for  treason.  But  his  officers,  un- 
der pretence  of  wardship,  took  posses- 
sion of  lands  not  held  immediately  of  the 


*  Letters  are  directed  to  all  the  sheriffs,  2 
Edw.  I.,  enjoining  them  to  send  up  a  certain  num- 
ber of  beeves,  sheep,  capons,  &c.  for  the  king's 
coronation. — Rymer,  vol.  ii.,  p.  21.  By  the  statute 
21  Edw.  III.,  c.  12,  goods  taken  by  the  purveyors 
were  to  be  paid  for  on  the  spot  if  under  twenty 
shillings  value,  or  within  three  months  time  if 
above  that  value.  But  it  is  not  to  be  imagined 
that  this  law  was  or  could  be  observed. 

Edward  III.,  impelled  by  the  exigences  of  his 
French  war,  went  still  greater  lengths,  and  seized 
large  quantities  of  wool,  which  he  sold  beyond 
sea,  as  well  as  provisions  for  the  supply  of  his  ar- 
my. In  both  cases  the  proprietors  had  tallies,  or 
other  securities ;  but  their  despair  of  obtaining 
payment  gave  rise,  in  1338,  to  an  insurrection. 
There  is  a  singular  apologetical  letter  of  Edward 
to  the  archbishops  on  this  occasion. — Rymer,  t.  v., 
p.  10.  See  also  p.  73,  and  Knyghton,  col.  2570. 

t  Rymer,,  t.  vi.,  p.  417.         t  Id.,  t.  xi.,  p.  852. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


425 


crown,  claimed  escheats  where  a  right 
heir  existed,  and  seized  estates  as  forfeit- 
ed which  were  protected  by  the  statute 
of  entails.  The  real  owner  had  no  rem- 
edy against  this  dispossession,  but  to  pre- 
fer his  petition  of  right  in  chancery,  or, 
which  was  probably  more  effectual,  to 
procure  a  remonstrance  of  the  house  of 
commons  in  his  favour.  Even  where 
justice  was  finally  rendered  to  him,  he 
had  no  recompense  for  his  damages ;  and 
the  escheators  were  not  less  likely  to  re- 
peat an  iniquity  by  which  they  could  not 
personally  suffer. 

The  charter  of  the  forests,  granted  by 
Pnrp<ltlaw,  Henry  III.  along  with  Magna 
'  Charta,*  had  been  designed  to 
crush  the  flagitious  system  of  oppres- 
sion, which  prevailed  in  those  favourite 
haunts  of  the  Norman  kings.  They  had 
still,  however,  their  peculiar  jurisdiction, 
though,  from  the  time  at  least  of  Edward 
III.,  subject  in  some  measure  to  the  con- 
trol of  the  King's  Bench. f  The  forest- 
ers, I  suppose,  might  find  a  compensation 
for  their  want  of  the  common  law,  in 
that  easy  and  licentious  way  of  life  which 
they  affected ;  but  the  neighbouring  cul- 
tivators frequently  suffered  from  the 
king's  officers,  who  attempted  to  recover 
those  adjacent  lands,  or,  as  they  were 
called,  purlieus,  which  had  been  disaf- 
forested by  the  charter,  and  protected 
by  frequent  perambulations.  Many  peti- 
tions of  the  commons  relate  to  this  griev- 
ance. 

The  constable  and  marshal  of  Eng- 
Junsdiction  land  possessed  a  jurisdiction, 
of  constable  the  proper  limits  whereof  were 
and  Marshal,  sufficiently  narrow,  as  it  seems 
to  have  extended  only  to  appeals  of  trea- 
son committed  beyond  sea,  which  were 
determined  by  combat,  and  to  military 
offences  within  the  realm.  But  these 
high  officers  frequently  took  upon  them 
to  inquire  of  treasons  and  felonies  cog- 
nizable at  common  law,  and  even  of  civil 


*  Matthew  Paris  asserts  that  John  granted  a 
separate  forest-charter,  and  supports  his  position 
by  inserting  that  of  Henry  III.  at  full  length.  In 
fact,  the  clauses  relating  to  the  forest  were  incor- 
porated with  the  great  charter  of  John.  Such  an 
error  as  this  shows  the  precariousness  of  histor- 
ical testimony,  even  where  it  seems  to  be  best 
grounded. 

t  Coke,  4th  Inst.,  p  294.  The  forest  domain  of 
the  king,  says  the  author  of  the  Dialogue  on  the 
Exchequer  under  Henry  II.,  is  governed  by  its  own 
laws,  not  founded  on  the  common  law  of  the  land, 
but  the  voluntary  enactment  of  princes ;  so  that 
whatever  is  done  by  that  law  is  reckoned  not  legal 
in  itself,  but  legal  according  to  forest  law,  p.  29, 
non  justum  absolute,  sed  justum  secundiim  legem 
forestae  dicatur.  I  believe  my  translation  of  justum 
is  right ;  for  he  is  not  writing  satirically. 


contracts  or  trespasses.  This  is  no  bad 
illustration  of  the  state  in  which  our  con- 
stitution stood  under  the  Plantagenets. 
No  colour  of  right  or  of  supreme  prerog- 
ative was  set  up  to  justify  a  procedure 
so  manifestly  repugnant  to  the  great  char- 
ter. For  all  remonstrances  against  these 
encroachments,  the  king  gave  promises 
in  return ;  and  a  statute  was  enacted,  in 
the  13th  of  Richard  II.,  declaring  the 
bounds  of  the  constable  and  marshal's 
jurisdiction.*  It  could  not  be  denied, 
therefore,  that  all  infringements  of  these 
acknowledged  limits  were  illegal,  even 
if  they  had  a  hundred  fold  more  actual 
precedents  in  their  favour  than  can  be 
supposed.  But  the  abuse  by  no  means 
ceased  after  the  passing  of  this  statute, 
as  several  subsequent  petitions,  that  it 
might  be  better  regarded,  will  evince. 
One,  as  it  contains  a  special  instance,  I 
shall  insert.  It  is  of  the  fifth  year  of 
Henry  IV.  "On  several  supplications 
and  petitions  made  by  the  commons  in 
parliament  to  our  lord  the  king  for  Ben- 
net  Wilman,  who  is  accused  by  certain 
of  his  ill  wishers,  and  detained  in  prison, 
and  put  to  answer  before  the  constable 
and  marshal,  against  the  statutes  and  the 
common  law  of  England,  our  said  lord  the 
king,  by  the  advice  and  assent  of  the  lords 
in  parliament,  granted  that  the  said  Ben- 
net  should  be  treated  according  to  the 
statutes  and  common  law  of  England, 
notwithstanding  any  commission  to  the 
contrary,  or  accusation  against  him  made 
before  the  constable  and  marshal."  And 
a  writ  was  sent  to  the  justices  of  the 
king's  bench,  with  a  copy  of  this  article 
from  the  roll  of  parliament,  directing  them 
to  proceed  as  they  shall  see  fit  according 
to  the  laws  and  customs  of  England.! 

It  must  appear  remarkable,  that,  in  a 
case  so  manifestly  within  their  compe- 
tence, the  court  of  king's  bench  should 
not  have  issued  a  writ  of  habeas  corpus, 
without  waiting  for  what  may  be  consid- 
ered as  a  particular  act  of  parliament. 
But  it  is  a  natural  effect  of  an  arbitrary 
administration  of  government,  to  intimi- 
date courts  of  justice.  J  A  negative  ar- 

*  13  R.  II.,  c.  2.        f  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  530. 

t  The  apprehension  of  this  compliant  spirit  in 
the  ministers  of  justice  led  to  an  excellent  act  in 
2  E.  III.,  c.  8,  that  the  judges  shall  not  omit  to  do 
right  for  any  command  under  the  great  or  privy 
seal.  And  the  conduct  of  Richard  II.,  who  sought 
absolute  power  by  corrupting  or  intimidating  them, 
produced  another  statute  in  the  eleventh  year  of 
his  reign  (c.  10),  providing  that  neither  letters  of  the 
king's  signet  nor  of  the  privy  seal  should  from 
thenceforth  be  sent  in  disturbance  of  the  law.  An 
ordinance  of  Charles  V.,  king  of  France,  in  1369, 
directs  the  parliament  of  Paris  to  pay  no  regard  to 
any  letters  under  his  seal  suspending  the  course  of 


426 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGJES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


gument,  founded  upon  the  want  of  legal 
precedent,  is  certainly  not  conclusive, 
when  it  relates  to  a  distant  period,  of 
which  all  the  precedents  have  not  been 
noted ;  yet  it  must  strike  us,  that  in  the 
learned  and  zealous  arguments  of  Sir 
Robert  Cotton,  Mr.  Selden,  and  others, 
against  arbitrary  imprisonment,  in  the 
great  case  of  the  habeas  corpus,  though 
the  statute  law  is  full  of  authorities  in 
their  favour,  we  find  no  instance  addu- 
ced, earlier  than  the  reign  of  Henry  VII., 
where  the  king's  bench  has  released,  or 
even  bailed,  persons  committed  by  the 
council,  or  the  constable,  though  it  is  un- 
questionable that  such  committals  were 
both  frequent  and  illegal.* 

If  I  have  faithfully  represented  thus 
far  the  history  of  our  constitution,  its  es- 
sential character  will  appear  to  be  a  mon- 
archy greatly  limited  by  law,  though  re- 
taining much  power  that  was  ill  calcu- 
lated to  promote  the  public  good,  and 
swerving  continually  into  an  irregular 
course,  which  there  was  no  restraint  ad- 
equate to  correct.  But  of  all  the  notions 
that  have  been  advanced  as  to  the  theory 
of  this  constitution,  the  least  consonant 
to  law  and  history  is  that  which  repre- 
sents the  king  as  merely  an  hereditary 
executive  magistrate,  the  first  officer  of 
the  state.  What  advantages  might  re- 
sult from  such  a  form  of  government,  this 
is  not  the  place  to  discuss.  But  it  cer- 
tainly was  not  the  ancient  constitution  of 
England.  There  was  nothing  in  this,  ab- 
solutely nothing,  of  a  republican  appear- 

legal  procedure,  but  to  consider  them  as  surrepti- 
tiously obtained. — Villaret,  t.  x.,  p.  175.  This  or- 
dinance, which  was  sedulously  observed,  tended 
very  much  to  confirm  the  independence  and  integ- 
rity of  that  tribunal. 

*  Cotton's  Posthuma,  p.  221.  Howell's  State 
Trials,  vol.  iii.,  p.  1.  Hume  quotes  a  grant  of  the 
office  of  constable  to  the  Earl  of  Rivers  in  7  Edw. 
IV.,  and  infers,  unwarrantably  enough,  that  "its 
authority  was  in  direct  contradiction  to  Magna 
Charta ;  and  it  is  evident  that  no  regular  liberty 
could  subsist  with  it.  It  involved  a  full  dictatorial 
power,  continually  subsisting  in  the  state." — Hist. 
of  England,  c.  22.  But  by  the  very  words  of  this 
patent  the  jurisdiction  given  was  only  over  such 
causes  quae  in  curia  constabularii  Angiiae  ab  anti- 
quo,  viz.,  tempore  dicti  Gulielmi  conquaestoris,  seu 
aliquo  tempore  citra,  tractari,  audiri,  examinari, 
aut  decidi  consueverunt  aut  jure  debuerant  aut  de- 
bent.  These  are  expressed,  though  not  very  per- 
spicuously, in  the  statute  13  Ric.  II.,  c.  2,  that  de- 
clares the  constable's  jurisdiction.  And  the  chief 
criminal  matter  reserved  by  law  to  the  court  of  this 
officer  was  treason  committed  out  of  the  kingdom. 
In  violent  and  revolutionary  seasons,  such  as  the 
commencement  of  Edward  IV.'s  reign,  some  per- 
sons were  tried  by  martial  law  before  the  constable. 
But  in  general,  the  exercise  of  criminal  justice  by 
this  tribunal,  though  one  of  the  abuses  of  the 
times,  cannot  be  said  to  warrant  the  strong  lan- 
guage adopted  by  Hume. 


ance.  All  seemed  to  grow  out  of  the 
monarchy,  and  was  referred  to  its  advan- 
tage and  honour.  The  voice  of  supplica- 
tion, even  in  the  stoutest  disposition  of 
the  commons,  was  always  humble ;  the 
prerogative  was  always  named  in  large 
and  pompous  expressions.  Still  more 
naturally  may  we  expect  to  find  in  the 
law-books  even  an  obsequious  deference 
to  power ;  from  judges  who  scarcely  ven- 
tured to  consider  it  as  their  duty  to  de- 
fend the  subject's  freedom,  and  who  be- 
held the  gigantic  image  of  prerogative,  in 
the  full  play  of  its  hundred  arms,  con- 
stantly before  their  eyes.  Through  this 
monarchical  tone,  which  certainly  per- 
vades all  our  legal  authorities,  a  writer 
like  Hume,  accustomed  to  philosophical 
liberality  as  to  the  principles  of  govern- 
ment, and  to  the  democratical  language 
which  the  modern  aspect  of  the  constitu- 
tion and  the  liberty  of  printing  have  pro- 
duced, fell  hastily  into  the  error  of  be- 
lieving that  all  limitations  of  royal  power 
during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies were  as  much  unsettled  in  law  and 
in  public  opinion,  as  they  were  liable  to 
be  violated  by  force.  Though  a  contrary- 
position  has  been  sufficiently  demonstra- 
ted, I  conceive,  by  the  series  of  parlia- 
mentary proceedings  which  I  have  al- 
ready produced,  yet  there  is  a  passage  in 
Sir  John  Fortescue's  treatise  De  Laudibus 
Legum  Angiiae,  so  explicit  and  weighty, 
that  no  writer  on  the  English  constitution 
can  be  excused  from  inserting  it.  This 
eminent  person,  having  been  chief  jus- 
tice of  the  king's  bench  under  Henry 
VI.,  was  governor  to  the  young  Prince 
of  Wales  during  his  retreat  in  France, 
and  received  at  his  hands  the  office  of 
chancellor.  It  must  never  be  forgotten, 
that  in  a  treatise  purposely  composed  for 
the  instruction  of  one  who  hoped  to  reign 
over  England,  the  limitations  of  govern- 
ment are  enforced  as  strenuously  by 
Fortescue,  as  some  succeeding  lawyers 
have  inculcated  the  doctrines  of  arbitrary 
prerogative. 

"A  king  of  England  cannot  at  his 
pleasure  make  any  alterations  sir  John 
in  the  laws  of  the  "land,  for  the 
nature  of  his  government  is  not  J 
only  regU,  but  political.  Had 
it  been  merely  regal,  he  would  stitullon- 
have  a  power  to  make  what  innovations 
and  alterations  he  pleased  in  the  laws  of 
the  kingdom,  impose  tallages  and  other 
hardships  upon  the  people,  whether  they 
would  or  no,  without  their  consent,  which 
sort  of  government  the  civil  laws  point 
out  when  they  declare,  Quod  principi  pla- 
cuit,  legis  habet  vigorem.  But  it  is  much 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


427 


otherwise  with  a  king  whose  governmen 
is  political,  because  he  can  neither  mak< 
any  alteration  or  change  in  the  laws  of 
the  realm  without  the  consent  of  the  sub- 
jects, nor  burden  them  against  their  wills 
with  strange  impositions,  so  that  a  peo 

Ele  governed  by  such  laws  as  are  made 
y  their  own  consent  and  approbation 
enjoy  their  properties  securely,  and  with 
out  the  hazard  of  being  deprived  of  them 
either  by  the  king  or  any  other.  The 
same  things  may  be  effected  under  an  ab- 
solute prince,  provided  he  do  not  degen- 
erate into  the  tyrant.  Of  such  a  prince 
Aristotle,  in  the  third  of  his  Politics,  says 
1  It  is  better  for  a  city  to  be  governed  by 
a  good  man  than  by  good  laws.'  Bui 
because  it  does  not  always  happen  that 
the  person  presiding  over  a  people  is  so 
qualified,  St.  Thomas,  in  the  book  which 
he  writ  to  the  King  of  Cyprus,  De  Regi- 
mine  Principum,  wishes,  that  a  kingdom 
could  be  so  instituted  as  that  the  king 
might  not  be  at  liberty  to  tyrannise  over 
his  people ;  which  only  comes  to  pass 
in  the  present  case;  that  is,  when  the 
sovereign  power  is  restrained  by  polit- 
ical laws.  Rejoice,  therefore,  my  good 
prince,  that  such  is  the  law  of  the  king- 
dom to  which  you  are  to  inherit,  because 
it  will  afford,  both  to  yourself  and  sub- 
jects, the  greatest  security  and  satisfac- 
tion."* 

The  two  great  divisions  of  civil  rule, 
the  absolute,  or  regal,  as  he  calls  it,  and 
the  political,  Fortescue  proceeds  to  de- 
duce from  the  several  originals  of  con- 
quest and  compact.  Concerning  the  lat- 
ter, he  declares  emphatically,  a  truth  not 
always  palatable  to  princes,  that  such 
governments  were  instituted  by  the  peo- 
ple and  for  the  people's  good;  quoting 
St.  Augustine  for  a  similar  definition  of  a 
political  society.  "As  the  head  of  a 
body  natural  cannot  change  its  nerves 
and  sinews,  cannot  deny  to  the  several 
parts  their  proper  energy,  their  due  pro- 
portion and  aliment  of  blood,  neither  can 
a  king,  who  is  the  head  of  a  body  politic, 
change  the  laws  thereof,  nor  take  from 
the  people  what  is  theirs  by  right  against 
their  consent.  Thus  you  have,  sir,  the 
formal  institution  of  every  political  king- 
dom, from  whence  you  may  guess  at  the 
power  which  a  king  may  exercise  with 
respect  to  the  laws  and  the  subject.  For 
he  is  appointed  to  protect  his  subjects  in 
their  lives,  properties,  and  laws  ;  for  this 
very  end  and  purpose  he  has  the  delega- 
tion of  power  from  the  people,  and  he  has 
no  just  claim  to  any  other  power  but 

*  Fortescue,  De  Laudibus  Legum  Angliae,  c.  9. 


this.  Wherefore,  to  give  a  brief  answer 
to  that  question  of  yours  concerning  the 
different  powers  which  kings  claim  over 
their  subjects,  I  am  firmly  of  opinion  that 
it  arises  solely  from  the  different  natures 
of  their  original  institution,  as  you  may 
easily  collect  from  what  has  been  said. 
So  the  kingdom  of  England  had  its  origi- 
nal from  Brute  and  the  Trojans,  who  at- 
tended him  from  Italy  and  Greece,  and 
became  a  mixed  kind  of  government, 
compounded  of  the  regal  and  political."* 
It  would  occupy  too  much  space  to 
quote  every  other  passage  of  Erroneous 
the  same  nature  in  this  treatise  views  taken 
of  Fortescue,  and  in  that  enti-  by  Hume- 
tied,  Of  the  Difference  between  an  Abso- 
lute and  Limited  Monarchy,  which,  so  far 
as  these  points  are  concerned,  is  nearly 
a  translation  from  the  former.f  But 
these,  corroborated  as  they  are  by  the 
statute-book  and  by  the  rolls  of  parlia- 
ment, are  surely  conclusive  against  the 
notions  which  pervade  Mr.  Hume's  His- 
tory. I  have  already  remarked  that  a 
sense  of  the  glaring  prejudice  by  which 
some  whig  writers  had  been  actuated,  in 
representing  the  English  constitution 
from  the  earliest  times  as  nearly  arrived 
at  its  present  perfection,  conspired  with 
certain  prepossessions  of  his  own  to  lead 
this  eminent  historian  into  an  equally  er- 
roneous system  on  the  opposite  side. 
And  as  he  traced  the  stream  backwards, 
and  came  last  to  the  times  of  the  Plan- 
tagenet  dynasty,  with  opinions  already 
biased  and  even  pledged  to  the  world  in 
his  volumes  of  earlier  publication,  he  was 
prone  to  seize  hold  of  and  even  exagger- 
ate every  circumstance  that  indicated 
immature  civilization,  and  law  perverted 
or  infringed. |  To  this  his  ignorance  of 


*  Fortescue,  De  Laudibus  Legum  Angliae,  c.  13. 
f  The  latter  treatise  having  been  written  under 
Edward  IV.,  whom  Fortescue,  as  a  restored  Lan- 
castrian, would  be  anxious  not  to  offend,  and  whom 
n  fact  he  took  some  pains  to  conciliate  both  in 
this  and  other  writings,  it  is  evident  that  the  prin- 
ciples of  limited  monarchy  were  as  fully  recognised 
n  his  reign,  whatever  particular  acts  of  violence 
night  occur,  as  they  had  been  under  the  Lancas 
rian  princes. 

t  The  following  is  one  example  of  these  preju 
dices :  In  the  9th  of  Richard  II.  a  tax  on  wool, 
granted  till  the  ensuing  feast  of  St.  John  Baptist, 
vas  to  be  intermitted  from  thence  to  that  of  St.  . 
3eter,  and  then  to  recommence ;  that  it  might  not 
>e  claimed  as  a  right. — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  in.,  p.  214. 
tfr.  Hume  has  noticed  this  provision,  as  "  showing  • 
an  accuracy  beyond  what  was  to  be  expected  in 
hose  rude  times."  In  this  epithet  we"  see  the 
bundation  of  his  mistakes.  The  age  of  Richard 
I.  might  perhaps  be  called  rude  in  some  respects. 
3ut  assuredly,  in  prudent  and  circumspect  pejcep- 
ion  of  consequences,  and  an  accurate  use  of  lan- 
guage, there  could  be  no  reason  why  it  should  be 


428 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


English  jurisprudence,  which  certainl) 
in  some  measure  disqualified  him  from 
writing  our  history,  did  not  a  little  con 
tribute ;  misrepresentations  frequently 
occurring  in  his  work,  which  a  moderate 
acquaintance  with  the  law  of  the  lane 
would  have  prevented. 

It  is  an  honourable  circumstance  to 
instances  of  England,  that  the  history  of  no 
illegal  con-  other  country  presents  so  few 
damnation  instances  of  illegal  condem- 
nations upon  political  charges. 
The  judicial  torture  was  hardly  known, 
and  never  recognised  by  law.*  The 
sentence  in  capital  crimes,  fixed  un- 
alterably by  custom,  allowed  nothing  to 
vindictiveness  and  indignation.  There 
hardly  occurs  an  example  of  any  one 
being  notoriously  put  to  death  without 
form  of  trial,  except  in  moments  of  fla- 
grant civil  war.  If  the  right  of  juries 
were  sometimes  evaded  by  irregular  ju- 
risdictions, they  were  at  least  held  sacred 
by  the  courts  of  law  :  and  through  all 
the  vicissitudes  of  civil  liberty,  no  one 
ever  questioned  the  primary  right  of 
every  freeman,  handed  down  from  his 
Saxon  forefathers,  to  the  trial  by  his 
peers.  A  just  regard  for  public  safety 
prescribes  the  necessity  of  severe  penal- 
ties against  rebellion  and  conspiracy ; 
but  the  interpretation  of  these  offences, 
when  intrusted  to  sovereigns  and  their 
counsellors,  has  been  the  most  tremen- 
dous instrument  of  despotic  power.  In 
rude  ages,  even  though  a  general  spirit 
of  political  liberty  may  prevail,  the  legal 
character  of  treason  will  commonly  be 
undefined;  nor  is  it  the  disposition  of 
lawyers  to  give  greater  accuracy  to  this 
part  of  criminal  jurisprudence.  The  na- 
ture of  treason  appears  to  have  been 
subject  to  much  uncertainty  in  England 
before  the  statute  of  Edward  III.  If 

deemed  inferior  to  our  own.  If  Mr,  Hume  had 
ever  deigned  to  glance  at  the  legal  decisions  re- 
ported in  the  Year-books  of  those  times,  he  would 
have  been  surprised,  not  only  at  the  utmost  accu- 
racy, but  at  a  subtle  refinement  in  verbal  logic, 
which  none  of  his  own  metaphysical  treatises 
could  surpass. 

*  During  the  famous  process  against  the  knights 
templars  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  the  Archbish- 
op, of  York,  having  taken  the  examination  of  cer- 
tain templars  in  his  province,  felt  some  doubts, 
which  he  propounded  to  several  monasteries  and 
divines.  Most  of  these  relate  to  the  main  subject. 
But  one  question,  fitter  indeed  for  lawyers  than 
theologians,  was,  whereas  many  would  not  confess 
without  torture,  whether  he  might  make  use  of 
this  means,  licet  hoc  in  regno  Angiice  nunquam  visum 
fuerit  vel  auditum  ?  Et  si  torquendi  sunt,  utrum 
per  clericos  vel  laicos?  Et  dato,  quo-1  nullus  om- 
nind  tortor  inveniri  valeat  in  Angli&,  utrum  pro  tor- 
toribus  mittendum  sit  ad  paites  transmarinas? — 
Walt.  Hemingford,  p.  256. 


that  memorable  law  did  not  give  all  pos- 
sible precision  to  the  offence,  which  we 
must   certainly   allow,    it   prevented   at 
least  those  stretches  of  vindictive  tyran- 
ny which  disgrace  the  annals  of  other 
countries.    The  praise,  however,  must  be 
understood  as  comparative.     Some  cases 
of  harsh,  if  not  illegal  convictions,  could 
hardly  fail  to  occur,  in  times  of  violence 
and  during  changes  of  the  reigning  family. 
Perhaps   the    circumstances   have   now 
and  then  been  aggravated  by  historians. 
Nothing  could  be  more  illegal  than  the 
conviction  of  the  Earl  of  Cambridge  and 
Lord  Scrop,  in  1415.  if  it  be  true,  accord- 
ing to  Carte  and  Hume,  that  they  were 
not  heard  in  their  defence.    But  whether 
this  is  to  be  absolutely  inferred  from  the 
record,*   is   perhaps   open  to   question. 
There  seems  at  least  to  have  been  no 
sufficient  motive  for  such  an  irregularity ; 
their  participation  in  a  treasonable  con- 
spiracy being  manifest  from  their  own 
confession.      The    proceedings    against 
Sir  John  Mortimer  in  the  2d  of  Henry 
VI. f  are  called  by  Hume  highly  irregular 
and  illegal.   They  were,  however,  by  act 
of  attainder,  which  cannot  well  be  styled 
llegal.    Nor  are  they  to  be  considered  as 
severe.     Mortimer   had   broken   out  of 
;he  Tower,  where  he  was  confined  on  a 
charge  of  treason.     This  was  a  capital 
felony  at  common  law  ;  and  the  chief  ir- 
regularity seems  to  have  consisted   in 
laving  recourse  to  parliament  in  order  to 
attaint  him  of  treason,  when  he  had  al- 
ready forfeited  his  life  by  another  crime. 
I  would  not  willingly  attribute  to  the 
prevalence    of   tory    dispositions    what 
nay  be  explained  otherwise,  the   prog- 
ess  which  Mr.  Hume's  historical  theory 
as  to  our  constitution  has  been  gradually 
naking  since  its  publication.     The  tide 
f  opinion,  which,  since  the  Revolution, 
and  indeed  since  the  reign  of  James  I., 
ad  been  flowing  so  strongly  in  favour  of 
he  antiquity  of  our  liberties,  now  seems, 
imong    the   higher  and    more    literary 
lasses,  to  set  pretty  decidedly  the  other 
vay.     Though  we  may  still  sometimes 
lear  a  demagogue  chattering  about  the 
vittenagemot,  it  is  far  more  usual  to  find 
ensible   and  liberal  men  who   look  on 
Vlagna  Charta  itself  as  the  result  of  an 
ninteresting  squabble  between  the  king 
ind  his  barons.     Acts  of  force  and  in- 
ustice,  which  strike  the  cursory  inquirer, 
especially  if  he  derives  his   knowledge 
rom  modern   compilations    more   than 
he  average  tenour  of  events,  are  selected 
and  displayed  as  fair  samples  of  the  law 


*  Rot.  Part.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  65.  f  Id.,  p.  202. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION, 


420 


and  of  its  administration.  We  are  de- 
ceived by  the  comparatively  perfect 
state  of  our  present  liberties,  and  forget 
that  our  superior  security  is  far  less  ow- 
ing to  positive  law  than  to  the  control 
which  is  exercised  over  government  by 
public  opinion  through  the  general  use  of 
printing,  and  to  the  diffusion  of  liberal 
principles  in  policy  through  the  same 
means.  Thus,  disgusted  at  a  contrast 
which  it  was  hardly  candid  to  institute, 
we  turn  away  from  the  records  that  at- 
test the  real,  though  imperfect,  freedom 
of  our  ancestors  ;  and  are  willing  to  be 
persuaded  that  the  whole  scheme  of  Eng- 
lish polity,  till  the  commons  took  on 
themselves  to  assert  their  natural  rights 
against  James  I.,  was  at  best  but  a  mock- 
ery of  popular  privileges,  hardly  recog- 
nised in  theory,  and  never  regarded  in 
effect. 

This  system,  when  stripped  of  those 
slavish  inferences  that  Brady  and  Carte 
attempted  to  build  upon  it,  admits  per- 
haps of  no  essential  objection  but  its 
want  of  historical  truth.  God  forbid  that 
our  rights  to  just  and  free  government 
should  be  tried  by  a  jury  of  antiquaries ! 
Yet  it  is  a  generous  pride  that  inter- 
twines the  consciousness  of  hereditary 
freedom  with  the  memory  of  our  ances- 
tors; and  no  trifling  argument  against 
those  who  seem  indifferent  in  its  cause, 
that  the  character  of  the  bravest  and 
most  virtuous  among  nations  has  not  de- 
pended upon  the  accidents  of  race  or 
climate,  but  been  gradually  wrought  by 
the  plastic  influence  of  civil  rights, 
transmitted  as  a  prescriptive  inheritance 
through  a  long  course  of  generations. 

By  what  means  the  English  acquired 
causes  tend-  anc*  preserved  this  political  lib- 
ing  to  form  erty,  which,  even  in  the  fif- 
tioenc°nstitu  teenth  century,  was  the  admi- 
ration of  judicious  foreigners,* 
is  a  very  rational  and  interesting  inquiry. 
Their  own  serious  and  steady  attachment 
to  the  laws  must  always  be  reckoned 
among  the  principal  causes  of  this  bles- 
sing. The  civil  equality  of  all  freemen 
below  the  rank  of  peerage,  and  the  sub- 
jection of  peers  themselves  to  the  impar- 
tial arm  of  justice,  and  to  a  just  share  in 
contribution  to  public  burdens,  advan- 
tages unknown  to  other  countries,  tended 
to  identify  the  interests  and  to  assimilate 
the  feelings  of  the  aristocracy  with  those 
of  the  people ;  classes  whose  dissension 
and  jealousy  have  been  in  many  instances 

*  Philip  de  Comines  takes  several  opportunities 
of  testifying  his  esteem  for  the  English  govern- 
ment. See  particularly  1.  ir.,  c.  i.,  and  1.  v.,  c. 
xlx. 


the  surest  hope  of  sovereigns  aiming  at 
arbitrary  power.  This  freedom  from  the 
oppressive  superiority  of  a  privileged  or- 
der was  peculiar  to  England.  In  many 
kingdoms  the  royal  prerogative  was  at 
least  equally  limited.  The  statutes  of 
Aragon  are  more  full  of  remedial  provis- 
ions. The  right  of  opposing  a  tyranni- 
cal government  by  arms  was  more  fre- 
quently asserted  in  Castile.  But  no- 
where else  did  the  people  possess  by 
law,  and  I  think,  upon  the  whole,  in  ef- 
fect, so  much  security  for  their  personal 
freedom  and  property.  Accordingly,  the 
middling  ranks  flourished  remarkably, 
not  only  in  commercial  towns,  but  among 
the  cultivators  of  the  soil.  u  There  is 
scarce  a  small  village,"  says  Sir  J.  For- 
tescue,  "  in  which  you  may  not  find  a 
knight,  an  esquire,  or  some  substantial 
householder  (paterfamilias),  commonly 
called  a  frankleyn,*  possessed  of  consid- 
erable estate;  besides  others  who  are 
called  freeholders,  and  many  yeomen  of 
estates  sufficient  to  make  a  substantial 
jury."  I  would,  however,  point  out 
more  particularly  two  causes  which  had 
a  very  leading  efficacy  in  the  gradual  de- 
velopment of  our  constitution ;  first,  the 
schemes  of  continental  ambition  in  which 
our  government  was  long  engaged ;  sec- 
ondly, the  manner  in  which  feudal  prin- 
ciples of  insubordination  and  resistance 
were  modified  by  the  prerogatives  of  the 
early  Norman  kings. 

1.  At  the  epoch  when  William  the 
Conqueror  ascended  the  throne,  hardly 
any  other  power  was  possessed  by  the 
King  of  France  than  what  he  inherited 
from  the  great  fiefs  of  the  Capetian  fam- 
ily. War  with  such  a  potentate  was  not 
exceedingly  to  be  dreaded,  and  William, 
besides  his  immense  revenue,  could  em- 
ploy the  feudal  services  of  his  vassals, 
which  were  extended  by  him  to  conti- 
nental expeditions.  These  circumstan- 
ces were  not  essentially  changed  till 
after  the  loss  of  Normandy  ;  for  the  ac- 
quisitions of  Henry  II.  kept  him  fully  on 
an  equality  with  the  French  crown,  and 
the  dilapidation  which  had  taken  place  in 


*  By  a  frankleyn  in  this  place  we  are  to  under- 
stand what  we  call  a  country  squire,  like  the 
frankleyn  of  Chaucer;  for  the  word  esquire  in 
Fortescue's  time  was  only  used  in  its  limited 
sense,  for  the  sons  of  peers  and  knights,  or  such  as 
had  obtained  the  title  by  creation  or  some  other 
legal  means. 

The  mention  of  Chaucer  leads  me  to  add,  that 
the  prologue  to  his  Canterbury  Tales  is  of  itself  a 
continual  testimony  to  the  plenteous  and  comfort- 
able situation  of  the  middle  ranks  in  England,  as 
well  as  to  that  fearless  independence  and  frequent 
originality  of  character  among  them,  which  liberty 
and  competence  have  conspired  to  produce. 


430 


EUROPE  DtRING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHiP.  Vllfj 


the  royal  demesnes  was  compensated 
by  several  arbitrary  resources  that  filled 
the  exchequer  of  these  monarchs.  But 
in  the  reigns  of  John  and  Henry  III.,  the 
position  of  England,  or  rather  of  its  sov- 
ereign, with  respect  to  France,  under- 
went a  very  disadvantageous  change. 
The  loss  of  Normandy  severed  the  con- 
nexion between  the  English  nobility  and 
the  continent ;  they  had  no  longer  es- 
tates to  defend,  and  took  not  sufficient 
interest  in  the  concerns  of  Guienne  to 
fight  for  that  province  at  their  own  cost. 
Their  feudal  service  was  now  commuted 
for  an  escuage,  which  fell  very  short  of 
the  expenses  incurred  in  a  protracted 
campaign.  Tallages  of  royal  towns  and 
demesne  lands,  extortion  of  money  from 
the  Jews,  every  feudal  abuse  and  oppres- 
sion were  tried  in  vain  to  replenish  the 
treasury,  which  the  defence  of  Eleanor's 
inheritance  against  the  increased  energy 
of  France  was  constantly  exhausting. 
Even  in  the  most  arbitrar)7  reigns,  a  gen- 
eral tax  upon  landholders,  in  any  cases 
but  those  prescribed  by  the  feudal  law, 
had  not  been  ventured  ;  and  the  standing 
bulwark  of  Magna  Charta,  as  well  as  the 
feebleness  and  unpopularity  of  Henry  III., 
made  it  more  dangerous  to  violate  an 
established  principle.  Subsidies  were 
therefore  constantly  required;  but  for 
these  it  was  necessary  for  the  king  to 
meet  parliament,  to  hear  their  com- 
plaints, and,  if  he  could  not  elude,  to  ac- 
quiesce in  their  petitions.  These  neces- 
sities came  stiff  more  urgently  upon  Ed- 
ward I.,  whose  ambitious  spirit  could  not 
t  patiently  endure  the  encroachments  of 
Philip  the  Fair,  a  rival  not  less  ambitious, 
but  certainly  less  distinguished  by  per- 
sonal prowess  than  himself.  What  ad- 
vantage the  friends  of  liberty  reaped 
from  this  ardour  for  continental  warfare, 
is  strongly  seen  in  the  circumstances  at- 
tending the  Confirmation  of  the  Char- 
ters. 

But  after  this  statute  had  rendered  all 
tallages  without  consent  of  parliament 
illegal,  though  it  did  not  for  some  time 
prevent  their  being  occasionally  imposed, 
it  was  still  more  difficult  to  carry  on  a 
war  with  France  or  Scotland,  to  keep  on 
foot  naval  armamentSj  or  even  to  pre- 
serve the  courtly  magnificence  which 
that  age  of  chivalry  affected,  without 
perpetual  recurrence  to  the  house  of 
commons.  Edward  III.  very  little  con- 
sulted the  interests  of  his  prerogative 
when  he  stretched  forth  his  hand  to 
seize  the  phantom  of  a  crown  in  France. 
It  compelled  him  to  assemble  parliament 
almost  annually,  and  often  to  hold  more 


than  one  session  within  the  year. — Here 
the  representatives  of  England  learned 
the  habit  of  remonstrance  and  condition-* 
al  supply;  and  though,  in  the  meridian 
of  Edward's  age  and  vigour,  they  often 
failed  of  immediate  redress,  yet  they 
gradually  swelled  the  statute-roll  with 
provisions  to  secure  their  country's  free- 
dom ;  and  acquiring  self-confidence  by 
mutual  intercourse,  and  sense  of  the  pub- 
lic opinion,  they  became  able,  before  the 
end  of  Edward's  reign,  and  still  more  in 
that  of  his  grandson,  to  control,  prevent, 
and  punish  the  abuses  of  administration. 
Of  all  these  proud  and  sovereign  privi- 
leges, the  right  of  refusing  supply  was 
the  keystone.  But  for  the  long  wars  in 
which  our  kings  were  involved,  at  first 
by  their  possession  of  Guienne,  and  after- 
ward by  their  pretensions  upon  the  crown 
of  France,  it  would  have  been  easy 
to  suppress  remonstrances  by  avoiding 
to  assemble  parliament.  For  it  must  be 
confessed,  that  an  authority  was  given  to 
the  king's  proclamations,  and  to  ordinan- 
ces of  the  council,  which  differed  but 
little  from  legislative  power,  and  would 
very  soon  have  been  interpreted  by  com- 
plaisant courts  of  justice  to  give  them 
the  full  extent  of  statutes. 

It  is  common  indeed  to  assert,  that  the 
liberties  of  England  were  bought  with 
the  blood  of  pur  forefathers.  This  is  a 
very  magnanimous  boast;  and  in  some 
degree  is  consonant  enough  to  the  truth. 
But  it  is  far  more  generally  accurate  to 
say,  that  they  were  purchased  by  money. 
A  great  proportion  of  our  best  laws,  in- 
cluding Magna  Charta  itself,  as  it  now 
stands  confirmed  by  Henry  III.,  were,  in 
the  most  literal  sense,  obtained  by  a  pe- 
cuniary bargain  with  the  crown.  In 
many  parliaments  of  Edward  III.  and 
Richard  II.  this  sale  of  redress  is  chaf- 
fered for  as  distinctly,  and  with  as  little 
apparent  sense  of  disgrace,  as  the  most 
legitimate  business  between  two  mer- 
chants would  be  transacted.  So  little 
was  there  of  voluntary  benevolence  in 
what  the  loyal  courtesy  of  our  constitu- 
tion styles  concessions  from  the  throne  ; 
and  so  little  title  have  these  sovereigns, 
though  we  cannot  refuse  our  admiration 
to  the  generous  virtues  of  Edward  III. 
and  Henry  V.,  to  claim  the  gratitude  of 
posterity  as  the  benefactors  of  their 
people  ! 

2.  The  relation  established  between  a 
lord  and  his  vassal,  by  the  feudal  tenure, 
far  from  containing  principles  of  any 
servile  and  implicit  obedience,  permitted 
the  compact  to  be  dissolved  in  case  of  its 
violation  by  either  party.  This  extend- 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


431 


ed  as  much  to  the  sovereign  as  to  inferi- 
or lords ;  the  authority  of  the  former  in 
France,  where  the  system  most  flour- 
ished, being  for  several  ages  rather  feu- 
dal than  political.  If  a  vassal  was  ag- 
grieved, and  if  justice  was  denied  him,  he 
sent  a  defiance,  that  is,  a  renunciation  of 
fealty  to  the  king,  and  was  entitled  to 
enforce  redress  at  the  point  of  his 
sword.  It  then  became  a  contest  of 
strength  as  between  two  independent  po- 
tentates, and  was  terminated  by  treaty, 
advantageous  or  otherwise,  according  to 
the  forHne  of  war.  This  privilege, 
suited  enough  to  the  situation  of  France, 
the  great  peers  of  which  did  not  origi- 
nally intend  to  admit  more  than  a  nomi- 
nal supremacy  in  the  house  of  Capet, 
was  evidently  less  compatible  with  the 
regular  monarchy  of  England.  The 
stern  natures  of  William  the  Conqueror 
and  his  successors  kept  in  control  the 
mutinous  spirit  of  their  nobles,  and  reap- 
ed the  profit  of  feudal  tenures,  without 
submitting  to  their  reciprocal  obligations. 
They  counteracted,  if  I  may  so  say,  the 
centrifugal  force  of  that  system  by  the 
application  of  a  stronger  power;  by 
preserving  order,  administering  justice, 
checking  the  growth  of  baronial  influ- 
ence and  riches,  with  habitual  activity, 
vigilance,  and  severity.  Still,  however, 
there  remained  the  original  principle, 
that  allegiance  depended  conditionally 
upon  good  treatment,  and  that  an  appeal 
might  be  lawfully  made  to  arms  against 
an  oppressive  government.  Nor  was 
this,  we  may  be  sure,  left  for  extreme 
necessity,  or  thought  to  require  a  long 
enduring  forbearance.  In  modern  times, 
a  king  compelled  by  his  subjects'  swords 
to  abandon  any  pretension  would  be  sup- 
posed to  have  ceased  to  reign ;  and  the 
express  recognition  of  such  a  right  as 
that  of  insurrection  has  been  justly 
deemed  inconsistent  with  the  majesty  of 
law.  But  ruder  ages  had  ruder  senti- 
ments. Force  was  necessary  to  repel 
force;  and  men  accustomed  to  see  the 
king's  authority  defied  by  private  riot 
were  not  much  shocked  when  it  was  re- 
sisted in  defence  of  public  freedom. 

The  Great  Charter  of  John  was  secured 
by  the  election  of  twenty-five  barons,  as 
conservators  of  the  compact.  If  the  king, 
or  the  justiciary  in  his  absence,  should 
transgress  any  article,  any  four  might  de- 
mand reparation,  and  on  denial  carry 
their  complaint  to  the  rest  of  their  body. 
"  And  those  barons,  with  all  the  com- 
mons of  the  land,  shall  distrain  and  an- 
noy us  by  every  means  in  their  power ; 
that  is,  by  seizing  our  castles,  lands,  and 


possessions,  and  every  othei*  mode,  till 
the  wrong  shall  be  repaired  to  their  sat- 
isfaction; saving  our  person,  and  our 
queen  and  children.  And  when  it  shall 
be  repaired  they  shall  obey  us  as  be- 
fore."* It  is  amusing  to  see  the  com- 
mon law  of  distress  introduced  upon  this 
gigantic  scale ;  and  the  capture  of  the 
king's  castles  treated  as  analogous  to  im- 
pounding a  neighbour's  horse  for  break- 
ing fences. 

A  very  curious  illustration  of  this  feu- 
dal principle  is  found  in  the  conduct  of 
William,  earl  of  Pembroke,  one  of  the 
greatest  names  in  our  ancient  history, 
towards  Henry  III.  The  king  had  defied 
him,  which  was  tantamount  to  a  declara- 
tion of  war ;  alleging  that  he  had  made 
an  inroad  upon  the  royal  domains.  Pem- 
broke maintained  that  he  was  not  the  ag- 
gressor, that  the  king  had  denied  him 
justice,  and  been  the  first  to  invade  his 
territory ;  on  which  account  he  had 
thought  himself  absolved  from  his  hom- 
age, and  at  liberty  to  use  force  against 
the  malignity  of  the  royal  advisers. 
"  Nor  would  it  be  for  the  king's  honour," 
the  earl  adds,  "  that  I  should  submit  to 
his  will  against  reason,  whereby  I  should 
rather  do  wrong  to  him  and  to  that  jus- 
tice which  he  is  bound  to  administer  to- 
wards his  people  :  and  I  should  give  an 
ill  example  to  all  men  in  deserting  justice 
and  right  in  compliance  with  his  mistaken 
will.  For  this  would  show  that  I  loved 
my  worldly  wealth  better  than  justice." 
These  words,  with  whatever  dignity  ex- 
pressed, it  may  be  objected,  prove  only 
the  disposition  of  an  angry  and  revolted 
earl.  But  even  Henry  fully  admitted  the 
right  of  taking  arms  against  himself,  if 
he  had  meditated  his  vassal's  destruction, 
and  disputed  only  the  application  of  this 
maxim  to  the  Earl  of  Pembroke. f 

These  feudal  notions,  which  placed  the 
moral  obligation  of  allegiance  very  low, 
acting  under  a  weighty  pressure  from  the 
real  strength  of  the  crown,  were  favour- 
able to  constitutional  liberty.  The  great 
vassals  of  France  and  Germany  aimed  at 
living  independently  on  their  fiefs,  with 
no  further  concern  for  the  rest  than  as 
useful  allies  having  a  common  interest 
against  the  crown.  But  in  England,  as 
there  was  no  prospect  of  throwing  off 
subjection,  the  barons  endeavoured  only 
to  lighten  its  burden,  fixing  limits  to  pre- 
rogative by  law,  and  securing  their  ob- 
servation by  parliamentary  remonstran- 
ces or  by  dint  of  arms.  Hence,  as  all 


*  Brady's  Hist.,  vol.  i.,  Appendix,  p.  148. 
f  Matt.  Paris,  p.  330.    Lyttleton'a  Hist,  of  Hen- 
ry II.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  41. 


432 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.    VIII. 


rebellions  in  England  were  directed  only 
to  coerce  the  government,  or,  at  the  ut- 
most, to  change  the  succession  of  the 
crown,  without  the  smallest  tendency  to 
separation,  they  did  not  impair  the  na- 
tional strength,  nor  destroy  the  charac- 
ter of  the  constitution.  In  all  these  con- 
tentions, it  is  remarkable  that  the  people 
and  clergy  sided  with  the  nobles  against 
the  throne.  No  individuals  are  so  pop- 
ular with  the  monkish  annalists,  who 
speak  the  language  of  the  populace,  as 
Simon,  earl  of  Leicester,  Thomas,  earl 
of  Lancaster,  and  Thomas,  duke  of 
Glocester,  all  turbulent  opposers  of  the 
royal  authority,  and  probably  little  de- 
serving of  their  panegyrics.  Very  few 
English  historians  of  the  middle  ages  are 
advocates  of  prerogative.  This  may  be 
ascribed  both  to  the  equality  of  our  laws, 
and  to  the  interest  which  the  aristocracy 
found  in  courting  popular  favour  when 
committed  against  so  formidable  an  ad- 
versary as  the  king.  And  even  now, 
when  the  stream  that  once  was  hurried 
along  gullies,  and  dashed  down  precipices, 
hardly  betrays,  upon  its  broad  and  tran- 
quil bosom,  the  motion  that  actuates  it, 
it  must  still  be  accounted  a  singular  hap- 
piness of  our  constitution,  that  all  ranks 
graduating  harmoniously  into  one  anoth- 
er, the  interests  of  peers  and  common- 
ers are  radically  interwoven ;  each  in  a 
certain  sense  distinguishable,  but  not  bal- 
anced like  opposite  weights,  not  separa- 
ted like  discordant  fluids,  not  to  be  se- 
cured by  insolence  or  jealousy,  but  by 
mutual  adherence  and  reciprocal  influ- 
ences. 

From  the  time  of  Edward  I.,  the  feudal 
influence  system  and  all  the  feelings  con- 
which  the  nected  with  it  declined  very  rap- 

Xa'nners     idl7'      But  what  the  nobility  lost 

gave  the  in  the  number  of  their  military 
nobility,  tenants  was  in  some  degree  com- 
pensated by  the  state  of  manners.  The 
higher  class  of  them,  who  took  the  chief 
share  in  public  affairs,  were  exceedingly 
opulent;  and  their  mode  of  life  gave 
wealth  an  incredibly  greater  efficacy  than 
it  possesses  at  present.  Gentlemen  of 
large  estates  and  good  families,  who  had 
attached  themselves  to  these  great  peers, 
who  bore  offices,  which  we  should  call 
menial,  in  their  households,  and  sent 
their  children  thither  for  education,  were 
of  course  ready  to  follow  their  banner  in 
rising,  without  much  inquiry  into  the 
cause.  Still  less  would  the  vast  body  of 
tenants,  and  their  retainers,  who  were 
fed  at  the  castle  in  time  of  peace,  refuse 
to  carry  their  pikes  and  staves  into  the 
field  of  battle.  Many  devices  were  used 


to  preserve  this  aristocratic  Influence, 
which  riches  and  ancestry  of  themselves 
rendered  so  formidable.  Such  was  the 
Maintenance  of  suits,  or  confederacies 
or  the  purpose  of  supporting  each  other's 
3laims  in  litigation,  which  was  the  sub- 
ect  of  frequent  complaints  in  parliament, 
and  gave  rise  to  several  prohibitory  stat- 
jtes.  By  help  of  such  confederacies, 
parties  were  enabled  to  make  violent  en- 
vies upon  the  lands  they  claimed,  which 
the  law  itself  could  hardly  be  said  to  dis- 
courage.* Even  proceedings  in  courts 
of  justice  were  often  liable  to*fntimida- 
ion  and  influence. f  A  practice  much 
allied  to  confederacies  of  maintenance, 
hough  ostensibly  more  harmless,  was 
hat  of  giving  liveries  to  all  retainers  of 
a  noble  family ;  but  it  had  an  obvious 
tendency  to  preserve  that  spirit  of  fac- 
jous  attachments  and  animosities,  which 
t  is  the  general  policy  of  a  wise  govern- 
ment to  dissipate.  From  the  first  year 
of  Richard  II.  we  find  continual  mention 
of  this  custom,  with  many  legal  provis- 
ions against  it,  but  it  was  never  abol- 
ished till  the  reign  of  Henry  VII. J 


*  If  a  man  was  disseized  of  his  land,  he  might 
nter  upon  the  disseisor  and  reinstate  himself  with- 
out course  of  law.  In  what  case  this  right  of  en- 
;ry  was  taken  away,  or  tolled,  as  it  was  expressed, 
jy  the  death  or  alienation  of  the  disseisor,  is  a  sub- 
ject extensive  enough  to  occupy  two  chapters  of 
Lyttleton.  What  pertains  to  our  inquiry  is,  that  by 
an  entry,  in  the  old  law  books,  we  must  understand 
an  actual  repossession  of  the  disseisee,  not  a  suit 
in  ejectment,  as  it  is  now  interpreted,  but  which  is 
a  comparatively  modern  proceeding.  The  first 
remedy,  says  Britton,  of  the  disseisee  is  to  collect  a 
body  of  his  friends  (recoiller  amys  et  force),  and 
without  delay  to  cast  out  the  disseisors,  or  at  least 
to  maintain  himself  in  possession  along  with  them, 
c.  44.  This  entry  ought  indeed,  by  5  Rich.  II., 
stat.  i.,  c.  8,  to  be  made  peaceably  ;  and  the  jus- 
tices might  assemble  the  posse  comitatus,  to  im- 
prison persons  entering  on  lands  by  violence  (15 
Ric.  II.,  c.  2),  but  these  laws  imply  the  facts  that 
made  them  necessary. 

f  No  lord  or  other  person,  by  20  Ric.  II.,  c.  3, 
was  permitted  to  sit  on  the  bench  with  the  justices 
of  assize.  Trials  were  sometimes  overawed  by 
armed  parties,  who  endeavoured  to  prevent  their 
adversaries  from  appearing. — Paston  Letters,  vol. 
hi.,  p,  119. 

|  From  a  passage  in  the  Paston  Letters  (vol.  ii., 
p.  23),  it  appears  that,  far  from  these  acts  being  re- 
garded, it  was  considered  as  a  mark  of  respect  to 
the  king,  when  he  came  into  a  county,  for  the  no- 
blemen and  gentry  to  meet  him  with  as  many  at- 
tendants in  livery  as  they  could  muster.  Sir  John 
Paston  was  to  provide  twenty  men  in  their  livery- 
gowns,  and  the  Duke  of  Norfolk  two  hundred. 
This  illustrates  the  well-known  story  of  Henry 
VII.  and  the  Earl  of  Oxford,  and  shows  the  mean 
and  oppressive  conduct  of  the  king  in  that  affair, 
which  Hume  has  pretended  to  justify. 

In  the  first  of  Edward  IV.  it  is  said  in  the  roll  of 
parliament  (vol.  v.,  p.  407).  that  "  by  yeving  of  liv- 
eries and  signes,  contrary  to  the  statutes  and  ordi- 
nances made  aforetyme,  maintenaunce  of  quarrels, 


PART  HI.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


433 


These  associations  under  powerful 
Prevalent  chiefs  were  only  incidentally 
habits  of  beneficial  as  they  tended  to  with- 
rapiiie.  stand  the  abuses  of  prerogative. 
In  their  more  usual  course,  they  were 
designed  to  thwart  the  legitimate  exer- 
cise of  the  king's  government  in  the  ad- 
ministration of  the  laws.  All  Europe 
was  a  scene  of  intestine  anarchy  during 
the  middle  ages;  and  though  England 
was  far  less  exposed  to  the  scourge  of 
private  war  than  most  nations  on  the 
continent^Hte  should  find,  could  we  re- 
cover thjpBoal  annals  of  every  country, 
such  an  accumulation  of  petty  rapine  and 
tumult,  as  would  almost  alienate  us  from 
the  liberty  which  served  to  engender  it. 
This  was  the  common  tenour  of  manners, 
sometimes  SQ-inuch  aggravated  as  to  find 
a  place  in  general  history,*  more  often 
attested  by  records,  during  the  three  cen- 
turies that  the  house  of  Plantagenet  sat 
on  the  throne.  Disseisin,  or  forcible  dis- 
possession of  freeholds,  makes  one  of 
the  most  considerable  articles  in  our 
law-books. f  Highway  robbery  was  from 

extortions,  robberies,  murders  been  multiplied  and 
continued  within  this  reame,  to  the  grete  disturb- 
aunce  and  inquietation  of  the  same." 

*  Thus,  to  select  one  passage  out  of  many ; 
Eodem  anno  (1332)  quidam  maligni,  fulti  quorun- 
dam  magnatum  praesidio,  regis  adolescentiam  sper- 
nentes,  et  regnum  perturbare  intendentes,  in  tan- 
tarn  turbam  creverunt,  nemora  et  saltus  occupave- 
rurit,  ita  quod  toti  regno  terrori  essent. — Walsing- 
ham,  p.  132. 

t  I  am  aware  that  in  many,  probably  a  great 
majority  of  reported  cases,  this  word  was  techni- 
cally used,  where  some  unwarranted  conveyance, 
such  as  a  feoffment  by  the  tenant  for  life,  was  held 
to  have  wrought  a  disseisin  ;  or  where  the  plain- 
tiff was  allowed,  for  the  purpose  of  a  more  con- 
venient remedy,  to  feign  himself  disseized,  which 
was  called  disseisin  by  election.  But  several 
proofs  might  be  brought  from  the  parliamentary 
petitions,  and  I  doubt  not,  if  nearly  looked  at,  from 
the  year-books,  that  in  other  cases  there  was  an 
actual  and  violent  expulsion.  And  the  definition 
of  disseisin  in  all  the  old  writers,  such  as  Britton 
and  Littleton,  is  obviously  framed  upon  its  primary 
meaning  of  violent  dispossession,  which  the  word 
had  probably  acquired  long  before  the  more  peacea- 
ble disseisins,  if  I  may  use  the  expression,  became 
the  subject  of  the  remedy  by  assize. 

I  would  speak  with  deference  of  Lord  Mansfield's 
elaborate  judgment  in  Taylor  dem.  Atkins  v. 
Horde,  I  Burrow,  107,  &c. ;  but  some  positions  in 
it  appear  to  me  rather  too  strongly  stated ;  and 
particularly,  that  the  acceptance  of  the  disseisor  as 
tenant  by  the  lord  was  necessary  to  render  the  dis- 
seisin complete  ;  a  condition  which  I  have  not 
found  hinted  in  any  law-book. — See  Butler's  note 
on  Co.  Litt.,  p.  330 ;  where  that  eminent  lawyer 
expresses  similar  doubts  as  to  Lord  Mansfield's 
reasoning.  It  may  however  be  remarked,  that 
constructive  or  elective  disseisins,  being  of  a  tech- 
nical nature,  were  more  likely  to  produce  cases  in 
the  year-books,  than  those  accompanied  with  ac- 
tual violence,  which  would  commonly  turn  only 
on  matters  of  fact,  and  be  determined  by  a  jury. 
E  e 


the  earliest  times  a  sort  of  national  crime. 
Capital  punishments,  though  very  fre- 
quent, made  little  impression  on  a  bold 
and  licentious  crew,  who  had  at  least  the 
sympathy  of  those  who  had  nothing  to 
lose  on  their  side,  and  flattering  pros- 
pects of  impunity.  We  know  how  long 
the  outlaws  of  Sherwood  lived  in  tradi- 
tion ;  men  who,,  like  some  of  their  bet- 
ters, have  been  permitted  to  redeem  by 
a  few  acts  of  generosity  the  just  igno- 
miny of  extensive  crimes.  These,  in- 
deed, were  the  heroes  of  vulgar  applause ; 
but  when  such  a  judge  as  Sir  John  For- 
tescue  could  exult  that  more  Englishmen 
were  hanged  for  robbery  in  one  year 
than  French  in  seven,  and  that  "  if  an 
Englishman  be  poor,  and  see  another 
having  riches,  which  may  be  taken  from 
him  by  might,  he  will  not  spare  to  do 
so,"*  it  may  be  perceived  how  thorough- 
ly these  sentiments  had  pervaded  the 
public  mind. 

Such  robbers,  I  have  said,  had  flatter- 
ing prospects  of  impunity.  Besides  the 
general  want  of  communication,  which 
made  one  who  had  fled  from  his  own 
neighbourhood  tolerably  secure,  they  had 
the  advantage  of  extensive  forests  to  fa- 
cilitate their  depredations,  and  prevent 
detection.  When  outlawed,  or  brought 
to  trial,  the  worst  offenders  could  fre- 
quently purchase  charters  of  pardon, 
which  defeated  justice  in  the  moment 
of  her  blow.f  Nor  were  the  nobility 


A  remarkable  instance  of  violent  disseisin, 
amounting  in  effect  to  a  private  war,  may  be  found 
in  the  Paston  Letters,  occupying  most  of  the  fourth 
volume.  One  of  the  Paston  family,  claiming  a 
right  to  Caister  Castle,  kept  possession  against  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  who  brought  a  large  force,  and 
laid  a  regular  siege  to  the  place,  till  it  surrendered 
for  want  of  provisions.  Two  of  the  besiegers  were 
killed.  It  does  not  appear  that  any  legal  measures 
were  taken  to  prevent  or  punish  this  outrage. 

*  Difference  between  an  Absolute  and  Limited 
Monarchy,  p.  99. 

t  The  manner  in  which  these  were  obtained,  in 
spite  of  law,  may  be  noticed  among  the  violent 
courses  of  prerogative.  By  statute  2  E.  III.,  c.  2, 
confirmed  by  10  E.  III.,  c.  2,  the  king's  power  of 
granting  pardons  was  taken  away,  except  in  cases  of 
homicide  per  infortunium.  Another  act,  14  E.  III., 
c.  15,  reciting  that  the  former  laws  in  this  respect 
have  not  been  kept,  declares  that  all  pardons  con- 
trary to  them  shall  be  hplden  as  null.  This,  how- 
ever, was  disregarded  like  the  rest ;  and  the  com- 
mons began  tacitly  to  recede  from  them,  and  en- 
deavoured to  compromise  the  question  with  the 
crown.  By  27  E.  III.,  stat.  1,  c.  2,  without  advert- 
ing to  the  existing  provisions,  which  may  therefore 
seem  to  be  repealed  by  implication,  it  is  enacted  that 
in  every  charter  of  pardon,  granted  at  any  one's 
suggestion,  the  suggestor's  name  and  the  grounds 
of  his  suggestion  shall  be  expressed,  that  if  the 
same  be  found  untrue,  it  may  be  disallowed.  And 
in  13  R.  II.,  stat.  2,  c.  1,  we  are  surprised  to  find 
the  commons  requesting  that  pardons  might  not 


434 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIIL 


ashamed  to  patronise  men  guilty  of  eve- 
ry crime.  Several  proofs  of  this  occur 
in  the  rolls.  Thus,  for  example,  in  the 
22d  of  Edward  HI.,  the  commons  pray, 
that  "whereas  it  is  notorious  how  rob- 
bers and  malefactors  infest  the  country, 
the  king  would  charge  the  great  men  of 
the  land  that  none  such  be  maintained 
by  them,  privily  or  openly,  but  that  they 
lend  assistance  to  arrest  and  take  such 
ill  doers."* 

It  is  perhaps  the  most  meritorious  part 
of  Edward  I.'s  government,  that  he  bent 
all  his  power  to  restrain  these  breaches 
of  tranquillity.  One  of  his  salutary  pro- 
visions is  still  in  constant  use,  the  statute 
of  coroners.  Another  more  extensive, 
and,  though  partly  obsolete,  the  founda- 
tion of  modern  laws,  is  the  statute  of 
Winton,  which,  reciting  that,  "from  day 
to  day  robberies,  murders,  burnings,  and 
theft  be  more  often  used  than  they  have 
been  heretofore,  and  felons  cannot  be  at- 

be  granted,  as  if  the  subject  were  wholly  unknown 
to  the  law  ;  the  king  protesting  in  reply  that  he 
will  save  his  liberty  and  regality,  as  his  progenitors 
had  done  before,  but  conceding  some  regulations, 
far  less  remedial  than  what  were  provided  already 
by  the  27th  of  Edward  II.  Pardons  make  a  pretty 
large  head  in  Brooke's  Abridgment,  and  were  un- 
doubtedly granted  without  scruple  by  every  one 
of  our  kings.  A  pardon  obtained  in  a  case  of  pecu- 
liar atrocity  is  the  subject  of  a  specific  remonstrance 
in  23  H.  VI.,  Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  v.,  p.  111. 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  201.  A  strange  policy, 
for  which  no  rational  cause  can  be  alleged,  kept 
Wales,  and  even  Cheshire,  distinct  from  the  rest 
of  the  kingdom.  Nothing  could  be  more  injurious 
to  the  adjacent  countries.  Upon  the  credit  of  their 
immunity  from  the  jurisdiction  of  the  king's  courts, 
the  people  of  Cheshire  broke  with  armed  bands  into 
the  neighbouring  counties,  and  perpetrated  all  the 
crimes  in  their  power. — Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  81, 
201,  440.  Stat.  1  H.  IV.,  c.  18.  As  to  the  Welsh 
frontier,  it  was  constantly  almost  in  a  state  of  war, 
which  a  very  little  good  sense  and  benevolence  in 
any  of  our  shepherds  would  have  easily  prevented, 
by  admitting  the  conquered  people  to  partake  in 
equal  privileges  with  their  fellow-subjects.  Instead 
of  this,  they  satisfied  themselves  with  aggravating 
the  mischief  by  granting  legal  reprisals  upon 
Welshmen.— Stat.  2  H.  IV.,  c.  16.  Welshmen 
were  absolutely  excluded  from  bearing  office  in 
Wales.  The  English  living  in  the  English  towns 
of  Wales  earnestly  petition,  23  H.  VI.,  Rot.  Parl., 
vol.  v.,  p.  104,  154,  that  this  exclusion  maybe  kept 
in  force.  Complaints  of  the  disorderly  state  of  the 
Welsh  frontier  are  repeated  as  late  as  12  Edw.  IV., 
vol.  vi.,  p.  8. 

It  is  curious  that,  so  early  as  15  Edw.  II.,  a  writ 
was  addressed  to  the  Earl  of  Arundel,  justiciary  of 
Wales,  directing  him  to  cause  twenty-four  discreet 
persons  to  be  chosen  from  the  north,  and  as  many 
from  the  south  of  that  principality,  to  serve  in  par- 
liament.—Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  i.,  p.  456.  And  we  find 
a  similar  writ  in  the  20th  of  the  same  king. — 
Prynne's  Reg.,  4th  part,  p.  60.  Willis  says,  that 
he  has  seen  a  return  to  one  of  these  precepts,  much 
obliterated,  but  from  which  it  appears  that  Con- 
way,  Beaumaris,  and  Carnarvon  returned  mem- 
bers.— Notitia  Parliamentaria,  vol.  i,,  preface,  p.  15, 


tainted  by  the  oath  of  jurors,  which  had 
rather  suffer  robberies  on  strangers  to 
pass  without  punishment,  than  indite  the 
offenders,  of  whom  great  part  be  people 
of  the  same  country,  or  at  least,  if  the 
offenders  be  of  another  country,  the  re- 
ceivers be  of  places  near,"  enacts  that 
hue  and  cry  shall  be  made  upon  the  com- 
mission of  a  robbery,  and  that  the  hun- 
dred shall  remain  answerable  for  the 
damage  unless  the  felons  be  brought  to 
justice.  It  may  be  inferred  from  this 
provision,  that  the  ancient  law  of  frank- 
pledge,  though  retained  longMpn  form, 
had  lost  its  efficiency.  By  the  same  act, 
no  stranger  or  suspicious  person  was  to 
lodge  even  in  the  suburbs  of  towns ;  the 
gates  were  to  be  kept  locked  from  sunset 
to  sunrising ;  every  host  to  be  answera- 
ble for  his  guest ;  the  highways  to  be 
cleared  of  trees  and  underwood  for  two 
hundred  feet  on  each  side;  and  every 
man  to  keep  arms,  according  to  his  sub- 
stance, in  readiness  to  follow  the  sheriff 
on  hue  and  cry  raised  after  felons,* 
The  last  provision  indicates  that  the  rob- 
bers  plundered  the  country  in  formidable 
bands.  One  of  these,  in  a  subsequent 
part  of  Edward's  reign,  burnt  the  town 
of  Boston  during  a  fair,  and  obtained  a 
vast  booty,  though  their  leader  had  the 
ill  fortune  not  to  escape  the  gallows. 

The  preservation  of  order  throughout 
the  country  was  originally  intrusted,  not 
only  to  the  sheriff,  coroner,  and  consta- 
bles, but  to  certain  magistrates,  called 
conservators  of  the  peace.  These,  in 
ctJhformity  to  the  democratic  character 
of  our  Saxon  government,  were  elected 
by  the  freeholders  in  their  county-court,  f 
But  Edward  I.  issued  commissions  to 
carry  into  effect  the  statute  of  Winton ; 
and  from  the  beginning  of  Edward  III.'s 
reign,  the  appointment  of  conservators 
was  vested  in  the  crown,  their  authority 
gradually  enlarged  by  a  series  of  stat- 
utes, and  their  title  changed  to  that  of 
justices.  They  were  empowered  to  im- 
prison and  punish  all  rioters  and  other  of- 
fenders, and  such  as  they  should  find  by 
endictment,  or  suspicion,  to  be  reputed 
thieves  or  vagabonds ;  and  to  take  sure- 
ties for  good  behaviour  from  persons  of 
evil  fame.J  Such  a  jurisdiction  was  hard- 


*  The  statute  of  Winton  was  confirmed,  and 
proclaimed  afresh  by  the  sheriffs,  7  R.  II.,  c.  6,  af- 
ter an  era  of  great  disorder. 

t  Blackstone,  vol.  i.,  c.  9.     Carte,  vol.  ii.,  p.  203. 

t  1  E.  HI.,  stat.  ii.,  c.  16 ;  4  E.  III.,  c.  2 ;  34  E. 
III.,  c.  1 ;  7  R.  II.,  c.  5.  The  institution  excited  a 
good  deal  of  ill-will,  even  before  these  strong  acts 
were  passed.  Many  petitions  of  the  commons  in 
the  28th  E.  III.,  and  other  years,  complain  of  it. — 
Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  ii. 


PAftT   III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


435 


ly  more  arbitrary  than*  in  a  free  and  civ- 
ilized age,  it  has  been  thought  fit  to  vest 
in  magistrates ;  but  it  was  ill  endured  by 
a  people  who  placed  their  notions  of 
liberty  in  personal  exemption  from  re- 
straint, rather  than  any  political  theory. 
An  act  having  been  passed  (2  R.  II.,  st.  2, 
c.  6)  in  consequence  of  unusual  riots  and 
outrages,  enabling  magistrates  to  commit 
the  ringleaders  of  tumultuary  assemblies 
without  waiting  for  legal  process  till  the 
next  arrival  of  justices  of  jail  delivery, 
the  comjgto^  petitioned  the  next  year 
against  ^(f* "  horrible  grievous  ordi- 
nance," by  which  "  every  freeman  in  the 
kingdom  would  be  in  bondage  to  these 
justices,"  contrary  to  the  great  charter 
and  to  many  statutes,  which  forbid  any 
man  to  be  tajjjj|n  without  due  course  of 
law.*  So  sensitive  was  their  jealousy 
of  arbitrary  imprisonment,  that  they  pre- 
ferred enduring  riot  and  robbery  to  chas- 
tising them  by  any  means  that  might  af- 
ford a  precedent  to  oppression,  or  weak- 
en men's  reverence  for  Magna  Charta. 

There  are  two  subjects  remaining,  to 
which  this  retrospect  of  the  state  of  man- 
ners naturally  leads  us,  and  which  I 
would  not  pass  unnoticed,  though  not 
perhaps  absolutely  essential  to  a  consti- 
tutional history ;  because  they  tend  in  a 
very  material  degree  to  illustrate  the 
progress  of  society,  with  which  civil  lib- 
erty and  regular  government  are  closely 
connected.  These  are,  first,  the  servi- 
tude or  villanage  of  the  peasantry,  and 
their  gradual  emancipation  from  that 
condition ;  and,  secondly,  the  continual 
increase  of  commercial  intercourse  with 
foreign  countries.  But  as  the  latter  topic 
will  fall  more  conveniently  into  the  next 
part  of  this  work,  I  shall  postpone  its 
consideration  for  the  present. 

In  a  former  passage  I  have  remarked 
vnianage  of  of  the  Anglo-Saxon  ceorls,  that 
the  peas-  neither  their  situation  nor  that 
its  Mature  °.f  tneir  descendants  for  the  ear- 
and  gradual  lier  reigns  after  the  conquest 
extinction.  appears  to  have  been  mere  ser- 
vitude. But  from  the  time  of  Henry  II., 
as  we  learn  from  Glanvil,  the  villein  so 
called  was  absolutely  dependant  upon  his 
lord's  will,  compelled  to  unlimited  servi- 
ces, and  destitute  of  property,  not  only 
in  the  land  he  held  for  his  maintenance, 
but  in  his  own  acquisitions.!  If  a  villein 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  65.  It  may  be  observed 
that  this  act,  2  E.  II.,  c.  16,  was  not  founded  on  a 
petition,  but  on  the  king's  answer ;  so  that  the 
commons  were  not  real  parties  to  it,  and  according- 
ly call  it  an  ordinance  in  their  present  petition. 
This  naturally  increased  their  animosity  in  treating 
it  as  an  infringement  of  the  subject's  right. 

f  Glanvil,  1.  v.,  c.  5. 
E  e  2 


purchased  or  inherited  land,  the  lord 
might  seize  it ;  if  he  accumulated  stock, 
its  possession  was  equally  precarious. 
Against  his  lord  he  had  no  right  of  ac- 
tion ;  because  his  indemnity  in  damages, 
if  he  could  have  recovered  any,  might 
have  been  immediately  taken  away.  If 
he  fled  from  his  lord's  service  or  from 
the  land  which  he  held,  a  writ  issued  de 
nativitate  probanda,  and  the  master  re- 
covered his  fugitive  by  law.  His  chil- 
dren were  born  to  the  same  state  of  ser- 
vitude ;  and,  contrary  to  the  rule  of  the 
civil  law,  where  one  parent  was  free  and 
the  other  in  villanage,  the  offspring  fol- 
lowed their  father's  condition.* 

This  was  certainly  a  severe  lot;  yet 
there  are  circumstances  which  materially 
distinguish  it  from  slavery.  The  condi- 
tion of  villanage,  at  least  in  later  times, 
was  perfectly  relative ;  it  formed  no  dis- 
tinct order  in  the  political  economy.  No 
man  was  a  villein  in  the  eye  of  law,  unless 
his  master  claimed  him :  to  all  others  he 
was  a  freeman,  and  might  acquire,  dis- 
pose of,  or  sue  for  property  without  im- 
pediment. Hence,  Sir  E.  Coke  argues, 
that  villeins  are  included  in  the  29th  arti- 
cle of  Magna  Charta : — "  No  freeman 
shall  be  disseized  nor  imprisoned.''!  For 


*  According  to  Bracton,  the  bastard  of  a  nief,  or 
female  villein,  was  born  in  servitude  ;  and  where 
the  parents  lived  on  a  villein  tenement,  the  children 
of  a  nief,  even  though  married  to  a  freeman,  were 
villeins,  j.  iv.,  c.  21,  and  see  Beame's  translation 
of  Glanvil,  p.  109.  But  Littleton  lays  down  an  op- 
posite doctrine,  that  a  bastard  was  necessarily  free  ; 
because,  being  the  child  of  no  father  in  the  con- 
templation of  law,  he  could  not  be  presumed  to  in- 
herit servitude  from  any  one  ;  and  makes  no  dis- 
tinction as  to  the  parent's  residence.— Sect.  188.  1 
merely  take  notice  of  this  change  in  the  law  be- 
tween the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and  Edward  IV.  as 
an  instance  of  the  bias  which  the  judges  showed  in 
favour  of  personal  freedom.  Another,  if  we  can 
rely  upon  it,  is  more  important.  In  the  reign  of 
Henry  II.,  a  freeman  marrying  a  nief  and  settling 
on  a  villein  tenement,  lost  the  privileges  of  free- 
dom during  the  time  of  his  occupation  ;  legem  ter- 
rae  quasi  nativus  amittit.— Glanvil,  1.  v.,  c.  6.  This 
was  consonant  to  the  customs  of  some  other  coun- 
tries, some  of  which  went  farther,  and  treated 
such  a  person  for  ever  as  a  villein.  But,  on  the 
contrary,  we  find  in  Britton  a  century  later,  that 
the  nief  herself  by  such  a  marriage  became  free  du- 
ring the  coverture,  c.  31. 

t  I  must  confess  that  I  have  some  doubts  how 
far  this  was  law  at  the  epoch  of  Magna  Charta. 
Glanvil  and  Bracton  both  speak  of  the  status  ville- 
nagii  as  opposed  to  that  of  liberty,  and  seem  to  con- 
sider it  as  a  civil  condition,  not  a  merely  personal 
relation.  The  civil  law  and  the  French  treatise  of 
Beaumanoir  hold  the  same  language.  And  Sir 
Robert  Cotton  maintains  without  hesitation,  that 
villeins  are  not  within  the  29th  section  of  Magna 
Charta, "  being  excluded  by  the  word  liber,"— Cot- 
ton's Posthuma,  p.  223.  Britton,  however,  a  little 
after  Bracton,  says  that  in  an  action  the  villein  is 
answerable  to  all  men,  and  all  men  to  him,  p.  79. 
And  later  >udgee,  in  favorem  libertatis,  gave  this 


436 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


murder,  rape,  or  mutilation  of  his  villein, 
the  lord  was  endictable  at  the  king's  suit ; 
though  not  for  assault  or  imprisonment, 
which  were  within  the  sphere  of  his 
signorial  authority.* 

This  class  was  distinguished  into  vil- 
leins regardant,  who  had  been  attached 
from  time  immemorial  to  a  certain  ma- 
nor, and  villeins  in  gross,  where  such  ter- 
ritorial prescription  had  never  existed  or 
had  been  broken.  In  the  condition  of 
these,  whatever  has  been  said  by  some 
writers,  I  can  find  no  manner  of  differ- 
ence ;  the  distinction  was  merely  tech- 
nical, and  affected  only  the  mode  of 
pleading.!  The  term,  in  gross,  is  appro- 
priated in  our  legal  language  to  property 
held  absolutely,  and  without  reference  to 
any  other.  Thus  it  is  applied  to  rights 
of  advowson  or  of  common,  when  pos- 
sessed simply,  and  not  as  incident  to 
any  particular  lands.  And  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  it  was  used  in  the  same 
sense  for  the  possession  of  a  villein. 
But  there  was  a  class  of  persons,  some- 
times inaccurately  confounded  with  vil- 
leins, whom  it  is  more  important  to  sep- 
arate. Villanage  had  a  double  sense,  as 
it  related  to  persons  "or  to  lands.  As  all 
men  were  free  or  villeins,  so  all  lands 

construction  to  the  villein's  situation,  which  must 
therefore  be  considered  as  the  clear  law  of  Eng- 
land in  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth  centuries. 

*  Littleton,  sect.  189,  190,  speaks  only  of  an  ap- 
peal in  the  two  former  cases ;  but  an  endictment  is 
a  fortiori;  and  he  says,  sect.  194,  that  an  endict- 
ment, though  not  an  appeal,  lies  against  the  lord 
for  maiming  his  villein. 

f  Gurdon  on  Courts  Baron,  p.  592,  supposes  the 
villein  in  gross  to  have  been  the  Lazzus  or  Servus 
of  early  times,  a  domestic  serf,  and  of  an  inferior 
species  to  the  cultivator  or  villein  regardant.  Un- 
luckily, Bracton  and  Littleton  do  not  confirm  this 
notion,  which  would  be  convenient  enough  ;  for  in 
Domesday  Book  there  is  a  marked  distinction  be- 
tween the  Servi  and  Villani.  Blackstone  express- 
es himself  inaccurately  when  he  says  the  villein 
in  gross  was  annexed  to  the  person  of  the  lord,  and 
transferable  by  deed  from  one  owner  to  another. 
By  this  means  indeed,  a  villein  regardant  would  be- 
come a  villein  in  gross,  but  all  villeins  were  alike 
liable  to  be  sold  by  their  owners. — Littleton,  sect. 
181.  Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  iii.,  p.  860.  Mr. 
Hargrave  supposes  that  villeins  in  gross  were  nev- 
er numerous  (Case  of  Somerset,  Howell's  State 
Trials,  vol.  xx.,  p.  42) ;  drawing  this  inference  from 
the  few  cases  relative  to  them  that  occur  in  the 
Year-books.  And  certainly  the  form  of  a  writ  de 
nativitate  probanda,  and  the  peculiar  evidence  it 
required,  which  may  be  found  in  Fitzherbert's  Na- 
tura  Brevium,  or  in  Mr.  H.'s  argument,  are  only 
applicable  to  the  other  species.  It  is  a  doubtful 
point,  whether  a  freeman  could,  in  contemplation  of 
law,  become  a  villein  in  gross;  though  his  con- 
fession in  a  court  of  record,  upon  a  suit  already 
commenced  (for  this  was  requisite),  would  estop 
him  from  claiming  his  liberty  ;  and  hence  Bracton 
speaks  of  this  proceeding  as  a  mode  by  which  a 
freeman  might  fall  into  servitude. 


were  held  by  a  free  or  villein  tenure. 
This  great  division  of  tenures  was  prob- 
ably derived  from  the  bockland  and  folk- 
land  of  Saxon  times.  As  a  villein  might 
be  enfeoffed  of  freeholds,  though  they  lay 
at  the  mercy  of  his  lord,  so  a  freeman 
might  hold  tenements  in  villanage.  In 
this  case,  his  personal  liberty  subsisted 
along  with  the  burdens  of  territorial  ser- 
vitude. He  was  bound  to  arbitrary  ser- 
vice at  the  will  of  the  lord,  and  he  might 
by  the  same  will  be  at  any  moment  dis- 
possessed ;  for  such  was  the^^idition  of 
his  tenure.  But  his  chatfreJPfc-ere  se- 
cure from  seizure,  his  persbnrrom  inju- 
ry, and  he  might  leave  the  land  whenev- 
er he  pleased.* 

From  so  disadvantageous  a  condition 
as  this  of  villanage,  it  ma^r  cause  some 
surprise  that  the  peasantry  of  England 
should  have  ever  emerged.  The  law 
incapacitating  a  villein  from  acquiring 
property,  placed,  one  would  imagine, 
an  insurmountable  barrier  in  the  way  of 
his  enfranchisement.  It  followed  from 
thence,  and  is  positively  said  by  Glan- 
vil,  that  a  villein  could  not  buy  his  free- 
dom, because  the  price  he  tendered 
would  already  belong  to  his  lord.f  And 
even  in  the  case  of  free  tenants  in  villan- 
age, it  is  not  easy  to  comprehend  how 
their  uncertain  and  unbounded  services 
could  ever  pass  into  slight  pecuniary  com- 
mutations ;  much  less  how  they  could 
come  to  maintain  themselves  in  their 
lands,  and  mock  the  lord  with  a  nominal 
tenure  according  to  the  custom  of  the 
manor. 

This,  like  many  others  relating  to  the 
progress  of  society,  is  a  very  obscure  in- 
quiry. We  can  trace  the  pedigree  of 
princes,  fill  up  the  catalogue  of  towns 
besieged  and  provinces  desolated,  de- 
scribe even  the  whole  pageantry  of  cor- 
onations and  festivals,  but  we  cannot  re- 
cover the  genuine  history  of  mankind. 
It  has  passed  away  with  slight  and  par- 
tial notice  by  contemporary  writers  ;  and 
our  most  patient  industry  can  hardly  at 
present  put  together  enough  of  the  frag- 
ments to  suggest  a  tolerably  clear  repre- 
sentation of  ancient  manners  and  social 
life.  I  cannot  profess  to  undertake  what 
would  require  a  command  of  books  as 
well  as  leisure  beyond  my  reach;  but 
the  following  observations  may  tend  a 
little  to  illustrate  our  immediate  subject, 
the  gradual  extinction  of  villanage. 

If  we  take  what  may  be  considered  as 
the  simplest  case,  that  of  a  manor  divided 
into  demesne  lands  of  the  lord's  occupa- 


<•  Bracton,  I.  ii.,  c.  8 ;  1.  iv.,c.28.    Littleton,  sect. 
172.  f  Glanvil,  1.  iv.,  c.  5. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


437 


tion,  and  those  in  the  tenure  of  his  vil- 
leins, performing  all  the  services  of  agri- 
culture for  him,  it  is  obvious  that  his  in- 
terest was  to  maintain  just  so  many  of 
these  as  his  estate  required  for  its  culti- 
vation. Land,  the  cheapest  of  articles, 
was  the  price  of  their  labour ;  and  though 
the  law  did  not  compel  him  to  pay  this 
or  any  other  price,  yet  necessity,  repair- 
ing in  some  degree  the  law's  injustice, 
made  those  pretty  secure  of  food  and 
dwellings  who  were  to  give  the  strength 
of  theiiMAbs  for  his  advantage.  But  in 
course  flBfme,  as  alienations  of  small 
parcels  fflrrafcnors  to  free  tenants  came 
to  prevail,  the  proprietors  of  land  were 
placed  in  a  new  situation  relatively  to  its 
cultivators.  The  tenements  in  villanage, 
whether  by^w  or  usage,  were  never 
separated  from  the  lordship,  while  its  do- 
main was  reduced  to  a  smaller  extent, 
through  sub-infeudations,  sales,  or  de- 
mises for  valuable  rent.  The  purchasers 
under  these  alienations  had  occasion  for 
labourers  ;  and  these  would  be  free  ser- 
vants in  respect  of  such  employers, 
though  in  villanage  to  their  original  lord. 
As  he  demanded  less  of  their  labour 
through  the  diminution  of  his  domain, 
they  had  more  to  spare  for  other  mas- 
ters ;  and  retaining  the  character  of  vil- 
leins and  the  lands  they  held  by  that  ten- 
ure, became  hired  labourers  in  husbandry 
for  the  greater  part  of  the  year.  It  is 
true  that  all  their  earnings  were  at  the 
lord's  disposal,  and  that  he  might  have 
made  a  profit  of  their  labour  when  he 
ceased  to  require  it  for  his  own  land. 
But  this,  which  the  rapacity  of  more  com- 
mercial times  would  have  instantly  sug- 
gested, might  escape  a  feudal  superior, 
who,  wealthy  beyond  his  wants,  and 
guarded  by  the  haughtiness  of  ancestry 
against  the  love  of  such  pitiful  gains,  was 
better  pleased  to  win  the  affection  of  his 
dependants  than  to  improve  his  fortune 
at  their  expense. 

The  services  of  villanage  were  grad- 
ually rendered  less  onerous  and  uncer- 
tain. Those  of  husbandry  indeed  are 
naturally  uniform,  and  might  be  antici- 
pated with  no  small  exactness.  Lords  of 
generous  tempers  granted  indulgences, 
which  were  either  intended  to  be,  or 
readily  became  perpetual.  And  thus,  in 
the  time  of  Edward  I.,  we  find  the  ten- 
ants in  some  manors  bound  only  to  stated 
services,  as  recorded  in  the  lord's  book.* 

*  Dugdale's  Warwickshire  apud  Eden's  State 
of  the  Poor,  vol.  i.,  p.  13.  A  passage  in  another 
local  history  rather  seems  to  indicate,  that  some 
kind  of  delinquency  was  usually  alleged,  and  some 
ceremony  employed  before  the  lord  entered  on  the 


Some  of  these  perhaps  might  be  villeins 
by  blood  ;  but  free  tenants  in  villanage 
were  still  more  likely  to  obtain  this  pre- 
cision in  their  services ;  and  from  claim- 
ing a  customary  right  to  be  entered  in  the 
court-roll  upon  the  same  terms  as  their 
predecessors,  prevailed  at  length  to  get 
copies  of  it  for  their  security.*  Proofs 
of  this  remarkable  transformation  from 
tenants  in  villanage  to  copyholders  are 
found  in  the  reign  of  Henry  III.  I  do 
not  know,  however,  that  they  were  pro- 
tected, at  so  early  an  epoch,  in  the  pos- 
session of  their  estates.  But  it  is  said  in 
the  year-book  of  the  42d  of  Edward  III., 
to  be  "  admitted  for  clear  law,  that  if  the 
customary  tenant  or  copyholder  does  not 
perform  his  services,  the  lord  may  seize 
his  land  as  forfeited."!  It  seems  implied 
herein,  that  so  long  as  the  copyholder  did 
continue  to  perform  the  regular  stipula- 
tions of  his  tenure,  the  lord  was  not  at 
liberty  to  divest  him  of  his  estate ;  and 
this  is  said  to  be  confirmed  by  a  passage 
in  Britton,  which  has  escaped  my  search ; 
though  Littleton  intimates  that  copy- 
holders could  have  no  remedy  against 
their  lord.|  However,  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV.,  this  was  put  out  of  doubt  by 
the  judges,  who  permitted  the  copyholder 
to  bring  his  action  of  trespass  against  the 
lord  for  dispossession. 

While  some  of  the  more  fortunate  vil- 
leins crept  up  into  property  as  well  as 
freedom  under  the  name  of  copyholders, 
the  greater  part  enfranchised  themselves 
in  a  different  manner.  The  law,  which 
treated  them  so  harshly,  did  not  take 

villein's  land.  In  Gissing  manor,  39  E.  III.,  the 
jury  present,  that  W.  G.,  a  villein  by  blood,  was  a 
rebel  and  ungrateful  towards  his  lord,  for  which  all 
his  tenements  were  seized.  His  offence  was  the 
having  said  that  the  lord  kept  four  stolen  sheep  in 
his  field. — Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  i.,  p.  114. 

*  Gurdon  on  Courts  Baron,  p.  574. 

f  Brooke's  Abridgm.  Tenant  par  copie,  1.  By 
the  extent-roll  of  the  manor  of  Brisingham  in 
Norfolk  in  1254,  it  aypears  that  there  were  then 
ninety-four  copyholders  and  six  cottagers  in  vil- 
lanage ;  the  former  performing  many,  but  deter- 
minate services  of  labour  for  the  lord. — Blome- 
field's Norfolk,  vol.  i.,  p.  34. 

$  Littl.,  sect.  77.  A  copyholder  without  legal 
remedy  may  seem  little  better  than  a  tenant  in 
mere  villanage,  except  in  name.  But  though  from 
the  relation  between  the  lord  and  copyholder  the 
latter  might  not  be  permitted  to  sue  his  superior, 
yet  it  does  not  follow  that  he  might  not  bring  his 
action  against  any  person  acting  under  the  lord's 
direction,  in  which  the  defendant  could  not  set  up 
an  illegal  authority  ;  just  as,  although  no  writ  runs 
against  the  king,  his  ministers  or  officers  are  not 
justified  in  acting  under  his  command  contrary  to 
aw.  I  wish  this  note  to  be  considered  as  correct- 
ng  one  on  p.  88  of  this  work,  where  I  have  said 
:hat  a  similar  law  in  France  rendered  the  distinc- 
ion  between  a  serf  and  an  homme  de  poote  little 
more  than  theoretical. 


438 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  Vlif. 


away  the  means  of  escape,  nor  was  this 
a  matter  of  difficulty  in  such  a  country 
as  England.  To  this  indeed  the  unequal 
progression  of  agriculture  and  population 
in  different  counties  would  have  nat- 
urally contributed.  Men  emigrated,  as 
they  always  must,  in  search  of  cheap- 
ness or  employment,  according  to  the 
tide  of  human  necessities.  But  the  vil- 
lein, who  had  no  additional  motive  to 
urge  his  steps  away  from  his  native 
place,  might  well  hope  to  be  forgotten  or 
undiscovered  when  he  breathed  a  freer 
air,  and  engaged  his  voluntary  labour  to 
a  distant  master.  The  lord  had  indeed 
an  action  against  him ;  but  there  was  so 
little  communication  between  remote 
parts  of  the  country,  that  it  might  be 
deemed  his  fault  or  singular  ill-fortune  if 
he  were  compelled  to  defend  himself. 
Even  in  that  case,  the  law  inclined  to 
favour  him ;  and  so  many  obstacles  were 
thrown  in  the  way  of  these  suits  to  re- 
claim fugitive  villeins,  that  they  could 
not  have  operated  materially  to  retard 
their  general  enfranchisement.*  In  one 
case  indeed,  that  of  unmolested  residence 
for  a  year  and  a  day  within  a  walled  city 
or  borough,  the  villein  became  free,  and 
the  lord  was  absolutely  barred  of  his 
remedy.  This  provision  is  contained 
even  in  the  laws  of  William  the  Conquer- 
or, as  contained  in  Hoveden,  and  if  it  be 
not  an  interpolation,  may  be  supposed  to 
have  had  a  view  to  strengthen  the  popu- 
lation of  those  places  which  were  de- 
signed for  garrisons.  This  law,  whether 
of  William  or  not-,  is  unequivocally  men- 
tioned by  Glanvil.f  Nor  was  it  a  mere 
letter.  According  to  a  record  in  the  6th 
of  Edward  II.,  Sir  John  Clavering  sued 
eighteen  villeins  of  his  manor  of  Cossey, 
for  withdrawing  themselves  therefrom 
with  their  chattels;  whereupon  a  writ 
was  directed  to  them;  but  six  of  the 
number  claimed  to  be  freemen,  alleging 
the  Conqueror's  charter,  and  offering  to 
prove  that  they  had  lived  in  Norwich, 
paying  scot  and  lot,  about  thirty  years ; 
which  claim  was  admitted. J 

By  such  means  a  large  proportion  of 
the  peasantry,  before  the  middle  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  had  become  hired 
labourers  instead  of  villeins.  We  first 

*  See  the  rules  of  pleading  and  evidence  in 
questions  of  villanage  fully  stated  in  Mr.  Har- 
grave's  argument  in  the  case  of  Somerset.— How- 
ell's  State  Trials,  vol.  xx.,  p.  38. 

t  L.  v.,  c.  5. 

$  Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  i.,  p.  657.  I  know 
not  how  far  this  privilege  was  supposed  to  be  im- 
paired by  the  statute  34  E.  III.,  c.  11 ;  which  how- 
ever might,  I  should  conceive,  very  well  stand 
along  with  it. 


hear  of  them  on  a  grand  scale  in  an  or- 
dinance made  by  Edward  III.,  in  the 
twenty-third  year  of  his  reign.  This  was 
just  after  the  dreadful  pestilence  of  1348, 
and  it  recites  that  the  number  of  work- 
men and  servants  having  been  greatly 
reduced  by  that  calamity,  the  remainder 
demanded  excessive  wages  from  their 
employers.  Such  an  enhancement  in 
the  price  of  labour,  though  founded  ex- 
actly on  the  same  principles  as  regulate 
the  value  of  any  other  commodity,  is  too 
frequently  treated  as  a  sort  (^xxrime  by 
lawgivers,  who  seem  to  gryjflfrG  poor 
that  transient  melioration  l^wieir  lot, 
which  the  progress  of  population,  or  oth- 
er analogous  circumstances,  will,  without 
any  interference,  very  rapidly  take  away. 
This  ordinance  therefore^  enacts  that 
every  man  in  England,  of  whatever  con- 
dition, bond  or  free,  of  able  body,  and 
within  sixty  years  of  age,  not  living  of 
his  own  nor  by  any  trade,  shall  be  obli- 
ged, when  required,  to  serve  any  master 
who  is  willing  to  hire  him  at  such  wages 
as  were  usually  paid  three  years  since, 
or  for  some  time  preceding;  provided 
that  the  lords  of  villeins  or  tenants  in  vil- 
lanage shall  have  the  preference  of  their 
labour,  so  that  they  retain  no  more  than 
shall  be  necessary  for  them.  More  than 
these  old  wages  is  strictly  forbidden  to 
be  offered,  as  well  as  demanded.  No 
one  is  permitted,  under  colour  of  charity, 
to  give  alms  to  a  beggar.  And,  to  make 
some  compensation  to  the  inferior  classes 
for  these  severities,  a  clause  is  inserted, 
as  wise,  just,  and  practicable  as  the  rest, 
for  the  sale  of  provisions  at  reasonable 
prices.* 

This  ordinance  met  with  so  little  re- 
gard, that  a  statute  was  made  in  parlia- 
ment two  years  after,  fixing  the  wages 
of  all  artificers  and  husbandmen,  with  re- 
gard to  the  nature  and  season  of  their  la- 
bour. From  this  time  it  became  a  fre- 
quent complaint  of  the  commons,  that  the 
statute  of  labourers  was  not  kept.  The 
king  had  in  this  case,  probably,  no  other 
reason  for  leaving  their  grievance  unre- 
dressed,  than  his  inability  to  change  the 
order  of  Providence.  A  silent  alteration 
had  been  wrought  in  the 'condition  and 
character  of  the  lower  classes  during  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.  This  was  the  ef- 
fect of  increased  knowledge  and  refine- 
ment, which  had  been  making  a  consid- 
erable progress  for  full  half  a  century, 
though  they  did  not  readily  permeate  the 
cold  region  of  poverty  and  ignorance.  It 
was  natural  that  the  country  people,  or 
outlandish  folk,  as  they  were  called, 


*  Stat.  23  E.  III. 


PART  111.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


439 


should  repine  at  the  exclusion  from  that 
enjoyment  of  competence,  and  security 
for  the  fruits  of  their  labour,  which  the 
inhabitants  of  towns  so  fully  possessed. 
The  fourteenth  century  was,  in  many 
parts  of  Europe,  the  age  when  a  sense 
of  political  servitude  was  most  keenly 
felt.  Thus,  the  insurrection  of  the  Jac- 
querie in  France,  about  the  year  1358,  had 
the  same  character,  and  resulted  in  a 
great  measure  from  the  same  causes,  as 
that  of  the  English  peasants  in  1382. 
And  w^jjfoaccount  in  a  similar  man- 
ner fofl  •fiemocratical  tone  of  the 
FrencH^BW^emish  cities,  and  for  the 
prevalence  of  a  spirit  of  liberty  in  Ger- 
many and  Swisseiiand. 

I  do  not  jNpow  whether  we  should  at- 
tribute parfjjof  this  revolutionary  con- 
cussion to  flb'  preaching  of  Wicliffe's 
disciples,  or  look  upon  both  one  and 
the  other  as  phenomena  belonging  to 
that  particular  epoch  in  the  progress 
of  society.  New  principles,  both  as  to 
civil  rule  and  religion,  broke  suddenly 
upon  the  uneducated  mind,  to  render  it 
bold,  presumptuous,  and  turbulent.  But 
at  least  I  make  little  doubt  that  the 
dislike  of  ecclesiastical  power,  which 
spread  so  rapidly  among  the  people  at 
this  season,  connected  itself  with  a 
spirit  of  insubordination  and  an  intol- 
erance of  political  subjection.  Both 
were  nourished  by  the  same  teachers, 
the  lower  secular  clergy;  and  however 
distinct  we  may  think  a  religious  ref- 
ormation from  a  civil  anarchy,  there  was 
a  good  deal  common  in  the  language,  by 
which  the  populace  were  inflamed  to 
either  one  or  the  other.  Even  the  scrip- 
tural moralities  which  were  then  exhibit- 
ed, and  which  became  the  foundation  of 
our  theatre,  afforded  fuel  to  the  spirit  of 
sedition.  The  common  original,  and 
common  destination  of  mankind,  with 
every  other  lesson  of  equality  which  re- 
ligion supplies  to  humble  or  to  console, 
were  displayed  with  coarse  and  glaring 
features  in  these  representations.  The 
familiarity  of  such  ideas  has  deadened 
their  effect  upon  our  minds;  but  when 
a  rude  peasant,  surprisingly  destitute  of 
religious  instruction  during  that  corrupt 
age  of  the  church,  was  led  at  once  to 
these  impressive  truths,  we  cannot  be 
astonished  at  the  intoxication  of  mind 
they  produced.* 

*  I  have  been  more  influenced  by  natural  proba- 
bilities than  testimony,  in  ascribing  this  effect  to 
Wicliffe's  innovations,  because  the  historians  are 
prejudiced  witnesses  against  him.  Several  of 
them  depose  to  the  connexion  between  his  opin- 
ions and  the  rebellion  of  1382 ;  especially  Wal- 


Though  I  believe  that,  compared  at 
least  with  the  aristocracy  of  other  coun- 
tries, the  English  lords  were  guilty  of 
very  little  cruelty  or  injustice,  yet  there 
were  circumstances  belonging  to  that 
period  which  might  tempt  them  to  deal 
more  hardly  than  before  with  their  peas- 
antry. The  fourteenth  century  was  an 
age  of  greater  magnificence  than  those 
which  had  preceded,  in  dress,  in  ceremo- 
nies, in  buildings  ;  foreign  luxuries  were 
known  enough  to  excite  an  eager  de- 
mand among  the  higher  ranks,  and  yet 
so  scarce  as  to  yield  inordinate  prices ; 
while  the  landholders  were  on  the  other 
hand  empoverished  by  heavy  and  un- 
ceasing taxation.  Hence  it  is  probable 
that  avarice,  as  commonly  happens,  had 
given  birth  to  oppression;  and  if  the 
gentry,  as  I  am  inclined  to  believe,  had 
become  more  attentive  to  agricultural 
improvements,  it  is  reasonable  to  conjec- 
ture that  those  whose  tenure  obliged 
them  to  unlimited  services  of  husband- 
ry were  more  harassed  than  under  their 
wealthy  and  indolent  masters  in  prece- 
ding times. 

The  storm  that  almost  swept  away  all 
bulwarks  of  civilized  and  regular  society 
seems  to  have  been  long  in  collecting  it- 
self. Perhaps  a  more  sagacious  legisla- 
ture might  have  contrived  to  disperse  it : 
but  the  commons  only  presented  com- 
plaints of  the  refractoriness  with  which 
villeins  and  tenants  in  villanage  received 
their  due  services;*  and  the  exigences 
of  government  led  to  the  fatal  poll-tax 
of  a  groat,  which  was  the  proximate 
cause  of  the  insurrection.  By  the  de- 
mands of  these  rioters,  we  perceive  that 
territorial  servitude  was  far  from  ex- 
tinct :  but  it  should  not  be  hastily  conclu- 
ded that  they  were  all  personal  villeins, 
for  a  large  proportion  were  Kentish- 
men,  to  whom  that  condition  could  not 
have  applied ;  it  being  a  good  bar  to  a 
writ  de  nativitate  probanda,  that  the  par- 
ty's father  was  born  in  the  county  of 
Kent.f 


singham,  p.  288.    This  implies  no  reflection  upon 
Wicliffe,  any  more  than  the  crimes  of  the  anabap- 
tists in  Munster  do  upon    Luther.    Every  one 
knows  the  distich  of  John   Ball,  which  compre- 
hends the  essence  of  religious  democracy : — 
"  When  Adam  delved  and  Eve  span, 
Where  was  then  the  gentleman  ?" 
The  sermon  of  this  priest,  as  related  by  Walsing- 
ham,  p.  275,  derives  its  argument  for  equality  from 
the  common  origin  of  the  species.     He  is  said  to 
have  been  a  disciple  of  Wicliffe. — Turner's  Hist, 
of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  420. 

*  Stat.  1  R.  II.,  c.  6  ;  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  21. 

t  30  E.  L,  in  Fitzherbert.  Villanage.  apud 
Lombard's  Perambulation  of  Kent,  p.  632.  Spm- 
ner  on  Gavelkind,  p.  72. 


440 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   VIII. 


After  this  tremendous  rebellion,  it 
might  be  expected  that  the  legislature 
would  use  little  indulgence  towards  the 
lower  commons.  Such  unhappy  tumults 
are  doubly  mischievous,  not  more  from 
the  immediate  calamities  that  attend 
them,  than  from  the  fear  and  hatred  of 
the  people  which  they  generate  in  the 
elevated  classes.  The  general  charter 
of  manumission  extorted  from  the  king 
by  the  rioters  at  Blackheath  was  annul- 
led by  proclamation  to  the  sheriffs;*  and 
this  revocation  approved  by  the  lords 
and  commons  in  parliament,  who  added, 
as  was  very  true,  that  such  enfranchise- 
ment could  not  be  made  without  their 
consent ;  "  which  they  would  never  give 
to  save  themselves  from  perishing  alto- 
gether in  one  day."f  Riots  were  turn- 
ed into  treason  by  a  law  of  the  same 
parliament.:}:  By  a  very  harsh  statute  in 
the  12th  of  Richard  II.,  no  servant  or  la- 
bourer could  depart,  even  at  the  expira- 
tion of  his  service,  from  the  hundred  in 
which  he  lived,  without  permission  under 
the  king's  seal ;  nor  might  any  who 
had  been  bred  to  husbandry  till  twelve 
years  old  exercise  any  other  calling. §  A 
few  years  afterward,  the  commons  peti- 
tioned that  villeins  might  not  put  their 
children  to  school,  in  order  to  advance 
them  by  the  church;  "and  this  for  the 
honour  of  all  the  freemen  of  the  king- 
dom." In  the  same  parliament  they 
complained  that  villeins  fly  to  cities  and 
boroughs,  whence  their  masters  cannot 
recover  them ;  and,  if  they  attempt  it, 
are  hindered  by  the  people  :  and  prayed 
that  the  lords  might  seize  their  villens  in 
such  places,  without  regard  to  the  fran- 
chises thereof.  But  on  both  these  peti- 
tions the  king  put  in  a  negative. || 

From  henceforward  we  find  little  no- 
tice taken  of  villanage  in  parliamentary 


*  Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  316,  &c.  The  king  holds 
this  bitter  language  to  the  villeins  of  Essex,  after 
the  death  of  Tyler  and  execution  of  the  other 
leaders  had  disconcerted  them  ;  Rustici  quidem 
fuistis  et  estis,  in  bondagio  permanebitis,  non  ut 
hactenus,  sed  incomparabiliter  viliori,  &c. — Wal- 
singham,  p.  269. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  iii.,  p.  100. 

t  5  R.  II.,  c.  7.  The  words  are,  riot  et  rumour 
n'autres  semblables  ;  rather  a  general  way  of  crea- 
ting a  new  treason :  but  panic  puts  an  end  to 
jealousy. 

§  12  R.  If.,  c.  3. 

II  Rot.  Parl.,  15  R.  II.,  vol.  Iii.,  p.  294,  296. 
The  statute  7  H,  IV.,  c.  17,  enacts  that  no  one 
shall  put  his  son  or  daughter  apprentice  to  any 
trade  in  a  borough,  unless  he  have  land  or  rent  to 
the  value  of  twenty  shillings  a  year,  but  that  any 
one  may  put  his  children  to  school.  The  reason 
assigned  is  the  scarcity  of  labourers  in  husbandry, 
in  consequence  of  people  living  in  Upland  appren- 
ticing their  children. 


records,  and  there  seems  to  have  been  a 
rapid  tendency  to  its  entire  abolition. 
But  the  fifteenth  century  is  barren  of  ma- 
terials ;  and  we  can  only  infer,  that  as  the 
same  causes  which  in  Edward  III.'s  time 
had  converted  a  large  portion  of  the  peas- 
antry into  free  labourers,  still  continued 
to  operate,  they  must  silently  have  ex- 
tinguished the  whole  system  of  personal 
and  territorial  servitude.  The  latter  in- 
deed was  essentially  changed  by  the  es- 
tablishment of  the  law  of  copyhold. 

I  cannot  presume  toconjedta^jnwhat 
degree  voluntary  manumiM  B  to  be 
reckoned  among  the  means*^^contrib- 
uted  to  the  abolition  of  villanage.  Char- 
ters of  enfranchisement  were  very  com- 
mon upon  the  continent.  **They  may 
perhaps  have  been  less  sqfim  England. 
Indeed,  the  statute  de  dorai  must  have 
operated  very  injuriously  to  prevent  the 
enfranchisement  of  villeins  regardant, 
who  were  entailed  along  with  the  land. 
Instances,  however,  occur  from  time  to 
time  ;  and  we  cannot  expect  to  discover 
many.  One  appears  as  early  as  the  15th 
year  of  Henry  III.,  who  grants  to  all 
persons  born  or  to  be  born  within  his  vil- 
lage of  Contishall,  that  they  shall  be  free 
from  all  villanage  in  body  and  blood,  pay- 
ing an  aid  of  twenty  shillings  to  knight 
the  king's  eldest  son,  and  six  shillings  a 
year  as  a  quit  rent.*  So,  in  the  12th 
of  Edward  III.,  certain  of  the  king's  vil- 
leins are  enfranchised  on  payment  of  a 
fine.f  In  strictness  of  law,  a  fine  from 
the  villein  for  the  sake  of  enfranchise- 
ment was  nugatory,  since  all  he  could 
possess  was  already  at  his  lord's  disposal. 
But  custom  and  equity  might  easily  in- 
troduce different  maxims ;  and  it  was 
plainly  for  the  lord's  interest  to  encourage 
his  tenants  in  the  acquisition  of  money 
to  redeem  themselves,  rather  than  to 
quench  the  exertions  of  their  industry 
by  availing  himself  of  an  extreme  right. 
Deeds  of  enfranchisement  occur  in  the 
reigns  of  Mary  and  Elizabeth  ;|  and  per- 
haps a  commission  of  the  latter  princess 
in  1574,  directing  the  enfranchisement 
of  her  bondmen  and  bondwomen  on  cer- 
tain manors  upon  payment  of  a  fine,  is 


*  Blomefield's  Norfolk,  vol.  iii.,  p.  571. 

t  Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  44. 

t  Gurdon  on  Courts  Baron,  p.  596.  Madox, 
Formulare  Anglicanum,  p.  420.  Harrington  on 
Ancient  Statutes,  p.  278.  It  is  said  in  a  modern 
book,  that  villanage  was  very  rare  in  Scotland,  and 
even  that  no  instance  exists  in  records,  of  an  es- 
tate sold  with  the  labourers  and  their  families  at- 
tached  to  the  soil. — Pinkerton's  Hist,  of  Scotland, 
vol.  i.,  p.  147.  But  Mr.  Chalmers,  in  his  Caledo- 
nia, has  brought  several  proofs  that  this  assertion 
is  too  general. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


441 


the  last  unequivocal  testimony  to  the  ex- 
istence of  villanage  ;*  though  it  is  highly 
probable  that  it  existed  in  remote  parts 
of  the  country  some  time  longer.f 

From  this  general  view  of  the  English 
Reign  of  constitution,  as  it  stood  about  the 
iienry  vi.  tjme  of  Henry  VI.,  we  must  turn 
our  eyes  to  the  political  revolutions  which 
clouded  the  latter  years  of  his  reign.  The 
minority  of  this  prince,  notwithstanding 
the  vices  and  dissensions  of  his  court,  and 
the  ing^^us  discomfiture  of  our  arms 
in  Fj^i^^Hre  not  perhaps  a  calamitous 
peridSj  Runtry  grew  more  wealthy : 
the  "NH  |Bp^>n  the  whole,  better  ob- 
served ;*lw  power  of  parliament  more 
complete  and  effectual  than  in  preceding 
times.  BuflriHenry's  weakness  of  under- 
standing bNgBSning  evident  as  he  reached 
manhood,  re%$red  his  reign  a  perpetual 
minority,  ms  marriage  with  a  princess 
of  strong  mind,  but  ambitious  and  vindic- 
tive, rather  tended  to  weaken  the  gov- 
ernment and  to  accelerate  his  downfall ; 
a  certain  reverence  that  had  been  paid  to 
the  gentleness  of  the  king's  disposition 
being  overcome  by  her  unpopularity.  By 
degrees  Henry's  natural  feebleness  de- 
generated almost  into  fatuity;  and  this 
unhappy  condition  seems  to  have  over- 
taken him  nearly  about  the  time  when  it 
became  an  arduous  task  to  withstand  the 
assault  in  preparation  against  his  govern- 
ment. This  may  properly  introduce  a 
great  constitutional  subject,  to  which 
some  peculiar  circumstances  of  our  own 
age  have  imperiously  directed  the  con- 
sideration of  parliament.  Though  the 
proceedings  of  1788  and  1810  are  un- 
doubtedly precedents  of  far  more  author- 
ity than  any  that  can  be  derived  from 
our  ancient  history,  yet  as  the  seal  of 
the  legislature  has  not  yet  been  set  upon 
this  controversy,  it  is  not  perhaps  alto- 
gether beyond  the  possibility  of  future 
discussion ;  and  at  least  it  cannot  be  un- 
interesting to  look  back  on  those  parallel 
or  analogous  cases,  by  which  the  deliber- 
ations of  parliament  upon  the  question 
of  regency  were  guided. 

While  the  kings  of  England  retained 


r  Barrington,  ubi  supra,  from  Rymer. 

t  There  are  several  later  cases  reported,  wherein 
villanage  was  pleaded,  and  one  of  them  as  late  as 
the  15th  of  James  I. — (Noy,  p.  27.)  See  Margrave's 
argument,  State  Trials,  vol.  xx.,  p.  41.  But  these 
are  so  briefly  stated,  that  it  is  difficult  in  general  to 
understand  them.  It  is  obvious,  however,  that 
judgment  was  in  no  case  given  in  favour  of  the 
plea  ;  so  that  we  can  infer  nothing  as  to  the  actual 
continuance  of  villanage. 

It  is  remarkable,  and  may  be  deemed  by  some 
persons  a  proof  of  legal  pedantry,  that  Sir  E.  Coke, 
while  he  dilates  on  the  law  of  villanage,  never  in- 
timates that  it  was  become  antiquated. 


their  continental  dominions,  and  Historical 
were  engaged  in  the  wars  to  instances  of 
which  those  gave  birth,  they  regencies: 
were  of  course  frequently  absent  from 
this  country.  Upon  such  occasions  the 
administration  seems  at  first  to  have  de- 
volved officially  on  the  justiciary,  as  chief 
servant  of  the  crown.  But  Henry  III.  be- 
gan the  practice  of  appointing  lieutenants, 
or  guardians  of  the  realm  (custodesregni), 
as  they  were  more  usually  he 

termed,  by  way  of  temporary  absence  of 
substitutes.  They  were  usu-  our  kings  in 
ally  nominated  by  the  king  F 
without  consent  of  parliament ;  and  their 
office  carried  with  it  the  right  of  exerci- 
sing all  the  prerogatives  of  the  crown.  It 
was  of  course  determined  by  the  king's 
return ;  and  a  distinct  statute  was  neces- 
sary, in  the  reign  of  Henry  V.,  to  provide 
that  a  parliament  called  by  the  guardian 
of  the  realm  during  the  king's  absence 
should  not  be  dissolved  by  that  event.* 
The  most  remarkable  circumstance  at- 
tending those  lieutenancies  was,  that  they 
were  sometimes  conferred  on  the  heir 
apparent  during  his  infancy.  The  Black 
Prince,  then  Duke  of  Cornwall,  was  left 
guardian  of  the  realm  in  1339,  when  he 
was  but  ten  years  old  ;f  and  Richard  his 
son,  when  still  younger,  in  1372,  during 
Edward  III.'s  last  expedition  into  France.  J 
These  do  not  however  bear  a  very  close 
analogy  to  regencies  in  the  strictest 
sense,  or  substitutions  during  the  natural 
incapacity  of  the  sovereign.  Of  such 
there  had  been  several  instances,  before 
it  became  necessary  to  supply  the  defi- 
ciency arising  from  Henry's  derange- 
ment. 1.  At  the  death  of  John,  At  the  ac. 
William,  earl  of  Pembroke  as-  cession  of 
sumed  the  title  of  rector  regis  Henry  m-'> 
et  regni,  with  the  consent  of  the  loyal 
barons  who  had  just  proclaimed  the  young 
king,  and  probably  conducted  the  gov- 
ernment in  a  great  measure  by  their  ad- 
vice. §  But  the  circumstances  were  too 
critical,  and  the  time  is  too  remote.,  to 
give  this  precedent  any  material  weight. 
2.  Edward  I.  being  in  Sicily  at  Of  Edward 
his  father's  death,  the  nobility  !•; 
met  at  the  Temple  church,  as  we  are  in- 
formed by  a  contemporary  writer,  and, 
after  making  a  new  great  seal,  appointed 
the  Archbishop  of  York,  Edward,  earl  of 
Cornwall,  and  the  Earl  of  Glocester,  to 
be  ministers  and  guardians  of  the  realm  ; 
who  accordingly  conducted  the  adminis- 

*  8  H.  V.,  c.  1. 

t  This  prince  having  been  sent  to  Antwerp,  six 
commissioners  were  appointed  to  open  parliament. 
—Rot.  Parl.,  13  E.  IIL,vol.  ii.,  p.  107. 

t  Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  748,      $  Matt.  Paris,  p.  243. 


442 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


.  VIII. 


tration  in  the  king's  name  until  his  return.* 
It  is  here  observable,  that  the  Earl  of 
Cornwall,  though  nearest  prince  of  the 
blood,  was  not  supposed  to  enjoy  any  su- 
perior title  to  the  regency,  wherein  he 
was  associated  with  two  other  nobles. 
But  while  the  crown  itself  was  hardly 
acknowledged  to  be  unquestionably  he- 
reditary, it  would  be  strange  if  any  no- 
tion of  such  a  right  to  the  regency  had 
been  entertained.  3..  At  the  accession 
of  Edward  of  Edward  III.,  then  fourteen 
In- '  years  old,  the  parliament,  which 
was  immediately  summoned,  nominated 
four  bishops,  four  earls,  and  six  barons 
as  a  standing  council,  at  the  head  of 
which  the  Earl  of  Lancaster  seems  to 
have  been  placed,  to  advise  the  king  in 
all  business  of  government.  It  was  an 
article  in  the  charge  of  treason,  or,  as  it 
was  then  styled,  of  accroaching  royal 
power,  against  Mortimer,  that  he  inter- 
meddled in  the  king's  household  without 
the  assent  of  this  council. f  They  may 
be  deemed  therefore  a  sort  of  parliament- 
ary regency,  though  the  duration  of  their 
functions  does  not  seem  to  be  defined, 
of  Richard  4.  The  proceedings  at  the  com- 
n-;  mencement  of  the  next  reign 

are  more  worthy  of  attention.  Edward 
III.  dying  June  21,  1377,  the  keepers  of 
the  great  seal  next  day,  in  absence  of  the 
chancellor  beyond  sea,  gave  it  into  the 

S3ung  king's  hands  before  his  council, 
e  immediately  delivered  it  to  the  Duke 
of  Lancaster,  and  the  duke  to  Sir  Nicho- 
las Bonde  for  safe  custody.  Four  days 
afterward,  the  king  in  council  delivered 
the  seal  to  the  bishop  of  St.  Davids,  who 
affixed  it  the  same  day  to  divers  letters 
patent.:}:  Richard  was  at  this  time  ten 
years  and  six  months  old;  an  age  cer- 
tainly very  unfit  for  the  personal  execu- 
tion of  sovereign  authority.  Yet  he  was 
supposed  capable  of  reigning  without  the 
aid  of  a  regency.  This  might  be  in  vir- 
tue of  a  sort  of  magic  ascribed  by  law- 
yers to  the  great  seal,  the  possession  of 
which  bars  all  further  inquiry,  and  ren- 
ders any  government  legal.  The  prac- 
tice of  modern  times,  requiring  the  con- 
stant exercise  of  the  sign  manual,  has 
made  a  public  confession  of  incapacity 
necessary  in  many  cases,  where  it  might 
have  been  concealed  or  overlooked  in 
earlier  periods  of  the  constitution.  But 
though  no  one  was  invested  with  the  of- 
fice of  regent,  a  council  of  twelve  was 
named  by  the  prelates  and  peers  at  the 

*  Matt.  Westmonast.  ap.    Brady's  History  of 
England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  1. 
t  Rot.Parl.,vol.  ii.,  p.  52. 
i  Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  171. 


king's  coronation,  July  16,  1377,  without 
whose  concurrence  no  public  measure 
was  to  be  carried  into  effect.  I  have 
mentioned  in  another  place  the  modifica- 
tions introduced  from  time  to  time  by 
parliament,  which  might  itself  be  deemed 
a  great  council  of  regency  during  the 
first  years  of  Richard. 

5.  The  next  instance  is  at  the  acces- 
sion of  Henry  VI.  This  prince  of  Henry 
was  but  nine  months  old  at  his  VI- 
father's  death ;  and  whether  fmm  a  more 
evident  incapacity  for  the^gj^iict  of 
government  in  his  case  tl«  Biat  of 
Richard  II.,  or  from  the  prSJI  |Fof  con- 
stitutional principles  in  the  fr5rty  years 
elapsed  since  the  latter's  accession,  far 
more  regularity  and  deliberation  were 
shown  in  supplying  the  deflHt  in  the  ex- 
ecutive authority.  Upon^fe  news  ar- 
riving that  Henry  V.  was^ead,  several 
lords  spiritual  and  temporal  assembled, 
on  account  of  the  imminent  necessity,  in 
order  to  preserve  peace,  and  provide  for 
the  exercise  of  officers  appertaining  to 
the  king.  These  peers  accordingly  is- 
sued commissions  to  judges,  sheriffs,  es- 
cheators,  and  others,  for  various  purposes, 
and  writs  for  a  new  parliament.  This 
was  opened  by  commission  under  the 
great  seal  directed  to  the  Duke  of  Gloces- 
ter,  in  the  usual  form,  and  with  the  king's 
test.*  Some  ordinances  were  made  in 
this  parliament  by  the  Duke  of  Gloces- 
ter  as  commissioner,  and  some  in  the 
king's  name.  The  acts  of  the  peers,  who 
had  taken  on  themselves  the  administra- 
tion, and  summoned  parliament,  were 
confirmed.  On  the  twenty-seventh  day 
of  its  session,  it  is  entered  upon  the  roll, 
that  the  king,  "considering  his  tender 
age,  and  inability  to  direct  in  person  the 
concerns  of  his  realm,  by  assent  of  lords 
and  commons,  appoints  the  Duke  of  Bed- 
ford, or,  in  his  absence  beyond  sea,  the 
Duke  of  Glocester,  to  be  protector  and 
defender  of  the  kingdom  and  English 
church,  and  the  king's  chief  counsellor." 
Letters  patent  were  made  out  to  this  ef- 
fect :  the  appointment  being  however  ex- 
pressly during  the  king's  pleasure.  Six- 
teen counsellors  were  named  in  parlia- 
ment to  assist  the  protector  in  his  admin- 
istration; and  their  concurrence  was 
made  necessary  to  the  removal  and  ap- 
pointment of  officers,  except  some  infe- 
rior patronage  specifically  reserved  to 
the  protector.  In  all  important  business 
that  should  pass  by  order  of  council,  the 
whole  or  major  part  were  to  be  present ; 
"  but  if  it  were  such  matter  that  the  king 


*  Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  169. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


443 


hath  been  accustomed  to  be  counselled 
of,  that  then  the  said  lords  proceed  not 
therein  without  the  advice  of  my  lords 
of  Bedford  or  Glocester."*  A  few  more 
counsellors  were  added  by  the  next  par- 
liament, and  divers  regulations  estab- 
lished for  their  observance. f 

This  arrangement  was  in  contraven- 
tion of  the  late  king's  testament,  which 
had  conferred  the  regency  on  the  Duke 
of  Glocester,  in  exclusion  of  his  elder 
the  nature  and  spirit  of 
as  will  be  better  imder- 
stodj  markable  passage  in  a  roll 

of  a"lH  Moment;  where  the  house 
of  lorcHP^Bfewer  to  a  request  of  Glo- 
cester, that  he  might  know  what  authori- 
ty he  possflbjpd  as  protector,  remind  him 
that  in  the^fet  parliament  of  the  king,! 
"ye  desirec^rjiave  had  ye  governaunce 
of  yis  land  ;  -affermyng  yat  hit  belonged 
unto  you  of  rygzt,  as  well  by  ye  mene  of 
your  birth,  as  by  ye  laste  wylle  of  ye 
kyng  yat  was  your  broyer,  whome  God 
assoile ;  alleggyng  for  you  such  groundes 
and  motyves  as  it  was  y ought  to  your  dis- 
cretion made  for  your  intent ;  whereupon, 
the  lords  spiritual  and  temporal  assembled 
there  in  parliament,  among  which  were 
there  my  lordes  your  uncles,  the  Bishop 
of  Winchester  that  now  liveth,  and  the 
Duke  of  Exeter,  and  your  cousin  the 
Earl  of  March  that  be  gone  to  God,  and 
of  Warwick,  and  other  in  great  number 
that  now  live,  had  great  and  long  delib- 
eration and  advice,  searched  precedents 
of  the  governail  of  the  land  in  time  and 
case  semblable,  when  kings  of  this  land 
have  been  tender  of  age,  took  also  infor- 
mation of  the  laws  of  the  land,  of  such 
persons  as  be  notably  learned  therein, 
and  finally  found  your  said  desire  not 
caused  nor  grounded  in  precedent,  nor 
in  the  law  of  the  land ;  the  which  the 
king  that  dead  is,  in  his  life  nor  might  by 
his  last  will  nor  otherwise  altre,  change, 
nor  abroge,  without  the  assent  of  the 
three  estates,  nor  commit  or  grant  to 
any  person  governance  or  rule  of  this 
land  longer  than  he  lived ;  but  on  that 
other  behalf,  the  said  lords  found  your 
said  desire  not  according  with  the  laws 
of  this  land,  and  against  the  right  and 
freedome  of  the  estates  of  the  same 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.iv.,  p.  174, 176.       t  Id.,  p.  201. 

\  I  follow  the  orthography  of  the  roll,  which  I 
hope  will  not  be  inconvenient  to  the  reader.  Why 
this  orthography,  from  obsolete  and  difficult,  so 
frequently  becomes  almost  modern,  as  will  appear 
in  the  course  of  these  extracts,  1  cannot  conjec- 
ture. The  usual  irregularity  of  ancient  spelling  is 
hardly  sufficient  to  account  for  such  variations ; 
but  if  there  be  any  error,  it  belongs  to  the  super- 
intendents of  that  publication,  and  is  not  mine. 


land.  Howe  were  it,  that  it  be  not 
thought,  that  any  such  thing  wittingly 
proceeded  of  your  intent ;  and  neverthe- 
less to  keep  peace  and  tranquillity,  and 
to  the  intent  to  ease  and  appease  you,  it 
was  advised  and  appointed  by  authority 
of  the  king,  assenting  the  three  estates 
of  this  land,  that  ye  in  absence  of  my 
lord  your  brother  of  Bedford,  should  be 
chief  of  the  king's  council,  and  devised 
unto  you  a  name  different  from  other 
counsellors,  not  the  name  of  tutor,  lieu- 
tenant, governor,  nor  of  regent,  nor  no 
name  that  should  import  authority  of 
governance  of  the  land,  but  the  name  of 
protector  and  defensor,  which  importeth 
a  personal  duty  of  attendance  to  the  ac- 
tual defence  of  the  land,  as  well  against 
enemies  outward,  if  case  required,  as 
against  rebels  inward,  if  any  were,  that 
God  forbid  ;  granting  you  therewith  cer- 
tain power,  the  which  is  specified  and 
contained  in  an  act  of  the  said  parlia- 
ment, to  endure  as  long  as  it  liked  the 
king.  In  the  which  if  the  intent  of  the 
said  estates  had  been,  that  ye  more  pow- 
er and  authority  should  have  had,  more 
should  have  been  expressed  therein  ;  to 
the  which  appointment,  ordinance,  and 
act,  ye  then  agreed  you  as  for  your  per- 
son, making  nevertheless  protestation, 
that  it  was  not  your  intent  in  any  wise  to 
deroge,  or  do  prejudice  unto  my  lord 
your  brother  of  Bedford  by  your  said 
agreement,  as  toward  any  right  that  he 
would  pretend  or  claim  in  the  gov- 
ernance of  this  land,  and  as  toward  any 
pre-eminence  that  you  might  have  or  be- 
long unto  you  as  chief  of  council,  it  is 
plainly  declared  in  the  said  act  and  arti- 
cles, subscribed  by  my  said  Lord  of  Bed- 
ford, by  yourself,  and  the  other  lords  of 
the  council.  But  as  in  parliament  to 
which  ye  be  called  upon  your  faith  and 
ligeance  as  Duke  of  Glocester,  as  other 
lords  be,  and  not  otherwise,  we  know  no 
power  nor  authority  that  ye  have,  other 
than  ye  as  Duke  of  Glocester  should 
have,  .the  king  being  in  parliament,  at 
years  of  mest  discretion  :  We  marvail- 
ing  with  all  our  hearts  that  considering 
the  open  declaration  of  the  authority  and 
power  belonging  to  my  Lord  of  Bedford, 
and  to  you  in  his  absence,  and  also  to 
the  king's  council,  subscribed  purely  and 
simply  by  my  said  Lord  of  Bedford,  and 
by  you,  that  you  should  in  any  wise  be 
stirred  or  moved  not  to  content  you 
therewith  or  to  pretend  you  any  other : 
Namely  considering  that  the  king,  bles- 
sed be  our  lord,  is  sith  the  time  of  the 
said  power  granted  unto  you,  far  gone 
and  grown  in  person,  in  wit,  and  under- 


444 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII. 


standing,  and  like  with  the  grace  of 
God  to  occupy  his  own  royal  power 
within  few  years  :  and  forasmuch  con- 
sidering the  things  and  causes  abovesaid, 
and  other  many  that  long  were  to  write, 
We  lords  aforesaid  pray,  exhort,  and  re- 
quire you,  to  content  you  with  the  power 
above  said  and  declared,  of  the  which  my 
lord  your  brother  of  Bedford,  the  king's 
eldest  uncle,  contented  him  ;  and  that  ye 
none  larger  power  desire,  will,  nor  use  ; 
giving  you  this  that  is  aboven  written 
for  our  answer  to  your  foresaid  demand, 
the  which  we  will  dwell  and  abide  with, 
withouten  variance  or  changing.  Over 
this  beseeching  and  praying  you  in  our 
most  humble  and  lowly  wise,  and  also 
requiring  you  in  the  king's  name,  that  ye. 
according  to  the  king's  commandment, 
contained  in  his  writ  sent  unto  you  in 
that  behalf,  come  to  this  his  present  par- 
liament, and  intend  to  the  good  effect 
and  speed  of  matters  to  be  demesned  and 
treted  in  the  same,  like  as  of  right  ye 
owe  to  do."* 

It  is  evident  that  this  plain,  or  rather 
rude  address  to  the  Duke  of  Glocester, 
was  dictated  by  the  prevalence  of  Cardi- 
nal Beaufort's  party  in  council  and  par- 
liament. But  the  transactions  in  the  for- 
mer parliament  are  not  unfairly  repre- 
sented; and  comparing  them  with  the 
passage  extracted  above,  we  may  per- 
haps be  entitled  to  infer:  1.  That  the 
king  does  not  possess  any  constitutional 
prerogative  of  appointing  a  regent  during 
the  minority  of  his  successor;  and  2. 
That  neither  the  heir  presumptive,  nor 
any  other  person,  is  entitled  to  exercise 
the  royal  prerogative  during  the  king's 
infancy  (or,  by  parity  of  reasoning,  his 
infirmity),  nor  to  any  title  that  conveys 
them ;  the  sole  right  of  determining  the 
persons  by  whom,  and  fixing  the  limita- 
tions under  which,  the  executive  govern- 
ment shall  be  conducted  in  the  king's 
name  and  behalf,  devolving  upon  the 
great  council  of  parliament. 

The  expression  used  in  the  lords'  ad- 
dress to  the  Duke  of  Glocester  relative 
to  the  young  king,  that  he  was  far  gone 
and  grown  in  person,  wit,  and  understand- 
ing, was  not  thrown  out  in  mere  flattery. 
In  two  years  the  party  hostile  to  Gloces- 
ter's  influence  had  gained  ground  enough 
to  abrogate  his  office  of  protector,  leav- 
ing only  the  honorary  title  of  chief  coun- 
sellor.! For  this  the  king's  coronation, 
at  eight  years  of  age,  was  thought  a  fair 
pretence  ;  and  undoubtedly  the  loss  of 

*  Rot.  Parl.,  6  H.  VI.,  vol.  iv.,  p.  326. 
fid.,  8H.VL,  p.  336. 


that  exceedingly  limited  authority  which 
had  been  delegated  to  the  protector  could 
not  have  impaired  the  strength  of  govern- 
ment. This  was  conducted  as  before  by 
a  selfish  and  disunited  council ;  but  the 
king's  name  was  sufficient  to  legalize 
their  measures,  nor  does  any  objection 
appear  to  have  been  made  in  parliament 
to  such  a  mockery  of  the  name  of  mon- 
archy. 

In  the  year  1454,  the  thirty-second  of 
Henry's  reign,  his  unhappy  rq^^^enry's 
ady,  transmitted  perhaps  &MII 
his  maternal  grandfather,! 
med  so  decided  a  charactB  [BFange- 
ment  or  imbecility,  that  parliament  could 
no  longer  conceal  from  itself  the  neces- 
sity of  a  more  efficient  rul^fc  This  as- 
sembly, which  had  been^Ritinued  by 
successive  prorogations  fo^Jparly  a  year, 
met  at  Westminster  on  the  14th  of  Feb- 
ruary, when  the  session  was  opened  by 
the  Duke  of  York  as  king's  commission- 
er. Kemp,  archbishop  of  Canterbury  and 
chancellor  of  England,  dying  soon  after- 
ward, it  was  judged  proper  to  acquaint 
the  king  at  Windsor  by  a  deputation  of 
twelve  lords  with  this  and  other  subjects 
concerning  his  government.  In  fact,  per- 
haps this  was  a  pretext  chosen  in  order 
to  ascertain  his  real  condition.  These 
peers  reported  to  the  lords'  house  two 
days  afterward,  that  they  had  opened  to 
his  majesty  the  several  articles  of  their 
message,  but  "  could  get  no  answer  ne 
sign  for  no  prayer  ne  desire,"  though  they 
repeated  their  endeavours  at  three  differ- 
ent interviews.  This  report,  with  the  in- 
struction on  which  it  was  founded,  was, 
at  their  prayer,  entered  of  record  in  par- 
liament. Upon  so  authentic  a  Duke  of 
testimony  of  their  sovereign's  York  made 
infirmity,  the  peers,  adjourning  prot 
two  days  for  solemnity  or  deliberation, 
"elected  and  nominated  Richard,  duke 
of  York,  to  be  protector  and  defender  of 
the  realm  of  England  during  the  king's 
pleasure."  The  duke,  protesting  his  in- 
sufficiency, requested,  "  that  in  this  pres- 
ent parliament,  and  by  authority  thereof, 
it  be  enacted,  that  of  yourself  and  of  your 
ful  and  mere  disposition,  ye  desire,  name, 
and  call  me  to  the  said  name  and  charge, 
and  that  of  any  presumption  of  myself,  I 
take  them  not  upon  me,  but  only  of  the 
due  and  humble  obeisance  that  I  owe  to 
do  unto  the  king,  our  most  dread  and  sov- 
ereign lord,  and  to  you  the  peerage  of  this 
land,  in  whom,  by  the  occasion  of  the  in- 
firmity of  our  said  sovereign  lord,  resteth 
the  exercise  of  his  authority,  whose  no- 
ble commandments  I  am  as  ready  to  per- 
form and  obey  as  any  of  his  liegeman 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION, 


445 


alive,  and  that  at  such  time  as  it  shall 
please  our  blessed  Creator  to  restore  his 
most  noble  person  to  healthful  disposi- 
tion, it  shall  like  you  so  to  declare  and 
notify  to  his  good  grace."  To  this  prot- 
estation the  lords  answered,  that  for  his 
and  their  discharge  an  act  of  parliament 
should  be  made,  conformably  to  that  en- 
acted in  the  king's  infancy,  since  they 
were  compelled  by  an  equal  necessity 
and  name  a  protector 
to  the  Duke  of  York's 

rmed  how  far  the  pow- 
er ^n  of  his  charge  should 
extewl  ^ied,  that  he  should  be 
's  council,  and  "  devised 
therefore  tfljjyie  said  duke  a  name  differ- 
ent from  Ptfk  counsellors,  not  the  name 
of  tutor,  lie^fciant,  governor,  nor  of  re- 
gent, nor  no^Pime  that  shall  import  au- 
thority of  govWnance  of  the  land ;  but  the 
said  name"  of  protector  and  defensor;" 
and  so  forth,  according  to  the  language 
of  their  former  address  to  the  Duke  of 
Glocester.  An  act  was  passed  accord- 
ingly, constituting  the  Duke  of  York  pro- 
tector of  the  church  and  kingdom,  and 
chief  counsellor  of  the  king  during  the 
latter's  pleasure ;  or  until  the  Prince  of 
Wales  should  attain  years  of  discretion, 
on  whom  the  said  dignity  was  immedi- 
ately to  devolve.  The  patronage  of  cer- 
tain spiritual  benefices  was  reserved  to 
the  protector,  according  to  the  precedent 
of  the  king's  minority,  which  parliament 
was  resolved  to  follow  in  every  partic- 
ular.* 

It  may  be  conjectured,  by  the  provision 
made  in  favour  of  the  Prince  of  Wales, 
then  only  two  years  old,  that  the  king's 
condition  was  supposed  to  be  beyond 
hope  of  restoration.  But  in  about  nine 
months  he  recovered  sufficient  speech 
and  recollection  to  supersede  the  Duke 
of  York's  protectorate.!  The  succeed- 
ing transactions  are  matter  of  familiar, 
though  not,  perhaps,  very  perspicuous 
history.  The  king  was  a  prisoner  in  his 
enemies'  hands  after  the  affair  at  St.  Al- 
bans,J  when  parliament  met  in  July,  1455. 

*  Rot.  Par!.,  vol.  v.,  p.  241. 

t  Pastpn  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  81.  The  proofs  of 
sound  mind  given  in  this  letter  are  not  very  deci- 
sive, but  the  wits  of  sovereigns  are  never  weighed 
in  golden  scales. 

t  This  may  seem  an  improper  appellation  for 
what  is  usually  termed  a  battle,  wherein  5000  men 
are  said  to  have  fallen.  But  I  rely  here  upon  my 
faithful  guide,  the  Paston  Letters,  p.  100,  one  of 
which,  written  immediately  after  the  engagement, 
says  that  only  six  score  were  killed.  Surely  this 
testimony  outweighs  a  thousand  ordinary  chroni- 
clers. And  the  nature  of  the  action,  which  was  a 
sudden  attack  on  the  town  of  St.  Albans,  without 
any  pitched  combat,  renders  the  larger  number  im- 


In  this  session  little  was  done  except  re- 
newing the  strongest  oaths  of  allegiance 
to  Henry  and  his  family.  But  the  two 
houses  meeting  again  after  a  prorogation 
to  November  12,  during  which  time  the 
Duke  of  York  had  strengthened  his  par- 
ty, and  was  appointed  by  commission  the 
king's  lieutenant  to  open  the  parliament, 
a  proposition  was  made  by  the  commons, 
that  "  whereas  the  king  had  deputed  the 
Duke  of  York  as  his  commissioner  to 
proceed  in  this  parliament,  it  was  thought 
by  the  commons,  that  if  the  king  hereaf- 
ter could  not  attend  to  the  protection  of 
the  country,  an  able  person  should  be  ap- 
pointed protector,  to  whom  they  might 
have  recourse  for  redress  of  injuries; 
especially  as  great  disturbances  had  late- 
ly arisen  in  the  west  through  the  feuds 
of  the  Earl  of  Devonshire  and  Lord  Bon- 
vile."*  The  Archbishop  of  Canterbury 
answered  for  the  lords,  that  they  would 
take  into  consideration  what  the  com- 
mons had  suggested.  Two  days  after- 
ward, the  latter  appeared  again  with  a  re- 
quest conveyed  nearly  in  the  same  terms. 
Upon  their  leaving  the  chamber,  the 
archbishop,  who  was  also  chancellor,  mo- 
ved the  peers  to  answer  what  should  be 
done  in  respect  of  the  requesj  of  the  com- 
mons ;  adding  that,  "  it  is  understood 
that  they  will  not  further  proceed  in  mat- 
ters of  parliament  to  the  time  that  they 
have  answer  to  their  desire  and  request." 
This  naturally  ended  in  the  reappoint- 
ment  of  the  Duke  of  York  to  his  charge 
of  protector.  The  commons  indeed  were 
determined  to  bear  no  delay.  As  if  ig- 
norant of  what  had  been  resolved  in  con- 
sequence of  their  second  request,  they 
urged  it  a  third  time  on  the  next  day  of 
meeting;  and  received  for  answer  that 
"  the  king  our  said  sovereign  lord,  by  the 
advice  and  assent  of  his  lords  spiritual 
and  temporal  being  in  this  present  parlia- 
ment, had  named  and  desired  the  Duke 
of  York  to  be  protector  and  defensor  of 
this  land."  It  is  worthy  of  notice,  that 
in  these  words,  and  indeed  in  effect,  as 
appears  by  the  whole  transaction,  the 
house  of  peers  assumed  an  exclusive 
right  of  choosing  the  protector,  though  in 
the  act  passed  to  ratify  their  election,  the 
commons'  assent,  as  a  matter  of  course, 
is  introduced.  The  last  year's  precedent 
was  followed  in  the  present  instance,  ex- 
cepting a  remarkable  deviation ;  instead 
of  the  words  "  during  the  king's  pleas- 


Drobable.  Whethamstede,  himself  abbot  of  St.  Al- 
lans at  the  time,  makes  the  Duke  of  York's  army 
but  3000  fighting  men,  p.  352. 

*  See  some  account  of  these  in  Paston  Letters, 
vol.  i.,  p.  114. 


446 


EUROPE  DtJRlNG  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  VIII; 


ure,"  the  duke  was  to  hold  his  office  "  un- 
til he  should  be  discharged  of  it  by  the 
lords  in  parliament."* 

This  extraordinary  clause,  and  the 
slight  allegations  on  which  it  was  thought 
fit  to  substitute  a  vicegerent  for  the 
reigning  monarch,  are  sufficient  to  prove, 
even  if  the  common  historians  were  si- 
lent, that  whatever  passed  as  to  this  sec- 
ond protectorate  of  the  Duke  of  York 
was  altogether  of  a  revolutionary  com- 
plexion. In  the  actual  circumstances  of 
civil  blood  already  spilled  and  the  king  in 
captivity,  we  may  justly  wonder  that  so 
much  regard  was  shown  to  the  regular 
forms  and  precedents  of  the  constitution. 
But  the  duke's  natural  moderation  will 
account  for  part  of  this,  and  the  temper 
of  the  lords  for  much  more.  That  as- 
sembly appears  for  the  most  part  to  have 
been  faithfully  attached  to  the  house  of 
Lancaster.  The  partisans  of  Richard 
were  found  in  the  commons  and  among 
the  populace.  Several  months  elapsed 
after  the  victory  of  St.  Albans,  before  an 
attempt  was  thus  made  to  set  aside  a 
sovereign,  not  labouring,  so  far  as  we 
know,  under  any  more  notorious  infir- 
mity than  before.  It  then  originated  in 
the  commons,  and  seems  to  have  receiv- 
ed but  an  unwilling  consent  from  the 
upper  house.  Even  in  constituting  the 
Duke  of  York  protector  over  the  head 
of  Henry,  whom  all  men  despaired  of 
ever  seeing  in  a  state  to  face  the  dangers 
of  such  a  season,  the  lords  did  not  forget 
the  rights  of  his  son,  By  this  latter  in- 
strument, as  well  as  by  that  of  the  pre- 
ceding year,  the  duke's  office  was  to 
cease  upon  the  Prince  of  Wales  arriving 
at  the  age  of  discretion. 

But  what  had  been  long  propagated  in 
Duke  of  secret,  soon  became  familiar  to 
York's  the  public  ear ;  that  the  Duke 
claim  to  the  of  York  laid  claim  to  the  throne. 
He  was  unquestionably  heir 
general  of  the  royal  line,  through  his 
mother,  Anne,  daughter  of  Roger  Morti- 
mer, earl  of  March,  son  of  Philippa, 
daughter  of  Lionel,  duke  of  Clarence, 
third  son  of  Edward  III.  Roger  Morti- 
mer's eldest  son,  Edmund,  had  been  de- 
clared heir  presumptive  by  Richard  II. ; 
but  his  infancy  during  the  revolution  that 
placed  Henry  IV.  on  the  throne  had 
caused  his  pretensions  to  be  passed  over 
in  silence.  The  new  king,  however,  was 
induced,  by  a  jealousy  natural  to  his  situ- 
ation, to  detain  the  Earl  of  March  in  cus- 
tody. Henry  V.  restored  his  liberty  ; 
and  though  he  had  certainly  connived  for 


*  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  284—290. 


a  while  at  the  conspiracy  planned  by  his 
brother-in-law  the  Earl  of  Cambridge  and 
Lord  Scrop  of  Masham  to  place  the  crown 
on  his  head,  that  magnanimous  prince 
gave  him  a  free  pardon,  and  never  testi- 
fied any  displeasure.  The  present  Duke 
of  York  was  honoured  by  Henry  VI.  with 
the  highest  trusts  in  France  and  Ireland  ; 
such  as  Beaufort  and  Glocester  could 
never  have  dreamed  of  conferring  on 
him,  if  his  title  to  the  cro  wMtaiot  been 
reckoned  obsolete. 
pertinently  remarked,  t 
petrated  by  Margaret  a 
in  the  death  of  the  Duke 
the  destruction  of  the  hdtisc  mcas- 

ter.*  From  this  time  the  Duke  of  York, 
next  heir  in  presumption  \J^  the  king 
was  childless,  might  innp^Kiy  contem- 
plate the  prospect  of  royaB  ';  and  when 
such  ideas  had  long  been  passing  through 
his  mind,  we  may  judge  how  reluctantly 
the  birth  of  Prince  Edward,  nine  years 
after  Henry's  marriage,  would  be  admitted 
to  disturb  them.  The  queen's  administra- 
tion unpopular,  careless  of  national  inter- 
ests, and  partial  to  his  inveterate  enemy, 
the  Duke  of  Somerset  ;f  the  king  incapa- 
ble of  exciting  fear  or  respect ;  himself 
conscious  of  powerful  alliances  and  uni- 
versal favour ;  all  these  circumstances 
combined  could  hardly  fail  to  nourish 
these  opinions  of  hereditary  right,  which 
he  must  have  imbibed  from  his  infancy. 

The  Duke  of  York  preserved  through 
the  critical  season  of  rebellion  such  mod- 
eration and  humanity,  that  we  may  par- 
don him  that  bias  in  favour  of  his  own 
pretensions  to  which  he  became  himself 
a  victim.  Margaret  perhaps,  by  her  san- 
guinary violence  in  the  Coventry  parlia- 
ment of  1460,  where  the  duke  and  all  his 
adherents  were  attainted,  left  him  not  the 
choice  of  remaining  a  subject  with  impu- 
nity. But  with  us,  who  are  to  weigh 
these  ancient  factions  in  the  balance  of 
wisdom  and  justice,. there  should  be  no 
hesitation  in  deciding  that  the  house  of 
Lancaster  were  lawful  sovereigns  of 
England.  I  am  indeed  astonished,  that 
not  only  such  historians  as  Carte,  who 
wrote  undisguisedly  upon  a  Jacobite  sys- 
tem, but  even  men  of  juster  principles, 
have  been  inadvertent  enough  to  mention 
the  right  of  the  house  of  York.  If  the 
original  consent  of  the  nation,  if  three 
descents  of  the  crown,  if  repeated  acts 
of  parliament,  if  oaths  of  allegiance  from 


*  Hall,  p.  210. 

f  The  ill-will  of  York  and  the  queen  began  as 
early  as  1449,  as  we  learn  from  an  unequivocal  tes- 
timony, a  letter  of  that  date  in  the  Paston  collec- 
tion, vol.  i.,  p.  26. 


PA«T  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


447 


the  whole  kingdom,  and  more  particularly 
from  those  who  now  advanced  a  contrary 
pretension,  if  undisturbed,  unquestioned 
possession  during  sixty  years  could  not 
secure  the  reigning  family  against  a  mere 
defect  in  their  genealogy,  when  were  the 
people  to  expect  tranquillity  ]  Sceptres 
were  committed,  and  governments  were 
instituted,  for  public  protection  and  pub- 
lic hanuiiLess^iiot  certainly  for  the  benefit 
Jie  security  of  particular 
prejudice  has  less  in  its 
jas  been  more  fatal  to 
dnd,  than  that  which 
'*tf  subjects  as  a  family's 
leritance.  For,  as  this  opinion 
induces  reigning  princes  and  their  cour- 
tiers to  looBuiihe  people  as  made  only 
to  obey  the^Hkr  when  the  tide  of  events 
has  swept  \ftfh  from  their  thrones,  it  be- 
gets a  fond  twpe  of  restoration,  a  sense 
of  injury  and  of  imprescriptible  rights, 
which  give  the  show  of  justice  to  fresh 
disturbances  of  public  order  and  rebell- 
ions against  established  authority.  Even 
in  cases  of  unjust  conquest,  which  are  far 
stronger  than  any  domestic  revolution, 
time  heals  the  injury  of  wounded  inde- 
pendence, the  forced  submission  to  a  vic- 
torious enemy  is  changed  into  spontane- 
ous allegiance  to  a  sovereign,  and  the 
laws  of  God  and  nature  enjoin  the  obe- 
dience that  is  challenged  by  reciprocal 
benefits.  But  far  more  does  every  na- 
tional government,  however  violent  in 
its  origin,  become  legitimate,  when  uni- 
versally obeyed  and  justly  exercised, 
the  possession  drawing  after  it  the  right; 
not  certainly  that  success  can  alter  the 
moral  character  of  actions,  or  privilege 
usurpation  before  the  tribunal  of  human 
opinion,  or  in  the  pages  of  history,  but 
that  the  recognition  of  a  government 
by  the  people  is  the  binding  pledge  of 
their  allegiance  so  long  as  its  corre- 
sponding duties  are  fulfilled.*  And  thus 
the  law  of  England  has  been  held  to 
annex  the  subject's  fidelity  to  the  reign- 
ing monarch,  by  whatever  title  he  may 
have  ascended  the  throne,  and  whoever 
else  may  be  its  claimant. f  But  the  stat- 
ute of  llth  of  Henry  VII.,  c.  1,  has  fur- 
nished an  unequivocal  commentary  upon 
this  principle ;  when,  alluding  to  the  con- 

*  Upon  this  great  question  the  fourth  discourse 
in  Sir  Michael  Foster's  Reports  ought  particularly 
to  be  read.  Strange  doctrines  have  been  revived 
lately,  and  though  not  exactly  referred  to  the  con- 
stitution of  this  country,  yet,  as  general  principles, 
easily  applicable  to  it ;  which,  a  century  since, 
would  have  tended  to  shake  the  present  family  in 
the  throne. 

t  Male's  Pleas  of  the  Crown,  vol.  i.,  p.  61,  101 
(edit.  1736). 


demnations  and  forfeitures  by  which 
those  alternate  successes  of  the  whit© 
and  red  roses  had  almost  exhausted  the 
noble  blood  of  England,  it  enacts  that 
"  no  man  for  doing  truth  and  faithful  ser- 
vice to  the  king  for  the  time  being,  be 
convict,  or  attaint  of  high  treason,  nor  of 
other  offences,  by  act  of  parliament  or 
otherwise." 

Though  all  classes  of  men  and  all  parts 
of  England  were  divided  into  War  of  the 
factions  by  this  unhappy  con-  Lancas- 
test,  yet  the  strength  of  the  triansand 
Yorkists  lay  in  London  and  the 
neighbouring  counties,  and  generally 
among  the  middling  and  lower  people. 
And  this  is  what  might  naturally  be  ex- 
pected. For  notions  of  hereditary  right 
take  easy  hold  of  the  populace,  who  feel 
an  honest  sympathy  for  those  whom  they 
consider  as  injured ;  while  men  of  noble 
birth  and  high  station  have  a  keener  sense 
of  personal  duty  to  their  sovereign,  and 
of  the  baseness  of  deserting  their  al- 
legiance. Notwithstanding  the  wide- 
spreading  influence  of  the  Nevils,  most 
of  the  nobility  were  well  affected  to  the 
reigning  dynasty.  We  have  seen  how 
reluctantly  they  acquiesced  in  the  second 
protectorate  of  the  Duke  of  York,  after 
the  battle  of  St.  Albans.  Thirty-two- 
temporal  peers  took  an  oath  of  fealty  to 
Henry  and  his  issue  in  the  Coventry  par- 
liament of  1460,  which  attainted  the 
Duke  of  York  and  the  earls  of  Warwick 
and  Salisbury.*  And,  in  the  memorable 
circumstances  of  the  cfake's  claim  person- 
ally made  in  parliament,  it  seems  mani- 
fest that  the  lords  complied  not  only 
with  hesitation,  but  unwillingness ;  and  in 
fact  testified  their  respect  and  duty  for 
Henry  by  confirming  the  crown  to  him 
during  his  life.f  The  rose  of  Lancaster 
blushed  upon  the  banners  of  the  Staf- 
fords,  the  Percies,  the  Veres,  the  Hol- 
lands, and  the  Courtneys.  All  these  il- 
lustrious families  lay  crushed  for  a  time 
under  the  ruins  of  their  party.  But  the 
course  of  fortune,  which  has  too  great  a 
mastery  over  crowns  and  sceptres  to  be 
controlled  by  men's  affections,  invested 

*  Rot.  ParL,  vol.  v.,  p.  351. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  p.  375.  This  entry  in  the  roll  is 
highly  interesting  and  important.  It  ought  to  be 
read  in  preference  to  any  of  our  historians.  Hume, 
who  drew  from  inferior  sources,  is  not  altogether 
accurate.  Yet  one  remarkable  circumstance,  told 
by  Hall  and  other  chroniclers,  that  the  Duke  of 
York  stood  by  the  throne,  as  if  to  claim  it,  though 
omitted  entirely  in  the  roll,  is  confirmed  by  Wheth- 
amstede,  abbot  of  St.  Albans,  who  was  probably 
then. present  (p.  484,  edit.  Hearne).  This  shows 
that  we  should  only  doubt  and  not  reject,  -unless 
upon  real  grounds  of  suspicion,  the  assertions  of 
secondary  writers. 


448 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[ClIAP.    VIII. 


Edward  IV.  with  a  possession,  which  the 
general  consent  of  the  nation  both  sanc- 
tioned and  secured.  This  was  effected 
in  no  slight  degree  by  the  furious  spirit 
of  Margaret,  who  began  a  system  of  ex- 
termination by  acts  of  attainder,  and  ex- 
ecution of  prisoners,  that  created  abhor- 
rence, though  it  did  not  prevent  imitation. 
And  the  barbarities  of  her  northern  army, 
whom  she  led  towards  London  after  the 
battle  of  Wakefield,  lost  the  Lancastrian 
cause  its  former  friends,*  and  might  just- 
ly convince  reflecting  men,  that  it  were 
better  to  risk  the  chances  of  a  new  dy- 
nasty, than  trust  the  kingdom  to  an  ex- 
asperated faction. 

A  period  of  obscurity  and  confusion 
Edward  iv  ensu.es>  during  which  we  have 
as  little  insight  into  constitu- 
tional as  general  history.  There  are  no 
contemporary  chroniclers  of  any  value, 
and  the  rolls  of  parliament,  by  whose 
light  we  have  hitherto  steered,  become 
mere  registers  of  private  bills,  or  of  peti- 
tions relating  to  commerce.  The  reign 
of  Edward  IV.  is  the  first  during  which 
no  statute  was  passed  for  the  redress  of 
grievances  or  maintenance  of  the  sub- 
ject's liberty.  Nor  is  there,  if  I  am  cor- 
rect, a  single  petition  of  this  nature  upon 
the  roll.  Whether  it  Avere  that  the  com- 
mons had  lost  too  much  of  their  ancient 
courage  to  present  any  remonstrances, 
or  that  a  wilful  omission  has  vitiated  the 
record,  is  hard  to  determine ;  but  we  cer- 
tainly must  not  imagine,  that  a  govern- 
ment cemented  with  blood  poured  on  the 
scaffold  as  well  as  in  the  field,  under  a 
passionate  and  unprincipled  sovereign, 
would  afford  no  scope  for  the  just  ani- 
madversion of  parliament.!  The  reign 
of  Edward  IV.  was  a  reign  of  terror. 
One  half  of  the  noble  families  had  been 
thinned  by  proscription ;  and  though  gen- 
erally restored  in  blood  by  the  reversal 
of  their  attainders,  a  measure  certainly 
deserving  of  much  approbation,  were 
still  under  the  eyes  of  vigilant  and  invet- 
erate enemies.  The  opposite  faction 

*  The  abbey  of  St.  Albans  was  stripped  by  the 
queen  and  her  army  after  the  second  battle  fought 
at  that  place,  Feb.  17,  M61 ;  which  changed  Wheth- 
amstede,  the  abbot  and  historiographer,  from  a  vio- 
lent Lancastrian  into  a  Yorkist.  His  change  of 
party  is  quite  sudden,  and  amusing  enough.  See 
too  the  Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  206.  Yet  the 
Paston  family  were  originally  Lancastrian,  and  re- 
turned to  that  side  in  1470. 

f  There  are  several  instances  of  violence  and 
oppression  apparent  on  the  rolls  during  this  reign, 
but  not  proceeding  from  the  crown.  One  of  a  re- 
markable nature,  vol.  v.,  p.  173,  was  brought  for- 
ward to  throw  an  odium  on  the  Duke  of  Clarence, 
who  had  been  concerned  in  it.  Several  passages 
indicate  the  character  of  the  Duke  of  Glocester. 


would  be  cautious  how  they  resisted  a 
dng  of  their  own  creation,  while  the 
hopes  of  their  adversaries  were  only  dor- 
mant. And  indeed,  without  relying  on 
this  supposition,  it  is  commonly  seen, 
that  when  temporary  circumstances  have 
given  a  king  the  means  of  acting  in  dis- 
regard of  his  subjects'  privileges,  it  is  a 
very  difficult  undertaking  for  them  to  re- 
cover a  liberty  which  has  .nrit  so 
effectual  as  habitual 
Besides  the  several  p 


the  Lancastrian  partj^  :        t    >e 

extenuated  by  the  comm 
;aliation  of  similar  pro^rrp  imty 

"or  the  actual  government,  or  just'pun- 

shment  of  rebellion  agains^^  legitimate 
heir,  there  are  several  rep^B  instances 
of  violence  and  barbarity  J  He  reign  of 
Edward  IV.,  which  have.  9  Jr<  such  plau- 
sible excuses.  Every  orre*-  knows  the 
common  stones  of  the  citizen  who  was 
attainted  of  treason  for  an  idle  speech 
that  he  would  make  his  son  heir  to  the 

rown,  the  house  where  he  dwelt;  and 
of  Thomas  Burdett,  who  wished  the 
horns  of  his  stag  in  the  belly  of  him 
who  had  advised  the  king  to  shoot  it. 
3f  the  former  I  can  assert  nothing,  though 
I  do  not  believe  it  to  be  accurately  re- 
Dorted.  But  certainly  the  accusation 
against  Burdett,  however  iniquitous,  was 

ot  confined  to  these  frivolous  words  ; 
which  indeed  do  not  appear  in  his  en- 
dictment,*  or  in  a  passage  relative  to  his 

onviction  in  the  roll  of  parliament. 
Burdett  was  a  servant  and  friend  of  the 
Duke  of  Clarence,  and  sacrificed  as  a 
preliminary  victim.  It  was  an  article 
of  charge  against  Clarence  that  he  had 
attempted  to  persuade  the  people  that 

Thomas  Burdett  his  servant,  which  was 
[awfully  and  truly  attainted  of  treason, 
was  wrongfully  put  to  death."f  There 
could  indeed  be  no  more  oppressive 
usage  inflicted  upon  meaner  persons  than 
this  attainder  of  the  Duke  of  Clarence, 
an  act  for  which  a  brother  could  not  be 
pardoned  had  he  been  guilty  ;  and  which 
deepens  the  shadow  of  a  tyrannical  age, 
if,  as  it  seems,  his  offence  towards  Ed- 
ward was  but  levity  and  rashness. 


<•  See  in  Cro.  Car.  120,  the  endictment  against 
Burdett  for  compassing  the  king's  death  and  for 
that  purpose  conspiring  with  Stacie  and  Blake  to 
calculate  his  nativity  and  his  son's,  ad  sciendum 
quando  iidem  rex  et  Edwardns  ejus  films  morion- 
tur :  Also  for  the  same  end  dispersing  divers  rhymes 
and  ballads  de  murmuratiombus,  seditionibus  et 
proditoriis  excitationibus,  factas  et  fabricatas  apud 
Holbourn,  to  the  intent  that  the  people  might 
withdraw  their  love  from  the  king  and  desert  him, 
ac  erga  ipsum  regem  levarent,  ad  finalem  destruc- 
tionem  ipsorum  regis  ac  domini  principis,  &c. 

f  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  vi.,  p.  193. 


PART  III.] 


ENGLISH  CONSTITUTION. 


449 


But  whatever  acts  of  injustice  we  may 
attribute,  from  authority  or  conjecture,  to 
Edward's  government,  it  was  very  far 
from  being  unpopular.  His  love  of  pleas- 
ure, his  affability,  his  courage,  and  beauty, 
gave  him  a  credit  with  his  subjects  which 
he  had  no  real  virtue  to  challenge.  This 
restored  him  to  the  throne,  even  against 
the  prodigious  influence  of  Warwick,  and 
VII.  to  treat  his  mem- 
an(*  acknowledge  him 
>  The  latter  years  of 
sed  in  repose  at  home 
aue:  ufearalleled  convulsions, 

ad  after  more  than  a 
warfare.     His  de- 
mans of  subsidy  were  therefore  moder- 
ate, and  e^fct  defrayed  by  a  nation  who 
were  mlkBBapid  advances  towards  op- 

The  rotts^plefiry  VU.'s  first  parliament  are 
full  of  an  absirmXwifusion  in  thought  and  language, 
which  is  rendered  odious  by  the  purposes  to  which 
it  is  applied.  Both  Henry  VI.  and  Edward  IV.  are 
considered  as  lawful  kings  ;  except  in  one  instance, 
where  Alan  Cotterell,  petitioning  for  the  reversal 
of  his  attainder,  speaks  of  Edward  "late  called 
Edward  IV."  (vol.  vi.,  p.  290).  But  this  is  only  the 
language  of  a  private  Lancastrian.  And  Henry 
VI.  passes  for  having  been  king  during  his  short 
restoration  in  1470,  when  Edward  had  been  nine 
years  upon  the  throne.  For  the  Earl  of  Oxford  is 
said  to  have  been  attainted  "  for  the  true  allegiance 
and  service  he  owed  and  did  to  Henry  VI.,  at 
Barnet  field  and  otherwise"  (p.  281).  This  might 
be  reasonable  enough  on  the  true  principle  that 
allegiance  is  due  to  a  king  de  facto ;  if  indeed  we 
could  determine  who  was  the  king  de  facto  on  the 
morning  of  the  battle  of  Barnet.  But  this  princi- 
ple was  not  fairly  recognised.  Richard  III.  is  al- 
ways called,  "in  deed  and  not  in  right,  King  of 
England."  Nor  was  this  merely  founded  on  his 
usurpation  as  against  his  nephew.  For  that  un- 
fortunate boy  is  little  better  treated,  and  in  the  act 
of  resumption,  1  H.  VII.,  while  Edward  IV.  is 
styled  "  late  king,"  appears  only  with  the  denomi- 
nation of  "  Edward  his  son,  late  called  Edward 
V.,"  p.  336.  Who  then  was  king  after  the  death 
of  Edward  IV.  ?  And  was  his  son  really  illegiti- 
mate, as  a  usurping  uncle  pretended  ?  Or  did 
the  crime  of  Richard,  though  punished  in  him, 
enure  to  the  benefit  of  Henry  ?  These  were  points 
which,  like  the  fate  of  the  young  princes  m  the 
Tower,  he  chose  to  wrap  in  discreet  silence.  But 
the  first  question  he  seems  to  have  answered  in 
his  own  favour.  For  Richard  himself,  Howard, 
duke  of  Norfolk,  Lord  Lovel,  and  some  others,  are 
attainted  (p.  276),  for  '  traitorously  intending,  com- 
passing, and  imagining'  the  death  of  Henry  ;  of 
course  before  or  at  the  battle  of  Bosworth ;  and 
while  his  right,  unsupported  by  possession,  could 
have  rested  only  on  an  hereditary  title,  which  it 
was  an  insult  to  the  nation  to  prefer.  These  mon- 
strous proceedings  explain  the  necessity  of  that 
conservative  statute  to  which  I  have  already  allu- 
ded, which  passed  in  the  eleventh  year  of  his  reign, 
and  afforded  as  much  security  for  men  following 
the  plain  line  of  rallying  round  the  standard  of  their 
country  as  mere  law  can  offer.  There  is  some  ex- 
traordinary reasoning  upon  this  act  in  Carte's  His- 
tory, vol.  ii.,  p.  844,  for  the  purpose  of  proving  that 
the  adherents  of  George  II.  would  not  be  protected 
by  it  on  the  restoration  of  the  true  blood. 
Ff 


ulence.  According  to  Sir  John  Fortes- 
cue,  nearly  one  fifth  of  the  whole  king- 
dom had  come  to  the  king's  hand  by  for- 
feiture, at  some  time  or  other  since  the 
commencement  of  his  reign.*  Many  in- 
deed of  these  lands  had  been  restored, 
and  others  lavished  away  in  grants,  but 
the  surplus  revenue  must  still  have  been 
considerable. 

Edward  IV.  was  the  first  who  practised 
a  new  method  of  taking  his  subjects1 
money  without  consent  of  parliament, 
under  the  plausible  name  of  benevolen- 
ces. These  came  in  place  of  the  still 
more  plausible  loans  of  former  monarchs, 
and  were  principally  levied  on  the  weal- 
thy traders.  Though  no  complaint  ap- 
pears in  the  parliamentary  records  of  his 
reign,  which,  as  has  been  observed,  com- 
plain of  nothing,  the  illegality  was  un- 
doubtedly felt  and  resented.  In  the  re- 
markable address  to  Richard  by  that 
tumultuary  meeting  which  invited  him 
to  assume  the  crown,  we  find,  among 
general  assertions  of  the  state's  decay 
through  misgovernment,  the  following 
strong  passage :  "  For  certainly  we  be 
determined  rather  to  aventure  and  com- 
mitte  us  to  the  perill  of  owre  lyfs  and 
jopardie  of  deth,  than  to  lyve  in  such 
thraldome  and  bondage  as  we  have  lyved 
long  tyme  heretofore  oppressed  and  in- 
jured by  extortions  and  newe  impositions, 
ayenst  the  lawes  of  God  and  man,  and  the 
libertie,  old  policie,  and  laws  of  this 
realme,  whereyn  every  Englishman  is  in- 
herited."! Accordingly,  in  Richard  III.'s 
only  parliament,  an  act  was  passed, 
which,  after  reciting  in  the  strongest 
terms  the  grievances  lately  endured, 
abrogates  and  annuls  for  ever  all  exac- 
tions under  the  name  of  benevolence. J 
The  liberties  of  this  country  were  at 
least  not  directly  impaired  by  the  usur- 
pation of  Richard.  But  from  an  act  so 
deeply  tainted  with  moral  guilt,  as  well 
as  so  violent  in  all  its  circumstances,  no 
substantial  benefit  was  likely  to  spring* 
Whatever  difficulty  there  may  be,  and  I 
confess  it  is  not  easy  to  be  surmounted, 
in  deciding  upon  the  fate  of  Richard's 
nephews  after  they  were  immured  in 
the  Tower,  the  more  public  parts  of  the 
transaction  bear  unequivocal  testimony 
to  his  ambitious  usurpation,  It  would 
therefore  be  foreign  to  the  purpose  of 
this  chapter  to  dwell  upon  his  assumption 
of  the  regency,  or  upon  the  sort  of  elec- 
tion, however  curious  and  remarkable, 
which  gave  a  pretended  authority  to  his 
usurpation  of  the  throne.  Neither  of 


*  Diff.  of  Absolute  and  Limited  Monarchy,  p.  83« 
t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.-vi.,  p.  241.        J  1  R.  III.,  c.  2- 


450 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   IX. 


these   has    ever    been   alleged   by   any 
party  in  the  way  of  constitutional  prece- 
dent. 
At  this  epoch  I  terminate  these  inqui- 

Conciusion  r*es  mto  tne  English  constitu- 
tion ;  a  sketch  very  imperfect  I 
fear  and  unsatisfactory,  but  which  may 
at  least  answer  the  purpose  of  fixing  the 
reader's  attention  on  the  principal  ob- 
jects, and  of  guiding  him  to  the  purest 
fountains  of  constitutional  knowledge. 
From  the  accession  of  the  house  of  Tu- 
dor a  new  period  is  to  be  dated  in  our 
history  ;  far  more  prosperous  in  the  dif- 
fusion of  opulence  and  the  preservation 
of  general  order  than  the  preceding,  but 
less  distinguished  by  the  spirit  of  free- 
dom and  jealousy  of  tyrannical  power. 
We  have  seen,  through  the  twilight  of 
our  Anglo-Saxon  records,  a  form  of  civil 
policy  established  by  our  ancestors, 
marked,  like  the  kindred  governments 
of  the  continent,  with  aboriginal  Teu- 
tonic features ;  barbarous  indeed,  and  in- 
sufficient for  the  great  ends  of  society, 
but  capable  and  worthy  of  the  improve- 
ment it  has  received,  because  actuated  by 
a  sound  and  vital  spirit,  the  love  of  free- 
dom and  of  justice.  From  these  princi- 
ples arose  that  venerable  institution, 
which  none  but  a  free  and  simple  people 
could  have  conceived,  trial  by  peers  ;  an 
institution  common  in  some  degree  to 
other  nations,  but  which,  more  widely 
extended,  more  strictly  retained,  and  bet- 
ter modified  among  ourselves,  has  be- 
come perhaps  the  first,  certainly  among 
the  first,  of  our  securities  against  arbitra- 
ry government.  We  have  seen  a  foreign 
conqueror  and  his  descendants  trample 
almost  alike  upon  the  prostrate  nation, 
and  upon  those  who  had  been  compan- 
ions of  their  victory,  introduce  the  ser- 
vitudes of  feudal  law  with  more  than 


j  their  usual  rigour,  and  establish  a  large 
|  revenue  by  continual  precedents  upon  a 
j  system  of  universal  and  prescriptive  ex- 
i  tortion.  But  the  Norman  and  English 
races,  each  unfit  to  endure  oppression, 
forgetting  their  animosities  in  a  common 
interest,  enforce  by  arms  the  concession 
of  a  great  charter  of  liberties.  Privile- 
ges, wrested  from  one  faithless  monarch, 
are  preserved  with  continuilance 
against  the  machin 
rights  of  the  people  bee 
and  their  spirit  more 
ring  the  long  reign  of— 
greater  ambition  an* 
than  his  father,  Edwafo  rams  n 

vain  to  govern  in  an  arbitrary  wanner, 
and  has  the  mortificatiofi^fc^eeing  his 
prerogative  fettered  by^H  Bore  impor- 
tant limitations.  The  ^•BcQuncil  of 
the  nation  is  opened  to  me  representa- 
tives of  the  commons.  They  proceed 
by  slow  and  cautious  steps  to  remonstrate 
against  public  grievances,  to  check  the 
abuses  of  administration,  and  sometimes 
to  chastise  public  delinquency  in  the  offi- 
cers of  the  crown.  A  number  of  reme- 
dial provisions  are  added  to  the  statutes  ; 
every  Englishman  learns  to  remember 
that  he  is  the  citizen  of  a  free  state,  and 
to  claim  the  common  law  as  his  birth- 
right, even  though  the  violence  of  power 
should  interrupt  its  enjoyment.  It  were 
a  strange  misrepresentation  of  history  to 
assert  that  the  constitution  had  attained 
any  thing  like  a  perfect  state  in  the  fif- 
teenth century ;  but  I  know  not  whether 
there  are  any  essential  privileges  of  our 
countrymen,  any  fundamental  securities 
against  arbitrary  power,  so  far  as  they 
depend  upon  positive  institution,  which 
may  not  be  traced  to  the  time  when  the 
house  of  Plantagenet  filled  the  English 
throne. 


CHAPTER  IX. 


ON  THE  STATE  OF  SOCIETY  IN  EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


PART  I. 

Introduction.— Decline  of  Literature  in  the  latter 
period  of  the  Roman  Empire.— Its  Causes  — 
Corruption  of  the  Latin  Language.— Means  by 
which  it  was  effected.— Formation  of  new  Lan- 
guages.—General  Ignorance  of  the  Dark  Ages.— 
Scarcity  of  Books. — Cattses  that  prevented  the 
total  Extinction  of  Learning. — Prevalence  of 
Superstition  and  Fanaticism. — General  Corrup- 
tion of  Religion. — Monasteries — their  Effects. — 
Pilgrimages.— Love  of  Field  Sports.— State  of 


Agriculture— of  Internal  and  Foreign  Trade 
down  to  the  End  of  the  Eleventh  Century. — Im- 
provement of  Europe  dated  from  that  Age. 

IT  has  been  the  object  of  every  prece- 
ding chapter  of  this  work  either  to  trace 
the  civil  revolutions  of  states  during  the 
period  of  the  middle  ages,  or  to  investi- 
gate, with  rather  more  minute  attention, 
their  political  institutions.  There  re- 
mains a  large  tract  to  be  explored,  if  we 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


451 


would  complete  the  circle  of  historica 
information,  and  give  to  our  knowledg 
that  copiousness  and  clear  perceptio 
which  arise  from  comprehending  a  sub 
'ject  under  numerous  relations.  Th 
philosophy  of  history  embraces  far  mor 
than  the  wars  and  treaties,  the  faction 
and  cabals  of  common  political  nar 
ration^j^^tends  to  whatever  illustrate 

Hthe  human  species  in 
to  their  reasonings  an> 
|sive  survey  merely  in 
peculative  philosopher 
statesman   would   form 
very  ^rrone(^^stimates  of  events,  an< 
find  hijjra        ^Kantly  misled  in  any  an 
alogicaH        ^Hs11  °^  them  to  presen 
circums»  f?or  *s  ^  a11  uncommon 

source  of  eilBpto  neglect  the  genera 
signs  of  th^^mes,  and  to  deduce  a  prog 
nostic  from  some  partial  coincidence 
with  past  events,  where  a  more  enlargec 
comparison  of  all  the  facts  that  ought  to 
enter  into  the  combination  would  destroy 
the  whole  parallel.  The  philosophica 
student,  however,  will  not  follow  the 
antiquary  into  his  minute  details;  anc 
though  it  is  hard  to  say  what  may  not 
supply  matter  for  a  reflecting  mind,  there 
is  always  some  danger  of  losing  sight  of 
grand  objects  in  historical  disquisition, 
by  too  laborious  a  research  into  trifles. 
I  may  possibly  be  thought  to  furnish,  in 
some  instances,  an  example  of  the  error 
I  condemn.  But  in  the  choice  and  dis- 
position of  topics  to  which  the  present 
chapter  relates,  some  have  been  omitted 
on  account  of  their  comparative  insignif- 
icance, and  others  on  account  of  their 
want  of  connexion  with  the  leading  sub- 
ject. Even  of  those  treated  I  can  only 
undertake  to  give  a  transient  view ;  and 
must  bespeak  the  reader's  candour  to  re- 
member, that  passages  which,  separately 
taken,  may  often  appear  superficial,  are 
but  parts  of  the  context  of  a  single  chap- 
ter, as  the  chapter  itself  is  of  an  entire 
work. 

The  Middle  Ages,  according  to  the  di- 
vision I  have  adopted,  comprise  about 
one  thousand  years,  from  the  invasion  of 
France  by  Clovis  to  that  of  Naples  by 
Charles  VIII.  This  period,  considered 
as  to  the  state  of  society,  has  been  es- 
teemed dark  through  ignorance,  and  bar- 
barous through  poverty  and  want  of  re- 
finement. And  although  this  character 
is  much  less  applicable  to  the  two  last 
centuries  of  the  period  than  to  those 
which  preceded  its  commencement,  yet 
we  cannot  expect  to  feel,  in  respect  of 
ages  at  %est  imperfectly  civilized  and 
F  f  2 


slowly  progressive,  that  interest  which 
attends  a  more  perfect  development  of 
human  capacities,  and  more  brilliant  ad- 
vances in  improvement.  The  first  moi- 
ety indeed  of  these  ten  ages  is  almost 
absolutely  barren,  and  presents  little  but 
a  catalogue  of  evils.  The  subversion  of 
the  Roman  empire,  and  devastation  of  its 
provinces  by  barbarous  nations,  either 
immediately  preceded,  or  were  coinci- 
dent with  the  commencement  of  the 
middle  period.  ^We  begin  in  darkness 
and  calamity;  and  though  the  shadows 
grow  fainter  as  we  advance,  yet  we  are 
to  break  off  our  pursuit  as  the  morning 
breathes  upon  us,  and  the  twilight  red- 
dens into  the  lustre  of  day.) 

No  circumstance  is  so  prominent  on 
the  first  survey  of  society  du-  Decljne 
ring  the  earlier  centuries  of  this  learning  in 
period  as  the  depth  of  ignorance  Roman  em- 
in  which  it  was  immersed  ;  and  pire> 
as  from  this,  more  than  any  single  cause, 
the  moral  and  social  evils  which  those 
ages  experienced  appear  to  have  been 
derived  and  perpetuated,  it  deserves  to 
occupy  the  first  place  in  the  arrangement 
of  our  present  subject.     We  must   not 
altogether  ascribe  the  ruin  of  literature 
to  the  barbarian  destroyers  of  the  Roman 
empire.     So  gradual,  and  apparently  so 
irretrievable   a  decay,  had  long  before 
spread  over  all  liberal  studies,  that  it  is 
"mpossible  to  pronounce  whether  they 
would  not  have  been  almost  equally  ex- 
inguished  if  the  august  throne  of  the 
3esars  had  been  left  to  moulder  by  its 
ntrinsic  weakness.     Under  the  paternal 
sovereignty  of  Marcus  Aurelius,  the  ap- 
)roaching  declension  oif  learning  might 
)e  scarcely  perceptible  to  an  incurious 
observer.     There  was  much,  indeed  to 
distinguish  his  times  from  those  of  Au- 
gustus ;  much  lost  in  originality  of  ge- 
aius,  in  correctness  of  taste,  in  the  mas- 
erly  conception  and  consummate  finish 
)f  art,  in  purity  of  the  Latin,  and  even 
f  the  Greek  language.     But  jhere  were 
nen  who  made  the  age  famous,  grave 
awyers,  judicious  historians,  wise  phi- 
osophers;   the   name   of  learning  was 
lonourable,  its  professors  were  encour- 
iged ;  and  along  the  vast  surface  of  the 
Ionian  empire  there  was  perhaps  a  great- 
r  number,  whose  minds  were  cultivated 
y  intellectual  discipline,  than  under  the 
lore  brilliant  reign  of  the  first  emperor. 
It  is  not,  I  think,  very  easy  to  give  a 
erfectly  satisfactory  solution  of 
he  rapid  downfall  of  literature 
etween  the  ages  of  Antonine  and  of 
Diocletian.     Perhaps  the  prosperous  con- 
ition  of  the  empire  from  Trajan  to  Mar- 


452 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


cus  Aurelius,  and  the  patronage  which 
those  good  princes  bestowed  on  letters, 
gave  an  artificial  health  to  them  for  a 
moment,  and  suspended  the  operation  of 
a  disease  which  had  already  begun  to  un- 
dermine their  vigour.  Perhaps  the  in- 
tellectual energies  of  mankind  can  never 
remain  stationary;  and  a  nation  that 
ceases  to  produce  original  and  inventive 
minds,  born  to  advance  the  landmarks  of 
knowledge  or  skill,  will  recede  from  step 
to  step,  till  it  loses  even  the  secondary 
merits  of  imitation  and  industry.  During 
the  third  century,  not  only  there  were  no 
great  writers,  but  even  few  names  of  in- 
different writers  have  been  recovered  by 
the  diligence  of  modern  inquiry.*  Law 
neglected,  philosophy  perverted  till  it  be- 
came contemptible,  history  nearly  silent, 
the  Latin  tongue  growing  rapidly  barba- 
rous, poetry  rarely  and  feebly  attempted, 
art  more  and  more  vitiated;  such  were 
the  symptoms  by  which  the  age  previous 
to  Constantine  announced  the  decline 
of  human  intellect.  If  we  cannot  fully 
account  for  this  unhappy  change,  as  I 
have  observed,  we  must,  however,  assign 
much  weight  to  the  degradation  of  Rome 
and  Italy  in  the  system  of  Severus  and 
his  successors,  to  the  admission  of  bar- 
barians into  the  military  and  even  civil 
dignities  of  the  empire,  to  the  discour- 
aging influence  of  provincial  and  illiterate 
sovereigns,  and  to  the  calamities  which 
followed  for  half  a  century  the  first  inva- 
sion of  the  Goths  and  the  defeat  of  De- 
cius.  To  this  sickly  condition  of  literan 
ture  the  fourth  century  supplied  no  per- 
manent remedy.  If  under  the  house 
of  Constantine  the  Roman  world  suf- 
fered rather  less  from  civil  warfare  or 
barbarous  .invasions  than  in  the  prece- 
ding age,  yet  every  other  cause  of  de- 
cline just  enumerated  prevailed  with  ag- 
gravated force ;  and  the  fourth  century 
set  in  storms,  sufficiently  destructive  in 
themselves,  and  ominous  of  those  calam- 
ities which  humbled  the  majesty  of  Rome 
at  the  commencement  of  the  ensuing  pe- 
riod, and  overwhelmed  the  Western  Em- 
pire in  absolute  and  final  ruin  before  its 
termination. 

The  diffusion  of  literature  is  perfectly 
distinguishable  from  its  advancement,  and ' 
whatever  obscurity  we  may  find  in  ex- 
plaining the  variations  of  the  one,  there* 
are  a  few  simple  causes  which  seem  to 

*  The  authors  of  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la 
France,  t.  i.,  can  only  find  three  writers  of  Gaul, 
no  inconsiderable  part  of  the  Roman  empire,  men- 
tioned upon  any  authority :  two  of  whom  are  now 
lost.  In  the  preceding  century  the  number  was 
considerably  greater. 


account  for  the  other.^  Knowledge  will 
be  spread  over  the  surface  of  a  nation  in 
proportion  to  the  facilities  of  education, 
to  the  free  circulation  of  books,  to  the 
emoluments  and  distinctions  which  lit- 
erary attainments  are  found  to  produce, 
and  still  more  to  the  reward  which  they 
meet  in  the  general  respect  and  applause 
of  society.  This  cheering  jjicitement, 
the  genial  sunshine  of  a 
at  all  times  promoted 
literature  in  small  rep 
large  empires,  and  i 
with  the  country, 
sources  which  noun 
should  naturally  exp 
have  become  scanty  or. 
ing  languishes  or  expijl 
1 


we 
ust 
learn- 
Jdingly, 
tipire,  a 
cultiva- 
racteristic 


in  the  later  ages  of  th 
general  indifference  to 
tion  of  letters  became 
of  its  inhabitants.  Laws  were  indeed 
enacted  by  Constantine,  Julian,  Theodo- 
sius,  and  other  emperors,  for  the  encour- 
agement of  learned  men  and  the  promo- 
tion of  liberal  education.  But  these 
laws,  which  would  not  perhaps  have 
been  thought  necessary  in  better  times, 
were  unavailing  to  counteract  the  leth- 
argy of  ignorance  in  which  even  the  na- 
tive citizens  of  the  empire  were  content- 
ed to  repose.  This  alienation  of  men 
from  their  national  literature  may  doubt- 
less be  imputed,  in  some  measure,  to  its 
own  demerits.  A  jargon  of  mystical  phi- 
losophy, half  fanaticism  and  half  impos- 
ture, a  barren  and  inflated  eloquence,  a 
frivolous  philology,  were  not  among 
those  charms  of  wisdom  by  which  man 
is  to  be  diverted  from  pleasure  or  arous- 
ed from  indolence. 

In  this  temper  of  the  public  mind,  there 
was  little  probability  that  new  composi- 
tions of  excellence  would  be  produced, 
and  much  doubt  whether  the  old  would 
be  preserved.  Since  the  invention  of 
printing,  the  absolute  extinction  of  any 
considerable  work  seems  a  danger  too 
improbable  for  apprehension.  The  press 
pours  forth  in  a  few  days  a  thousand  vol- 
umes, which  scattered,  like  seed  in  the 
air,  over  the  republic  of  Europe,  could 
hardly  be  destroyed  without  the  extirpa- 
tion of  its  inhabitants.  But  in  the  times 
of  antiquity,  manuscripts  were  copied 
with  cost,  labour,  and  delay;  and  if  the 
diffusion  of  knowledge  be  measured  by 
the  multiplication  of  books,  no  unfair 
standard,  the  most  golden  ages  of  ancient 
learning  could  never  bear  the  least  com- 
parison with  the  three  last  centuries. 
The  destruction  of  a  few  libraries  by  ac- 
cidental fire,  the  desolation  of  a,  few  prov- 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


453 


inces  by  unsparing  and  illiterate  barba 
rians,  might  annihilate  every  vestige  of 
an  author,  or  leave  a  few  scattered 
copies,  which,  from  the  public  indiffer- 
ence, there  was  no  inducement  to  multi- 
ply, exposed  to  similar  casualties  in  suc- 
ceeding times. 

We  are  warranted  by  good  authorities 
to  assign,  as  a  collateral  cause  of  this  ir- 
retrievable revolution,  the  neglect  of  hea- 
then litetfctpre  by  the  Christian  church. 
I  am-ttot  versed  enough  in  ecclesiastical 
writers  tg  estimate  the  degree  of  this 
neglect ;  nor  am  I  disposed  to  deny  that 
the  mischief  was  beyond  recovery  before 
the  accession  of  Constantine.  From  the 
primitive  ages,  however,  it  seems  that  a 
dislike  of  pagan  learning  was  pretty  gen- 
eral among  Christians.  Many  of  the  fa- 
thers undoubtedly  were  accomplished  in 
liberal  studies,  and  we  are  indebted  to 
them  for  valuable  fragments  of  authors 
whom  we  have  lost.  But  the  literary 
character  of  the  church  is  not  to  be  meas- 
ured by  that  of  its  more  illustrious  lead- 
ers. Proscribed  and  persecuted,  the 
early  Christians  had  not  perhaps  access 
to  the  public  schools,  nor  inclination  to 
studies  which  seemed,  very  excusably, 
uncongenial  to  the  character  of  their  pro- 
fession. Their  prejudices,  however,  sur- 
vived the  establishment  of  Christianity. 
The  fourth  council  of  Carthage,  in  398, 
prohibited  the  reading  of  secular  books 
by  bishops.  Jerome  plainly  condemns 
the  study  of  them,  except  for  pious  ends. 
All  physical  science,  especially,  was  held 
in  avowed  contempt,  as  inconsistent  with 
revealed  truths.  Nor  do  there  appear  to 
have  been  any  canons  made^in  favour  of 
learning,  or  any  restriction  on  the  ordi- 
nation of  persons  absolutely  illiterate.* 
There  was,  indeed,  abundance  of  what  is 
f  called  theological  learning  displayed  in 
I  the  controversies  of  the  fourth  and  fifth 
centuries.  And  those  who  admire  such 
disputations  may  consider  the  principal 
champions  in  them  as  contributing  to  the 
glory,  or  at  least  retarding  the  decline  of 
literature.  But  I  believe  rather  that  po- 
lemical disputes  will  be  found  not  only 
to  corrupt  the  genuine  spirit  of  religion, 
but  to  degrade  and  contract  the  faculties. 
What  keenness  and  subtlety  these  may 
sometimes  acquire  by  such  exercise  is 
more  like  that  worldly  shrewdness  we 
see  in  men  whose  trade  it  is  to  outwit  i 


*  Mosheim,  Cent.  4.  Tiraboschi  endeavours  to 
elevate  higher  the  learning  of  the  early  Christians, 
t.  ii.,  p.  328.  Jortin,  however,  asserts  that  many 
of  the  bishops  in  the  general  councils  of  Ephesus 
and  Chalcedon  could  not  write  their  names. — Re- 
marks on  Ecclesiast.  Hist.,  vol.  ii.,  p.  417. 


their  neighbours,  than  the  clear  and  calm 
discrimination  of  philosophy.  However 
this  may  be,  it  cannot  be  doubted  that 
the  controversies  agitated  in  the  church 
during  these  two  centuries  must  have  di- 
verted studious  minds  from  profane  liter- 
ature, and  narrowed  more  and  more  the 
circle  of  that  knowledge  which  they  were 
desirous  to  attain. 

The  torrent  of  irrational  superstitions, 
which  carried  all  before  it  in  the  fifth 
century,  and  the  progress  of  ascetic  en- 
thusiasm, had  an  influence  still  more  de- 
qidedly  inimical  to  learning.  I  cannot 
indeed  conceive  any  state  of  society 
niore  adverse  to  the  intellectual  improve- 
ment of  mankind,  than  one  which  admit- 
ted of  no  middle  line  between  gross  dis- 
soluteness and  fanatical  mortification. 
An  equable  tone  of  public  morals,  social 
and  humane,  verging  neither  to  voluptu- 
ousness nor  austerity,  seems  the  most 
adapted  to  genius,  or  at  least  to  letters, 
as  it  is  to  individual  comfort  and  national 
prosperity.  After  the  introduction  of 
monkery  and  its  unsocial  theory  of  du- 
ties, the  serious  and  reflecting  part  of 
mankind,  on  whom  science  most  relies, 
were  turned  to  habits  which,  in  the  most 
favourable  view,  could  not  quicken  the 
intellectual  energies ;  and  it  might  be  a 
difficult  question,  whether  the  cultivators 
and  admirers  of  useful  literature  were 
less  likely  to  be  found  among  the  profli- 
gate citizens  of  Rome  and  their  barbarian 
conquerors,  or  the  melancholy  recluses 
of  the  wilderness. 

Such  therefore  was  the  state  of  learn- 
ing before  the  subversion  of  the  Western 
Empire.  And  we  may  form  some  notion 
how  little  probability  there  was  of  its 
producing  any  excellent  fruits,  even  if 
that  revolution  had  never  occurred,  by 
considering  what  took  place  in  Greece 
during  the  subsequent  ages;  where,  al- 
though there  was  some  attention  shown 
o  preserve  the  best  monuments  of  anti- 
quity, and  diligence  in  compiling  from 
them,  yet  no  one  original  writer  of  any 
superior  merit  arose,  and  learning,  though 
plunged  but  for  a  short  period  into  mere 
larkness,  may  be  said  to  have  languished 
in  a  middle  region  of  twilight  for  the 
reater  part  of  a  thousand  years., 

But  not  to  delay  ourselves  in  this  spec- 
ulation, the  final  settlement  of  barbarous 
nations  in  Gaul,  Spain,  and  Italy  consum- 
mated the  ruin  of  literature.  Their  first 
rruptions  were  uniformly  attended  with 
devastation;  and  if  some  of  the  Gothic 
dngs,  after  their  establishment,  proved 
humane  and  civilized  sovereigns,  yet  the 
lation  gloried  in  its  original  rudeness, 


454 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


and  viewed  with  no  unreasonable  disdain 
arts  which  had  neither  preserved  their 
cultivators  from  corruption,  nor  raised 
them  from  servitude.  Theodoric,  the 
most  famous  of  the  Ostrogoth  kings  in 
Italy,  could  not  write  his  name,  and  is 
said  to  have  restrained  his  countrymen 
from  attending  those  schools  of  learning, 
by  which  he,  or  rather  perhaps  his  min- 
ister Cassiodprus,  endeavoured  to  re- 
vive the  studies  of  his  Italian  subjects. 
Scarcely  one  of  the  barbarians,  so  long 
as  they  continued  uncpnfused  with  the 
native  inhabitants,  acquired  the  slightest 
tincture  of  letters;  and  the  praise  of 
equal  ignorance  was  soon  aspired  to  and 
attained  by  the  entire  mass  of  the  Roman 
laity.  They,  howeyer,  could  hardly  have 
divested  themselves  so  completely  of  all 
acquaintance  with  even  the  elements  of 
learning,  if  the  language  in  which  books 
were  written  had  not  ceased  to  be  their 
natural  dialect.  This  remarkable  change 
in  the  speech  of  France,  Spain,  and  Italy, 
is  most  intimately  connected  with  the 
extinction  of  learning;  and  there  is 
enough  of  obscurity,  as  well  as  cf  inter- 
est, in  the  subject,  to  deserve  some  dis- 
cussion. 

It  is  obvious,  on  the  most  cursory 
Corruption  of  view  of  the  French  and  Span- 
the  Latin  ian-  ish  languages,  that  they,  as 
well  as  the  Italian,  are  derived 
from  one  common  source,  the  Latin. 
That  must  therefore  have  been  at  some 
period,  and  certainly  not  since  the  estab- 
lishment of  the  barbarous  nations  in 
Spain  and  Gaul,  substituted  in  ordinary 
use  for  the  original  dialects  of  those 
countries,  which  are  generally  supposed 
to  have  been  Celtic,  not  essentially  dif- 
fering from  that  which  is  spoken  in 
Wales  and  Ireland.  Rome,  says  Augus- 
tin,  imposed  not  only  her  yoke,  but  her 
language,  upon  conquered  nations.  The 
success  of  such  an  attempt  is  indeed 
very  remarkable.  Though  it  is  the  natu- 
ral effect  of  conquest,  or  even  of  com- 
mercial intercourse,  to  ingraft  fresh 
words  and  foreign  idioms  on  the  stock 
of  the  original  language,  yet  the  entire 
disuse  of  the  latter,  and  adoption  of  one 
radically  different,  scarcely  takes  place 
in  the  lapse  of  a  far  longer  period  than 
that  of  the  Roman  dominion  in  Gaul. 
Thus,  in  part  of  Britany,  the  people 
speak  a  language  which  has  perhaps 
sustained  no  essential  alteration  from 
the  revolution  of  two  thousand  years  ; 
and  we  know  how  steadily  another  Cel- 
tic dialect  has  kept  its  ground  in  Wales, 
notwithstanding  English  laws  and  gov- 
ernment, and  the  long  line  of  contiguous 


frontier,  which  brings  the  natives  of  that 
principality  into  contact  with  English- 
men. Nor  did  the  Romans  ever  estab- 
lish their  language,  I  know  not  whether 
they  wished  to  do  so,  in  this  island,  as 
we  perceive  by  that  stubborn  British 
tongue  which  has.  survived  two  con- 
quests.* 

In  Gaul  and  in  Spain,  however,  they 
did  succeed,  as  the  present  state  of  the 
French  and  peninsular  languages  renders 
undeniable,  though  by  gradual  changes, 
and  not,  as  the  Benedictine  authors  of 
the  Histpire  Litteraire  de  la  France 
seem  to  imagine,  by  a  sudden  and  arbi- 
trary innovation.!  This  is  neither  pos- 
sible in  itself,  nor  agreeable  to  the  testi- 
mony of  IrenaBus,  bishop  of  Lyons,  at 
the  end  of  the  second  century,  who  la- 
ments the  necessity  of  learning  Celtic. | 
But  although  the  inhabitants  of  these 
provinces  came  at  length  to  make  use  of 
Latin  so  completely  as  their  mother- 
tongue,  that  few  vestiges  of  their  origi- 
nal Celtic  could  perhaps  be  discovered  in 
their  common  speech,  it  does  not  follow 
that  they  spoke  with  the  pure  pronuncia- 
tion of  Italians,  far  less  with  that  confor- 
mity to  the  written  sounds,  which  we  as- 
sume to  be  essential  to  the  expression 
of  Latin  words. 

It  appears  to  be  taken  for  granted  that 
the  Romans  pronounced  their  Ancient  Lat- 
language  as  we  do  at  present,  in  pronunci- 
so  far  at  least  as  the  enuncia-  atlon- 
tion  of  all  the  consonants,  however  we 
may  admit  our  deviations  from  the  clas- 
sical standard  in  propriety  of  sounds 
and  in  measure  of  time.  Yet  the  exam- 
ple of  our  own  language  and  of  the  French 
might  show  us  that  orthography  may  be- 
come a  very  inadequate  representative 


*  Gibbon  roundly  asserts,  "  that  the  language 
of  Virgil  and  Cicero,  though  with  some  inevita- 
ble mixture  of  corruption,  was  so  universally 
adopted  in  Africa,  Spain,  Gaul,  Great  Britain,  and 
Pannonia.  that  the  faint  traces  of  the  Punic  or  Cel- 
tic idioms*were  preserved  only  in  the  mountains 
or  among  the  peasants."— Decline  and  Fall,  vol.  i., 
p.  60  (8vo.  edit.).  For  Britain  he  quotes  Tacitus'a 
Life  of  Agricola  as  his  voucher.  But  the  only 
passage  in  this  work  that  gives  the  least  colour  to 
Gibbon's  assertion,  is  one  in  which  Agricola  is  said 
to  have  encouraged  the  children  of  British  chief- 
tains to  acquire  a  taste  for  liberal  studies,  and  to 
have  succeeded  so  much  by  judicious  commenda- 
tion of  their  abilities,  ut  qui  modo  linguam  Ro- 
manam  abnuebant,  eloquentiam  concupiscerent  (c. 
21).  This,  it  is  sufficiently  obvious,  is  very  differ- 
ent from  the  national  adoption  of  Latin  as  a  moth- 
er-tongue. 

f  T.  vii.,  preface. 

i  It  appears  by  a  passage  quoted  from  the  digest 
by  M.  Bonamy,  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions, 
t.  xxiv.,  p.  589,  that  Celtic  was  spoken  in  Gaul,  or 
at  least  parts  of  it,  as  well  as  Punic  in  Africa. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


455 


of  pronunciation.  It  is  indeed  capable 
of  proof,  that  in  the  purest  ages  of  Latin- 
ity,  some  variation  existed  between  these 
two.  Those  numerous  changes  in  spell- 
ing which  distinguish  the  same  words 
in  the  poetry  of  Ennius  and  of  Virgil  are 
best  explained  by  the  supposition  of 
their  being  accommodated  to  the  current 
pronunciation.  Harsh  combinations  of 
letters,  softened  down  through  delicacy 
of  ear  or  rapidity  of  utterance,  gradual- 
ly lost  their  place  in  the  written  lan- 
guage. Thus  exfregit  and  adrogavit  as- 
sumed a  form  representing  their  more 
liquid  sound;  and  auctor  was  latterly 
spelled  autor,  which  has  been  followed  in 
French  and  Italian.  Autor  was  probably 
so  pronounced  at  all  times ;  and  the  or- 
thography was  afterward  corrected  or 
corrupted,  which  ever  we  please  to  say, 
according  to  the  sound.  We  have  the 
best  authority  to  assert,  that  the  final  m 
was  very  faintly  pronounced,  rather,  it 
seems,  as  a  rest  and  short  interval  between 
two  syllables,  than  an  articulate  letter ; 
nor  indeed  can  we  conceive  upon  what 
other  ground  it  was  subject  to  elision  be- 
fore a  vowel  in  verse ;  since  we  cannot 
suppose  that  the  nice  ears  of  Rome 
would  have  submitted  to  a  capricious 
rule  of  poetry,  for  which  Greece  pre- 
sented no  analogy.* 

A  decisive  proof,  in  my  opinion,  of  the 
deviation  which  took  place,  through  the 
rapidity  of  ordinary  elocution,  from  the 
strict  laws  of  enunciation,  may  be  found 
in  the  metre  of  Terence.  His  verses, 
which  are  absolutely  refractory  to  the 
common  laws  of  prosody,  may  be  readi- 
ly scanned  by  the  application  of  this 
principle.  Thus,  in  the  first  act  of  the 
Heautontimorumenos,  a  part  selected  at 
random,  I  have  found,  I.  Vowels  con- 
tracted or  dropped,  so  as  to  shorten  the 
word  by  a  syllable  ;  in  m,  via,  diutius, 
et,  solius,  earn,  unius,  suam,  divitias,  senex, 
voluptatem,  illius,  semel  ;  II.  The  pro- 
celeusmatic  foot,  or  four  short  syllables, 
instead  of  the  dactyl ;  seen,  i.,  v.  59,  73, 
76,  88,  109;  seen,  ii.,  v.  36;  III.  The 
elision  of  s  in  words  ending  with  us,  or 
i*  short,  and  sometimes  even  of  the 
whole  syllable,  before  the  next  word  be- 

§  inning  with  a  vowel ;  in  seen,  i.,  v.  30, 
1,  98,  101,  116,  119  ;  seen,  ii.,  v.  28.     IV. 

*  Atque  eadem  ilia  litera,  qnoties  ultima  est,  et 
vocalem  verbi  sequentis  ita  contingit,  ut  in  earn 
transire  possit,  etiam  si  sciihitur,  tamen  parum  ex- 
primitur,  ut  Multum  ille,  et  Quantum  erat ;  adeo  ut 
pene  cujusdam  nova?  litera  sonum  reddat.  Neque 
enim  eximitur,  sed  obscuratur,  et  tantfim  aliqua 
inter  duos  vocales  velut  nota  est,ne  ipsae  cqeaut. — 
Quintilian,  Institut.,  1.  ix.,  c.  4,  p.  585,  edit.  Cap- 
peronier. 


The  first  syllable  of  ille  is  repeatedly 
shortened,  and  indeed  nothing  is  more 
usual  in  Terence  than  this  license ; 
whence  we  may  collect  how  ready  this 
word  was  for  abbreviation  into  the 
French  and  Italian  articles.  V.  The  last 
letter  of  apud  is  cut  off,  seen,  i.,  v.  120, 
and  seen,  ii.,  v.  8.  VI.  Hodie  is  used  as 
a  pyrrhichius,  in  seen,  ii.,  v.  11.  VII. 
Lastly,  there  is  a  clear  instance  of  a 
short  syllable,  the  antepenultimate  of 
impulerim,  lengthened  on  account  of  the 
accent,  at  the  113th  verse  of  the  first 
scene. 

These  licenses  are  in  all  probability 
chiefly  colloquial,  and  would  not  uscomip 
have  been  adopted  in  public  har-  tionbythe 
angues,  to  which  the  precepts  P°Pulace- 
of  rhetorical  writers  commonly  relate. 
But  if  the  more  elegant  language  of  the 
Romans,  since  such  we  must  suppose  to 
have  been  copied  by  Terence  for  his 
higher  characters,  differed  so  much  in  or- 
dinary discourse  from  their  orthography, 
it  is  probable  that  the  vulgar  went  into 
much  greater  deviations.  The  popular 
pronunciation  errs  generally,  we  might 
say  perhaps  invariably,  by  abbreviation 
of  words,  and  by  liquefying  consonants, 
as  is  natural  to  the  rapidity  of  colloquial 
speech.*  It  is  by  their  knowledge  of  or- 
thography and  etymology  that  the  more 
educated  part  of  the  community  are  pre- 
served from  these  corrupt  modes  of  pro- 
nunciation. There  is  always,  therefore,  a 
standard  by  which  common  speech  may 
be  rectified ;  and  in  proportion  to  the  dif- 
fusion of  knowledge  and  politeness,  the 
deviations  from  it  will  be  more  slight  and 
gradual.  But  in  distant  prov-  andthepro- 
inces,  and  especially  where  the  vinciuis. 
language  itself  is  but  of  recent  introduc- 
tion, many  more  changes  may  be  ex- 
pected to  occur.  Even  in  France  and 
England,  there  are  provincial  dialects, 
which,  if  written  with  all  their  anomalies 
of  pronunciation  as  well  as  idiom,  would 
seem  strangely  out  of  unison  with  the 
regular  language ;  and  in  Italy,  as  is  well 

*  The  following  passage  of  Quintilian  is  an  ev- 
idence both  of  the  omission  of  harsh  or  superfliii 
ous  letters  by  the  best  speakers,  and  of  the  cor- 
rupt abbreviation  usual  with  the  worst,  Dilucida 
vero  erit  pronunciatio  primum,  si  verba  tota  exe- 
gerit,  quorum  parsdevorari,  pars  destitui  solet,  pie- 
risque  extremas  syllabas  non  proferentibus,  dum 
priorum  sono  indulgent.  Ut  est  autem  necessaria 
verbortim  explanatio,  ita  omnes  computare  et  velut 
adnumerare  literas,  molestum  et  odiosum. — Nam 
et  voeales  frequentissime  coeunt,  et  consonantium 
quasdam  ineequente  vocali  dissimulantur  ;  utri- 
usque  exemplum  posuimus  ;  Multum  ille  et  terris. 
Vitatur  etiam  dunorum  inter  se  congressus,  unde, 
pellexit  et  collegit,  et  quse  alio  loco  dicta  sunt,  i.  ii,, 
c.  3,  pt  696, 


456 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


tCHAP.  IX. 


known,  the  varieties  of  dialect  are  still 
more  striking.  Now  in  an  advancing 
state  of  society,  and  especially  with 
such  a  vigorous  political  circulation  as 
we  experience  in  England,  language  will 
constantly  approximate  to  uniformity,  as 
provincial  expressions  are  more  and 
more  rejected  for  incorrectness  or  inele- 
gance. But  where  literature  is  on  the 
decline,  and  public  misfortunes  contract 
the  circle  of  those  who  are  solicitous 
about  refinement,  as  in  the  last  ages  of 
the  Roman  empire,  there  will  be  no 
longer  any  definite  standard  of  living 
speech,  nor  any  general  desire  to  con- 
form to  it,  if  one  could  be  found ;  and 
thus  the  vicious  corruptions  of  the  vulgar 
will  entirely  predominate.  The  niceties 
of  ancient  idiom  will  be  totally  lost; 
while  new  idioms  will  be  formed  out  of 
violations  of  grammar  sanctioned  by 
usage,  which,  among  a  civilized  people, 
would  have  been  proscribed  at  their  ap- 
pearance. 

Such  appears  to  have  been  the  prog- 
ress of  corruption  in  the  Latin  language. 
The  adoption  of  words  from  the  Teu- 
tonic dialects  of  the  barbarians,  which 
took  place  very  freely,  would  not  of  it- 
self have  destroyed  the  character  of  that 
language,  though  it  sullied  its  purity.  The 
worst  law  Latin  of  the  middle  ages  is 
still  Latin,  if  its  barbarous  terms  have 
been  bent  to  the  regular  inflections.  It  is 
possible,  on  the  other  hand,  to  write 
whole  pages  of  Italian,  wherein  every 
word  shall  be  of  unequivocal  Latin  deri- 
vation, though  the  character  and  person- 
ality, if  I  may  so  say,  of  the  language  be 
entirely  dissimilar.  But,  as  I  conceive, 
the  loss  of  literature  took  away  the  only 
check  upon  arbitrary  pronunciation  and 
upon  erroneous  grammar.  Each  people 
innovated  through  caprice,  imitation  of 
their  neighbours,  or  some  of  those  inde- 
scribable causes  which  dispose  the  or- 
gans of  different  nations  to  different 
sounds.  The  French  melted  down  the 
middle  consonants ;  the  Italians  omitted 
the  final.  Corruptions  arising  out  of  ig- 
norance were  mingled  with  those  of  pro- 
nunciation. It  would  have  been  marvel- 
lous if  illiterate  and  semi-barbarous  pro- 
vincials had  preserved  that  delicate  pre- 
cision in  using  the  inflections  of  tenses, 
which  our  best  scholars  do  not  clearly 
attain.  The  common  speech  of  any  peo- 
ple whose  language  is  highly  complicated 
will  be  full  of  solecisms.  The  French 
inflections  are  not  comparable  in  number 
or  delicacy  to  the  Latin,  and  yet  the  vul- 
gar confuse  their  most  ordinary  forms. 

But,  in  all  probability,  the  variation  of 


these  derivative  languages  from  popular 
Latin  has  been  considerably  less  than  it 
appears.  In  the  purest  ages  of  Latinity, 
the  citizens  of  Rome  itself  made  use  of 
many  terms  which  we  deem  barbarous, 
and  of  many  idioms  which  we  should  re- 
ject as  modern.  That  highly  complica- 
ted grammar,  which  the  best  writers  em- 
ployed, was  too  elliptical  and  obscure,  too 
deficient  in  the  connecting  parts  of 
speech,  for  general  use.  We  cannot  in- 
deed ascertain  in  what  degree  the  vulgar 
Latin  differed  from  that  of  Cicero  or 
Seneca.  It  would  be  highly  absurd  to 
imagine,  as  some  are  said  to  have  done, 
that  modern  Italian  was  spoken  at  Rome 
under  Augustus.*  But  I  believe  it  may 
be  asserted,  not  only  that  much  the 
greater  part  of  those  words  in  the  pres- 
ent language  of  Italy,  which  strike  us  as 
incapable  of  a  Latin  etymology,  are  in 
fact  derived  from  those  current  in  the 
Augustan  Age,  but  that  very  many 
phrases  which  offended  nicer  ears  pre- 
vailed in  the  same  vernacular  speech, 
and  have  passed  from  thence  into  the 
modern  French  and  Italian.  Such,  for 
example,  was  the  frequent  use  of  prepo- 
sitions, to  indicate  a  relation  between 
two  parts  of  a  sentence  which  a  classical 
writer  would  have  made  to  depend  on 
mere  inflection,! 

From  the  difficulty  of  retaining  a  right 
discrimination  of  tense  seems  to  have 
proceeded  the  active  auxiliary  verb.  It 
is  possible  that  this  was  borrowed  from 
the  Teutonic  languages  of  the  barbarians, 
and  accommodated  both  by  them  and  by 
the  natives  to  words  of  Latin  origin. 
The  passive  auxiliary  is  obtained  by  a 
very  ready  resolution  of  any  tense  in 
that  mood,  and  has  not  been  altogether 
dispensed  with  even  in  Greek,  while  in 
Latin  it  is  used  much  more  frequently. 
It  is  not  quite  so  easy  to  perceive  the 
propriety  of  the  active  habeo  or  teneo, 
one  or  both  of  which  all  modern  lan- 
guages have  adopted  as  their  auxiliaries 


*  Tiraboschi  (Storia  dell,  Lett,  Ital.,  t.  iii,,  pref. 
ace,  p.  v.)  imputes  this  paradox  to  Bembo  and 
Quadrio ;  but  I  can  hardly  believe  that  either  of 
them  could  maintain  it  in  a  literal  sense. 

t  M.  Bonamy,  in  an  essay  printed  in  Me"m.  de 
PAcademie  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xxiv,,  has  produced 
several  proofs  of  this  from  the  classical  writers  on 
agriculture  and  other  arts,  though  some  of  his  in- 
stances are  not  in  point,  as  any  schoolboy  would 
have  told  him.  This  essay,  which,  by  some  acci- 
dent, had  escaped  my  notice  till  I  had  nearly  fin- 
ished the  observations  in  my  text,  contains,  I  think, 
the  best  view  that  I  have  seen  of  the  process  of 
transition  by  which  Latin  was  changed  into  French 
and  Italian.  Add,  however,  the  preface  to  Tira- 
boschi's  third  volume,  and  the  thirty-second  disser. 
tation  of  Muratori. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


457 


in  conjugating  the  verb.  But  in  some 
instances  this  analysis  is  not  improper ; 
and  it  may  be  supposed  that  nations, 
careless  of  etymology  or  correctness, 
applied  the  same  verb  by  a  rude  analogy 
to  cases  where  it  ought  not  strictly  to 
have  been  employed.* 

Next  to  the  changes  founded  on  pro- 
nunciation, and  to  the  substitution  of 
auxiliary  verbs  for  inflections,  the  usage 
of  the  definite  and  indefinite  articles  in 
nouns  appears  the  most  considerable  step 
in  the  transmutation  of  Latin  into  its  de- 
rivative languages.  None  but  Latin,  I 
believe,  has  ever  wanted  this  part  of 
speech ;  and  the  defect  to  which  custom 
reconciled  the  Romans,  would  be  an  in- 
superable stumbling-block  to  nations  who 
were  to  translate  their  original  idiom  into 
that  language.  A  coarse  expedient  of 
applying  unus  ipse  or  ille  to  the  purposes 
of  an  article  might  perhaps  be  no  unfre- 
quent  vulgarism  of  the  provincials ;  and 
after  the  Teutonic  tribes  brought  in  their 
own  grammar,  it  was  natural  that  a  cor- 
ruption should  become  universal,  which 
in  fact  supplied  a  real  and  essential  defi- 
ciency. 
That  the  quantity  of  Latin  syllables  is 

neglected,  or  rather  lost  in  mod- 
tton  00°  ern  pronunciation,  seems  to  be 
longer  regu-  generally  admitted.  Whether 
quantity  indeed  the  ancient  Romans,  in 

their  ordinary  speaking,  distin- 
guished the  measure  of  syllables  with 
such  uniform  musical  accuracy  as  we 
imagine,  giving  a  certain  time  to  those 
termed  long,  and  exactly  half  that  dura- 
tion to  the  short,  might  perhaps  be  ques- 
tioned ;  though  this  was  probably  done, 
or  attempted  to  be  done,  by  every  reader 
of  poetry.  Certainly,  however,  the  laws 
of  quantity  were  forgotten,  and  an  ac- 
centual pronunciation  came  to  predomi- 
nate, before  Latin  had  ceased  to  be  a  liv- 
ing language.  A  Christian  writer,  named 
Commodianus,  who  lived  before  the  end 
of  the  third  century,  according  to  s<5me, 
or,  as  others  think,  in  the  reign  of  Con- 
stantine,  has  left  us  a  philological  curios- 
ity, in  a  series  of  attacks  on  the  pagan 
superstitions,  composed  in  what  are 
meant  to  be  verses,  regulated  by  accent 
instead  of  quantity,  exactly  as  we  read 
Virgil  at  present.f 


c. 

632. 


*  See  Lanzi,  Saggio  della  Lingua  Etrusca,  t.  i., 
431  ;  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscrip.,  t.  xxiv.,  p. 


t  No  description  can  give  so  adequate  a  notion 
of  this  extraordinary  performance  as  a  short  speci- 
men. Take  the  introductory  lines  ;  which  really, 
prejudices  of  education  apart,  are  by  no  means  in- 
harmonioui : — 


It  is  not  improbable  that  Commodianus 
may  have  written  in  Africa,  the  province 
in  which,  more  than  any,  the  purity  of 
Latin  was  debased.  At  the  end  of  the 
fourth  century,  St.  Augustin  assailed  his 
old  enemies,  the  Donatists,  with  nearly 
the  same  arms  that  Commodianus  had 
wielded  against  heathenism.  But  as  the 
refined  and  various  music  of  hexameters 
was  unlikely  to  be  relished  by  the  vulgar, 
he  prudently  adopted  a  different  meas- 
ure.* All  the  nations  of  Europe  seem  to 
love  the  trochaic  verse ;  it  was  frequent 
on  the  Greek  and  Roman  stage;  it  is 
more  common  than  any  other  in  the  pop- 
ular poetry  of  modern  languages.  This 
proceeds  from  its  simplicity,  its  liveli- 
ness, and  its  ready  accommodation  to 
dancing  and  music.  In  St.  Austin's 
poem,  he  united  to  a  trochaic  measure 
the  novel  attraction  of  rhyme. 

As  Africa  must  have  lost  all  regard  to 
the  rules  of  measure  in  the  fourth  centu- 
ry, so  it  appears  that  Gaul  was  not  more 
correct  in  the  two  next  ages.  A  poem 
addressed  by  Auspicius,  bishop  of  Toul, 
to  Count  Arbogastes,  of  earlier  date 
probably  than  the  invasion  of  Clovis, 


Praefatio  nostra  viam  erranti  demonstrat, 

Respectumque  bonum,  cum  venerit  saeculi  meta, 

JEternum  fieri,  quod  discredunt  inscia  corda. 

Ego  similiter  erravi  tempore  multo, 

Fana  prosequendo,  parentibus  insciis  ipsis. 

Abstuli  me  tandem  inde,  legendo  de  lege. 

Testificor  Dominum,  doleo,  proh  !  civica  turba 

Inscia  quod  perdit,  pergens  deos  quaerere  vanos. 

Ob  ea  perdoctus  ignores  instruo  verum. 
Commodianus  however  did  not  keep  up  to  this  ex- 
cellence in  every  part.     Some  of  his  lines  are  not 
reducible  to  any  pronunciation,  without  the  sum- 
mary rules  of  Procrustes ;  as  for  instance — 

Paratus  ad  epulas,  et  refugiscere  prsecepta ;  or, 
Capillos  inficitis,  oculos  fuligine  relinitis. 

It  must  be  owned  that  his  text  is  exceedingly 
corrupt,  and  I  should  not  despair  of  seeing  a  truly 
critical  editor  improve  his  lines  into  unblemished 
hexameters.  Till  this  time  arrives,  however,  we 
must  consider  him  either  as  utterly  ignorant  of 
metrical  distinctions,  or  at  least  as  aware  that  the 
populace  whom  he  addressed  did  not  observe  them 
in  speaking.  Commodianus  is  published  by  Dawes 
at  the  end  of  his  edition  of  Minucius  Felix.  Some 
specimens  are  quoted  in  Harris's  Philological  In- 
quiries. 

*  Archaeologia,  vol.  xiv.,  p.  188.  The  following 
are  the  first  lines : — 

Abundantia  peccatorum  solet  fratres  conturbare ; 
Propter  hoc  Dominus  noster  voluit  nos  praemonere, 
Comparans  regnum  ccelorum  reticulo  misso   in 

mare, 
Congreganti  multos  pisces,   omne  genus  hinc  et 

inde, 
Quos  cum  traxissent  ad  littus,  tune  coeperunt  sep- 

arare, 
Bonos  in  vasa  miserunt,  reliquos  malos  in  mare. 

This  trash  seems  below  the  level  of  Augustin ; 
but  it  could  not  have  been  much  later  than  his 
age. 


453 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   IX. 


is  written  with  no  regard  to  quantity.* 
The  bishop  by  whom  this  was  composed 
is  mentioned  by  his  contemporaries  as  a 
man  of  learning.  Probably  he  did  not 
choose  to  perplex  the  barbarian  to  whom 
he  was  writing  (for  Arbogastes  is  plainly 
a  barbarous  name)  by  legitimate  Roman 
metre.  In  the  next  century,  Gregory  of 
Tours  informs  us  that  Chilperic  attempt- 
ed to  write  Latin  verses ;  but  the  lines 
could  not  be  reconciled  to  any  division 
of  feet ;  his  ignorance  having  confounded 
long  and  short  syllables  together.!  Now 
Chilperic  must  have  learned  to  speak 
Latin  like  other  kings  of  the  Franks,  and 
was  a  smatterer  in  several  kinds  of  litera- 
ture. If  Chilperic  therefore  was  not 
master  of  these  distinctions,  we  may  con- 
clude that  the  bishops  and  other  Romans 
with  whom  he  conversed  did  not  observe 
them  ;  and  that  his  blunders  in  versifica- 
tion arose  from  ignorance  of  rules,  which, 
however  fit  to  be  preserved  in  poetry, 
were  entirely  obsolete  in  the  living  Latin 
of  his  age.  Indeed,  the  frequency  of  false 
quantities  in  the  poets  even  of  the  fifth, 
but  much  more  of  the  sixth  century,  is 
palpable.  Fortunatus  is  quite  full  of 
them.  This  seems  a  decisive  proof  that 
the  ancient  pronunciation  was  lost.  Avi- 
tus  tells  us,  even  at  the  beginning  of  the 
same  age,  that  few  preserved  the  proper 
measure  of  syllables  in  singing.  Yet  he 
was  Bishop  of  Vienne.  where  a  purer 
pronunciation  might  be  expected  than  in 
the  remoter  parts  of  Gaul.f 

Defective,  however,  as  it  had  become 
Change  of  in  respect  of  pronunciation,  Lat- 
Latininto  in  was  still  spoken  in  France 
Romance.  during  the  sixth  an(j  seventh  cen- 

turies.  We  have  compositions  of  that 
time,  intended  for  the  people,  in  gram- 
matical language.  A  song  is  still  extant, 
in  rhyme  and  loose  accentual  measure, 
written  upon  a  victory  of  Clotaire  II. 
over  the  Saxons  in  622,  and  obviously  in- 
tended for  circulation  among  the  people. § 

*  Recueil  des  Historiens,  t.  i.,  p.  815.;  it  begins 
in  the  following  manner  :— 

Prsecelso  expectabili  bis  Arbogasto  comiti 

Auspicius,  qui  diligo,  salutem  dico  plurimam. 

Magnas  coelesti  Domino  rependo  corde  gratias 

Quod  te  Tullensi  proxime  magnum  in  urbe  vidi- 
mus. 

Multis  me  tuis  artibus  laetificabas  antea, 

Sed  nunc  fecisti  rnaximo  me  exultare  gaudio. 

f  Chilpericus  rex  ....  confecit  duos  libros,  quo- 
rum versiculi  debiles  nullis  pedibus  subsistere 
ppssunt :  in  quibus,  dum  non  intelligebat,  pro  lon- 
gis  syllabas  breves  posuit,  et  pro  brevibus  longas 
statuebat,  1.  vi.,  c.  46. 

t  M6m.  de  l'Acade"mie  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xvii. 
Hist.  Litt6raire  de  la  France,  t.  ii.,  p.  28. 

$  One  stanza  of  this  song  will  suffice  to  show 
that  the  Latin  language  was  yet  unchanged.— 


Fortunatus  says,  in  his  life  of  St.  Aubin 
of  Angers,  that  he  should  take  care  not 
to  use  any  expression  unintelligible  to 
the  people.*  Baudemind,  in  the  middle 
of  the  seventh  century,  declares,  in  his 
life  of  St.  Amand,  that  he  writes  in  a  rus- 
tic and  vulgar  style,  that  the  reader  may 
be  excited  to  imitation.!  Not  that  these 
legends  were  actually  perused  by  the 
populace,  for  the  very  art  of  reading  was 
confined  to  a  few.  But  they  were  read 
publicly  in  the  churches,  and  probably 
with  a  pronunciation  accommodated  to 
the  corruptions  of  ordinary  language. 
Still  the  Latin  syntax  must  have  been 
tolerably  understood;  and  we  may  there- 
fore say  that  Latin  had  not  ceased  to  be 
a  living  language  in  Gaul  during  the  sev- 
enth century.  Faults  indeed  against  the 
rules  of  grammar,  as  well  as  unusual 
idioms,  perpetually  occur  in  the  best 
writers,  of  the  Merovingian  period,  such 
as  Gregory  of  Tours;  while  charters 
drawn  up  by  less  expert  scholars  deviate 
much  farther  from  purity.J 

The  corrupt  provincial  idiom  became 
gradually  more  and  more  dissimilar  to 
grammatical  Latin  ;  and  the  lingua  Ro- 
mana  rustica,  as  the  vulgar  patois  (to 
borrow  a  word  that  I  cannot  well  trans- 
late) had  been  called,  acquired  a  distinct 
character  as  a  new  language  in  the  eighth 
century. $  Latin  orthography,  which  had 
been  hitherto  pretty  well  maintained  in 
books,  though  not  always  in  charters, 
gave  way  to  a  new  spelling,  conformably 
to  the  current  pronunciation.  Thus  we 
find  lui,  for  illius,  in  the  Formularies  of 
Marculfus ;  and  Tu  lo  juva  in  a  liturgy 
of  Charlemagne's  age,  for  Tu  ilium  juva. 
When  this  barrier  was  once  broken 
down,  such  a  deluge  of  innovation  pour- 
ed in,  that  all  the  characteristics  of  Lat- 
in were  effaced  in  writing  as  well  as 
speaking,  and  the  existence  of  a  new 
language  became  undeniable.  In  a  coun- 
cil held  at  Tours  in  813,  the  bishops  are 
ordered  to  have  certain  homilies  of  the 


De  Clotario  est  canere  rege  Francorum, , 
,   Qui  ivi  pugnare  cum  gente  Saxonum, 

Quam  graviter  provenisset  missis  Saxonum, 

Si  non  fuisset  inclitus  Faro  de  gente  Burgundi- 
onum. 

*  Praecavendum  est,  ne  ad  aures  populi  minus 
aliquid  intelligibile  proferatur. — Mem.  de  1'Acad.,  t. 
xvii.,  p.  712. 

f  Rustico  et  plebeio  sermone  propter  exemplum 
et  imitationem,  id.  ibid. 

\  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  5.  Mem. 
de  1' Academic,  t.  xxiv.,  p.  617  Nouveau  Trait6 
de  Diplomatique,  t.  iv.,  p.  485. 

t)  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  vii.,  p.  12. 
The  editors  say  that  it  is  mentioned  by  name  even 
in  the  seventh  century,  which  is  very  natural,  as 
the  corruption  of  Latin  had  then  become  striking. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


459 


fathers  translated  into  the  rustic  Roman, 
as  well  as  the  German  tongue.*  After 
this  it  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  proofs 
of  the  change  which  Latin  had  under- 
gone. 

In  Italy,  the  progressive  corruptions  of 
itscorrup-  tne  Latin  language  were  anal- 
tion  in"  ogous  to  those  which  occurred 
Italy.  m  France,  though  we  do  not  find 
in  writings  any  unequivocal  specimens 
of  a  new  formation  at  so  early  a  period. 
But  the  old  inscriptions,  even  of  the 
fourth  and  fifth  centuries,  are  full  of  sol- 
ecisms and  corrupt  orthography.  In  le- 
gal instruments  under  the  Lombard  kings, 
the  Latin  inflections  are  indeed  used,  but 
with  so  little  regard  to  propriety  that  it  is 
obvious  the  writers  had  not  the  slightest 
tincture  of  grammatical  knowledge.  This 
observation  extends  to  a  very  large  pro- 
portion of  such  documents  down  to  the 
twelfth  century,  and  is  as  applicable  to 
France  and  Spain  as  it  is  to  Italy.  In 
these  charters  the  peculiar  characteris- 
tics of  Italian  orthography  and  grammar 
frequently  appear.  Thus  we  find,  in  the 
eighth  century,  diveatis  for  debeatis,  da 
for  de  in  the  ablative,  avendi  for  habendi, 
dava  for  dabat,  cedo  a  deo,  and  ad  eccle- 
sia,  among  many  similar  corruptions.! 
Latin  was  so  changed,  it  is  said  by  a 
writerof  Charlemagne's  age,  that  scarce- 
ly any  part  of  it  was  popularly  known. 
Italy  indeed  had  suffered  more  than 
France  itself  by  invasion,  and  was  re- 
duced to  a  lower  state  of  barbarism, 
though  probably  from  the  greater  dis- 
tinctness of  pronunciation  habitual  to  the 
Italians,  they  lost  less  of  their  original 
language  than  the  French.  I  do  not 
find,  however,  in  the  writers  who  have 
treated  this  subject,  any  express  evi- 
dence of  a  vulgar  language  distinct  from 
Latin  earlier  than  the  close  of  the  tenth 
century,  when  it  is  said  in  the  epitaph  of 
Pope  Gregory  V.,  who  died  in  999,  that 
he  instructed  the  people  in  three  dialects ; 
— the  Frankish  or  German,  the  vulgar, 
and  the  Latin.| 

When  Latin  had  thus  ceased  to  be  a 
ignorance  living  language,  the  whole  treas- 
conse-  ury  of  knowledge  was  locked  up 

IKS™     fr°m    the    eyes    °.f    the    Pe°Ple- 

use  of  The  few  who  might  have  im- 
^n-  bibed  a  taste  for  literature,  if 

*  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Insc.,  t.  xvii.  See  two 
Memoirs  in  this  volume  by  Du  Clos  and  Le  Boeuf, 
especially  the  latter,  as  well  as  that  already  men- 
tioned in  t.  xxiv.,  p.  582,  by  M.  Bonamy. 

t  Muratori,  Dissert,  i.  and  xliii. 

|  Usus  Francisca,  vulgari,  et  voce  Latind. 
Instituit  populos  eloquio  triplici. 

Fontanini  dell'  Eloquenza  Italians,  p.  15.  Mu- 
ratori, Dissert,  zzxii. 


books  had  been  accessible  to  them,  were 
reduced  to  abandon  pursuits  that  could 
only  be  cultivated  through  a  kind  of  ed- 
ucation not  easily  within  their  reach. 
Schools,  confined  to  cathedrals  and  mon- 
asteries, and  exclusively  designed  for  the 
purposes  of  religion,  afforded  no  encour-  ( 
agement  or  opportunities  to  the  laity.* 
The  worst  effect  was,  that,  as  the  newly-  \ 
formed  languages  were  hardly  made  use 
of  in  writing,  Latin  being  still  preserved 
in  all  legal  instruments  and  public  corre- 
spondence, the  very  use  of  letters,  as 
well  as  of  books,  was  forgotten.  For 
many  centuries,  to  sum  up  the  account 
of  ignorance  in  a  word,  it  was  rare  for  a 
layman,  of  whatever  rank,  to  know  how 
to  sign  his  name.f  Their  charters,  till 
the  use  of  seals  became  general,  were 
subscribed  with  the  mark  of  the  cross. 
Still  more  extraordinary  it  was  to  find 
one  who  had  any  tincture  of  learning. 
Even  admitting  every  indistinct  com- 
mendation of  a  monkish  biographer  (with 
whom  a  knowledge  of  church-music 
would  pass  for  literature), |  we  could 
make  out  a  very  short  list  of  scholars. 
None  certainly  were  more  distinguished 
as  such  than  Charlemagne  and  Alfred. 
But  the  former,  unless  we  reject  a  very 
plain  testimony,  was  incapable  of  wri- 
ting ;§  and  Alfred  found  difficulty  in  ma- 
king a  translation  from  the  pastoral  in- 
struction of  St.  Gregory,  on  account  of 
his  imperfect  knowledge  of  Latin.  || 

"Whatever  mention,  therefore,  we  find 
of  learning  and  the  learned  during  these 


*  Histoire  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  vi.,  p.  20. 
Muratori,  Dissert,  xliii. 

t  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique,  t.  ii.,  p.  419. 
This  became,  the  editors  say,  much  less  unusual 
about  the  end  of  the  thirteenth  century  ;  a  pretty 
late  period  !  A  few  signatures  to  deeds  appear  in 
the  fourteenth  century  ;  in  the  next  they  are  more 
frequent.— Ibid.  The  emperor  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa  could  not  read  (Struvius,  Corpus  Hist.  Ger- 
man., t.  i.,  p.  377),  nor  John,  king  of  Bohemia,  in  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century  (Sismondi,  t.  v., 
p.  205),  nor  Philip  the  Hardy,  king  of  France,  al- 
though the  son  of  St.  Louis.— (Velly,  t.  vi.,  p. 
426.) 

t  Louis  IV.,  king  of  France,  laughing  at  Fulk, 
count  of  Anjou,  who  sang  anthems  among  the 
choristers  at  Tours,  received  the  following  pithy 
epistle  from  his  learned  vassal :  Noveritis,  domine, 
quod  rex  illiteratus  est  asinus  coronatus.  Gesta 
Comitum  Andegavensium.  In  the  same  book, 
Geoffrey,  father  of  our  Henry  II.,  is  said  to  be  op- 
time  literatus ;  which  perhaps  imports  little  more 
learning  than  his  ancestor  Fulk  possessed. 

$  The  passage  in  Eginhard  which  has  occa- 
sioned so  much  dispute  speaks  for  itself:  Tenta- 
bat  et  scribere,  tabulasque  et  codicillos  ad  hoc  in 
lecticula  sub  cervicalibus  circumferre  solebat,  ut, 
cum  vacuum  tempus  esset,  manum  effigiandis  lit- 
eris  assuefaceret ;  sed  parum  prosper^  successit 
labor  praeposterus  ac  sero  mchoatus. 

I!  Spelman,  Vit.  Alfred.,  Append. 


460 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


dark  ages,  must  be  understood  to  relate 
only  to  such  as  were  within  the  pale  of 
clergy,  which  indeed  was  pretty  ex- 
tensive, and  comprehended  many  who 
did  not  exercise  the  offices  of  religious 
ministry.  But  even  the  clergy  were, 
for  a  long  period,  not  very  materially  su- 
perior, as  a  body,  to  the  uninstructed  la- 
ity. An  inconceivable  cloud  of  igno- 
rance overspread  the  whole  face  of  the 
church,  harmy  broken  by  a  few  glimmer- 
ing lights,  who  owe  almost  the  whole  of 
their  distinction  to  the  surrounding  dark- 
ness. In  the  sixth  century,  the  best  wri- 
ters in  Latin  were  scarcely  read  ;*  and 
perhaps  fronl  the  middle  of  this  age  to 
the  eleventh,  there  was,  in  a  general 
view  of  literature,  little  difference  to  be 
discerned.  If  we  look  more  accurately,: 
there  will  appear  certain  gradual  shades 
of  twilight  on  each  side  of  the  greatest 
obscurity.  France  reached  her  lowest 
point  at  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  cen- 
tury ;  but  England  was  at  that  time  more 
respectable,  and  did  not  fall  into  complete 
degradation  till  the  middle  of  the  ninth. 
There  could  be  nothing  more  deplorable 
than  the  state  of  letters  in  Italy  and  in 
England  during  the  succeeding  century ; 
but  France  seems  to  have  been  uniform- 
ly, though  very  slowly,  progressive  from 
the  time  of  Charlemagne. | 

Of  this  prevailing  ignorance  it  is  easy 
to  produce  abundant  testimony.  Con- 
tracts were  made  verbally,  for  want  of 
notaries  capable  of  drawing  up  charters  ; 
and  these,  when  written,  were  frequently 
barbarous  and  ungrammatical  to  an  in- 
credible degree.  For  some  considerable 
intervals  scarcely  any  monument  of  lit- 
erature has  been  preserved,  except  a  few 
jejune  chronicles,  the  vilest  legends  of 
saints,  or  verses  equally  destitute  of  spirit 
and  metre.  In  almost  every  council,  the 
ignorance  of  the  clergy  forms  a  subject 
for  reproach.  It  is  asserted,  by  one  held 
in  992,  that  scarcely  a  single  person  was 
to  be  found  in  Rome  itself  who  knew  the 
first  elements  of  letters.  J  Not  one  priest 

*  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  5. 

f  These  four  dark  centuries,  the  eighth,  ninth, 
tenth,  and  eleventh,  occupy  five  large  quarto  vol- 
umes of  the  Literary  History  of  France,  by  the 
fathers  of  St.  Maur.  But  the  most  useful  part 
will  be  found  in  the  general  view  at  the  com- 
mencement of  each  volume  ;  the  remainder  is  ta- 
ken up  with  biographies,  into  which  the  reader 
may  dive  at  random,  and  sometimes  bring  up  a  cu- 
rious fact. 

Tiraboschi,  Storia  della  Letteratura,  t.  iii.,  and 
M-ura  tori's  forty-third  Dissertation,  are  good  au- 
thorities for  the  condition  of  letters  in  Italy ;  but  I 
cannot  easily  give  references  to  all  the  books 
which  I  have  consulted. 

t  Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.,  p.  198. 


of  a  thousand  in  Spain,  about  the  age  of 
Charlemagne,  could  address  a  common 
letter  of  salutation  to  another.*  In  Eng- 
land, Alfred  declares  that  he  could  not 
recollect  a  single  priest  south  of  the 
Thames  (the  most  civilized  part  of  Eng- 
land), at  the  time  of  his  accession,  who 
understood  the  ordinary  prayers,  or  could 
translate  Latin  into  his  mother  tongue,  f 
Nor  was  this  better  in  the  time  of  Dun- 
stan,  when,  it  is  said,  none  of  the  clergy 
knew  how  to  write  or  translate  a  Latin 
letter.!  The  homilies  which  they  preach- 
ed were  compiled  for  their  use  by  some 
bishops,  from  former  works  of  the  same 
kind,  or  the  writings  of  the  fathers. 

This  universal  ignorance  was  render- 
ed unavoidable,  among  other  Scarcity  of 
causes,  by  the  scarcity  of  books,  books- 
which  could  only  be  procured  at  an  im- 
mense price.  From  the  conquest  of  Al- 
exandria by  the  Saracens  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  seventh  century,  when  the 
Egyptian  papyrus  almost  ceased  to  be 
imported  into  Europe,  to  the  close  of  the 
tenth,  about  which  time  the  art  of  ma- 
king paper  from  cotton  rags  seems  to  have 
been  introduced,  there  were  no  materials 
for  writing  except  parchment,  a  sub- 
stance too  expensive  to  be  readily  spared 
for  mere  purposes  of  literature. $  Hence 

*  Mabillon,  De  Re  Diplomatics,  p.  55. 

f  Spelman,  Vit.  Alfred.,  Append.  The  whole 
drift  of  Alfred's  preface  to  this  translation  is  to  de- 
fend the  expediency  of  rendering  books  into  Eng- 
lish, on  account  of  the  general  ignorance  of  Latin. 
The  zeal  which  this  excellent  prince  shows  for  lit- 
erature is  delightful.  Let  us  endeavour,  he  says, 
that  all  the  English  youth,  especially  the  children 
of  those  who  are  freeborn,  and  can  educate  them, 
may  learn  to  read  English  before  they  take  to  any 
employment.  Afterward,  such  as  please  may  be 
instructed  in  Latin.  Before  the  Danish  invasion 
indeed,  he  tells  us,  churches  were  well  furnished 
with  books ;  but  the  priests  got  little  good  from 
them,  being  written  in  a  foreign  language  which 
they  could  not  understand. 

J  Mabillon,  De  Re  Diplomatica,  p.  55.  Orderi- 
cus  Vitalis,  a  more  candid  judge  of  our  unfortu- 
nate ancestors  than  other  contemporary  annalists, 
says,  that  the  English  were,  at  the  conquest,  rude 
and  almost  illiterate,  which  he  ascribes  to  the 
Danish  invasion. — Du  Chesne,  Hist.  Norm.  Script., 
p.  518.  However,  Ingulfus  tells  us,  that  the  libra- 
ry of  Croyland  contained  above  three  hundred  vol- 
umes, till  the  unfortunate  fire  that  destroyed  that 
abbey  in  1091. — Gale,  xv.  Scriptores,  t.  i.,  93. 
Such  a  library  was  very  extraordinary  in  the  elev- 
enth century,  and  could  not  have  been  equalled  for 
some  ages  afterward.  Ingulfus  mentions  at  the 
same  time  a  nadir,  as  he  calls  it,  or  planetarium, 
executed  in  various  metals.  This  had  been  pre- 
sented to  Abbot  Turketul  in  the  tenth  century  by  a 
king  of  France,  and  was,  I  make  no  doubt,  of  Ara- 
bian, or  perhaps  Greek  manufacture. 

§  Parchment  was  so  scarce  that  none  could  be 
procured  about  1120  for  an  illuminated  copy  of  the 
Bible.— Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  Dissert. 
II.  I  suppose  the  deficiency  was  of  skins  beautiful 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


461 


an  unfortunate  practice  gained  ground, 
of  erasing  a  manuscript  in  order  to  sub- 
stitute another  on  the  same  skin.  This 
occasioned  the  loss  of  many  ancient  au-  I 
thors,  who  have  made  way  for  the  le- 
gends of  saints  or  other  ecclesiastical 
rubbish. 

If  we  would  listen  to  some  literary* 
Want  of  historians,  we  should  believed 
eminent  that  the  darkest  ages  contained  j 
men  in  lit-  many  individuals,  not  only  dis- 
tinguished among  their  contem- 
poraries, but  positively  eminent  for  abil- 
ities and  knowledge.  A  proneness  to 
extol  every  monk,  of  whose  production 
a  few  letters  or  a  devotional  treatise  sur- 
vives, every  bishop,  of  whom  it  is  related 
that  he  composed  homilies,  runs  through 
the  laborious  work  of  the  Benedictins  of 
St.  Maur,  the  Literary  History  of  France, 
and,  in  a  less  degree,  is  observable  even 
in  Tiraboschi,  and  in  most  books  of  this 
class.  Bede,  Alcuin,  Hincmar,  Raban, 
and  a  number  of  inferior  names,  become 
real  giants  of  learning  in  their  uncritical 
panegyrics.  But  one  might  justly  say, 
that  ignorance  is  the  smallest  defect  of 
the  writers  of  these  dark  ages.  Several 
of  them  were  tolerably  acquainted  with 
books ;  but  that  wherein  they  are  uni- 
formly deficient  is  original  argument  or 
expression.  Almost  every  one  is  a  com- 
piler of  scraps  from  the  fathers,  or  from 
such  semi-classical  authors  as  Boethius, 
Cassiodorus,  or  Martianus  Capella.*  In- 
deed I  am  not  aware  that  there  appeared 
more  than  two  really  considerable  men 

enough  for  this  purpose  ;  it  cannot  be  meant  that 
there  was  no  parchment  for  legal  instruments. 

Manuscripts  written  on  papyrus,  as  may  be  sup- 
posed from  the  fragility  of  the  material,  as  well  as 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  it,  are  of  extreme  rarity. 
That  in  the  British  Museum,  being  a  charter  to  a 
church  at  Ravenna  in  572,  is  in  every  respect  the 
most  curious  ;  and  indeed  both  Mabillon  and  Mu- 
ratori  seem  never  to  have  seen  any  thing  written 
on  papyrus ;  though  they  trace  its  occasional  use 
down  to  the  eleventh  or  twelfth  centuries. — Mabil- 
lon, De  Re  Diplomatica,  1.  ii.  Muratori,  Antichita 
Italiane,  Dissert,  xliii.,  p.  602.  But  the  authors  of 
the  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique  speak  of  sev- 
eral manuscripts  on  this  material  as  extant  in 
France  and  Italy.— T.  i.,  p.  493. 

As  to  the  general  scarcity  and  high  price  of  books 
in  the  middle  ages,  Robertson  (Introduction  to  Hist. 
Charles  V.,  note  x.)  and  Warton,  in  the  above  cited 
dissertation,  not  to  quote  authors  less  accessible, 
have  collected  some  of  the  leading  facts ;  to  whom 
I  refer  the  reader. 

*  Lest  I  should  seem  to  have  spoken  too  per- 
emptorily, I  wish  it  to  be  understood  that  I  pre- 
tend to  hardly  any  direct  acquaintance  with  these 
writers,  and  found  my  censure  on  the  authority  of 
others,  chiefly  indeed  on  the  admissions  of  those 
who  are  too  disposed  to  fall  into  a  strain  of  pane- 
gyric.—See  Histoire  LittSraire  de  la  France,  t.  iv., 
p.  281,  et  alibi. 


in  the  republic  of  letters,  from  the  sixth 
to  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  century; 
John,  surnamed  Scotus  or  Erigena,  a  na- 
tive of  Ireland;  and  Gerbert,  who  be- 
came pope  by  the  name  of  Silvester  II.  : 
the  first  endowed  with  a  bold  and  acute 
metaphysical  genius  :  the  second  excel- 
lent, for  the  time  when  he  lived,  in  math- 
ematical science  and  mechanical  inven- 
tions.* 

If  it  be  demanded  by  what  cause  it  hap- 
pened that  a  few  sparks  of  an- 
cient learning  survived  through-  {tepreser- 
put  this  long  winter,  we  can  only  vation  of 
kscribe  their  preservation  to  the  reSI,g~ 
establishment  of  Christianity. 
Religion  alone  made  a  bridge,  as  it  were, 
across  the  chaos,  and  has  linked  the  two 
periods  of  ancient  and  modern  civiliza- 
tion. Without  this  connecting  principle 
Europe  might  indeed  have  awakened  to 
intellectual  pursuits,  and  the  genius  of  re- 
cent times  needed  not  to  be  invigorated 
by  the  imitation  of  antiquity.  But  the 
memory  of  Greece  and  Rome  would 
have  been  feebly  preserved  by  tradition* 
and  the  monuments  of  those  nations 
might  have  excited,  on  the  return  of  civ- 
ilization, that  vague  sentiment  of  specu- 
lation and  wonder  with  which  men  now 
contemplate  Persepolis  or  the  Pyramids. 
It  is  not,  however,  from  religion  simply 
that  we  have  derived  this  advantage,  but 
from  religion  as  it  was  modified  in  the 
dark  ages.  Such  is  the  complex  recipro- 
cation of  good  and  evil  in  the  dispensa- 
tions of  Providence,  that  we  may  assert, 
with  only  an  apparent  paradox,  that,  had 
religion  been  more  pure,  it  would  have 
been  less  permanent,  and  that  Christian- 
ity has  been  preserved  by  means  of  its 
corruptions.  The  sole  hope  for  literature 
depended  on  the  Latin  language ;  and  I 
do  not  see  why  that  should  not  have 
been  lost,  if  three  circumstances  in  the 
prevailing  religious  system,  all  of  which 
we  are  justly  accustomed  to  disapprove, 
had  not  conspired  to  maintain  it;  the 
papal  supremacy,  the  monastic  institu- 
tions, and  the  use  of  a  Latin  liturgy.  1. 
A  continual  intercourse  was  kept  up  in 
consequence  of  the  first,  between  Rome 
and  the  several  nations  of  Europe ;  her 
laws  were  received  by  the  bishops,  her 
legates  presided  in  councils;  so  that  a 


*  John  Scotus,  who,  it  is  almost  needless  to  say, 
must  not  be  confounded  with  the  still  more  famous 
metaphysician  Duns  Scotus,  lived  under  Charles 
the  Bald,  in  the  middle  of  the  ninth  century.  Sil- 
vester II.  died  in  1003.  Whether  he  first  brought 
the  Arabic  numeration  into  Europe,  as  has  been 
commonly  said,  seems  uncertain ;  it  was  at  least 
not  much  practised  for  some  centuries  after  hi* 
death. 


462 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


(CHAP.  IX. 


common  language  was  as  necessary  in 
the  church  as  it  is  at  present  in  the  diplo- 
matic relations  of  kingdoms.  2.  Through 
out  the  whole  course  of  the  middle  ages 
there  was  no  learning,  and  very  little  reg 
ularity  of  manners,  among  the  parochia 
clergy.  Almost  every  distinguished  man 
was  either  the  member  of  a  chapter  or 
of  a  convent.  The  monasteries  were 
subjected  to  strict  rules  of  discipline,  am 
held  out,  at  the  worst,  more  opportuni- 
ties for  study  than  the  secular  clergy  pos- 
sessed,  and  fewer  for  worldly  dissipa- 
tions. But  their  most  important  service 
was  as  secure  repositories  for  books^ 
All  our  manuscripts  have  been  preserved 
in  this  manner,  and  could  hardly  have 
descended  to  us  by  any  other  channel 
at  least  there  were  intervals  when  I  do 
not  conceive  that  any  royal  or  private 
libraries  existed.  3.  Monasteries,  how- 
ever, would  probably  have  contributec 
very  little  towards  the  preservation  of 
learning,  if  the  Scriptures  and  the  liturgy 
had  been  translated  out  of  Latin  when 
that  language  ceased  to  be  intelligible 
Every  rational  principle  of  religious  wor- 
ship called  for  such  a  change  ;  but  i 
would  have  been  made  at  the  expense  of 
posterity.  One  might  presume,  if  such 
refined  conjectures  were  consistent  with 
historical  caution,  that  the  more  learn 
ed  and  sagacious  ecclesiastics  of  those 
times,  deploring  the  gradual  corruption 
of  the  Latin  tongue,  and  the  danger  of  its 
absolute  extinction,  were  induced  to  main- 
tain it  as  a  sacred  language,  and  the  de 
positary,  as  it  were,  of  that  truth  and  tha 
science  which  would  be  lost  in  the  bar 
barous  dialects  of  the  vulgar.  But  a  sim 
pier  explanation  is  found  in  the  radica 
dislike  of  innovation  which  is  natural  to 
an  established  clergy.  Nor  did  they  wan 
as  good  pretexts,  on  the  ground  of  conve 
nience,  as  are  commonly  alleged  by  th( 
opponents  of  reform.  They  were  habit 
uated  to  the  Latin  words  of  the  church 
service,  which  had  become,  by  this  as 
sociation,  the  readiest  instruments  of  de 
votion,  and  with  the  majesty  of  which 
the  Romance  jargon  could  bear  no  com 
parison.  Their  musical  chants  were 
adapted  to  these  sounds,  and  their  hymn 
depended  for  metrical  effect  on  the 
marked  accents  and  powerful  rhyme 
which  the  Latin  language  affords.  Th' 
vulgate  Latin  of  the  Bible  was  still  mor< 
venerable.  It  was  like  a  copy  of  a  los 
original ;  and  a  copy  attested  by  one  o 
the  most  eminent  fathers,  and  by  the  gen 
eral  consent  of  the  church.  These  ar 
certainly  no  adequate  excuses  for  keep 
ing  the  people  in  ignorance;  and  th 


gross  corruption  of  the  middle  ages  is  in 
a  great  degree  assignable  to  this  policy. 
But  learning,  and  consequently  religion, 
have  eventually  derived  from  it  the  ut- 
most advantage. 

In  the  shadows  of  this  universal  igno- 
rance, a  thousand  superstitions,  supersii- 
Jike  foul  animals  of  night,  were  lions< 
propagated  and  nourished.  It  would  be 
very  unsatisfactory  to  exhibit  a  few  spe- 
cimens of  this  odious  brood,  when  the 
real  character  of  those  times  is  only  to 
be  judged  by  their  accumulated  multi- 
tude. In  every  age,  it  would  be  easy  to 
select  proofs  of  irrational  superstition, 
which,  separately  considered,  seem  to 
degrade  mankind  from  its  level  in  the 
creation;  and  perhaps  the  contempora- 
ries of  Swedenborg  and  Southcote  have 
no  right  to  look  very  contemptuously 
upon  the  fanaticism  of  their  ancestors. 
There  are  many  books  from  which  a  suf- 
ficient number  of  instances  may  be  col- 
lected to  show  the  absurdity  and  igno- 
rance of  the  middle  ages  in  this  respect. 
I  shall  only  mention  two,  as  affording 
more  general  evidence  than  any  local  or 
obscure  superstition.  In  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, an  opinion  prevailed  everywhere 
that  the  end  of  the  world  was  approach- 
ing. Many  charters  begin  with  these 
words :  "  As  the  world  is  now  drawing  to 
its  close."  An  army  marching  under  the 
Emperor  Otho  I.  was  so  terrified  by  an 
eclipse  of  the  sun,  which  it  conceived  to 
announce  this  consummation,  as  to  dis- 
perse hastily  on  all  sides.  As  this  notion 
seems  to  have  been  founded  on  some 
confused  theory  of  the  millenniuni,  it  nat- 
urally died  away  when  the  seasons  pro- 
ceeded in  the  eleventh  century  with  their 
usual  regularity.*  A  far  more  remarka- 
ble and  permanent  superstition  was  the 
appeal  to  heaven  in  judicial  controver- 
sies, whether  through  tha  means^of  com- 
bat or  of  ordeal.  The  principle  of  these 
was  the  same";  but  in  the  former,  it  was 
mingled  with  feelings  independent  of  re- 
ligion ;  the  natural  dictates  of  resentment 
in  a  brave  man  unjustly  accused,  and  the 
sympathy  of  a  warlike  people  with  the 
display  of  skill  and  intrepidity.  These, 
in  course  of  time,  almost  obliterated  the 
primary  character  of  judicial  combat,  and 
ultimately  changed  it  into  the  modern 
duel,  in  which  assuredly  there  is  no  mix- 
ture of  superstition.!  But,  in  the  various 


*  Robertson,  Introduction  to  Hist.  Charles  V., 
note  13.  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p. 
380.  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  vi. 

t  Duelling,  in  the  modern  sense  of  the  word,  ex- 
clusive of  casual  frays  and  single  combat  during 
war,  was  unknown  before  the  sixteenth  century. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


463 


tests  of  innocence  which  were  called  or- 
deals, this  stood  undisguised  and  unqual- 
ified. It  is  not  necessary  to  describe 
what  is  so  well  known  ;  the  ceremonies 
of  trial  by  handling  hot  iron,  by  plunging 
the  arm  into  boiling  fluids,  by  floating  or 
sinking  in  cold  water,  or  by  swallowing 
a  piece  of  consecrated  bread.  It  is  ob- 
servable that,  as  the  interference  of 
Heaven  was  relied  upon  as  a  matter  of 
course,  it  seems  to  have  been  reckoned 
nearly  indifferent,  whether  such  a  test  was 
adopted  as  must,  humanly  considered,  ab- 
solve all  the  guilty,  or  one  that  must  con- 
vict all  the  innocent.  The  ordeals  of  hot 
iron  or  water  were,  however,  more  com- 
monly used ;  and  it  has  been  a  perplex- 
ing question,  by  what  dexterity  these  tre- 
mendous proofs  were  eluded.  They  seem 
at  least  to  have  placed  the  decision  of 
all  judicial  controversies  in  the  hands  of 
the  clergy,  who  must  have  known  the 
secret,  whatever  that  might  be,  of  sat- 
isfying the  spectators  that  an  accused 
person  had  held  a  mass  of  burning  iron 
with  impunity.  For  several  centuries  this 
mode  of  investigation  was  in  great  re- 
pute, though  not  without  opposition  from 
some  eminent  bishops.  It  does  discredit 
to  the  memory  of  Charlemagne  that  he 
was  one  of  its  warmest  advocates.*  But. 
the  judicial  combat,  which  indeed  might 
be  reckoned  one  species  of  ordeal,  grad- 
ually put  an  end  to  the  rest ;  and  as  the 
church  acquired  better  notions  of  law, 
and  a  code  of  her  own,  she  strenuously 
exerted  herself  against  all  these  barba- 
rous superstitions.! 

But  we  find  one  anecdote,  which  seems  to  illus- 
trate its  derivation  from  the  judicial  combat.  The 
dukes  of  Lancaster  and  Brunswick,  having  some 
differences,  agreed  to  decide  them  by  duel  before 
John,  king  of  France.  The  lists  were  prepared 
with  the  solemnity  of  a  real  trial  by  battle ;  but 
the  king  interfered  to  prevent  the  engagement. — 
Villaret,  t.  ix.,  p.  71.  The  barbarous  practice  of 
wearing  swords  as  a  part  of  domestic  dress,  which 
tended  very  much  to  the  frequency  of  duelling, 
was  not  introduced  till  the  latter  part  of  the  fif- 
teenth century.  I  can  only  find  one  print  in 
Montfaucon's  Monuments  of  the  French  monar- 
chy where  a  sword  is  worn  without  armour  before 
the  reign  of  Charles  VIII. :  though  a  few,  as  early 
as  the  reign  of  Charles  VI.,  have  short  daggers  in 
their  girdles.  The  exception  is  a  figure  of  Charles 
VII.,  t.  iii.,  pi.  47. 

*  Baluzii  Capitularia,  p.  444.  It  was  abolished 
by  Louis  the  Debonair,  a  man,  as  I  have  noticed  in 
another  place,  not  inferior,  as  a  legislator,  to  his 
father,  ibid  ,  p.  668. 

f  Ordeals  were  not  actually  abolished  in  France, 
notwithstanding  the  law  of  Louis  above  mention- 
ed, so  late  as  the  eleven:h  century. — Bouquet,  t. 
xi.,  p.  430;  nor  in  England  till  the  reign  of  Hen- 
ry III.  Some  of  the  stories  we  read,  wherein  ac- 
cused persons  have  passed  triumphantly  through 
these  severe  proofs,  are  perplexing  enough  :  and 
perhaps  it  is  safer,  as  well  as  easier,  to  deny  than 


But  the  religious  ignorance  of  the  mid- 
dle ages  sometimes  burst  out  in  Enthusias- 
ebullitions  of  epidemical  enthu-  l'c  risings, 
siasm,  more  remarkable  than  these  su- 
perstitious usages,  though  proceeding  in 
fact  from  similar  causes.  For  enthusi- 
asm is  little  else  than  superstition  put  in 
motion,  and  is  equally  founded  on  a  strong 
conviction  of  supernatural  agency  with- 
out any  just  conception  of  its  nature. 
Nor  has  any  denomination  of  Christians 
produced,  or  even  sanctioned,  more  fa- 
naticism than  the  church  of  Rome.* 
These  epidemical  phrensies,  however, 
to  which  I  am  alluding,  were  merely  tu- 
multuous, though  certainly  fostered  by 
the  creed  of  perpetual  miracles,  which 
the  clergy  inculcated,  and  drawing  a 
legitimate  precedent  for  religious  insur- 
rection from  the  crusades.  For  these, 
among  their  other  evil  consequences, 
seem  to  have  principally  excited  a  wild 
fanaticism  that  did  not  sleep  for  several 
centuries. f 

The  first  conspicuous  appearance  of  it 
was  in  the  reign  of  Philip  Augustus,  when 
the  mercenary  troops,  dismissed  from 
the  pay  of  that  prince  and  of  Henry  II., 
committed  the  greatest  outrages  in  the 
south  of  France.  One  Durand,  a  carpen- 
ter, deluded,  it  is  said,  by  a  contrived  ap- 
pearance of  the  Virgin,  put  himself  at  the 
head  of  an  army  of  the  populace,  in  or- 
der to  destroy  these  marauders.  His 


to  explain  them.  For  example,  a  writer  in  the  Ar- 
chaeologia,  vol.  xv.,  p.  172,  has  shown  that  Emma, 
queen  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  did  not  perform 
her  trial  by  stepping  between,  as  Blackstone  ima- 
gines, but  upon  nine  redhot  ploughshares.  But 
he  seems  not  aware  that  the  whole  story  is  unsup- 
ported by  any  contemporary  or  even  respectable 
testimony.  A  similar  anecdote  is  related  of  Cune- 
gunda,  wife  of  the  Emperor  Henry  II.,  which  prob- 
ably gave  rise  to  that  of  Emma.  There  are,  how- 
ever, medicaments,  as  is  well  known,  that  protect 
the  skin  to  a  certain  degree  against  the  effect  of 
fire.  This  phenomenon  would  pass  for  miracu- 
lous, and  form  the  basis  of  those  exaggerated  sto- 
ries in  monkish  books. 

*  Besides  the  original  lives  of  popish  saints,  and 
especially  that  of  St.  Francis  in  Wadding's  Annales 
Mmorum,  the  reader  will  find  amusement  in  Bishop 
Lavington's  Enthusiasm  of  Methodists  and  Papists 
compared. 

t  The  most  singular  effect  of  this  crusading 
spirit  was  witnessed  in  1211,  when  a  multitude, 
amounting,  as  some  say,  to  90,000,  chiefly  com- 
posed of  chillren,  and  commanded  by-  a  child,  set 
out  for  the  purpose  of  recovering  the  Holy  Land 
They  came  for  the  most  part  from  Germany,  and 
reached  Genoa  without  harm.  But  finding  there 
an  obstacle  which  their  imperfect  knowledge  of 
geography  had  not  anticipated,  they  soon  dispersed 
in  various  directions.  Thirty  thousand  arrived  at 
Marseilles,  where  part  were  murdered,  part  proba- 
bly starved,  and  the  rest  sold  to  the  Saracens.— 
Annali  di  Muratori,  A.  D.  1211.  Velly,  Hist,  da 
France,  t.  iv.,  p.  206. 


464 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


followers  were  styled  Brethren  of  the 
White  Caps,  from  the  linen  coverings  of 
their  heads.  They  bound  themselves  not 
to  play  at  dice,  nor  frequent  taverns ;  to 
wear  no  affected  clothing,  to  avoid  per- 
jury and  vain  swearing.  After  some 
successes  over  the  plunderers,  they  went 
so  far  as  to  forbid  the  lords  to  take  any 
dues  from  their  vassals,  on  pain  of  incur- 
ring the  indignation  of  the  brotherhood. 
It  may  easily  be  imagined  that  they  were 
soon  entirely  discomfited,  so  that  no  one 
dared  to  own  that  he  had  belonged  to 
them.* 

During  the  captivity  of  St.  Louis  in 
Egypt,  a  more  extensive  and  terrible  fer- 
ment broke  out  in  Flanders,  and  spread 
from  thence  over  great  part  of  France. 
An  impostor  declared  himself  commis- 
sioned by  the  Virgin  to  preach  a  crusade, 
not  to  the  rich  and  noble,  who,  for  their 
pride,  had  been«rejected  of  God,  but  the 
poor.  His  disciples  were  called  Pastou- 
reaux,  the  simplicity  of  shepherds  having 
exposed  them  more  readily  to  this  delu- 
sion. In  a  short  time  they  were  swelled 
by  the  confluence  of  abundant  streams  to 
a  moving  mass  of  a  hundred  thousand 
men,  divided  into  companies,  with  ban- 
ners bearing  a  cross  and  a  lamb,  and 
commanded  by  the  impostor's  lieuten- 
ants. He  assumed  a  priestly  character, 
preaching,  absolving,  annulling  marriages. 
At  Amiens,  Bourges,  Orleans,  and  Paris 
itself,  he  was  received  as  a  divine  prophet. 
Even  the  regent  Blanche,  for  a  time,  was 
led  away  by  the  popular  tide.  His  main 
topic  was  reproach  of  the  clergy  for  their 
idleness  and  corruption,  a  theme  well 
adapted  to  the  ears  of  the  people,  who 
had  long  been  uttering  similar  strains  of 
complaint.  In  some  towns  his  followers 
massacred  the  priests  and  plundered  the 
monasteries.  The  government  at  length 
began  to  exert  itself;  and  the  public  sen- 
timent turning  against  the  authors  of  so 
much  confusion,  this  rabble  was  put  to  the 
sword  or  dissipated,  f  Seventy  years  af- 
terward, an  insurrection  almost  exactly 
parallel  to  this  burst  out  under  the  same 
pretence  of  a  crusade.  These  insurgents 
too  bore  the  name  of  Pastoureaux,  and 
their  short  career  was  distinguished  by  a 
general  massacre  of  the  Jews.J 

But  though  the  cpjaiagj&J1  ofjanaticism 
spreads  much  more  rapidly^fnTtnig  tRe 
populace,  and  in  modern  times  is  almost 


*  Velly,  t.  iii.,  p,  295.    Du  Cange,  v.  Capuciati. 

t  Id.,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  v.,  p.  7.  Du  Cange,  v. 
Pastorielli. 

t  Id.,  t.  viii.,  p.  99.  The  continuator  of  Nangis 
says,  sicut  fumus  subito  evanuit  tola  ilia  commotio. 
— Spicilegium,  t.  iii.,  p.  77. 


entirely  confined  to  it,  there  were  exam- 
ples in  the  middle  ages  of  an  epidemical 
religious  lunacy,  from  which  no  class 
was  exempt.  One  of  these  occurred 
about  the  year  1260,  when  a  multitude 
of  every  rank,  age,  and  sex,  marching  two 
by  two  in  procession  along  the  streets 
and  public  roads,  mingled  groans  and 
dolorous  hymns  with  the  sound  of  leath- 
ern scourges  which  they  exercised  upon 
their  naked  backs.  From  this  mark  of 
penitence,  which,  as  it  bears  at  least  all 
the  appearance  of  sincerity,  is  not  un- 
common in  the  church  of  Rome,  they 
acquired  the  name  of  Flagellants.  Their 
career  began,  it  is  said,  at  Perugia,  whence 
they  spread  over  the  rest  of  Italy,  and 
into  Germany  and  Poland.  As  this  spon- 
taneous fanaticism  met  with  no  encour- 
agement from  the  church,  and  was  pru- 
dently discountenanced  by  the  civil  ma- 
gistrate, it  died  away  in  a  very  short 
time.*  But  it  is  more  surprising,  that, 
after  almost  a  century  and  a  half  of 
continual  improvement  and  illumination, 
another  irruption  of  popular  extravagance 
burst  out  under  circumstances  exceeding- 
ly similar.f  In  the  month  of  August, 
1399,  says  a  contemporary  historian, 
there  appeared  all  over  Italy  a  descrip- 
tion of  persons  called  Bianchi,  from  the 
white  linen  vestments  that  they  wore. 
They  passed  from  province  to  province, 
and  from  city  to  city,  crying  out  Miseri- 
cordia!  with  their  faces  covered  and 
bent  towards  the  ground,  and  bearing 
before  them  a  great  crucifix.  Their  con- 
stant song  was,  Stabat  Mater  dolorosa. 
This  lasted  three  months ;  and  whoever 
did  not  attend  their  procession  was  re- 
puted a  heretic. |  Almost  every  Italian 
writer  of  the  time  takes  notice  of  these 
Bianchi;  and  Muratori  ascribes  a  re- 
markable reformation  of  manners  (though 
certainly  a  very  transient  one)  to  their 
influence. $  Nor  were  they  confined  to 
Italy,  though  no  such  meritorious  exer- 
tions are  reputed  to  them  in  other  coun- 
tries. In  France,  their  practice  of  cov- 


*  Velly,  t.  v.,  p.  279.     Du  Cange,  Verberatio. 

•f  Something  of  a  similar  kind  is  mentioned  by 
G.  Villani,  under  the  year  1310, 1.  viii.,  c.  122. 

Annal.  Mediolan.  in  Murat.  Script.  Rer.  Ital., 
t.  xvi.,  p.  832.  G.  Stella,  Ann.  Genuens.,  t.  xvii.,  p. 
1072.  Chron.  Foroliviense,  t.  xix.,  p.  874.  Ann. 
Bonincontri,  t.  xxi.,  p.  79. 

$  Dissert.  75.  Sudden  transitions  from  profli- 
gate to  austere  manners  were  so  common  among 
individuals,  that  we  cannot  be  surprised  at  their 
sometimes  becoming  in  a  manner  national.  Aza- 
rius,  a  chronicler  of  Milan,  after  describing  the  al- 
most incredible  dissoluteness  of  Pavia,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  an  instantaneous  reformation  wrought  by 
the  preaching  of  a  certain  friar.  This  was  about 
1360.— Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xvi.,  p.  375. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


465 


ering  the  face  gave  such  opportunity  to 
crime  as  to  be  prohibited  by  the  govern- 
ment ;*  and  we  have  an  act  on  the  rolls 
of  the  first  parliament  of  Henry  IV.,  for- 
bidding any  one,  "  under  pain  of  forfeit- 
ing all  his  worth,  to  receive  the  new  sect 
in  white  clothes,  pretending  to  great 
sanctity,"  which  had  recently  appeared 
in  foreign  parts. f 

The  devotion  of  the  multitude  was 
Pretended  wrought  to  this  feverish  height 
miracles,  by  fae  prevailing  system  of  the 
clergy.  In  that  singular  polytheism 
which  had  been  grafted  on  the  language 
rather  than  the  principles  of  Christianity, 
nothing  was  so  conspicuous  as  the  belief 
of  perpetual  miracles;  if  indeed  those 
could  properly  be  termed  miracles,  which, 
by  their  constant  recurrence,  even  upon 
trifling  occasions,  might  seem  within  the 
ordinary  dispensations  of  Providence. 
These  superstitions  arose  in  what  are  call- 
ed primitive  times,  and  are  certainly  no 
part  of  popery,  if  in  that  word  we  include 
any  especial  reference  to  the  Roman  see. 
But  successive  ages  of  ignorance  swelled 
the  delusion  to  such  an  enormous  pitch, 
that  it  was  as  difficult  to  trace,  we  may 
say  without  exaggeration,  the  real  reli- 
gion of  the  Gospel  in  the  popular  belief 
of  the  laity,  as  the  real  history  of  Charle- 
magne in  the  romance  of  Turpin.  It 
must  not  be  supposed  that  these  absurd- 
ities were  produced,  as  well  as  nour- 
ished, by  ignorance.  In  most  cases  they 
were  the  work  of  deliberate  imposture. 
Every  cathedral  or  monastery  had  its 
tutelar  saint,  and  every  saint  his  legend, 
fabricated  in  order  to  enrich  the  church- 
es under  his  protection,  by  exaggerating 
his  virtues,  his  miracles,  and  consequent- 
ly his  power  of  serving  those  who  paid 
liberally  for  his  patronage.^  Many  of 
those  saints  were  imaginary  persons ; 
sometimes  a  blundered  inscription  added 
a  name  to  the  calendar;  and  sometimes, 
it  is  said,  a  heathen  god  was  surprised  at 
the  company  to  which  he  was  introduced, 
and  the  rites  with  which  he  was  honour- 
ed.^ 

It  would  not  be  consonant  to  the  na- 

Mischiefs      ture   °^  ^e   Present  work,  to 
arising  from  dwell  upon  the  eiToneousness 

*  Villaret,  t.  xii.,  p.  327. 

t  Rot.  Par!.,  v.  iii.,  p.  428. 

j  This  is  confessed  by  the  authors  of  Histoire 
Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  ii.,  p.  4,  and  indeed  by 
many  Catholic  writers.  I  need  not  quote  Mo- 
sheim,  who  more  than  confirms  every  word  of  my 
text. 

§  Middleton's  Letter  from  Rome.  If  some  of 
our  eloquent  countrymen's  positions  should  be  dis- 
puted, there  are  still  abundant  Catholic  testimo- 
nies, that  imaginary  saints  have  been  canonized. 


of  this  religion ;  but  its  effect  upon  this  super- 
the  moral  and  intellectual  charac-  8titio»- 
ter  of  mankind  was  so  prominent,  that  no 
one  can  take  a  philosophical  view  of  the 
middle  ages  without  attending  more  than 
is  at  present  fashionable  to  their  ecclesi- 
astical history.  That  the  exclusive  wor- 
ship of  saints,  under  the  guidance  of  an 
artful  though  illiterate  priesthood,  de- 
graded the  understanding,  and  begot  a 
stupid  credulity  and  fanaticism,  is  suffi- 
ciently evident.  But  it  was  also  so  man- 
aged as  to  loosen  the  bonds  of  religion, 
and  pervert  the  standard  of  morality.  If 
these  inhabitants  of  heaven  had  been  rep- 
resented as  stern  avengers,  accepting  no 
slight  atonement  for  heavy  offences,  and 
prompt  to  interpose  their  control  over 
natural  events  for  the  detection  and  pun- 
ishment of  guilt,  the  creed,  however  im- 
possible to  be  reconciled  with  experience, 
might  have  proved  a  salutary  check  upon 
a  rude  people,  and  would  at  least  have 
had  the  only  palliation  that  can  be  offer- 
ed for  a  religious  imposture,  its  political 
expediency.  In  the  legends  of  those 
times,  on  the  contrary,  they  appeared 
only  as  perpetual  intercessors,  so  good- 
natured  and  so  powerful,  that  a  sinner 
was  more  emphatically  foolish  than  he  is 
usually  represented,  if  he  failed  to  secure 
himself  against  any  bad  consequences. 
For  a  little  attention  to  the  saints,  and 
especially  to  the  Virgin,  with  due  liberal- 
ity to  their  servants,  had  saved,  we  would 
be  told,  so  many  of  the  most  atrocious 
delinquents,  that  he  might  equitably  pre- 
sume upon  similar  luck  in  his  own  case. 
This  monstrous  superstition  grew  to 
its  height  in  the  twelfth  century.  For 
the  advance  that  learning  then  made  was 
by  no  means  sufficient  to  counteract  the 
vast  increase  of  monasteries,  and  the  op- 
portunities which  the  greater  cultivation 
of  modern  languages  afforded  for  the  dif- 
fusion of  legendary  tales.  It  was  now 
too  that  the  veneration  paid  to  the  Virgin, 
in  early  times  very  great,  rose  to  an  al- 
most exclusive  idolatry.  It  is  difficult  to 
conceive  the  stupid  absurdity,  and  the 
disgusting  profaneness  of  those  stories, 
which  were  invented  by  the  monks  to  do 
her  honour.  A  few  examples  have  been 
thrown  into  a  note.* 


*  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  has  given  us,  in  the  fifth  vol- 
ume of  his  Fabliaux,  several  of  the  religious  tales 
by  which  the  monks  endeavoured  to  withdraw  the 
people  from  romances  of  chivalry.  The  following 
specimens  will  abundantly  confirm  my  assertions, 
which  may  perhaps  appear  harsh  and  extravagant 
to  the  reader. 

There  was  a  man  whose  occupation  was  high- 
way robbery  ;  but,  whenever  he  set  out  on  any  such 
expedition,  he  was  careful  to  address  a  prayer  to 


466 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX, 


Whether  the  superstition  of  these  dark 
Not  aito-  a£es  ^  actually  passed  that 
ge°therun-  point,  when  it  becomes  more 
mixed  with  injurious  to  public  morals  and 
the  welfare  of  society  than  the 
entire  absence  of  all  religious  notions,  is 


the  Virgin.  Taken  at  last,  he  was  sentenced  to 
be  hanged.  While  the  cord  was  round  his  neck, 
he  made  his  usual  prayer,  nor  was  it  ineffectual. 
The, Virgin  supported  his  feet  "with  her  white 
hands,"  and  thus  kept  him  alive  two  days,  to  the 
no  small  surprise  of  the  executioner,  who  attempt- 
ed to  complete  his  work  with  strokes  of  a  sword. 
But  the  same  invisible  hand  turned  aside  the  wea- 
pon, and  the  executioner  was  compelled  to  release 
his  victim,  acknowledging  the  miracle.  The  thief 
retired  into  a  monastery,  which  is  always  the  ter- 
mination of  these  deliverances. 

At  the  monastery  of  St.  Peter,  near  Cologne, 
lived  a  monk  perfectly  dissolute  and  irreligious, 
but  very  devout  towards  the  Apostle.  Unluckily, 
he  died  suddenly  without  confession.  The  fiends 
came  as  usual  to  seize  his  soul.  St.  Peter,  vexed 
at  losing  so  faithful  a  votary,  besought  God  to  ad- 
mit the  monk  into  Paradise.  His  prayer  was  re- 
fused, and  though  the  whole  body  of  saints,  apos- 
tles, angels,  and  martyrs  joined  at  his  request  to 
make  interest,  it  was  of  no  avail.  In  this  extremi- 
ty he  had  recourse  to  the  Mother  of  God.  "  Fair 
lady,"  he  said,  "  my  monk  is  lost  if  you  do  not  in- 
terfere for  him  ;  but  what  is  impossible  for  us  will 
be  but  sport  to  you,  if  you  please  to  assist  us.  Your 
son,  if  you  but  speak  a  word,  must  yield,  since  it  is 
in  your  power  to  command  him."  The  Queen 
Mother  assented,  and,  followed  by  all  the  virgins, 
moved  towards  her  Son.  He  who  had  himself 
given  the  precept,  Honour  thy  father  and  thy  moth- 
er, no  sooner  saw  his  own  parent  approach,  than  he 
rose  to  receive  her ;  and,  taking  her  by  the  hand, 
inquired  her  wishes.  The  rest  may  be  easily  con- 
jectured. Compare  the  gross  stupidity,  or  rather 
the  atrocious  impiety  of  this  tale,  with  the  pure  the- 
ism of  the  Arabian  Nights,  and  judge  whether  the 
Deity  was  better  worshipped  at  Cologne  or  at  Bag- 
dad. 

It  is  unnecessary  to  multiply  instances  of  this 
kind.  In  one  tale  the  Virgin  takes  the  shape  of  a 
nun,  who  had  eloped  from  the  convent,  and  per- 
forms her  duties  ten  years,  till,  tired  of  a  liber- 
tine life,  she  returns  unsuspected.  This  was  in 
consideration  of  her  having  never  omitted  to  say 
an  Ave  as  she  passed  the  Virgin's  image.  In  an- 
other, a  gentleman,  in  love  with  a  handsome  wid- 
ow, consents,  at  the  instigation  of  a  sorcerer,  to 
renounce  God  and  the  saints,  but  cannot  be  per- 
suaded to  give  up  the  Virgin,  well  knowing  that, 
if  he  kept  her  his  friend,  he  should  obtain  pardon 
through  her  means.  Accordingly,  she  inspired  his 
mistress  with  so  much  passion,  that  he  married 
her  within  a  few  days. 

These  tales,  it  may  be  said,  were  the  production 
of  ignorant  men,  and  circulated  among  the  popu- 
lace. Certainly  they  would  have  excited  contempt 
and  indignation  in  the  more  enlightened  clergy. 
But  I  am  concerned  with  the  general  character  of 
religious  notions  among  the  people :  and  for  this 
it  is  better  to  take  such  popular  compositions, 
adapted  to  what  the  laity  already  believed,  than 
the  writings  of  comparatively  learned  and  reflect- 
ing men.  However,  stories  of  the  same  cast  are 
frequent  in  the  monkish  historians.  Matthew  Par- 
is, one  of  the  most  respectable  of  that  class,  and 
no  friend  to  the  covetousness  or  relaxed  lives  of 
the  priesthood,  tells  us  of  a  knight  who  was  on  the 
point  of  being  damned  for  frequenting  tournaments, 


a  very  complex  question,  upon  which  I 
would  by  no  means  pronounce  an  affirm- 
ative decision.  A  salutary  influence, 
breathed  from  the  spirit  of  a  more  gen- 
uine religion,  often  displayed  itself  among 
the  corruptions  of  a  degenerate  supersti- 
tion. In  the  original  principles  of  mo- 
nastic orders,  and  the  rules  by  which  they 
ought  at  least  to  have  been  governed, 
there  was  a  character  of  meekness,  self- 
denial,  and  charity,  that  could  not  wholly 
be  effaced.  These  virtues,  rather  than 
justice  and  veracity,  were  inculcated  by 
the  religious  ethics  of  the  middle  ages ; 
and  in  the  relief  of  indigence,  it  may, 
upon  the  whole,  be  asserted,  that  the 
monks  did  not  fall  short  of  their  profes- 
sion.* This  eleemosynary  spirit,  indeed, 
remarkably  distinguishes  both  Christian- 
ity and  Mahometanism  from  the  moral 
systems  of  Greece  and  Rome,  which 
were  very  deficient  in  general  humanity 
and  sympathy  with  suffering.  Nor  do  we 
find  in  any  single  instance  during  ancient 
times,  if  I  mistake  not,  those  public  in- 
stitutions for  the  alleviation  of  human 
miseries,  which  have  long  been  scattered 
over  every  part  of  Europe.  The  virtues 
of  the  monks  assumed  a  still  higher  char- 
acter when  they  stood  forward  as  pro- 
tectors of  the  oppressed.  By  an  estab- 
lished law,  founded  on  very  ancient  su- 
perstition, the  precincts  of  a  church  af- 
forded sanctuary  to  accused  persons. 
Under  a  due  administration  of  justice, 
this  privilege  would  have  been  simply 
and  constantly  mischievous,  as  we  prop- 
erly consider  it  to  be  in  those  countries 
where  it  still  subsists.  But  in  the  rapine 
and  tumult  of  the  middle  ages,  the  right 
of  sanctuary  might  as  often  be  a  shield 
to  innocence  as  an  immunity  to  crime. 
We  can  hardly  regret,  in  reflecting  on  the 
desolating  violence  which  prevailed,  that 


but  saved  by  a  donation  he  had  formerly  made  to 
the  Virgin,  p.  290. 

*  I  am  inclined  to  acquiesce  in  this  general 
opinion ;  yet  an  account  of  expenses  at  Bolton 
Abbey,  about  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  published  in 
Whitaker's  History  of  Craven,  p.  51,  makes  a  very 
scanty  show  of  almsgiving  in  this  opulent  monas- 
tery. Much,  however,  was  no  doubt  given  in  vict- 
uals. But  it  is  a  strange  error  to  conceive  that 
English  monasteries  before  the  dissolution  fed  the 
indigent  part  of  the  nation,  and  gave  that  general 
relief  which  the  poor-laws  are  intended  to  afford. 

Piers  Plowman  is  indeed   a  satirist ;   but  he 
plainly  charges  the  monks  with  want  of  charity. 
Little  had  lordes  to  do  to  give  landes  from  their 

heires, 
To  religious  that  have  no  ruthe  though  it  rain  on 

their  aultres ; 
In  many  places  there  the  parsons  be  themself  at 

ease, 
Of  the  poor  they  have  no  pitie,  and  that  is  their 

poor  charitie. 


PART  I/j 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


467 


there  should  have  been  some  green  spots 
in  the  wilderness,  where  the  feeble  and 
the  persecuted  could  find  refuge.  How 
must  this  right  have  enhanced  the  ven- 
eration for  religious  institutions  !  How 
gladly  must  the  victims  of  internal  war- 
fare have  turned  their  eyes  from  the 
baronial  castle,  the  dread  and  scourge  of 
the  neighbourhood,  to  those  venerable 
walls,  within  which  not  even  the  clam- 
our of  arms  could  be  heard,  to  disturb  the 
chant  of  holy  men,  and  the  sacred  service 
i  of  the  altar !  The  protection  of  the  sanc- 
\  tuary  was  never  withheld.  A  son  of 
'  Chilperic,  king  of  France,  having  fled  to 
that  of  Tours,  his  father  threatened  to 
ravage  all  the  lands  of  the  church  unless 
they  gave  him  up.  Gregory,  the  histo- 
rian, bishop  of  the  city,  replied  in  the 
name  of  his  clergy,  that  Christians  could 
not  be  guilty  of  an  act  unheard  of  among 
pagans.  The  king  was  as  good  as  his 
word,  and  did  not  spare  the  estate  of  the 
church,  but  dared  not  infringe  its  privi- 
leges. He  had  indeed  previously  ad- 
dressed a  letter  to  St.  Martin,  which  was 
laid  on  his  tomb  in  the  church,  request- 
ing permission  to  take  away  his  son  by 
force  ;  but  the  honest  saint  returned  no 
answer.* 

The  virtues,  indeed,  or  supposed  vir- 
Vices  of  the  tues>  which  had  induced  a  cred- 
monksand  ulous  generation  to  enrich  so 
clergy.^  many  of  the  monastic  orders, 
were  not  long  preserved.  We  must  re- 
ject, in  the  excess  of  our  candour,  all 
testimonies  that  the  middle  ages  present, 
from  the  solemn  declaration  of  councils, 
and  reports  of  judicial  inquiry,  to  the 
casual  evidence  of  common  fame  in  the 
ballad  or  romance,  if  we  would  extenu- 
ate the  general  corruption  of  those  insti- 
tutions. In  vain  new  rules  of  discipline 
were  devised,  or  the  old  corrected  by  re- 
forms. Many  of  their  worst  vices  grew 
so  naturally  out  of  their  mode  of  life,  that 
a  stricter  discipline  could  have  no  ten- 
dency to  extirpate  them.  Such  were  the 
frauds  I  have  already  noticed,  and  the 
I  whole  scheme  of  hypocritical  austerities. 
Their  extreme  licentiousness  was  some- 
times hardly  concealed  by  the  cowl  of 
sanctity.  I  know  not  by  what  right  we 
should  disbelieve  the  reports  of  the  visit- 
ation under  Henry  VIII.,  entering  as  they 
do  into  a  multitude  of  specific  charges, 
both  probable  in  their  nature  and  conso- 
nant to  the  unanimous  opinion  of  the 
world. f  Doubtless  there  were  many 

*  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  i.,  p.  374. 

t  See  Fosbrooke's  British  Monachism,  vol.  i., 
p.  127,  and  vol.  ii.,p.  8,  for  a  farrago  of  evidence 
against  the  monks.  Clemangis,  a  French  theolo- 
Gg2 


communities,  as  well  as  individuals,  to 
whom  none  of  these  reproaches  would 
apply.  In  the  very  best  view,  however, 
that  can  be  taken  of  monasteries,  their 
existence  is  deeply  injurious  to  the  gen- 
eral morals  of  a  nation.  They  withdraw 
men  of  pure  conduct  and  conscientious 
principles  from  the  exercise  of  social  du- 
ties, and  leave  the  common  mass  of  hu- 
man vice  more  unmixed.  Such  men  are 
always  inclined  to  form  schemes  of  as- 
cetic perfection,  which  can  only  be  ful- 
filled in  retirement;  but,  in  the  strict 
rules  of  monastic  life,  and  under  the  in- 
fluence of  a  grovelling  superstition,  their 
virtue  lost  all  its  usefulness.  They  fell 
implicitly  into  the  snares  of  crafty  priests, 
who  made  submission  to  the  church  not 
only  the  condition,  but  the  measure  of  all 
praise.  He  is  a  good  Christian,  says 
Eligius,  a  saint  of  the  seventh  century, 
who  comes  frequently  to  church ;  who 
presents  an  oblation  that  it  may  be  of- 
fered to  God  on  the  altar ;  who  does  not 
taste  the  fruits  of  his  land  till  he  has  con- 
secrated a  part  of  them  to  God ;  who  can 
repeat  the  Creed  or  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Redeem  your  souls,  from  punishment 
while  it  is  in  your  power ;  offer  presents 
and  tithes  to  churches,  light  candles  in 
holy  places  as  much  as  you  can  afford, 
come  more  frequently  to  church,  implore 
the  protection  of  the  saints ;  for,  if  you 
observe  these  things,  you  may  come  with 
security  at  the  day  of  judgment  to  say, 
Give  unto  us,  Lord,  for  we  have  given 
unto  thee.* 


gian  of  considerable  eminence  at  the  beginning  of 
the  fifteenth  century,  speaks  of  nunneries  in  the 
following  terms :  Quid  aliud  sunt  hoc  tempore 
puellarum  monasteria,  nisi  quaedam  non  dico  Dei 
sanctuaria,  sed  Veneris  execranda  prostibula,  sed 
lascivorum  et  impudicorum  juvenum  ad  libidines 
explendas  receptacula '(  ut  idem  sit  hodie  puellam 
elare,  quod  et  publice  ad  scortandum  exponere. — 
William  Prynne,  from  whose  records,  vol.  ii.,  p. 
229,  I  have  taken  this  passage,  quotes  it  on  occa- 
sion of  a  charter  of  King  John,  banishing  thirty 
nuns  of  Ambresbury  into  different  convents,  prop- 
ter  vitae  suae  turpitudinem. 

*  Mosheim,  cent,  vii.,  c.  3.  Robertson  has 
quoted  this  passage,  to  whom  perhaps  I  am  imme- 
diately indebted  for  it.— Hist.  Charles  V.,  vol.  i., 
note  11. 

I  leave  this  passage  as  it  stood  in  former  edi- 
tions. But  it  is  due  to  justice  that  this  extract 
from  Eligius  should  never  be  quoted  in  future,  as 
the  translator  of  Mosheim  has  induced  Robertson 
and  many  others,  as  well  as  myself,  to  do.  Dr. 
Lingard  has  pointed  out  that  it  is  a  very  imperfect 
representation  of  what  Eligius  has  written;  for 
though  he  has  dwelled  on  these  devotional  prac- 
tices as  parts  of  the  definition  of  a  good  Christian, 
he  certainly  adds  a  great  deal  more  to  which  no 
one  could  object.  Yet  no  one  is  in  fact  to  blame 
for  this  misrepresentation,  which,  being  contained 
in  popular  books,  has  gone  forth  so  widely.  Mo- 
sheim, as  will  appear  on  referring  to  him,  did  not 


468 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX, 


With  such  a  definition  of  the  Christian 
character,  it  is  not  surprising  that  any 
fraud  and  injustice  became  honourable 
when  it  contributed  to  the  riches  of  the 
clergy  and  glory  of  their  order.  Their 
frauds,  however,  were  less  atrocious  than 
the  savage  bigotry  with  which  they  main- 
tained their  own  system  and  infected  the 
laity.  In  Saxony,  Poland,  Lithuania,  and 
the  countries  on  the  Baltic  Sea,  a  san- 
guinary persecution  extirpated  the  origi- 
nal idolatry.  The  Jews  were  every- 
where the  objects  of  popular  insult  and 
oppression,  frequently  of  a  general  mas- 
sacre, though  protected,  it  must  be  con- 
fessed, by  the  laws  of  the  church,  as  well 
as,  in  general,  by  temporal  princes.*  Of 
the  crusades  it  is  only  necessary  to  re- 
peat, that  they  began  in  a  tremendous 
eruption  of  fanaticism,  and  ceased  only 
because  that  spirit  could  not  be  constant- 
ly kept  alive.  A  similar  influence  pro- 
duced the  devastation  of  Languedoc,  the 
stakes  and  scaffolds  of  the  Inquisition, 
and  rooted  in  the  religious  theory  of  Eu- 
rope those  maxims  of  intolerance  which 
it  has  so  slowly,  and  still,  perhaps,  so  im- 
perfectly, renounced. 

From  no  other  cause  are  the  dictates 
of  sound  reason  and  the  moral  sense  of 
mankind  more  confused  than  by  this  nar- 
row theological  bigotry.  For  as  it  must 
often  happen  that  men,  to  whom  the  ar- 
rogance of  a  prevailing  faction  imputes 
religious  error,  are  exemplary  for  their 
performance  of  moral  duties,  these  vir- 
tues gradually  cease  to  make  their 
proper  impression,  and  are  depreciated 
by  the  rigidly  orthodox,  as  of  little  value 

quote  the  passage  as  containing  a  complete  defini' 
tion  of  the  Christian  character.  His  translator, 
Maclaine,  mistook  this,  and  wrote,  in  consequence, 
the  severe  note  which  Robertson  has  copied.  I 
have  seen  the  whole  passage  in  D'Achery's  Spici- 
legium  (vol.  v.,  p.  213,  4to.  edit.),  and  can  testify 
that  Dr.  Lingard  is  perfectly  correct.  Upon  the 
whole,  this  is  a  striking  proof  how  dangerous  it  is 
to  take  any  authorities  at  second  hand. — Note  to 
Fourth  Edition. 

*  Mr.  Turner  has  collected  many  curious  facts 
relative  to  the  condition  of  the  Jews,  especially  in 
England. — Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  95.  Others 
may  be  found  dispersed  in  Velly's  History  of 
France ;  and  many  in  the  Spanish  writers,  Mari- 
ana and  Zurita.  The  following  are  from  Vais- 
sette's  History  of  Languedoc.  It  was  the  custom 
at  Toulouse  to  give  a  blow  on  the  face  to  a  Jew 
every  Easter ;  this  was  commuted  in  the  twelfth 
century  for  a  tribute,  t.  ii.,  p.  151.  At  Beziers  an- 
other usage  prevailed,  that  of  attacking  the  Jews' 
houses  with  stones  from  Palm  Sunday  to  Easter. 
No  other  weapon  was  to  be  used ;  but  it  generally 
produced  bloodshed.  The  populace  were  regularly 
instigated  to  the  assault  by  a  sermon  from  the 
bishop.  At  length  a  prelate  wiser  than  the  rest 
abolished  this  ancient  practice,  but  not  without  re- 
ceiving a  good  sum  from  the  Jews,  p.  485. 


in  comparison  with  just  opinions  in 
speculative  points.  On  the  other  hand, 
vices  are  forgiven  to  those  who  are  zeal- 
ous in  the  faith.  I  speak  too  gently,  and 
with  a  view  to  later  times ;  in  treating 
of  the  dark  ages,  it  would  be  more  cor- 
rect to  say  that  crimes  were  commend- 
ed. Thus  Gregory  of  Tours,  a  saint  of 
the  church,  after  relating  a  most  atro- 
cious story  of  Clovis,  the  murder  of  a 
prince  whom  he  had  previously  instiga- 
ted to  parricide,  continues  the  sentence  : 
"  For  God  daily  subdued  his  enemies  to 
his  hand,  and  increased  his  kingdom  ; 
because  he  walked  before  him  in  upright- 
ness, and  did  what  was  pleasing  in  his 
eyes."* 

It  is  a  frequent  complaint  of  ecclesias- 
tical writers,  that  the  rigorous  commuta- 
penances,  imposed  by  the  prim-  tion  of 
itive  canons  upon  delinquents,  peni 
were  commuted  in  a  laxer  state  of  dis- 
cipline for  less  severe  atonements,  and 
ultimately  indeed  for  money.f  We  must 
not,  however,  regret  that  the  clergy 
should  have  lost  the  power  of  compelling 
men  to  abstain  fifteen  years  from  eating 
meat,  or  to  stand  exposed  to  public  de- 
rision at  the  gates  of  a  church.  Such 
implicit  submissiveness  could  only  have 
produced  superstition  and  hypocrisy 
among  the  laity,  and  prepared  the  road 
for  a  tyranny  not  less  oppressive  than 
that  of  India  or  ancient  Egypt.  Indeed, 
the  two  earliest  instances  of  ecclesiasti- 
cal interference  with  the  rights  of  sov- 
ereigns, namely,  the  deposition  of  Wam- 
ba  in  Spain,  and  that  of  Louis  the  Debo- 
nair, were  founded  upon  this  austere  sys- 
tem of  penitence.  But  it  is  true  that  a 
repentance  redeemed  by  money,  or  per- 


*  Greg.  Tur.,  1.  ii.,  c.  40.  Of  Theodebert, 
grandson  of  Clovis,  the  same  historian  says,  mag- 
num se  et  in  omni  bonitate  praecipuum  reddidit.  In 
the  next  paragraph  we  find  a  story  of  his  having 
two  wives,  and  looking  so  tenderly  on  the  daugh- 
ter of  one  of  them,  that  her  mother  tossed  her  over 
a  bridge  into  the  river,  1.  iii.,  c.  25.  This  indeed  is 
a  trifle  to  the  passage  in  the  text.  There  are  con- 
tinual proofs  of  immorality  in  the  monkish  histori- 
ans. In  the  history  of  Ramsey  Abbey,  one  of  our 
best  documents  for  Anglo-Saxon  times,  we  have  an 
anecdote  of  a  bishop  who  made  a  Danish  nobleman 
drunk  that  he  might  cheat  him  of  an  estate,  which 
is  told  with  much  approbation. — Gale,  Script.  An- 
glic., t.  i.,  p.  441.  Walter  de  Hemingford  recounts 
with  excessive  delight  the  well-known  story  of  the 
Jews  who  were  persuaded  by  the  captain  of  their 
vessel  to  walk  on  the  sands  at  low  water,  till  the 
rising  tide  drowned  them  ;  and  adds  that  the  cap- 
tain was  both  pardoned  and  rewarded  for  it  by  the 
king,  gratiam  promeruit  et  premium.  This  is  a 
mistake,  inasmuch  as  he  was  hanged  ;  but  it  ex- 
hibits the  character  of  the  historian. —Hemingford, 
p.  21. 

t  Fleury,  Troisi&me  discours  sur  PHistoire  Ec- 
clesiastique. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


469 


formed  by  a  substitute,  could  have  no 
salutary  effect  on  the  sinner ;  and  some 
of  the  modes  of  atonement  which  the 
church  most  approved  were  particularly 
hostile  to  public  morals.  None  was  so 
usual  as  pilgrimage,  whether  to  Jerusa- 
lem or  Rome,  which  were  the  great  ob- 
jects of  devotion;  or  to  the  shrine  of 
some  national  saint,  a  James  of  Compos- 
tella,  a  David,  or  a  Thomas  Becket. 
This  licensed  vagrancy  was  naturally 
productive  of  dissoluteness,  especially 
among  the  women.  Our  English  ladies, 
in  their  zeal  to  obtain  the  spiritual  treas- 
ures of  Rome,  are  said  to  have  relaxed 
the  necessary  caution  about  one  that 
was  in  their  own  custody.*  There  is 
a  capitulary  of  Charlemagne  directed 
against  itinerant  penitents,  who  probably 
considered  the  iron  chain  around  their 
necks  an  expiation  of  future  as  well  as 
past  offences. f 

The  crusades  may  be  considered  as 
martial  pilgrima^s  on  an  enormous 
scale,  and  thejd^Hlluence  upon  general 
morality  seem^PPiave  been  altogether 
pernicious.  Those  who  served  under 
the  cross  would  not  indeed  have  lived 
very  virtuously  at  home ;  but  the  confi- 
dence in  their  own  merits,  which  the 
principle  of  such  expeditions  inspired, 
must  have  aggravated  the  ferocity  and 
dissoluteness  of  their  ancient  habits. 
Several  historians  attest  the  depravation 
of  morals  which  existed  both  among  the 
crusaders  and  in  the  states  formed  out  of 
their  conquests. J 

While  religion  had  thus  lost  almost 
want  of  every  quality  that  renders  it  con- 
law-  ducive  to  the  good  order  of  soci- 
ety, the  control  of  human  law  was  still 
less  efficacious.  But  this  part  of  my 
subject  has  been  anticipated  in  other 
passages  of  the  present  work ;  arid  I 
shall  only  glance  at  the  want  of  regular 
subordination,  which  rendered  legislative 
and  judicial  edicts  a  dead  letter,  and  at 
the  incessant  private  warfare,  rendered 
legitimate  by  the  usages  of  most  conti- 
nental nations.  Such  hostilities,  con- 
ducted, as  they  must  usually  have  been, 
with  injustice  and  cruelty,  could  not  fail 
to  produce  a  degree  of  rapacious  feroci- 
ty in  the  general  disposition  of  a  people. 


*  Henry,  Hist,  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  c.  7. 

•f  Du  Cange.v.  Peregrinatio.  Non  sinantur  va- 
gari  isti  nudi  cum  ferro,  qui  dicunt  se  data  poeni- 
tentia  ire  vagantes.  Melius  videtur,  ut  si  aliquod 
inconsuetum  et  capitale  crimen  commiserint,  in 
uno  loco  permaneant  laborantes  et  servientes  et 
poenitentiam  agentes,  secundum  quod  canonice  iis 
impositum  sit. 

t  I.  de  Vitriaco,  in  Gesta  Dei  per  Francos,  t.  i. 
Villani,  1.  vii.,  c.  144. 


And  this  certainly  was  among  the  char- 
acteristics of  every  nation  for  many 
centuries. 

It  is  easy  to  infer  the  degradation  of 
society  during  the  dark  ages  from  Degrada- 
the  state  of  religion  and  police,  tionof 
Certainly  there  are  a  few  great  morals- 
landmarks  of  moral  distinctions  so  deep- 
ly fixed  in  human  nature,  that  no  degree 
of  rudeness  can  destroy,  nor  even  any 
superstition  remove  them.  Wherever 
an  extreme  corruption  has,  in  any  par- 
ticular society,  defaced  these  sacred 
archetypes  that  are  given  to  guide  and 
correct  the  sentiments  of  mankind,  it  is 
in  the  course  of  Providence  that  the  so- 
ciety itself  should  perish  by  internal  dis- 
cord or  the  sword  of  a  conqueror.  Irf* 
the  worst  ages  of  Europe  there  must 
have  existed  the  seeds  of  social  virtues, 
of  fidelity,  gratitude,  and  disinterested- 
ness ;  sufficient  at  least  to  preserve  the 
public  approbation  of  more  elevated  prin- 
ciples than  the  public  conduct  displayed. 
Without  these  imperishable  elements, 
there  could  have  been  no  restoration  of 
the  moral  energies ;  nothing  upon  which 
reformed  faith,  revived  knowledge,  re- 
newed law,  could  exercise  their  nourish- 
ing influences.  But  history,  which  re- 
flects only  the  more  prominent  features 
of  society,  cannot  exhibit  the  virtues  that 
were  scarcely  able  to  struggle  through 
the  general  depravation.  I  am  aware 
that  a  tone  of  exaggerated  declamation 
is  at  all  times  usual  with  those  who  la- 
ment the  vices  of  their  own  time;  and 
writers  of  the  middle  ages  are  in  abun- 
dant need  of  allowance  on  this  score./ 
Nor  is  it  reasonable  to  found  any  infer- 
ences as  to  the  general  condition  of  soci- 
ety on  single  instances  of  crimes,  how- 
ever atrocious,  especially  when  commit- 
ted under  the  influence  of  violent  pas- 
sion. Such  enormities  are  the  fruit  of 
every  age,  and  none  is  to  be  measured 
by  them.  They  make,  however,  a  strong 
impression  at  the  moment,  and  thus  find 
a  place  in  contemporary  annals,  from 
which  modern  writers  are  commonly 
glad  to  extract  whatever  may  seem  to 
throw  light  upon  manners.  I  shall  there- 
fore abstain  from  producing  any  particu- 
lar cases  of  dissoluteness  or  cruelty  from 
the  records  of  the  middle  ages,  lest  I 
should  weaken  a  general  proposition  by 
offering  an  imperfect  induction  to  sup- 
port it,  and  shall  content  myself  with  ob- 
serving, that  times  to  which  men  some- 
times appeal,  as  to  a  golden  period,  were 
far  inferior  in  every  moral  comparison  to 
those  in  which  we  are  thrown.*  One 

*  Henry  has  taken  pains  in  drawing  a  picture 


470 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


crime,  as  more  universal  and  character- 
istic than  others,  may  be  particularly  no- 
ticed. All  writers  agree  in  the  preva- 
lence of  judicial  perjury.  It  seems  to 
have  almost  invariably  escaped  human 
punishment;  and  the  barriers  of  super- 
stition were  in  this,  as  in  every  other  in- 
stance, too  feeble  to  prevent  the  com- 
mission of  crimes.  Many  of  the  proofs 
by  ordeal  were  applied  to  witnesses  as 
well  as  those  whom  they  accused ;  and 
undoubtedly  trial  by  combat  was  pre- 
served, in  a  considerable  degree,  on  ac- 
count of  the  difficulty  experienced  in  se- 
curing a  just  cause  against  the  perjury 
of  witnesses.  Robert,  king  of  France, 
perceiving  how  frequently  men  forswore 
'themselves  upon  the  relics  of  saints,  and 
less  shocked,  apparently,  at  the  crime 
than  at  the  sacrilege,  caused  an  empty 
reliquary  of  crystal  to  be  used,  that  those 
who  touched  it  might  incur  less  guilt  in 
fact,  though  not  in  intention.  Such  an 
anecdote  characterizes  both  the  man  and 
the  times.* 

The  favourite  diversions  of  the  middle 
Love  of  ages,  in  the  intervals  of  war, 
Held  sports.  were  those  of  hunting  and 
hawking.  The  former  must  in  all  coun- 
tries be  a  source  of  pleasure;  but  it 
seems  to  have  been  enjoyed  in  modera- 
tion by  the  Greeks  and  the  Romans.  With 
the  northern  invaders,  however,  it  was 
rather  a  predominant  appetite  than  an 
amusement ;  it  was  their  pride  and  their 
ornament,  the  theme  of  their  songs,  the 
object  of  their  laws,  and  the  business  of 
their  lives.  Falconry,  unknown  as  a  di- 

not  very  favourable,  of  Anglo-Saxon  manners.— 
Book  II.,  chap.  7.  This  perhaps  is  the  best  chap- 
ter, as  the  volume  is  the  best  volume,  of  his  une- 
qual work.  His  account  of  the  Anglo-Saxons  is 
derived  in  a  great  degree  from  William  of  Malms- 
bury,  who  does  not  spare  them.  Their  civil  histo- 
ry, indeed,  and  their  laws  speak  sufficiently  against 
the  character  of  that  people.  But  the  Normans 
had  little  more  to  boast  of  in  respect  of  moral  cor- 
rectness. Their  luxurious  and  dissolute  habits  are 
as  much  noticed  as  their  insolence ;  et  peccati  cu- 
jusdam,  ab  hoc  solo  admodum  alieni,  flagrasse  in- 
famia  testantur  veteres. — Vid.  Ordericus  Vitalis, 

?.  602.  Johann.  Sarisburiensis  Policraticus,  p. 
94.  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  hi.,  p.  59.  The 
state  of  manners  in  France  under  the  two  first 
races  of  kings,  and  in  Italy  both  under  the  Lom- 
bards and  the  subsequent  dynasties,  may  be  col- 
lected from  their  histories,  their  laws,  and  those 
miscellaneous  facts  which  books  of  every  descrip- 
tion contain.  Neither  Velly,  nor  Muratori,  Dis- 
sert. 23,  is  so  satisfactory  as  we  might  desire. 

*  Velly,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  ii.,  p.  335.  It  has 
been  observed,  that  Quid  mores  sine  legibus  ?  is  as 
iust  a  question  as  that  of  Horace;  and  that  bad 
laws  must  produce  bad  morals.  The  strange  prac- 
tice of  requiring  numerous  compurgators  to  prove 
the  innocence  of  an  accused  person  had  a  most 
obvious  tendency  to  increase  perjury. 


version  to  the  ancients,  became  from  the 
fourth  century  an  equally  delightful  occu- 
pation. *  From  the  Salique  and  other  bar- 
barous codes  of  the  fifth  century  to  the 
close  of  the  period  under  our  review, 
every  age  would  furnish  testimony  to  the 
ruling  passion  for  these  two  species  of 
chase,  or,  as  they  were  sometimes  called, 
the  mysteries  of  woods  and  rivers.  A 
knight  seldom  stirred  from  his  house  with- 
out a  falcon  on  his  wrist  or  a  greyhound 
that  followed  him.  Thus  are  Harold  and 
his  attendants  represented,  in  the  famous 
tapestry  of  Bayeux.  And  in  the  monu- 
ments of  those  who  died  anywhere  but 
on  the  field  of  battle,  it  is  usual  to  find 
the  greyhound  lying  at  their  feet,  or  the 
bird  upon  their  wrists.  Nor  are  the 
tombs  of  ladies  without  their  falcon;  for 
this  diversion  being  of  less  danger  and 
fatigue  than  the  chase,  was  shared  by  the 
delicate  sex.f 

It  was  impossible  to  repress  the  eager- 
ness with  which  the^j^rgy,  especially 
after  the  barbariansWRe  tempted  by 
rich  bishoprics  to  take^^n  them  the  sa- 
cred functions,  rushed  into  these  secular 
amusements.  Prohibitions  of  councils, 
however  frequently  repeated,  produced 
little  effect.  In  some  instances,  a  par- 
ticular monastery  obtained  a  dispensa- 
tion. Thus  that  of  St.  Denis,  in  774,  rep- 
resented to  Charlemagne  that  the  flesh 
of  hunted  animals  was  salutary  for  sick 
monks,  and  that  their  skins  would  serve 
to  bind  the  books  in  the  library.;}:  Rea- 
sons equally  cogent,  we  may  presume, 
could  not  be  wanting  in  every  other  case. 
As  the  bishops  and  abbots  were  perfectly 
feudal  lords,  and  often  did  not  scruple  to 
lead  their  vassals  into  the  field,  it  was  not 
to  be  expected  that  they  should  debar 
themselves  of  an  innocent  pastime.  It 
was  hardly  such  indeed,  when  practised 
at  the  expense  of  others.  Alexander 
III.,  by  a  letter  to  the  clergy  of  Berk- 
shire, dispenses  with  their  keeping  the 
archdeacon  in  dogs  and  hawks  during 
his  visitation. §  This  season  gave  jovial 
ecclesiastics  an  opportunity  of  trying 
different  countries.  An  archbishop  of 
York,  in  1321,  seems  to  have  carried  a 
train  of  two  hundred  persons,  who  were 
maintained  at  the  expense  of  the  abbeys 
on  his  road,  and  to  have  hunted  with  a 
pack  of  hounds  from  parish  to  parish.  [| 


*  Muratori,  Dissert.  23,  t.  i.,  p.  306.  (Italian.) 
Beckman's  Hist,  of  Inventions,  vol.  i.,  p.  319.  Vie 
privee  des  Fran<jais,  t.  ii.,  p.  1. 

t  Vie  privee  des  Frantjais,  t.  i.,  p.  320  ;  t.  ii.  p.  1 1. 

i  Idem,  t.  i.,  p.  324.  $  Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  61. 

||  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  340,  and  of 
Whalley,  p.  171. 


PART 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


471 


The  third  council  of  Lateran,  in  1180, 
had  prohibited  this  amusement  on  such 
journeys,  and  restricted  bishops  to  a  train 
of  forty  or  fifty  horses.* 

Though  hunting  had  ceased  to  be  a  ne- 
cessary means  of  procuring  food,  it  was 
a  very  convenient  resource,  on  which  the 
wholesomeness  and  comfort,  as  well  as 
the  luxury  of  the  table  depended.  Be- 
fore the  natural  pastures  were  improved, 
and  new  kinds  of  fodder  for  cattle  dis- 
covered, it  was  impossible  to  maintain 
the  summer  stock  during  the  cold  sea- 
son. Hence  a  portion  of  it  was  regularly 
slaughtered  and  salted  for  winter  provis- 
ion. We  may  suppose,  that  when  no  al- 
ternative was  offered  but  these  salted 
meats,  even  the  leanest  venison  was  de- 
voured with  relish.  There  was  some- 
what more  excuse,  therefore,  for  the  se- 
verity with  which  the  lords  of  forests 
and  manors  preserved  the  beasts  of 
chase,  than  if  they  had  been  considered 
as  merely  objects  of  sport.  The  laws 
relating  to  presentation  of  game  were 
in  every  country^ncommonly  rigorous. 
They  formed  in  England  that  odious 
system  of  forest-laws  which  distinguish- 
ed- the  tyranny  of  our  Norman  kings. 
Capital  punishment  for  killing  a  stag  or 
wild  boar  was  frequent,  and  perhaps  war- 
ranted by  law,  until  the  charter  of  John.f 
The  French  code  was  less  severe,  but 
even  Henry  IV.  enacted  the  pain  of  death 
against  the  repeated  offence  of  chasing 
deer  in  the  royal  forests.  The  privilege 
of  hunting  was  reserved  to  the  nobility 
till  the  reign  of  Louis  IX,,  who  extended 
it  in  some  degree  to  persons  of  lower 
birth.} 

This  excessive  passion  for  the  sports 
of  the  field  produced  those  evils  which 
are  apt  to  result  from  it ;  a  strenuous 
idleness,  which  disdained  all  useful  occu- 
pations, and  an  oppressive  spirit  towards 
the  peasantry.  The  devastation  com- 
mitted under  the  pretence  of  destroying 
wild  animals,  which  had  been  already 
protected  in  their  depredations,  is  noticed 
in  serious  authors,  and  has  also  been  the 
topic  of  popular  ballads. §  What  effect  this 

*  Velly,  Hist,  tie  France,  t.  iii.,  p.  236. 

t  John  of  Salisbury  inveighs  against  the  game- 
laws  of  his  age,  with  an  odd  transition  from  the 
Gospel  to  the  Pandects.  Nee  veriti  sunt  hominem 

Cuna  bestiolA  perdere,  quern  unigenitus  Dei  Fi- 
5  sanguine  redernit  suo.  Quae  ferae  naturae 
sunt,  et  de  jure  occupantium  fiunt,  sibi  audet  hu- 
mana  temeritas  vindicare,  &c. — Policraticus,  p.  18. 

t  Le  Grand,  Vie  privee  des  Franqais.  t   i.,  p.  325. 

()  For  the  injuries  which  this  people  sustained 
from  the  seignorial  rights  of  the  chase  in  the  elev- 
enth century,  see  the  Recueil  des  Historiens,  in  the 
valuable  preface  to  the  eleventh  volume,  p.  181. 
This  continued  to  be  felt  in  France  down  to  the  , 


fmust  have  had  on  agriculture,  it  is  easy 
to  conjecture.  The  levelling  of  forests, 
the  draining  of  morasses,  and  the  extir- 
pation of  mischievous  animals  which  in- 
habit them,  are  the  first  objects  of  man's 
labour  in  reclaiming  the  earth  to  its  use ; 
and  these  were  forbidden  by  a  landed 
aristocracy,  whose  control  over  the  prog- 
ress of  agricultural  improvement  was 
unlimited,  and  who  had  not  yet  learned 
to  sacrifice  their  pleasures  to  their  ava- 
rice. 

These  habits  of  the  rich,  and  the  mis- 
erable servitude  of  those  who  Bad  state  of 
cultivated  the  land,  rendered  agriculture, 
its  fertility  unavailing.  Predial  servitude 
indeed,  in  some  of  its  modifications,  has 
always  been  the  great  bar  to  improve- 
ment. In  the  agricultural  economy  of 
Rome,  the  labouring  husbandman,  a  me- 
nial slave  of  some  wealthy  senator,  had 
not  even  that  qualified  interest  in  the  soil 
which  the  tenure  of  villanage  afforded  to 
the  peasant  of  feudal  ages.  Italy,  there- 
fore, a  country  presenting  many  natural 
impediments,  was  but  imperfectly  re- 
duced into  cultivation  before  the  irrup- 
tion of  the  barbarians.*  That  revolution 
destroyed  agriculture  with  every  other 
art,  and  succeeding  calamities  during  five 
or  six  centuries,  left  the  finest  regions 
of  Europe  unfruitful  and  desolate.  There 
are  but  two  possible  modes  in  which  the 
produce  of  the  earth  can  be  increased ; 
one  by  rendering  fresh  land  serviceable  ; 
the  other  by  improving  the  fertility  of 
that  which  is  already  cultivated.  The 
last  is  only  attainable  by  the  application 
of  capital  and  of  skill  to  agriculture  : 
neither  of  which  could  be  expected  in 
the  ruder  ages  of  society.  The  former 
is,  to  a  certain  extent,  always  practicable 
while  waste  lands  remain  ;  but  it  was 
checked  by  laws  hostile  to  improvement, 
such  as  the  manorial  and  commonable 
rights  in  England,  and  by  the  general 
tone  of  manners. 

Till  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  there 
were  no  towns  in  Germany,  except  a 
few  that  had  been  erected  on  the  Rhine 


revolution,  to  which  it  did  not  perhaps  a  little  con- 
tribute.—(See  Young's  Travels  in  France.)  The 
monstrous  privilege  of  free-warren  (monstrous,  I 
mean,  when  not  originally  founded  upon  the  prop- 
erty of  the  soil)  is  recognised  by  our  own  laws, 
though  in  this  age  it  is  not  often  that  a  court  and 
jury  will  sustain  its  exercise.  Sir  Walter  Scott's 
ballad  of  the  Wild  Huntsman,  from  a  German  ori- 
ginal, is  well  known ',  and  I  believe  there  are  sev- 
eral others  in  that  country  not  dissimilar  in  subject. 
*  Muratori,  Dissert.  21.  This  dissertation  con- 
tains ample  evidence  of  the  wretched  state  of  cul- 
ture in  Italy,  at  least  in  the  northern  parts,  both 
before  the  irruption  of  the  barbarians,  and,  in  a 
much  greater  degree,  under  the  Lombard  kings, 


472 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


and  Danube  by  the  Romans,  A  hous 
with  its  stables  and  farm-buildings,  sur 
rounded  by  a  hedge  or  enclosure,  was 
called  a  court,  or,  as  we  find  it  in  ou: 
law-books,  a  curtilage ;  the  toft  or  home 
stead  of  a  more  genuine  English  dialect 
One  of  these,  with  the  adjacent  domain  oi 
arable  fields  and  woods,  had  the  name  ol 
a  villa  or  manse.  Several  manses  com 
posed  a  march ;  and  several  marches 
formed  a  pagus,  or  district.*  From  these 
elements  in  the  progress  of  population 
arose  villages  and  towns.  In  France 
undoubtedly  there  were  always  cities  of 
some  importance.  Country  parishes 
contained  several  manses  or  farms  of 
arable  land,  around  a  common  pasture 
where  every  one  was  bound  by  custom  to 
feed  his  cattle. f 

The  condition  even  of  internal  trade 
or  inter-  was  hardly  preferable  to  that  of 
nai  trade,  agriculture.  There  is  not  a  ves- 
tige perhaps  to  be  discovered  for  several 
centuries  of  any  considerable  manufac- 
ture ;  I  mean  of  working  up  articles  of 
common  utility  to  an  extent  beyond  what 
the  necessities  of  an  adjacent  district  re- 
quired.;}: Rich  men  kept  domestic  arti- 
sans among  their  servants ;  even  kings, 
in  the  ninth  century,  had  their  clothes 
made  by  the  women  upon  their  farms  : 
but  the  peasantry  must  have  been  suppli- 
ed with  garments  and  implements  of  la- 
bour by  purchase,  and  every  town,  it  can- 
not be  doubted,  had  its  weaver,  its  smith, 
*and  its  currier.  But  there  were  almost 
insuperable  impediments  to  any  extended 


*  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allem.,  t.  i.,  p.  408.  The 
following  passage  seems  to  illustrate  Schmidt's 
account  of  German  villages  in  the  ninth  century, 
though  relating  to  a  different  age  and  country. 
"  A  toft,"  says  Dr.  Whitaker,  "  is  a  homestead  in  a 
village,  so  called  from  the  small  tufts  of  maple, 
elm,  ash,  and  other  wood,  with  which  dwelling- 
houses  were  anciently  overhung.  Even  now  it  is 
impossible  to  enter  Craven  without  being  struck 
with  the  insulated  homesteads,  surrounded  by  their 
little  garths,  and  overhung  with  tufts  of  trees. 
These  are  the  genuine  tofts  and  crofts  of  our  an- 
cestors, with  the  substitution  only  of  stone  to  the 
wooden  crocks  and  thatched  roofs  of  antiquity." 
—Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  380. 

t  It  is  laid  down  in  the  Speculum  Saxonicum,  a 
collection  of  feudal  customs  which  prevailed  over 
most  of  Germany,  that  no  one  might  have  a  sep- 
arate pasture  for  his  cattle  unless  he  possessed 
three  mansi.— Du  Cange,  Mansus.  There  seems 
to  have  been  a  price  paid,  I  suppose  to  the  lord,  for 
agistment  in  the  common  pasture. 

t  The  only  mention  of  a  manufacture,  as  early 
as  the  ninth  or  tenth  centuries,  that  I  remember  to 
have  met  with,  is  in  Schmidt,  t.  ii.,  p.  146,  who 
says,  that  cloths  were  exported  from  Friseland  to 
England  and  other  parts.  He  quotes,  no  authori- 
ty, but  I  am  satisfied  that  he  has  not  advanced  the 
fact  gratuitously. 

4  Schmidt,  t  i.,  p.  411  j  t.  ii.,  p.  146. 


traffic;  the  insecurity  of  moyeable  wealth, 
and  difficulty  of  accumulating  it ;  the  ig- 
norance of  mutual  wants ;  the  peril  of 
robbery  in  conveying  merchandise,  and 
-Jhe  certainty  of  extortion.  In  the  do- 
mains of  every  lord,  a  toll  was  to  be  paid 
in  passing  his  bridge,  or  along  his  high- 
way, or  at  his  market.*  These  customs, 
equitable  and  necessary  in  their  princi- 
ple, became  in  practice  oppressive,  be- 
cause they  were  arbitrary,  and  renewed 
in  every  petty  territory  which  the  road 
might  intersect.  Several  of  Charle- 
magne's capitularies  repeat  complaints 
of  these  exactions,  and  endeavour  to 
abolish  such  tolls  as  were  not  founded  on 
prescription.!  One  of  them  rather  amu- 
singly illustrates  the  modesty  and  mod- 
eration of  the  landholders.  It  is  enacted 
that  no  one  shall.be  compelled  to  go  out 
of  his  way  in  order  to  pay  toll  at  a  par- 
ticular bridge,  when  he  can  cross  the 
river  more  conveniently  at  another 
place. |  These  provisions,  like  most 
others  of  that  age,  weA  unlikely  to  pro- 
duce much  amendmWt.  It  was  only 
the  milder  species,  however,  of  feudal 
lords  who  were  content  with  the  tribute 
of  merchants.  The  more  ravenous  de- 
scended from  their  fortresses  to  pillage 
the  wealthy  traveller,  or  shared  in  the 
spoil  of  inferior  plunderers,  whom  they 
both  protected  and  instigated.  Proofs 
occur,  even  in  the  later  periods  of  the 
middle  ages,  when  government  had  re- 
gained its  energy,  and  civilization  had 
made  considerable  progress,  of  public 
robberies  systematically  perpetrated  by 
men  of  noble  rank.  In  the  more  savage 
times,  before  the  twelfth  century,  they 
were  probably  too  frequent  to  excite 
much  attention.  It  was  a  custom  in 
some  places  to  waylay  travellers,  and 
not  only  to  plunder,  but  to  sell  them  as 
slaves,  or  compel  them  to  pay  a  ransom. 
Harold,  son  of  Godwin,  having  been 
wrecked  on  the  coast  of  Ponthieu,  was 
imprisoned  by  the  lord,  says  an  historian, 
according  to  the  custom  of  that  territo- 
ry. $  Germany  appears  to  have  been, 
upon  the  whole,  the  country  where  down- 
right robbery  was  most  unscrupulously 
practised  by  the  great.  Their  castles, 
erected  on  almost  inaccessible  heights 


*  Du  Cange,  Pedagium,  Pontaticum,  Telone- 
um,  Mercatum,  Stallagium,  Lastagium,  &c. 

t  Baluz.  Capit.,  p.  621,  et  alibi. 

J  Ut  nullus  cogatur  ad  pontem  ire  ad  fluvium 
transeundum  propter  telonei  causas  quando  ille  in 
alio  loco  compendiosius  illud  flumen  transire  po- 
test,  p.  764,  et  alibi. 

§  Eadmer  apud  Recueil  des  Historiens  des 
Gaules,  t.  xi.,  preface,  p.  192.  Pro  ritu  illius  loci, 
a  domino  terras  captivitati  addicitur. 


PART  I.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


473 


among  the  woods,  became  the  secure  re- 
ceptacles of  predatory  bands,  who  spread 
terror  over  the  country.  From  these 
barbarian  lords  of  the  dark  ages,  as  from 
a  living  model,  the  romancers  are  said -to 
have  drawn  their  giants  and  other  disloy- 
al enemies  of  true  chivalry.  Robbery 
indeed  is  the  constant  theme  both  of  the 
Capitularies  and  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
laws ;  one  has  more  reason  to  wonder  at 
the  intrepid  thirst  of  lucre,  which  indu- 
ced a  very  few  merchants  to  exchange 
the  products  of  different  regions,  than  to 
ask  why  no  general  spirit  of  commer- 
cial activity  prevailed. 

Under  all  these  circumstances,  it  is 
And  of  for-  obvious  that  very  little  oriental 
eign  com-  trade  could  have  existed  in  these 
merce.  western  countries  of  Europe. 
Destitute  as  they  have  been  created, 
speaking  comparatively,  of  national  pro- 
ductions fit  for  exportation,  their  inven- 
tion and  industry  are  the  great  resources 
from  which  they  can  supply  the  demands 
of  the  east.  Beijire  any  manufactures 
were  established  In  Europe,  her  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  Egypt  and  Asia 
must  of  necessity  have  been  very  trifling ; 
because,  whatever  inclination  she  migh 
feel  to  enjoy  the  luxuries  of  those  genia 
regions,  she  wanted  the  means  of  obtain 
ing  them.  It  is  not  therefore  necessaiy 
to  rest  the  miserable  condition  of  orienta 
commerce  upon  the  Saracen  conquests 
because  the  poverty  of  Europe  is  an  ade- 
quate cause  ;  and,  in  fact,  what  little  traf- 
fic remained  was  carried  on  with  no  ma- 
terial inconvenience  through  the  channe 
of  Constantinople.  Venice  took  the  leac 
in  trading  with  Greece  and  more  eastern 
countries.*  Amalfi  had  the  second  place 
in  the  commerce  of  those  dark  ages 
These  cities  imported,  besides  natural 
productions,  the  fine  clothes  of  Constan 
tinople ;  yet,  as  this  traffic  seems  to  have 
been  illicit,  it  was  not  probably  exten- 
sive, f  Their  exports  were  gold  and  sil- 


*  Heeren  has  frequently  referred  to  a  work  pub 
lished  in  1789,  by  Marini,  entitled  Storia  civile  e 
politica  del  Commerzio  de'  Veneziani,  which  casts 
a  new  light  upon  the  early  relations  of  Venice  with 
the  east.  Of  this  book  I  know  nothing;  but  a 
memoir  by  De  Guignes,  in  the  thirty-seventh  vol 
ume  of  the  Academy  of  Inscriptions,  on  the  com 
merce  of  France  with  the  east  before  the  crusades 
is  singularly  unproductive ;  the  fault  of  the  sub 
ject,  not  of  the  author. 

f  There  is  an  odd  passage  in  Luitprand's  relation 
of  his  embassy  from  the  Emperor  Otho  to  Nice 
phqrus  Phocas.  The  Greeks  making  a  display  of 
their  dress,  he  told  them  that  in  Lombardy  the 
common  people  wore  as  good  clothes  as  they 
How,  they  said,  can  you  procure  them  ?  Through 
the  Venetian  and  Amalfitan  dealers,  he  replied 
who  gain  their  subsistence  by  selling  them  to  us 
The  foolish  Greeks  were  very  angry,  and  declared 


ver,  by  which,  as  none  was  likely  to  re- 
turn, the  circulating  money  of  Europe 
was  probably  less  in  the  eleventh  centu- 
ry than  at  the  subversion  of  the  Roman 
empire ;  furs,  which  were  obtained  from 
the  Sclavonian  countries ;  and  arms,  the 
sale  of  which  to  pagans  or  Saracens  was 
vainly  prohibited  by  Charlemagne  and  by 
the  Holy  See.*  A.  more  scandalous  traf- 
fic, and  one  that  still  more  fitly  called  for 
prohibitory  laws,  was  carried  on  in  slaves. 
It  is  an  humiliating  proof  of  the  degra- 
dation of  Christendom,  that  the  Vene- 
tians were  reduced  to  purchase  the  lux- 
uries of  Asia  by  supplying  the  slave- 
market  of  the  Saracens. f  Their  apology 
would  perhaps  have  been,  that  these 
were  purchased  from  their  heathen  neigh- 
bours ;  but  a  slave-dealer  was  probably 
not  very  inquisitive  as  to  the  faith  or  ori- 
gin of  his  victim.  This  trade  was  not 
peculiar  to  Venice.  In  England  it  was 
very  common,  even  after  the  conquest, 
to  export  slaves  to  Ireland;  till,  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  II.,  the  Irish  came  to  a 
non-importation  agreement,  which  put  a 
stop  to  the  practice. | 

From  this  state  of  degradation  and 
poverty  all  the  countries  of  Europe  have 
recovered,  with  a  progression  in  some 
respects  tolerably  uniform,  in  others 
more  unequal;  and  the  course  of  their 
improvement  more  gradual,  and  less  de- 


that  any  dealer  presuming  to  export  their  fine 
clothes  should  be  flogged. — Luitprandi  Opera,  p. 
155,  edit.  Antwerp,  1640. 

*  Baluz.  Capital.,  p.  775.  One  of  the  main  ad- 
vantages which  the  Christian  nations  possessed 
over  the  Saracens  was  the  coat  of  mail,  and  other 
defensive  armour;  so  that  this  prohibition  was 
founded  upon  very  good  political  reasons. 

t  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allem.,  t.  ii.,  p.  146.  Hee- 
ren, sur  1'Influence  des  Croisades,  p.  316.  In  Ba- 
luze  we  find  a  law  of  Carloman,  brother  to  Charle- 
magne ;  Ut  mancipia  Christiana  paganis  non  ven- 
dantur. — Capitularia,  t.  i.,  p.  150,  vide  quoque,  p. 
361. 

t  "William  of  Malmsbury  accuses  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  nobility  of  selling  their  female  servants, 
even  when  pregnant  by  them,  as  slaves  to  foreign- 
ers, p.  102.  I  hope  there  were  not  many  of  these 
Yaricoes ;  and  should  not  perhaps  have  given  credit 
to  an  historian,  rather  prejudiced  against  the  Eng- 
lish, if  I  had  not  found  too  much  authority  for  the 
general  practice.  In  the  canons  of  a  council  at 
London,  in  1102,  we  read  :  Let  no  one  from  hence- 
forth presume  to  carry  on  that  wicked  traffic,  by 
which  men  of  England  have  hitherto  been  sold  like 
brute  animals. — Wilkins's  Concilia,  t.  i.,  p.  383. 
And  Giraldus  Cambrensis  says  that  the  English 
before  the  conquest  were  generally  in  the  habit  of 
selling  their  children  and  other  relations  to  be 
slaves  in  Ireland,  without  having  even  the  pretext 
of  distress  or  famine,  till  the  Irish,  in  a  national 
synod,  agreed  to  emancipate  all  the  English  slaves 
in  the  kingdom,  id.,  p.  471.  This  seems  to  have 
been  designed  to  take  away  all  pretext  for  the 
threatened  invasion  of  Henry  II.— Lyttleton,  vol. 
iii.,  p.  70. 


474 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  IX. 


pendant  upon  conspicuous  civil  revolu- 
tions than  their  decline,  affords  one  of 
the  most  interesting  subjects  into  which 
a  philosophical  mind  can  inquire.  The 
commencement  of  this  restoration  has 
usually  been  dated  from  about  the  close 
of  the  eleventh  century ;  though  it  is  un- 
necessary to  observe,  that  the  subject 
does  not  admit  of  arty  thing  approxima- 
ting to  chronological  accuracy.  It  may 
therefore  be  sometimes  not  improper  to 
distinguish  the  six  first  of  the  ten  centu- 
ries, which  the  present  work  embraces, 
under  the  appellation  of  the  dark  ages ; 
an  epithet  which  I  do  not  extend  to  the 
twelfth  and  three  following.  In  tracing 
the  decline  of  society  from  the  sub- 
version of  the  Roman  empire,  we  have 
been  led,  not  without  connexion,  from  ig- 
norance to  superstition,  from  superstition 
to  vice  and  lawlessness,  and  from  thence 
to  general  rudeness  and  poverty.  I  shall 
pursue  an  inverted  order  in  passing  along 
the  ascending  scale,  and  class  the  vari- 
ous improvements  which  took  place  be- 
tween the  twelfth  and  fifteenth  centuries 
under  three  principal  heads,  as  they  re- 
late to  the  wealth,  the  manners,  or  the 
taste  and  learning  of  Europe.  Different 
arrangements  might  probably  be  suggest- 
ed, equally  natural  and  convenient ;  but 
in  the  disposition  of  topics  that  have  not 
always  an  unbroken  connexion  with  each 
other,  no  method  can  be  prescribed  as 
absolutely  more  scientific  than  the  rest. 
That  which  I  have  adopted  appears  to 
me  as  philosophical  and  as  little  liable  to 
transitions  as  any  other. 


PART  II. 

Progress  of  Commercial  Improvement  in  Germany, 
Flanders,  and  England.— In  the  North  of  Europe. 
— In  the  Countries  upon  the  Mediterranean  Sea. 
— Maritime  Laws. — Usury. — Banking  Compa- 
nies. —  Progress  of  Refinement  in  Manners.  — 
Domestic  Architecture.  —  Ecclesiastical  Archi- 
tecture.— State  of  Agriculture  in  England. — 
Value  of  Money.— Improvement  of  the  Moral 
Character  of  Society  —  its  Causes.  —  Police. — 
Changes  in  Religious  Opinion.— Various  Sects. 

.  —Chivalry — its  Progress,  Character,  and  Influ- 
ence.— Causes  of  the  Intellectual  Improvement 
of  European  Society. — 1.  The  Study  of  Civil 
Law. — 2.  Institution  of ^Universities— their  Cele- 
brity.—  Scholastic  Philosophy. —  3.  Cultivation 
of  Modern  Languages.  —  Provencal  Poets.  — 
Norman  Poets. — French  Prose  Writers. — Italian 
— early  Poets  in  that  Language.  —  Dante. — 
Petrarch. — English  Language— its  Progress. — 
Chaucer. — 4.  Revival  of  Classical  Learning. — 
Latin  writers  of  the  Twelfth  Century. — Litera- 
ture of  the  Fourteenth  Century. — Greek  Litera- 
ture—  its  Restoration  in  Italy.  —  Invention  of 
Printing. 


THE  geographical  position  of  Europe 
naturally  divides  its  maritime  European 
commerce  into  two  principal  commerce, 
regions ;  one  comprehending  those  coun- 
tries which  border  on  the  Baltic,  the 
German,  and  the  Atlantic  oceans,  another, 
those  situated  around  the  Mediterranean 
Sea.  During  the  four  centuries  which 
preceded  the  discovery  of  America,  and 
especially  the  two  former  of  them,  this 
separation  was  more  remarkable  than  at 
present,  inasmuch  as  their  intercourse, 
either  by  land  or  sea,  was  extremely  lim- 
ited. To  the  first  region  belonged  the 
Netherlands,  the  coasts  of  France,  Ger- 
many, and  Scandinavia,  and  the  maritime 
districts  of  England.  In  the  second  we 
may  class  the  provinces  of  Valencia  and 
Catalonia,  those  of  Provence  and  Lan- 
guedoc,  and  the  whole  of  Italy. 

1.  The  former,  or  northern  division, 
was  first  animated  by  the  Woonen 
woollen  manufacture  of  Flan-  manufacture 
ders.  It  is  not  easy  either  to  °f  Flanders, 
discover  the  early  beginnings  of  this,  or  to 
account  for  its  rapid  advancement..  The 
fertility  of  that  province  and  its  facilities 
of  interior  navigation  were  doubtless 
necessary  causes;  but  there  must  have 
been  some  temporary  encouragement 
from  the  personal  character  of  its  sover- 
eigns, or  other  accidental  circumstances. 
Several  testimonies  to  the  flourishing 
condition  of  Flemish  manufactures  occur 
1n  the  twelfth  century,  and  some  might 
perhaps  be  found  even  earlier.*  A  wri- 
ter of  the  thirteenth  asserts  that  all  the 
world  was  clothed  from  English  wool 
wrought  in  Flanders. f  This  indeed  is 
an  exaggerated  vaunt;  but  the  Flemish 
stuffs  were  probably  sold  wherever  the 
sea  or  a  navigable  river  permitted  them 
to  be  carried.  Cologne  was  the  chief 
trading  city  upon  the  Rhine ;  and  its 
merchantSijtvho  had  been  considerable 
even  under  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  es- 
tablished a  factory  at  London  in  1220. 
The  woollen  manufacture,  notwithstand- 
ing frequent  wars  and  the  impolitic  regu- 
lations of  magistrates,!  continued  to 


*  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p. 
270.  Meyer  ascribes  the  origin  of  Flemish  trade  to 
Baldwin,  count  of  Flanders,  in  958,  who  established 
markets  at  Bruges  and  other  cities.  Exchanges 
were  in  that,  age,  he  says,  chiefly  effected  by  bar- 
ter, little  money  circulating  in  Flanders.— Annales 
Flandrici,  fol.  18  (edit.  1561). 

t  Matthew  Westmonast.  apud  Macpherson's 
Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p.  415. 

t  Such  regulations  scared  away  those  Flemish 
weavers  who  brought  their  art  into  England  under 
Edward  III.— Macpherson,  p.  467,  494,  546.  Sev- 
eral years  later,  the  magistrates  of  Ghent  are  said 
by  Meyer  (Annales  Flandrici,  fol.  156)  to  have  im 
posed  a  tax  on  every  loom.  Though  the  seditious 


PART  If.] 


STATE  OP  SOCIETY. 


475 


flourish  in  the  Netherlands  (for  Brabant 
and  Hainault  shared  it  in  some  degree 
with  Flanders),  until  England  became  not 
only  capable  of  supplying  her  own  de- 
rival  in  all  the  marts  of 


fifteenth   century    some    share    of   the 
woollen  manufacture. 

For  the  two  first  centuries  after  the 
conquest,  our  English  towns,  as  Export  of 
has  been  observed  in  a  different  wool  from 


mand,  but  a 

Europe.     All    Christian   kingdoms,   and 

even  the  Turks  themselves,  says  an  his-  !  towards  improvement,  though  still  very 

torian  of  the  sixteenth  century,  lamented 


place,  made  some  forward  steps  En§land- 


the  desperate  war  between  the  Flemis 
cities  and  their  Count  Louis,  that  brok 
out  in  1380.  For  at  that  time  Flander 
was  a  market  for  the  traders  of  all  th 
world.  Merchants  from  seventeen  king 
doms  had  their  settled  domiciles  at  Bru 
ges,  besides  strangers  from  almost  un 
known  countries  who  repaired  thither. 
During  this  war,  and  on  all  other  occa 
sions,  the  weavers  both  of  Ghent  an 
Bruges  distinguished  themselves  by  a 
democratical  spirit,  the  consequence  m 
doubt  of  their  numbers  and  prosperity. 
Ghent  was  one  of  the  largest  cities  ir 
Europe,  and  in  the  opinion  of  many  th( 
best  situated. ;{:  But  Bruges,  though  ii 
circuit  but  half  the  former,  was  more 
splendid  in  its  buildings,  and  the  seat  of 
far  more  trade ;  being  the  great  stapl< 
both  of  Mediterranean  and  northern  mer 
chandise.^  Antwerp,  which  early  in  the 
sixteenth  century  drew  away  a  large  part 
of  this  commerce  from  Bruges,  was  no 
considerable  in  the  preceding  ages ;  nor 
were  the  towns  of  Zealand  and  Hollanc 
much  noted  except  for  their  fisheries 
though  those  provinces  acquired  in  the 

spirit  of  the  weavers'  company  had  perhaps  justly 
provoked  them,  such  a  tax  on  their  staple  manu- 
facture was  a  piece  of  madness,  when  English 
goods  were  just  coming  into  competition. 

*  Terra  marique  mercatura,  rerumque  commer- 
cia  et  quasstus  peribant.  Non  solum  totius  Europse 
mercatores,  verum  etiam  ipsi  Turcae  aliaeque  sepo- 
sitae  nationes  ob  bellum  istud  Flandriae  magno 
afficiebantur  dolore.  Erat  nempe  Flandria  totius 
prope  orbis  stabile  mercatoribus  emporium.  Sep- 
temdecim  regnorum  negotiatores  turn  Brugis  sua 
certa  habuere  domicilia  ac  sedes,  praeter  complures 
incognitas  pasne  gentes  quss  undique  contiuebant. 
—Meyer,  fol.  205,  ad  ann.  1385. 
I  Meyer,  Froissart,  Comines. 
+  It  contained,  according  to  Ludovico  Guicciar- 
dini,  35,000  houses,  and  the  circuit  of  its  walls  was 
45,640  Roman  feet. — Description  des  Pais  Bas,  p. 
350,  &c.  (edit.  1609).  Part  of  this  enclosure  was 
not  built  upon.  The  population  of  Ghent  is  reck- 
oned by  Guicciardini  at  70,000,  but  in  his  time  it 
had  greatly  declined.  It  is  certainly,  however, 
much  exaggerated  by  earlier  historians.  And  I  en- 
tertain some  doubt  as  to  Guicciardini's  estimate  of 
the  number  of  houses.  If  at  least  he  was  accurate, 
more  than  half  of  the  city  must  since  have  been 
demolished  or  become  uninhabited,  which  its  pres- 
ent appearance  does  not  indicate ;  for  Ghent,  though 
not  very  flourishing,  by  no  means  presents  the  de- 
cay and  dilapidation  of  an  Italian  town. 

§  Guicciardini,  p.  262.  Mem.  de  Comines,  l.v., 
c.  17.  Meyer,  fol.  354.  Macpherson's  Annals  of 
Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p.  647,  651. 


inferior  to  those  of  the  continent.  Their 
commerce  was  almost  confined  to  the 
exportation  of  wool,  the  great  staple 
commodity  of  England,  upon  which,  more 
than  any  other,  in  its  raw  or  manufac- 
tured state,  our  wealth  has  been  founded. 
A  woollen  manufacture,  however,  indis- 
putably existed  under  Henry  II.  ;*  it  is 
noticed  in  regulations  of  Richard  I.  ;  and 
by  the  importation  of  woad  under  John, 
it  may  be  inferred  to  have  still  flourished. 
The  disturbances  of  the  'next  reign,  per- 
haps, or  the  rapid  elevation  of  the  Flem- 
ish towns,  retarded  its  growth  ;  though  a 
remarkable  law  was  passed  by  the  Ox- 
ford parliament  in  1261,  prohibiting  the 
export  of  wool  and  the  importation  of 
cloth.  This,  while  it  shows  the  defer- 
ence paid  by  the  discontented  barons, 
who  predominated  in  that  parliament,  to 
their  confederates  the  burghers,  was  evi- 
dently too  premature  to  be  enforced. 
We  may  infer  from  it,  however,  that 
cloths  were  made  at  home,  though  not 
sufficiently  for  the  peoples'  consump- 
tion.! 

Prohibitions  of  the  same  nature,  though 
with  a  different  object,  were  frequently 
imposed  on  the  trade  between  England 
and  Flanders  by  Edward  I.  and  his  son. 
As  their  political  connexions  fluctuated, 
these  princes  gave  full  liberty  and  settle- 
ment to  the  Flemish  merchants,  or  ban- 
shed  them  at  once  from  the  country.^ 
Nothing  could  be  more  injurious  to  Eng- 
and  than  this  arbitrary  vacillation.  The 
Flemings  were  in  every  respect  our  nat- 
iral  allies  ;  but  besides  those  connexions 
with  France,  the  constant  enemy  of 
Flanders,  into  which  both  the  Edwards 
occasionally  fell,  a  mutual  alienation  had 
3een  produced  by  the  trade  of  the  former 
)eople  with  Scotland,  a  trade  too  lucra- 


Blomefield,  the  historian  of  Norfolk,  thinks 
hat  a  colony  of  Flemings  settled  as  early  as  this 
eign  at  Worsted,  a  village  in  that  county,  and  im- 
mortalized its  name  by  their  manufacture.   It  soon 
cached  Norwich,  though  not  conspicuous  till  the 
eign  of  Edward  I. — Hist,  of  Norfolk,  vol.  ii.   Mac- 
herson  speaks  of  it  for  the  first  time  in  1327. 
"here  were  several  gilds  of  weavers  in  the  time  of 
Henry  II. — Lyttleton,  vol.  ii.,  p.  174. 

t  Macpherson's  Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p. 
12,  from  Walter  Hemingford.  I  am  considerably 
ndebted  to  this  laborious  and  useful  publication, 
•hich  has  superseded  that  of  Anderson. 
t  Rymer,  t.  ii.,  p.  32,  50,  737,  949,  965;  t.  iii.,  p. 
33,  1106,  et  alibi. 


476 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX, 


live  to  be  resigned  at  the  King  of  Eng- 
land's request.*  An  early  instance  of 
that  conflicting  selfishness  of  belligerants 
and  neutrals,  which  was  destined  to  ag- 
gravate the  animosities  and  misfortunes 
of  our  own  time  !f 

A  more  prosperous  era  began  with  Ed- 
Engiisn  ward  III.,  the  father,  as  he 
woollen  man-  may  almost  be  called,  of  Eng- 
ufacture.  lisn  commerce,  a  title  not  in- 
deed more  glorious,  but  by  which  he  may 
perhaps  claim  more  of  our  gratitude  than 
as  the  hero  of  Crecy.  In  1331,  he  took 
advantage  of  discontents  among  the 
manufacturers  of  Flanders  to  invite  them 
as  settlers  into  his  dominions. J  They 
brought  the  finer  manufacture  of  woollen 
cloths,  which  had  been  unknown  in  Eng- 
land. The  discontents  alluded  to  re- 
sulted from  the  monopolizing  spirit  of 
their  corporations,  who  oppressed  all  ar- 
tisans without  the  pale  of  their  commu- 
nity. The  history  of  corporations  brings 
home  to  our  minds  one  cardinal  truth, 
that  political  institutions  have  very  fre- 
quently but  a  relative  and  temporary  use- 
fulness, and  that  what  forwarded  im- 
provement during  one  part  of  its  course, 
may  prove  to  it  in  time  a  most  pernicious 
obstacle.  Corporations  in  England,  we 
may  be  sure,  wanted  nothing  of  their 
usual  character ;  and  it  cost  Edward  no 
little  trouble  to  protect  his  colonists  from 
the  selfishness,  and  from  the  blind  na- 
tionality of  the  vulgar.^  The  emigration 
of  Flemish  weavers  into  England  contin- 
ued during  this  reign,  and  we  find  it  men- 
tioned at  intervals  for  more  than  a  cen- 
tury. 

Commerce  now  became,  next  to  lib- 
increase  of  ert7>  the  leading  object  of  par- 
English  liament.  For  the  greater  part 
commerce.  of  our  statutes  from  the  acces- 
sion of  Edward  III.  bear  relation  to  this 
subject ;  not  always  well  devised,  or  lib- 
eral, or  consistent,  but  by  no  means 
worse  in  those  respects  than  such  as 
have  been  enacted  in  subsequent  ages. 

*  Rymer,  t.  iii.,  p.  759.  A  Flemish  factory  was 
established  at  Berwick  about  128G.— Macpherson. 

I  In  1295,  Edward  I.  made  masters  of  neutral 
ships  in  English  ports  find  security  not  to  trade 
with  France. — Rymer,  t.  ii.,  p.  679. 

t  Rymer,  t.  iv.,  p.  591,  &c.  Fuller  draws  a  no- 
table picture  of  the  inducements  held  out  to  the 
Flemings.  "  Here  they  should  feed  on  fat  beef  and 
mutton,  till  nothing  but  their  fulness  should  stint 
their  stomachs ;  their  beds  should  be  good,  and 
their  bedfellows  better,  seeing  the  richest  yeomen 
in  England  would  not  disdain  to  marry  their 
daughters  unto  them,  and  such  the  English  beau- 
ties that  the  most  envious  foreigners  could  not  but 
commend  them." — Fuller's  Church  History,  quoted 
in  Blomefield's  Hist,  of  Norfolk. 

$  Rymer,  t.  v.,  p.  137,  430,  540. 


The  occupation  of  a  merchant  became 
honourable  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  nat- 
ural jealousy  of  the  two  classes,  he  was 
placed  in  some  measure  on  a  footing  with 
landed  proprietors.  By  the  statute  of 
apparel,  in  37  Edw.  III.,  merchants  and 
artificers  who  had  five  hundred  pounds 
value  in  goods  and  chattels  might  use  the 
same  dress  as  squires  of  one  hundred 
pounds  a  year.  And  those  who  were 
worth  more  than  this  might  dress  like 
men  of  double  that  estate.  Wool  was 
still  the  principal  article  of  export  and 
source  of  revenue.  Subsidies  granted 
by  every  parliament  upon  this  article 
were,  on  account  of  the  scarcity  of 
money,  commonly  taken  in  kind.  To 
prevent  evasion  of  this  duty  seems  to 
have  been  the  principle  of  those  multifa- 
rious regulations,  which  fix  the  staple, 
or  market  for  wool,  in  certain  towns, 
either  in  England,  or,  more  commonly,  on 
the  continent.  To  these  all  wool  was  to 
be  carried,  and  the  tax  was  there  col- 
lected. It  is  not  easy,  however,  to  com- 
prehend the  drift  of  all  the  provisions  re- 
lating to  the  staple,  many  of  which  tend 
to  benefit  foreign  at  the  expense  of  Eng- 
lish merchants.  By  degrees,  the  expor- 
tation of  woollen  cloths  increased  so  as 
to  diminish  that  of  the  raw  material,  but 
the  latter  was  not  absolutely  prohibited 
during  the  period  under  review;*  al- 
though some  restrictions  were  imposed 
upon  it  by  Edward  IV.  For  a  much  ear- 
lier statute,  in  the  llth  of  Edward  III., 
making  the  exportation  of  wool  a  capital 
felony,  was  in  its  terms  provisional,  until 
it  should  be  otherwise  ordered  by  the 
council ;  and  the  king  almost  immediate- 
ly set  it  aside. f 


*  In  1409,  woollen  cloths  formed  great  part  of 
our  exports,  and  were  extensively  used  over  Spain 
and  Italy.  And  in  1449,  English  cloths  having 
been  prohibited  by  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  it  was 
enacted,  that,  until  he  should  repeal  this  ordinance, 
no  merchandise  of  his  dominions  should  be  admit- 
ted into  England.— 27  H.  VI.,  c.  1.  The  system 
of  prohibiting  the  import  of  foreign  wrought  goods 
was  acted  upon  very  extensively  in  Edward  IV.'s 
reign. 

t  Stat.  11  E.  III.,  c.  1.  Blackstone  says  that 
transporting  wool  out  of  the  kingdom,  to  the  detri- 
ment of  our  staple  manufacture,  was  forbidden  at 
common  law  (vol.  iv.,  c.  19),  not  recollecting  that 
we  had  no  staple  manufactures  in  the  ages  when 
the  common  law  was  formed,  and  that  the  export 
of  wool  was  almost  the  only  means  by  which  this 
country  procured  silver,  or  any  other  article  of 
which  it  stood  in  need  from  the  continent.  In  fact, 
the  landholders  were  so  far  from  neglecting  this 
source  of  their  wealth,  that  a  minimum  was  fixed 
upon  it  by  a  statute  of  1343  (repealed  indeed  the 
next  year,  18  E.  III.,  c.  3),  below  which  price  it 
was  not  to  be  sold ;  from  a  laudable  apprehension, 
as  it  seems,  that  foreigners  were  getting  it  too 
cheap.  And  this  was  revived  in  the  32d  of  H.  VI., 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


477 


A  manufacturing  district,  as  we  see  in 
„  .  our  own  country,  sends  out,  as 
tu??suoafc"  it  were,  suckers  into  all  its 
France  and  neighbourhood.  Accordingly, 
the  woollen  manufacture  spread 
from  Flanders  along  the  banks  of  the 
Rhine,  and  into  the  northern  provinces  of 
France.*  I  am  not,  however,  prepared 
to  trace  its  history  in  these  regions.  In 
Germany,  the  privileges  conceded  by 
Henry  V.  to  the  free  cities,  and  especial- 
ly to  their  artisans,  gave  a  soul  to  indus- 
try ;  though  the  central  parts  of  the  em- 
pire were,  for  many  reasons,  very  ill  cal- 
culated for  commercial  enterprise  during 
the  middle  ages.f  But  the  French  towns 
were  never  so  much  emancipated  from 
arbitrary  power  as  those  of  Germany  or 
Flanders ;  and  the  evils  of  exorbitant  tax- 
ation, with  those  produced  by  the  Eng- 
lish wars,  conspired  to  retard  the  advance 
of  manufactures  in  France.  That  of 
linen  made  some  progress ;  but  this -work 
was  still  perhaps  chiefly  confined  to  the 
labour  of  female  servants. J 

The  manufactures  of  Flanders  and 
Baltic  England  found  a  market  not  only 
trade.  m  these  adjacent  countries,  but  in 
a  part  of  Europe  which  for  many  ages 

though  the  act  is  not  printed  among  the  statutes. 
— Rot.  Par!.,  t.  v.,  p.  275.  The  exportation  of 
sheep  was  prohibited  in  1338. — Rymer,  t.  v.,  p. 
36  ;  and  by  act  of  parliament  in  1425.— 3  H.  VI.,  c. 
2.  But  this  did  not  prevent  our  improving  the 
wool  of  a  foreign  country  to  our  own  loss.  It  is 
worthy  of  notice,  that  English  wool  was  superior 
to  any  other  for  fineness  during  these  ages.  Henry 
II.,  in  his  patent  to  the  Weavers'  Company,  directs 
that  if  any  weaver  mingled  Spanish  wool  with 
English,  it  should  be  burnt  by  the  lord  mayor. — 
Macpherson,  p.  382.  An  English  flock,  transported 
into  Spain  about  1348,  is  said  to  have  been  the 
source  of  the  fine  Spanish  wool,  ibid.,  p.  539.  But 
the  superiority  of  English  wool,  even  as  late  as 
1438,  is  proved  by  the  laws  of  Barcelona,  forbidding 
its  adulteration,  p.  654.  Another  exportation  of 
English  sheep  to  Spain  took  place  about  1465,  in 
consequence  of  a  commercial  treaty. — Rymer,  t. 
xi.,  p.  534,  et  alibi.  In  return,  Spain  supplied 
England  with  horses,  her  breed  of  which  was  reck- 
oned the  best  in  Europe  ;  so  that  the  exchange 
was  tolerably  fair. — Macpherson,  p.  596.  The  best 
horses  had  been  very  dear  in  England,  being  im- 
ported from  Spain  and  Italy,  ibid. 

*  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  18. 

t  Considerable  woollen  manufactures  appear  to 
have  existed  in  Picardy  about  1315. — Macpherson, 
ad  annum.  Capmany,  t.  iii.,  part  2,  p.  151. 

t  The  sheriffs  of  Wiltshire  and  Sussex  are  di- 
rected, in  1253,  to  purchase  for  the  king  1000  ells  of 
fine  linen,  lineae  telae  pulchrae  et  delicatae.  This 
Macpherson  supposes  to  be  of  domestic  manufac- 
ture, which,  however,  is  not  demonstrable.  Linen 
was  made  at  that  time  in  Flanders ;  and  as  late  as 
1417,  the  fine  linen  used  in  England  was  imported 
from  France  and  the  Low  Countries. — Macpher- 
son, from  Rymer,  t.  ix.,  p.  334.  Velly's  history  is 
defective  in  giving  no  account  of  the  French  com- 
merce and  manufactures,  or  at  least  none  that  is  at 
all  satisfactory. 


had  only  been  known  enough  to  be  dread- 
ed. In  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, a  native  of  Bremen,  and  a  writer 
much  superior  to  most  others  of  his  time, 
was  almost  entirely  ignorant  of  the  ge- 
ography of  the  Baltic  ;  doubting  whether 
any  one  had  reached  Russia  by  that 
sea,  and  reckoning  Esthonia  and  Cour- 
land  among  its  islands.*  But  in  one 
hundred  years  more,  the  maritime  re- 
gions of  Mecklenburg  and  Pomerania, 
inhabited  by  a  tribe  of  heathen  Sclavo- 
nians,  were  subdued  by  some  German 
princes;  and  the  Teutonic  order  some 
time  afterward,  having  conquered  Prus- 
sia, extended  a  line  of  at  least  compara- 
tive civilization  as  far  as  the  Gulf  of  Fin- 
land. The  first  town  erected  on  the 
coasts  of  the  Baltic  was  Lubec,  which 
owes  its  foundation  to  Adolphus,  count 
of  Holstein,  in  1140.  After  several  vi- 
cissitudes, it  became  independent  of  any 
sovereign  but  the  emperor  in  the  thir- 
teenth century.  Hamburgh  and  Bremen, 
upon  the  other  side  of  the  Cimbric  pen- 
insula, emulated  the  prosperity  of  Lubec ; 
the  former  city  purchased  independence 
of  its  bishop  in  1225.  A  colony  from 
Bremen  founded  Riga  in  Livonia,  about 
1162.  The  city  of  Dantzic  grew  into  im- 
portance about  the  end  of  the  following 
century.  Koningsberg  was  founded  by 
Ottecar,  king  of  Bohemia,  in  the  same 
age. 

But  the  real  importance  of  these  cities 
is  to  be  dated  from  their  famous  union 
into  the  Hanseatic  confederacy.  The 
origin  of  this  is  rather  obscure,  but  it 
may  certainly  be  nearly  referred  in  point 
of  time  to  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century,f  an(i  accounted  for  by  the  ne- 
cessity of  mutual  defence,  which  piracy 
by  sea  and  pillage  by  land  had  taught  the 
merchants  of  Germany.  The  nobles  en- 
deavoured to  obstruct  the  formation  of 
this  league,  which  indeed  was  in  great 
measure  designed  to  withstand  their  ex- 
actions. It  powerfully  maintained  the 
influence  which  the  free  imperial  cities 
were  at  this  time  acquiring.  Eighty  of 
he  most  considerable  places  constituted 
the  Hanseatic  confederacy,  divided  into 
bur  colleges,  whereof  Lubec,  Cologne, 
Brunswick,  and  Dantzic  were  the  leading 
towns.  Lubec  held  the  chief  rank,  and 
became,  as  it  were,  the  patriarchal  see 
of  the  league ;  whose  province  it  was  to 
preside  in  all  general  discussions  for 


*  Adam  Bremensis,  de  Situ  Daniae,  p.  13.  (El- 
;evir  edit.) 

t  Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  8.  Macpherson,  p.  392, 
The  latter  writer  thinks  they  were  not  known  by 
:he  name  of  Hanse  so  early. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


mercantile,  political,  or  military  purposes, 
and  to  carry  them  into  execution.  The 
league  had  four  principal  factories  in  for- 
eign parts,  at  London,  Bruges,  Bergen, 
and  Novogorod ;  endowed  by  the  sover- 
eigns of  those  cities  with  considerable 
privileges,  to  which  every  merchant  be- 
longing to  a  Hanseatic  town  was  enti- 
tled.* In  England  the  German  guildhall 
or  factory  was  established  by  concession 
of  Henry  III. ;  and  in  later  periods,  the 
Hanse  traders  were  favoured  above  many 
others  in  the  capricious  vacillations  of 
our  mercantile  policy.  |  The  English  had 
also  their  factories  on  the  Baltic  coast  as 
far  as  Prussia,  and  in  the  dominions  of 
Denmark.;}: 

This  opening  of  a  northern  market 
powerfully  accelerated  the  growth  of  our 
Rapid  prog-  own  commercial  opulence,  es- 
ress  of Eng-  pecially  after  the  woollen  man- 
lish  trade.  ufacture  had  begun  to  thrive. 
From  about  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  we  find  continual  evidences  of  a 
rapid  increase  in  wealth.  Thus,  in  1363, 
Picard,  who  had  been  lord  mayor  some 
years  before,  entertained  Edward  III. 
and  the  Black  Prince,  the  kings  of 
France,  Scotland,  and  Cyprus,  with  many 
of  the  nobility,  at  his  own  house  in  the 
Vintry,  and  presented  them  with  hand- 
some gifts. §  Philpot,  another  eminent 
citizen  in  Richard  II. 's  time,  when  the 
trade  of  England  was  considerably  an- 
noyed by  privateers,  hired  1000  armed 
men,  and  despatched  them  to  sea,  where 
they  took  fifteen  Spanish  vessels  with 
their  prizes.  ||  We  find  Richard  obtaining 
a  great  deal  from  private  merchants  and 
trading  towns.  In  1379  he  got  £5000 
from  London,  1000  marks  from  Bristol, 
and  in  proportion  from  smaller  places. 
In  1386  London  gave  £4000  more,  and 
10,000  marks  in  1397.^[  The  latter  sum 
was  obtained  also  for  the  coronation  of 
Henry  VI.**  Nor  were  the  contributions 
of  individuals  contemptible,  considering 
the  high  value  of  money.  Hinde,  a  citi- 
zen of  London,  lent  to  Henry  IV.  £2000 
in  1407,  and  Whittington  one  half  of  that 
sum.  The  merchants  of  the  staple  ad- 
vanced £4000  at  the  same  time. ft  Our 
commerce  continued  to  be  regularly  and 
rapidly  progressive  during  the  fifteenth 
century.  The  famous  Canynges  of  Bris- 
tol, under  Henry  VI.  and  Edward  IV., 

*  Pfeffel,  t.  i.,  p.  443.     Schmidt,  t.  iv.,  p.  18;  t. 
v.,  p.  512.     Macpherson's  Annals,  vol.  i.,  p.  693. 
t  Macpherson,  vol.  i.,  passim. 
j  Rymer,  t.  viii.,  p.  360. 
6  Macpherson  (who  quotes  Stow),  p.  415. 
||  Walsingham,  p.  211. 
IF  Rymer,  t.  vii.,  p.  210,  341 ;  t.  viii.,  p.  9. 
**  Id.  t.  x.,  p.  461.         ft  Id.,  t.  viii.,  p.  483. 


had  ships  of  900  tons  burden.*  The 
trade  and  even  the  internal  wealth  of 
England  reached  so  much  higher  a  pitch 
in  the  reign  of  the  last  mentioned  king 
than  at  any  former  period,  that  we  may 
perceive  the  wars  of  York  and  Lancaster 
to  have  produced  no  very  serious  effect 
on  national  prosperity.  Some  battles 
were  doubtless  sanguinary  ;  but  the  loss 
of  lives  in  battle  is  soon  repaired  by  a 
flourishing  nation ;  and  the  devastation 
occasioned  by  armies  was  both  partial 
and  transitory. 

A  commercial  intercourse  between 
these  northern  and  southern  Intercourse 
regions  of  Europe  began  about  with  the 
the  early  part  of  the  fourteenth  g^^f 
century,  or,  at  most,  a  little 
sooner.  Until,  indeed,  the  use  of  the 
magnet  was  thoroughly  understood,  and 
a  competent  skill  in  marine  architecture, 
as  well  as  navigation,  acquired,  the  Ital- 
ian merchants  were  scarce  likely  to  at- 
tempt a  voyage  perilous  in  itself,  and 
rendered  more  formidable  by  the  imagin- 
ary difficulties  which  had  been  supposed 
to  attend  an  expedition  beyond  the  straits 
of  Hercules.  But  the  English,  accus- 
tomed to  their  own  rough  seas,  were  al- 
ways more  intrepid,  and  probably  more 
skilful  navigators.  Though  it  was  ex- 
tremely rare,  even  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, for  an  English  trading  vessel  to  ap- 
pear in  the  Mediterranean,!  yet  a  famous 


*  Macpherson,  p.  667. 

t  Richard  III.,  in  1485,  appointed  a  Florentine 
merchant  to  be  English  consul  at  Pisa,  on  the 
ground  that  some  of  his  subjects  intended  to  trade 
to  Italy. — Macpherson,  p.  705,  from  Rymer.  Per- 
haps we  cannot  positively  prove  the  existence  of  a 
Mediterranean  trade  at  an  earlier  time  ;  and  even 
this  instrument  is  not  conclusive.  But  a  consid- 
erable presumption  arises  from  two  documents  in 
Rymer,  of  the  year  1412,  which  inform  us  of  a 
great  shipment  of  wool  and  other  goods  made  by 
some  merchants  of  London  for  the  Mediterranean 
under  supercargoes,  whom,  it  being  a  new  under- 
taking, the  king  expressly  recommended  to  the 
Genoese  republic.  But  that  people,  impelled  prob- 
ably by  commercial  jealousy,  seized  the  vessels 
and  their  cargoes ;  which  induced  the  king  to 
grant  the  owners  letters  of  reprisal  against  all  Ge- 
noese property. — Rymer,  t.  viii.,  p.  717,  773. 
Though  it  is  not  perhaps  evident  that  the  vessels 
were  English,  the  circumstances  render  it  highly 
probable.  The  bad  success,  however,  of  this  at- 
tempt might  prevent  its  imitation.  A  Greek  au- 
thor, about  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
reckons  the  IyyX»?voi  among  the  nations  who 
traded  to  a  port  in  the  Archipelago. — Gibbon,  vol. 
xii.,  p.  52.  But  these  enumerations  are  generally 
swelled  by  vanity  or  the  love  of  exaggeration  ;  and 
a  few  English  sailors  on  board  a  foreign  vessel 
would  justify  the  assertion.  Benjamin  of  Tudela, 
a  Jewish  traveller,  pretends  that  the  port  of  Alex- 
andria, about  1160,  contained  vessels  not  only  from 
England,  but  from  Russia,  and  even  Cracow. — 
Harris's  Voyages,  vol.  i.,  p.  554. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


470 


military  armament,  that  was  destined  for 
the  crusade  of  Richard  I.,  displayed  at  a 
very  early  time  the  seamanship  of  our 
countrymen.  In  the  reign  of  Edward 
II.,  we  find  mention  in  Rymer's  collec- 
tion of  Genoese  ships  trading  to  Flanders 
and  England.  His  son  was  very  solicit- 
ous to  preserve  the  friendship  of  that  op- 
ulent republic  ;  and  it  is  by  his  letters  to 
his  senate,  or  by  royal  orders  restoring 
ships  unjustly  seized,  that  we  come  by  a 
knowledge  of  those  facts  which  histori- 
ans neglect  to  relate.  Pisa  shared  a  lit- 
tle in  this  traffic,  and  Venice  more  consid- 
erably; but  Genoa  was  beyond  all  com- 
petition at  the  head  of  Italian  commerce 
in  these  seas  during  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury. In  the  next,  her  general  decline 
left  it  more  open  to  her  rival;  but  I 
doubt  whether  Venice  ever  maintain- 
ed so  strong  a  connexion  with  England. 
Through  London,  and  Bruges,  their  chief 
station  in  Flanders,  the  merchants  ef  It- 
aly and  of  Spain  transported  oriental 
produce  to  the  farthest  parts  of  the  north. 
The  inhabitants  of  the  Baltic  coast  were 
stimulated  by  the  desire  of  precious  lux- 
uries which  they  had  never  known ;  and 
these  wants,  though  selfish  and  frivolous, 
are  the  means  by  which  nations  acquire 
civility,  and  the  earth  is  rendered  fruitful 
of  its  produce.  As  the  carriers  of  this 
trade,  the  Hanseatic  merchants  resident 
in  England^and  Flanders  derived  prof- 
its through  which  eventually,  of  course, 
those  countries  were  enriched.  It  seems 
that  the  Italian  vessels  unloaded  at  the 
marts  of  London  or  Bruges,  and  that 
such  parts  of  their  cargoes  as  were  in- 
tended for  a  more  northern  trade  came 
there  into  the  hands  of  the  German  mer- 
chants. In  the  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  Eng- 
land carried  on  a  pretty  considerable  traf- 
fic with  the  countries  around  the  Medi- 
terranean, for  whose  commodities  her 
wool  and  woollen  clothes  enabled  her  to 
pay. 
The  commerce  of  the  southern  division, 

Commerce    though   it  did  not,  I   think,  pro- 
of the  Med-  duce  more  extensively  benefi- 

cSJST    cial  effects  uP°n  tne  progress  of 
society,  was   both   earlier  and 
more  splendid  than  that  of  England  and 
the    neighbouring    countries.       Besides 
Venice,  which  has   been  mentioned  al- 
Amaifi.  rea(ty5  Amalfi  kept  up  the  commer- 
cial  intercourse   of    Christendom 
with  the  Saracen  countries  before  the 
first  crusade.*     It  was  the  singular  fate 


*  The  Amalfitans  are  thus  described  by  William 
of  Apulia,  apud  Muratori,  Dissert.  30. 
Urbs  haec  dives  opum,  populoque  referta  videtur, 
Nulla  magis  locuples  argento,  vestibus.  auro. 


of  this  city  to  have  filled  up  ftie  interval 
between  two  periods  of  civilization,  in 
neither  of  which  she  was  destined  to  be 
distinguished.  Scarcely  known  before 
the  end  of  the  sixth  century,  Amalfi  ran 
a  brilliant  career,  as  a  free  and  trading 
republic,  which  was  checked  by  the  arms 
of  a  conqueror  in  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth.  Since  her  subjugation  by  Roger, 
king  of  Sicily,  the  name  of  a  people 
who  for  a  while  connected  Europe  with 
Asia  has  hardly  been  repeated,  except 
for  two  discoveries  falsely  imputed  to 
them,  those  of  the  Pandects  and  of  the 
compass. 

But  the  decline  of  Amalfi  was  amply 
compensated  to  the  rest  of  Italy  pisa,  Genoa, 
by  the  constant  elevation  of  Venice. 
Pisa,  Genoa,  and  Venice  in  the  twelfth 
and  ensuing  ages.  The  crusades  led  im- 
mediately to  this  growing  prosperity  of 
the  commercial  cities.  Besides  the  profit 
accruing  from  so  many  naval  armaments 
which  they  supplied,  and  the  continual 
passage  of  private  adventurers  in  their 
vessels,  they  were  enabled  to  open  a 
more  extensive  channel  of  oriental  traffic 
than  had  hitherto  been  known.  These 
three  Italian  republics  enjoyed  immuni- 
ties in  the  Christian  principalities  of 
Syria ;  possessing  separate  quarters  in 
Acre,  Tripoli,  and  other  cities,  where 
they  were  governed  by  their  own  laws 
and  magistrates.  Though  the  progress 
of  commerce  must,  from  the  condition 
of  European  industry,  have  been  slow,  it 
was  uninterrupted ;  and  the  settlements 
in  Palestine  were  becoming  important  as 
factories,  a  use  of  which  Godfrey  and 
Urban  little  dreamed,  when  they  were 
lost  through  the  guilt  and  imprudence  of 
their  inhabitants.*  Villani  laments  the 
injury  sustained  by  commerce  in  conse- 
quence of  the  capture  of  Acre,  "  situated, 
as  it  was,  on  the  coast  of  the  Mediterra- 
nean, in  the  centre  of  Syria,  and,  as  we 
might  say,  of  the  habitable  world,  a  haven 
for  all  merchandise,  both  from  the  east 
and  the  west,  which  all  the  nations  of 
the  earth  frequented  for  this  trade. "f 


Partibus  innumeris  ac  plurimus  urbe  moratur 
Nauta,  maris  coglique  vias  aperire  peritus. 
Hue  et  Alexandri  diversa  feruntur  ab  urbe, 
Regis  et  Antiochi.    Haec  [etiam?]  freta  plurima 

transit. 

Hie  Arabes,  Indi,  Siculi  noscuntur,  et  Afri. 
Haec  gens  est  totum  prope  nobilitata  per  orbem, 
Et  mercanda  ferens,  et  amans  mercata  referre. 

*  The  inhabitants  of  Acre  were  noted,  in  an  age 
not  very  pure,  for  the  excess  of  their  vices.  In 
1291  they  plundered  some  of  the  subjects  of  a 
neighbouring  Mahometan  prince,  and  refusing  rep- 
aration, the  city  was  besieged  and  taken  by  storm. 
— Muratori,  ad  ann.  Gibbon,  c.  59, 

t  Villani,  1.  vii.,  c.  144. 


430 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX, 


But  the  loss  was  soon  retrieved,  not  per- 
haps by  Pisa  and  Genoa,  but  by  Venice, 
who  formed  connexions  with  the  Saracen 
governments,  and  maintained  her  com- 
mercial intercourse  with  Syria  and  Egypt 
by  their  license,  though  subject  probably 
to  heavy  exactions.  Sanuto,  a  Venetian 
author  at  the  beginning  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  has  left  a  curious  account  of  the 
Levant  trade  which  his  countrymen  car- 
ried on  at  that  time.  Their  imports  it  is 
easy  to  guess,  and  it  appears  that  timber, 
brass,  tin,  and  lead,  as  well  as  the  pre- 
cious metals,  were  exported  to  Alexan- 
dria, besides  oil,  saffron,  and  some  of  the 
productions  of  Italy,  and  even  wool  and 
woollen  cloths.*  The  European  side  of 
the  account  had  therefore  become  re- 
spectable. 

The  commercial  cities  enjoyed  as  great 
privileges  at  Constantinople  as  in  Syria, 
and  they  bore  an  eminent  part  in  the  vi- 
cissitudes of  the  eastern  empire.  After 
the  capture  of  Constantinople  by  the 
Latin  crusaders,  the  Venetians,  having 
been  concerned  in  that  conquest,  became 
of  course  the  favoured  traders  under  the 
new  dynasty  ;  possessing  their  own  dis- 
trict in  the  city,  with  their  magistrate  or 
podesta,  appointed  at  Venice,  and  sub- 
ject to  the  parent  republic.  When  the 
Greeks  recovered  the  seat  of  their  empire, 
the  Genoese,  who  from  jealousy  of  their 
rivals  had  contributed  to  that  revolution, 
obtained  similar  immunities.  This  pow- 
erful and  enterprising  state,  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  sometimes  the  enemy  of 
the  Byzantine  court,  maintained  its  in- 
dependent settlement  at  Pera.  From 
thence  she  spread  her  sails  into  the  Eux- 
ine,  and,  planting  a  colony  at  Caffa  in  the 
Crimea,  extended  a  line  of  commerce 
with  the  interior  regions  of  Asia,  which 
even  the  skill  and  spirit  of  our  own  times 
have  not  yet  been  able  to  revive.f 


*  Macpherson,  p.  490. 

t  Capmany,  Memorias  Historicas,  t.  iii.,  preface, 
p.  11 ;  and  part  2,  p.  131.  His  authority  is  Bal- 
ducci  Pegalotti,  a  Florentine  writer  upon  com- 
merce about  1340,  whose  work  I  have  never  seen. 
It  appears  from  Balducci  that  the  route  to  China 
was  from  Azoph  to  Astrakan,  and  thence  by  a  va- 
riety of  places  which  cannot  be  found  in  modern 
maps,  to  Cambalu,  probably  Pekin,  the  capital  city 
of  China,  which  he  describes  as  being  one  hundred 
miles  in  circumference.  The  journey  was  of  rath- 
er more  than  eight  months,  going  and  returning ; 
and  he  assures  us  it  was  perfectly  secure,  not  only 
for  caravans,  but  for  a  single  traveller  with  a  couple 
of  interpreters  and  a  servant.  The  Venetians  had 
also  a  settlement  in  the  Crimea,  and  appear,  by  a 
passage  in  Petrarch's  letters,  to  have  possessed 
some  of  the  trade  through  Tartary.  In  a  letter 
written  from  Venice,  after  extolling  in  too  rhetor- 
ical a  manner  the  commerce  of  that  republic,  he 
mentions  a  particular  ship  that  had  just  sailed  for 


The  French  provinces  which  border  on 
the  Mediterranean  Sea  partook  in  the 
advantages  which  it  offered.  Not  only 
Marseilles,  whose  trade  had  continued  in 
a  certain  degree  throughout  the  worst 
ages,  but  Narbonne,  Nismes,  and  especi- 
ally Montpelier,  were  distinguished  for 
commercial  prosperity.*  A  still  greater 
activity  prevailed  in  Catalonia.  From 
the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century  (for 
we  need  not  trace  the  rudiments  of  its 
history)  Barcelona  began  to  emulate  the 
Italian  cities  in  both  the  branches  of  na- 
val energy,  war  and  commerce.  En- 
gaged in  frequent  and  severe  hostilities 
with  Genoa,  and  sometimes  with  Con- 
stantinople, while  their  vessels  traded  to 
every  part  of  the  Mediterranean,  and 
even  of  the  English  channel,  the  Catalans 
might  justly  be  reckoned  among  the  first 
of  maritime  nations.  The  commerce  of 
Barcelona  has  never  since  attained  so 
great  a  height  as  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury.f 

The  introduction  of  a  silk  manufacture 
at  Palermo,  by  Roger  Guiscard,  Their  man- 
in  1148,  gave  perhaps  the  ear-  "foctures. 
liest  impulse  to  the  industry  of  Italy. 
Nearly  about  the  same  time,  the  Genoese 
plundered  two  Moorish  cities  of  Spain, 
from  which  they  derived  the  same  art. 
In  the  next  age,  this  became  a  staple 
manufacture  of  the  Lombard  and  Tuscan 
republics,  and  the  cultivatio^  pf  mulber- 
ries was  enforced  by  their  laws.J  Wool- 
len stuffs,  though  the  trade  was  perhaps 
less  conspicuous  than  that  of  Flanders, 
and  though  many  of  the  coarser  kinds 
were  imported  from  thence,  employed  a 
multitude  of  workmen  in  Italy,  Catalonia, 
and  the  south  of  France.  $  Among  the 
trading  companies  into  which  the  mid- 

the  Black  Sea.  Et  ipsa  quidem  Tanaim  it  visura, 
nostri  enim  maris  navigatio  non  ultra  tenditur; 
eorum  vero  aliqui,  quos  haec  fert,  illic  iter  [institu- 
ent]  earn  egressuri,  nee  antea  substituri,  quam 
Gange  et  Caucaso  superato,  ad  Indos  atque  ex- 
tremos  Seres  et  Orientalem  perveniatur  Oceanum. 
En  quo  ardens  et  inexplebilis  habendi  sitis  hoini- 
num  mentes  rapit ! — Petrarcaj  Opera,  Senil.,  1.  ii., 
ep.  3,  p.  760,  edit.  1581. 

*  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  iii.,  p.  531 ;  t.  iv.,  p. 
517.  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xxxvii. 

t  Capmany,  Memorias  Historicas  de  Barcelona, 
t.  i.,  part  2.  See  particularly  p.  36. 

J  Muratori,  Dissert.  30.  Denina,  Rivoluzione 
d'ltalia,  1.  xiv.,  c.  11.  The  latter  writer  is  of  opin- 
ion that  mulberries  were  not  cultivated  as  an  im- 
portant object  till  after  1300,  nor  even  to  any  great 
extent  till  after  1500;  the  Italian  manufacturers 
buying  most  of  their  silk  from  Spain  or  the  Levant. 

§  The  history  of  Italian  states,  and  especially 
Florence,  will  speak  for  the  first  country.  Cap- 
many  attests  the  woollen  manufacture  of  the  sec- 
ond.— Mem.  Hist,  de  Barcel.,  t.  i.,  part  3,  p.  7,  &c. ; 
and  Vaissette  that  of  Carcasonne  and  its  vicinity. 
—Hist,  de  Lang.,  t.  iv.,  p.  517. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


481 


dling  ranks  were  distributed,  those  con- 
cerned in  silk  and  woollens  were  most 
numerous  and  honourable.* 

A  property  of  a  natural  substance,  long 
invention     overlooked   even  though  it  at- 
mar-  tracted  observation  by  a  differ- 
^8  C°m"  ent     eciuiaritv5  nas  influence^ 


B 

by  its  accidental  discovery  tne 

fortunes  of  mankind,  more  than  all  the 
deductions  of  philosophy.  It  is  perhaps 
impossible  to  ascertain  the  epoch  when 
the  polarity  of  the  magnet  was  first 
known  in  Europe.  The  common  opin- 
ion, which  ascribes  its  discovery  to  a  cit- 
izen of  Amalfi  in  the  fourteenth  centu- 
ry, is  undoubtedly  erroneous.  Guiot  de 
Provins,  a  French  poet,  who  lived  about 
the  year  1200,  or,  at  the  latest,  under  St. 
Louis,  describes  it  in  the  most  unequivo- 
cal language.  James  de  Vitry,  a  bishop 
in  Palestine,  before  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  and  Guido  Guinizzelli, 
an  Italian  poet  of  the  same  time,  are 
equally  explicit.  The  French,  as  well 
as  Italians,  claim  the  discovery  as  their 
own  ;  but  whether  it  were  due  to  either 
of  these  nations,  or  rather  learned  from 
their  intercourse  with  the  Saracens,  is 
not  easily  to  be  ascertained.!  For  some 

*  None  were  admitted  to  the  rank  of  burgesses 
in  the  towns  of  Aragon  who  used  any  manual 
trade,  with  the  exception  of  dealers  in  fine  cloths. 
The  woollen  manufacture  of  Spain  did  not  at  any 
time  become  a  considerable  article  of  export,  nor 
even  supply  the  internal  consumption,  as  Capmany 
has  well  shown.  —  Memorias  Historicas,  t.  iii.,  p. 
325,  et  seqq.,  and  Edinburgh  Review,  vol.  x. 

f  Boucher,  the  French  translator  of  II  Consolato 
del  Mare,  says,  that  Edrissi,  a  Saracen  geographer, 
•who  lived  about  1100,  gives  an  account,  though  in 
a  confused  manner,  of  the  polarity  of  the  magnet, 
t.  ii.,  p.  280.  However,  the  lines  of  Guiot  de  Pro- 
vins are  decisive.  These  are  quoted  in  Hist  Lit- 
te"raire  de  la  France,  t.  ix.,  p.  199  ;  M6m.  de  1'Acad. 
des  Inscript.,  t.  xxi.,  p.  i92,  and  several  other 
works.  Guinizzelli  has  the  following  passage,  in  a 
canzone  quoted  by  Ginguene,  Hist.  Litteraire  de 
1'Italie,  t.i.,  p.  413. 

"  In  quelle  parti  sotto  tramontana, 

Sono  li  nwnti  della  calamita, 

Che  dan  virtute  all'  aere 

Di  trarre  il  ferro  ;  ma  perch&  lontana, 

Vole  di  simil  pietra  aver  aita, 

A  far  la  adoperare, 

E  dirizzar  lo  ago  in  ver  la  stella." 
We  cannot  be  diverted  by  the  nonsensical  theory 
these  lines  contain,  from  perceiving  the  positive 
testimony  of  the  last  verse  to  the  poet's  knowledge 
of  the  polarity  of  the  magnet.  But,  if  any  doubt 
could  remain,  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  171,  has  fully 
established,  from  a  series  of  passages,  that  this 
phenomenon  was  well  known  in  the  thirteenth 
century  ;  and  puts  an  end  altogether  to  the  preten- 
sions of  Flavio  Gioja,  if  such  a  person  ever  existed. 
See  also  Macpherson's  Annals,  p.  364  and  418.  It 
is  provoking  to  find  an  historian  like  Robertson  as- 
serting without  hesitation,  that  this  citizen  of  Amalfi 
was  the  inventor  of  the  compass,  and  thus  accred- 
iting  an  error  which  had  long  before  been  detected. 
Hh 


time,  perhaps,  even  this  wonderful  im- 
provement in  the  art  of  navigation  might 
not  be  universally  adopted  by  vessels 
sailing  within  the  Mediterranean,  and  ac- 
customed to  their  old  system  of  observa- 
tions. But  when  it  became  more  estab- 
lished, it  naturally  inspired  a  more  fear- 
less spirit  of  adventure.  It  was  not,  as 
has  been  mentioned,  till  the  beginning  of 
the  fourteenth  century,  that  the  Genoese 
and  other  nations  around  that  inland  sea 
steered  into  the  Atlantic  Ocean  towards 
England  and  Flanders.  This  intercourse 
with  the  northern  countries  enlivened 
their  trade  with  the  Levant  by  the  ex- 
change of  productions  which  Spain  and 
Italy  do  not  supply,  and  enriched  the  mer- 
chants by  means  of  whose  capital  the  ex- 
ports of  London  and  of  Alexandria  were 
conveyed  into  each  other's  harbours. 

The  usual  risks  of  navigation,  and  those 
incident  to  commercial  adven-  Maritime 
ture,  produce  a  variety  of  ques-  law*, 
tions  in  every  system  of  jurisprudence, 
which,  though  always  to  be  determined, 
as  far  as  possible,  by  principles  of  natu- 
ral justice,  must  in  many  cases  depend 
upon  established  customs.  These  cus- 
toms of  maritime  law  were  anciently  re- 
duced into  a  code  by  the  Rhodians,  and 
the  Roman  emperors  preserved  or  re- 
formed the  constitutions  of  that  republic. 
It  would  be  hard  to  say  how  far  the  tra- 
dition of  this  early  jurisprudence  survived 
the  decline  of  commerce  in  the  darker 
ages ;  but  after  it  began  to  recover  it- 
self, necessity  suggested,  or  recollection 
prompted,  a  scheme  of  regulations  re- 
sembling in  some  degree,  but  much  more 
enlarged  than  those  of  antiquity.  This 
was  formed  into  a  written  code,  II  Con- 
solato del  Mare,  not  much  earlier,  proba- 
bly, than  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth 
century;  and  its  promulgation  seems 
rather  to  have  proceeded  from  the  citi- 
zens of  Barcelona  than  from  those  of 
Pisa  or  Venice,  who  have  also  claimed 
to  be  the  first  legislators  of  the  sea.* 


It  is  a  singular  circumstance,  and  only  to  be  ex- 
plained by  the  obstinacy  with  which  men  are  apt 
to  reject  improvement,  that  the  magnetic  needld 
was  not  generally  adopted  in  navigation  till  very 
long  after  the  discovery  of  its  properties ;  and  even 
after  their  peculiar  importance  had  been  perceiv- 
ed. The  writers  of  the  thirteenth  century  who 
mention  the  polarity  of  the  needle,  mention  also  its 
use  in  navigation  ;  yet  Capmany  has  found  no  dis- 
tinct proof  of  its  employment  till  1403,  and  does  not 
believe  that  it  was  frequently  on  board  Mediterra- 
nean ships  at  the  latter  part  of  the  preceding  age. 
— Memorias  Historicas,  t.  iii.,  p.  70.  Perhaps 
however  he  has  inferred  too  much  from  his  nega- 
tive proof;  and  this  subject  seems  open  to  further 
inquiry. 

*  Boucher  supposes  it  to  have  been  compiled  at 


482 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP. 


Besides  regulations  simply  mercantile, 
this  system  has  defined  the  mutual  rights 
of  neutral  and  belligerant  vessels,  and 
thus  laid  the  basis  of  the  positive  law 
of  nations  in  its  most  important  and  dis- 
puted cases.  The  King  of  France  and 
Count  of  Provence  solemnly  acceded  to 
this  maritime  code,  which  hence  acqui- 
red a  binding  force  within  the  Mediterra- 
nean Sea ;  and  in  most  respects,  the  law 
merchant  of  Europe  is  at  present  con- 
formable to  its  provisions.  A  set  of  reg- 
ulations, chiefly  borrowed  from  the  Con- 
solato,  was  compiled  in  France  under 
the  reign  of  Louis  IX.,  and  prevailed  in 
their  own  country.  These  have  been  de- 
nominated the  laws  of  Oleron,  from  an 
idle  story  that  they  were  enacted  by 
Richard  I.,  while  his  expedition  to  the 
Holy  Land  lay  at  anchor  in  that  island.* 
Nor  was  the  north  without  its  peculiar 
code  of  maritime  jurisprudence ;  name- 
ly, the  ordinances  of  Wisbuy,  a  town  in 
the  isle  of  Gothland,  principally  compiled 
from  those  of  Oleron,  before  the  year 
1400,  by  which  the  Baltic  traders  were 
governed.! 

There  was  abundant  reason  for  estab- 
Frequency  lishing  among  maritime  nations 
of  piracy.  some  theory  of  mutual  rights, 
and  for  securing  the  redress  of  injuries, 
as  far  as  possible,  by  means  of  acknowl- 
edged tribunals.  In  that  state  of  barba- 

Barcelona  about  900 ;  but  his  reasonings  are  in- 
conclusive, t.  i.,  p.  72 ;  and  indeed  Barcelona  at  that 
time  was  little,  if  at  all,  better  than  a  fishing-town. 
Some  arguments  might  be  drawn  in  favour  of  Pisa 
from  the  expressions  of  Henry  IV.'s  charter  grant- 
ed to  that  city  in  1081.  Consuetudines,  quas  ha- 
bent  de  mari,  sic  iis  observabimus  sicut  illorum  est 
consuetudo. — Muratori,  Dissert.  45.  Giannone 
seems  to  think  the  collection  was  compiled  about 
the  reign  of  Louis  IX.,  1.  xi.,  c.  6.  Caprnany,  the 
last  Spanish  editor,  whose  authority  ought  perhaps 
to  outweigh  every  other,  asserts,  and  seems  to 
prove  them  to  have  been  enacted  by  the  mercantile 
magistrates  of  Barcelona,  under  the  reign  of  James 
the  Conqueror,  which  is  much  the  same  period. — 
(Codigo  de  las  Costrumbres  maritimas  de  Barcelo- 
na, Madrid,  1791.)  But,  by  whatever  nation  they 
were  reduced  into  their  present  form,  these  laws 
were  certainly  the  ancient  and  established  usages 
of  the  Mediterranean  states ;  and  Pisa  may  very 
probably  have  taken  a  great  share  in  first  practi- 
sing what  a  century  or  two  afterward  was  render- 
ed more  precise  at  Barcelona. 

*  Macpherson,  p.  358.  Boucher  supposes  them 
to  be  registers  of  actual  decisions. 

t  I  have  only  the  authority  of  Boucher  for  re- 
ferring the  Ordinances  of  Wisbuy  to  the  year 
1400.  Beckman  imagines  them  to  be  older  than 
those  of  Oleron.  But  Wisbuy  was  not  enclosed  by 
a  wall  till  1288,  a  proof  that  it  could  not  have  been 
previously  a  town  of  much  importance.  It  flour- 
ished chiefly  in  the  first  part  of  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, and  was  at  that  time  an  independent  repub- 
lic ;  but  fell  under  the  yoke  of  Denmark  before 
the  end  of  the  same  age. 


rous  anarchy  which  so  long  resisted  the 
coercive  authority  of  civil  magistrates, 
the  sea  held  out  even  more  temptation 
and  more  impunity  than  the  land ;  and 
when  the  laws  had  regained  their  sover- 
eignty, and  neither  robbery  nor  private 
warfare  was  any  longer  tolerated,  there 
remained  that  great  common  of  mankind, 
unclaimed  by  any  king,  and  the  liberty 
of  the  sea  was  another  name  for  the  se- 
curity of  plunderers.  A  pirate,  in  a  well- 
armed,  quick-sailing  vessel,  must  feel,  I 
suppose,  the  enjoyments  of  his  exemp- 
tion from,  control  more  exquisitely  than 
any  other  freebooter ;  and  darting  along 
the  bosom  of  the  ocean,  under  the 
impartial  radiance  of  the  heavens,  may 
deride  the  dark  concealments  and  hur- 
ried flights  of  the  forest  robber.  His 
occupation  is  indeed  extinguished  by 
the  civilization  of  later  ages,  or  con- 
fined to  distant  climates.  But  in  the 
thirteenth  and  fourteenth  centuries,  a 
rich  vessel  was  never  secure  from  at- 
tack ;  and  neither  restitution  nor  punish- 
ment of  the  criminals  was  to  be  obtained 
from  governments  who  sometimes  fear- 
ed the  plunderer  and  sometimes  con- 
nived at  the  offence.*  Mere  piracy, 
however,  was  not  the  only  danger.  The 
maritime  towns  of  Flanders,  France,  and 
England,  like  the  free  republics  of  Italy, 
prosecuted  their  own  quarrels  by  arms, 
without  asking  the  leave  of  their  respect- 
ive sovereigns.  This  practice,  Law  of 
exactly  analogous  to  that  of  pri-  reprisals- 
vate  war  in  the  feudal  system,  more  than 
once  involved  the  kings  of  France  and 
England  in  hostility.!  But  where  the 
quarrel  did  not  proceed  to  such  a  length 
as  ,  absolutely  to  engage  two  opposite 
towns,  a  modification  of  this  ancient 
right  of  revenge  formed  part  of  the  regu- 
lar law  of  nations,  under  the  name  of  re- 
prisals. Whoever  was  plundered  or  in- 
jured by  the  inhabitants  of  another  town 
obtained  authority  from  his  own  magis- 
trates to  seize  the  property  of  any  other 
person  belonging  to  it,  until  his  loss 
should  be  compensated.  This  law  of 


*  Hugh  Despenser  seized  a  Genoese  vessel  val- 
ued at  14,300  marks,  for  which  no  restitution  was 
ever  made. — Rymer,  t.  iv.,  p.  701.  Macpherson, 
A.  D.  1336. 

f  The  Cinque  Ports  and  other  trading  towns  of 
England  were  in  a  state  of  constant  hostility  with 
their  opposite  neighbours  during  the  reigns  of  Ed- 
ward I.  and  II.  One  might  quote  almost  half  the 
instruments  in  Rymer  in  proof  of  these  conflicts, 
and  of  those  with  the  mariners  of  Norway  and  Den- 
mark. Sometimes  mutual  envy  produced  frays 
between  different  English  towns.  Thus,  in  1254, 
the  Winchelsea  mariners  attacked  a  Yarmouth 
galley,  and  killed  some  of  her  men. — Matt .  Paris, 
apud  Macpherson. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


483 


reprisal  was  not  confined  to  maritime 
places.  It  prevailed  in  Lombardy,  and 
probably  in  the  German  cities.  Thus,  if 
a  citizen  of  Modena  was  robbed  by  a  Bo- 
lognese,  he  complained  to  the  magis- 
trates of  the  former  city,  who  represent- 
ed the  case  to  those  of  Bologna,  demand- 
ing redress.  If  this  were  not  immedi- 
ately granted,  letters  of  reprisals  were 
issued,  to  plunder  the  territory  of  Bo- 
logna till  the  injured  party  should  be  re- 
imbursed by  sale  of  the  spoil.*  In  the 
laws  of  Marseilles  it  is  declared,  "  If  a 
foreigner  take  any  thing  from  a  citizen 
of  Marseilles,  and  he  who  has  jurisdic- 
tion over  the  said  debtor  or  unjust  taker 
does  not  cause  right  to  be  done  in  the 
same,  the  rector  or  consuls,  at  the  peti- 
tion of  the  said  citizen,  shall  grant  him 
reprisals  upon  all  the  goods  of  the  said 
debtor  or  unjust  taker,  and  also  upon  the 
goods  of  others,  who  are  under  the  juris- 
diction of  him  who  ought  to  do  justice, 
and  would  not,  to  the  said  citizen  of  Mar- 
seilles, "f  Edward  III.  remonstrates,  in 
an  instrument  published  by  Rymer, 
against  letters  of  marque  granted  by  the 
King  of  Aragon  to  one  Berenger  de  la 
Tone,  who  had  been  robbed  by  an  Eng- 
lish pirate  of  £2000  ;  alleging  that,  inas- 
much as  he  had  always  been  ready  to 
give  redress  to  the  party,  it  seemed  to 
his  counsellors  that  there  was  no  just 
cause  for  reprisals  upon  the  king's  or  his 
subjects'  property.^  This  passage  is  so 
far  curious,  as  it  asserts  the  existence  of 
a  customary  law  of  nations,  the  knowl- 
edge of  which  was  already  a  sort  of 
learning.  Sir  E.  Coke  speaks  of  this 
right  of  private  reprisals  as  if  it  still  ex- 
isted ;§  and,  in  fact,  there  are  instances 
of  granting  such  letters  as  late  as  the 
reign  of  Charles  the  First. 

A  practice  founded  on  the  same  prin- 
Liabiit  of  ciples  as  reprisal,  though  rather 
aliens  for  less  violent,  was  that  of  attach- 
each  other's  mg  t|ie  goods  or  persons  of  res- 
ident foreigners  for  the  debts  of 
their  countrymen.  This  indeed,  in  Eng- 
land, was  not  confined  to  foreigners  until 
the  statute  of  Westminster  I.,  c.  23,  which 
enacts  that  "  no  stranger  who  is  of  this 
realm  shall  be  distrained  in  any  town  or 
market  for  a  debt  wherein  he  is  neither 

*  Muratori,  Dissert.  53. 

t  Du  Cange,  voc.  Laudum. 

i  Rymer,  t.  iv.,  p.  576.  Videtur  sapientibus  et 
peritis,  quod  causa,  de  jure,  non  subfuit  marcham 
seu  reprisaliam  in  nostris,  seu  subditorum  nostro- 
rum,  bonis  concedendi.  See  too  a  case  of  neutral 
goods  on  board  an  enemy's  vessel  claimed  by  the 
owners,  and  a  legal  distinction  taken  in  favour  of 
the  captors,  t.  vi.,  p.  14. 

$  27  E.  III.,  stat.  11.,  c.  17.    2  Inst,  p.  205. 
Hh2 


principal  nor  surety."  Henry  III.  had 
previously  granted  a  charter  to  the  bur- 
gesses of  Lubec,  that  they  should  not  be 
arrested  for  the  debt  of  any  of  their  coun- 
trymen, unless  the  magistrates  of  Lubec 
neglected  to  compel  payment.*  But  by 
a  variety  of  grants  from  Edward  II.,  the 
privileges  of  English  subjects  under  the 
statute  of  Westminster  were  extended  to 
most  foreign  nations,  f  This  unjust  re- 
sponsibility had  not  been  confined  to  civil 
cases.  One  of  a  company  of  Italian  mer- 
chants, the  Spini,  having  killed  a  man, 
the  officers  of  justice  seized  the  bodies 
and  effects  of  all  the  rest.J 

If,  under  all  these  obstacles,  whether 
created  by  barbarous  manners,  Great  prof- 
by  national  prejudice,  or  by  the  «s  of  trade, 
fraudulent  and  arbitrary  measures  of  prin- 
ces, the  merchants  of  different  countries 
became  so  opulent  as  almost  to  rival  the 
ancient  nobility,  it  must  be  ascribed  to 
the  greatness  of  their  commercial  profits. 
The  trading  companies  possessed  either 
a  positive  or  a  virtual  monopoly,  and  held 
the  keys  of  those  eastern  regions,  for  the 
luxuries  of  which  the  progressive  refine- 
ment of  manners  produced  an  increasing 
demand.  It  is  not  easy  to  determine  the 
average  rate  of  profit  $  but  we  know  that 
the  interest  of  money  was  exceed-  And  high 
ingly  high  throughout  the  middle  rate  of 
ages.  At  Verona,  in  1228,  it  was  iQtereat- 
fixed  by  law  at  twelve  and  a  half  per 
cent. ;  at  Modena,  in  1270,  it  seems  to 
have  been  as  high  as  twenty.  ||  The  re- 
public of  Genoa,  towards  the  end  of  the 
fourteenth  century,  when  Italy  had  grown 
wealthy,  paid  only  from  seven  to  ten  per 
cent,  to  her  creditors. 1[  But  in  France 
and  England  the  rate  was  far  more  op- 
pressive. An  ordinance  of  Philip  the 
Fair,  in  1311,  allows  twenty  per  cent,  af- 
ter the  first  year  of  the  loan.**  Under 
Henry  III.,  according  to  Matthew  Paris, 
the  debtor  paid  ten  per  cent,  every  two 
months,tf  but  this  is  absolutely  incredible 


*  Rymer,  t.  i.,  p.  839. 

t  Idem,  t.  iii.,  p.  458, 647,  678,  et  infra.  See  too 
the  ordinances  of  the  staple,  in  27  Edw.  III.,  which 
confirm  this  among  other  privileges,  and  contain 
manifold  evidence  of  the  regard  paid  to  commerce 
in  that  reign. 

t  Rymer,  t.  ii.,  p.  891.  Madox,  Hist.  Exche- 
quer, c.  xxii.,  s.  7. 

§  In  the  remarkable  speech  of  the  Doge  Moceni- 
go,  quoted  in  another  place,  p.  177,  the  annual 
profit  made  by  Venice  on  her  mercantile  capital  is 
reckoned  at  forty  per  cent. 

II  Muratori,  Dissert.  16. 

IT  Bizarri  Hist.  Genuens,  p.  797.  The  rate  of  dis- 
count on  bills,  which  may  not  have  exactly  cor- 
responded to  the  average  annual  interest  of  money, 
was  ten  per  cent,  at  Barcelona  in  1435. — Cap- 
many,  t.  i.,  p.  209. 

**  Du  Cange,  v.  Usuia.     ft  Muratori,  Diss.  16. 


484 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


as  a  general  practice.  This  was  nol 
merely  owing  to  scarcity  of  money,  but 
to  the  discouragement  which  a  strange 
prejudice  opposed  to  one  of  the  most  use- 
ful and  legitimate  branches  of  commerce 
Usury,  or  lending  money  for  profit,  was 
treated  as  a  crime  by  the  theologians  of 
the  middle  ages ;  and  though  the  super- 
stition has  been  eradicated,  some  part  of 
the  prejudice  remains  in  our  legislation. 
Money  This  trade  in  money,  and  indeed 
dealings  of  a  great  part  of  inland  trade  in 
the  Jews,  general,  had  originally  fallen  to 
the  Jews,  who  were  noted  for  their  usury 
so  early  as  the  sixth  century.*  For  sev- 
eral subsequent  ages  they  continued  to 
employ  their  capital  and  industry  to  the 
same  advantage,  with  little  molestation 
from  the  clergy,  who  always  tolerated 
their  avowed  and  national  infidelity,  and 
often  with  some  encouragement  from 
princes.  In  the  twelfth  century  we  find 
them  not  only  possessed  of  landed  prop- 
erty in  Languedoc,  and  cultivating  the 
studies  of  medicine  and  Rabbinical  liter- 
ature in  their  own  academy  at  Montpe- 
lier,  under  the  protection  of  the  Count  of 
Toulouse,  but  invested  with  civil  offices.! 
Raymond  Roger,  viscount  of  Carcas- 
sonne, directs  a  writ  "  to  his  bailiffs 
Christian  and  Jewish.":}:  It  was  one  of 
the  conditions  imposed  by  the  church  on 
the  Count  of  Toulouse,  that  he  should  al- 
low no  Jews  to  possess  magistracy  in  his 
dominions. §  In  Spain  they  were  placed 
by  some  of  the  municipal  laws  on  the 
footing  of  Christians,  with  respect  to  the 
composition  for  their  lives,  and  seem  in 
no  other  European  country  to  have  been 
so  numerous  or  considerable.  ||  The  dili- 
gence and  expertness  of  this  people  in  all 
pecuniary  dealings  recommended  them 
to  princes  who  were  solicitous  about  the 
improvement  of  their  revenue.  We  find 
an  article  in  the  general  charter  of  priv- 
ileges granted  by  Peter  III.  of  Aragon,  in 
1283,  that  no  Jew  should  hold  the  office 
of  a  bayle  or  judge.  And  two  kings  of 
Castile,  Alonzo  XL  and  Peter  the  Cruel, 
incurred  much  odium  by  employing  Jew- 
ish ministers  in  their  treasury.  But,  in 
other  parts  of  Europe,  their  condition 
had,  before  that  time,  begun  to  change 
for  the  worse ;  partly  from  the  fanatical 
spirit  of  the  crusades,  which  prompted 
the  populace  to  massacre,  and  partly 
from  the  jealousy  which  their  opulence 
excited.  Kings,  in  order  to  gain  money 
and  popularity  at  once,  abolished  the 


*  Greg.  Turon.,  1.  iv. 

t  Hist,  de  Languedoc,  t.  ii.,  p.  517 ;  t.  iii.,  p.  531. 
t  Id.,  t.  iii.,  p.  121.  t)  Id.,  p.  163. 

II  Marina,  Ensayo  Historico-Critico,  p.  143. 


debts  due  to  the  children  of  Israel,  ex- 
cept a  part  which  they  retained  as  the 
price  of  their  bounty.  One  is  at  a  loss 
to  conceive  the  process  of  reasoning  in 
an  ordinance  of  St.  Louis,  where,  "  for 
the  salvation  of  his  own  soul  and  those 
of  his  ancestors,  he  releases  to  all  Chris- 
tians a  third  part  of  what  was  owing 
by  them  to  Jews."*  Not  content  with 
such  edicts,  the  kings  of  France  some- 
times banished  the  whole  nation  from 
their  dominions,  seizing  their  effects  at 
the  same  time ;  and  a  season  of  alterna- 
tive severity  and  toleration  continued  till 
under  Charles  VI.  they  were  finally  ex- 
pelled from  the  kingdom,  where  they 
never  afterward  possessed  any  legal  set- 
tlement, f  In  England  they  were  not  so 
harshly  treated;  but  they  became  less 
remarkable  for  riches  after  the  thirteenth 
century.  This  decline  of  the  Jews  was 
owing  to  the  transference  of  their  trade 
in  money  to  other  hands.  In  the  early 
part  of  the  thirteenth  century  the  mer- 
chants of  Lombardy  and  of  the  south  of 
France^  took  up  the  business  of  remit- 
ting money  by  bills  of  exchange,^  and 
of  making  profit  upon  loans.  The  utility 
of  this  was  found  so  great,  especially  by 
the  Italian  clergy,  who  thus  in  an  easy 
manner  drew  the  income  of  their  trans- 
alpine benefices,  that,  in  spite  of  much 
obloquy,  the  Lombard  usurers  established 
themselves  in  every  country;  and  the 
general  progress  of  commerce  wore  off 
the  bigotry  that  had  obstructed  their 
reception.  A  distinction  was  made  be- 
tween moderate  and  exorbitant  interest ; 
and  though  the  casuists  did  not  acquiesce 


*  Martenue,  Thesaurus  Anecdotorum,  t.  i.,  p. 
984. 

t  Velly,  t.  iv.,  p,  136. 

J  The  city  of  Cahors,  in  Quercy,  the  modern 
department  of  the  Lot,  produced  a  tribe  of  money- 
dealers.  The  Caursini  are  almost  as  often  noticed 
as  the  Lombards. — See  the  article  in  Du  Cange. 
In  Lombardy,  Asti,  a  city  of  no  great  note  in  other 
respects,  was  famous  for  the  same  department  of 
commerce. 

There  were  three  species  of  paper  credit  in 
the  dealings  of  merchants :  1.  General  letters  of 
credit,  not  directed  to  any  one,  which  are  not  un- 
common in  the  Levant ;  2.  Orders  to  pay  money 
;o  a  particular  person  ;  3.  Bills  of  exchange  regu- 
.arly  negotiable. — Boucher,  t.  ii.,  p.  621.  Instances 
>f  the  first  are  mentioned  by  Macpherson  about 
1200,  p.  367.  The  second  species  was  introduced 
jy  the  Jews  about  1183  (Capmany,  t.  i.,  p.  297), 
Kit  it  may  be  doubtful  whether  the  last  stage  of 
the  progress  was  reached  nearly  so  soon.  An  in- 
strument in  Rymer,  however,  of  the  year  1364  (t. 
vi.,  p.  495),  mentions  litene  cambitoriae,  which  seem 
to  have  been  negotiable  bills;  and  by  1400  they 
were  drawn  in  sets,  and  worded  exactly  as  at 
present. — Macpherson,  p.  614,  and  Beckman,  His- 
tory of  Inventions,  vol.  iii.,  p.  430,  give  from  Cap- 
many  an  actual  precedent  of  a  bill  dated  in  1404. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


in  this  legal  regulation,  yet  it  satisfied, 
even  in  superstitious  times,  the  conscien- 
ces of  provident  traders.*  The  Italian 
bankers  were  frequently  allowed  to  farm 
the  customs  in  England,  as  a  security, 
perhaps,  for  loans  which  were  not  very 
punctually  repaid. f  In  1345,  the  Bardi 
at  Florence,  the  greatest  company  in 
Italy,  became  bankrupt,  Edward  III. 
owing  them  in  principal  and  interest. 
900,000  gold  florins.  Another,  the  Pe- 
ruzzi,  failed  at  the  same  time,  being 
creditors  to  Edward  for  600,000  florins. 
The  King  of  Sicily  owed  100,000  florins 
to  each  of  these  bankers.  Their  failure 
involved,  of  course,  a  multitude  of  Flor- 
entine citizens,  and  was  a  heavy  misfor- 
tune to  the  state. | 

The  earliest  bank  of  deposite,  institu- 
Banks  of  te^  f°r  tne  accommodation  of  pri- 
Genoaand  vate  merchants,  is  said  to  have 
others.  been  that  of  Barcelona,  in  1401. § 
The  banks  of  Venice  and  Genoa  were 
of  a  different  description.  Although  the 
former  of  these  two  has  the  advantage 
of  greater  antiquity,  having  been  formed, 
as  we  are  told,  in  the  twelfth  century, 
yet  its  early  history  is  not  so  clear  as 
that  of  Genoa,  nor  its  political  impor- 
tance so  remarkable,  however  similar 
might  be  its  origin.  ||  During  the  wars 
of  Genoa  in  the  fourteenth  century,  she 
had  borrowed  large  sums  of  private  citi- 


*  Usury  was  looked  upon  with  horro'r  bv  our 
English  divines  long  after  the  reformation.  Fleury, 
in  his  Institutions  au  Droit  Ecclesiastique,  t.  ii.,  p. 
129,  has  shown  the  subterfuges  to  which  men  had 
recourse  in  order  to  evade  this  prohibition.  It  is 
an  unhappy  truth,  that  great  part  of  the  attention 
devoted  to  the  best  of  sciences,  ethics  and  juris- 
prudence, has  been  employed  to  weaken  principles 
that  ought  never  to  have  been  acknowledged. 

One  species  of  usury,  and  that  of  the  highest  im- 
portance to  commerce,  was  always  permitted,  on 
account  of  the  risk  that  attended  it.  This  was 
marine  ensurance,  which  could  not  have  existed 
until  money  was  considered  in  itself  as  a  source 
of  profit.  The  earliest  regulations  on  the  subject 
of  ensurance  are  those  of  Barcelona  in  1433  ;  but 
the  practice  was,  of  course,  earlier  than  these, 
though  not  of  great  antiquity.  It  is  not  mentioned 
in  the  Consolato  del  Mare,  nor  in  any  of  the  Han- 
seatic  laws  of  the  fourteenth  century. — Beckman, 
vol.  i.,  p.  388.  This  author,  not  being  aware  of  the 
Barcelonese  laws  on  this  subject  published  by 
Capmany,  supposes  the  first  provisions  regulating 
marine  assurance  to  have  been  made  at  Florence 
in  1523. 

t  Macpherson,  p.  487,  et  alibi.  They  had  prob- 
ably excellent  bargains  :  in  1329  the  Bardi  farmed 
all  the  customs  in  England  for  201.  a  day.  But, 
in  1282,  the  customs  had  produced  841 U.,  and  half 
a  century  of  great  improvement  had  elapsed. 

t  Villani,  1.  xii.,  c.  55,  87.  He  calls  these  two 
banking-houses  the  pillars  which  sustained  great 
part  of  the  commerce  of  Christendom. 

§  Capmany,  t.  i.,  p.  213. 

II  Macpherson,  p.  341,  from  Sanuto.  The  bank 
of  Venice  is  referred  to  1171. 


zens,  to  whom  the  revenues  were  pledged 
for  repayment.  The  republic  of  Florence 
had  set  a  recent,  though  not  a  very  en- 
couraging example  of  a  public  loan,  to 
I  defray  the  expense  of  her  war  against 
Mastino  della  Scala,  in  1336.  The  chief 
mercantile  firms,  as  well  as  individual 
citizens,  furnished  money  on  an  assign- 
ment of  the  taxes,  receiving  fifteen  per 
cent,  interest ;  which  appears  to  have 
been  above  the  rate  of  private  usury.* 
The  slate  was  not  unreasonably  consid- 
ered a  worse  debtor  than  some  of  her 
citizens ;  for  in  a  few  years  these  loans 
were  consolidated  into  a  general  fund,  or 
monte,  with  some  deduction  from  the  cap- 
ital, and  a  great  diminution  of  interest ; 
so  that  an  original  debt  of  one  hundred 
florins  sold  only  for  twenty-five.f  But 
I  have  not  found  that  these  creditors 
formed  at  Florence  a  corporate  body,  or 
took  any  part,  as  such,  in  the  affairs  of 
the  republic.  The  case  was  different  at 
Genoa.  As  a  security  at  least  for  their 
interest,  the  subscribers  to  public  loans 
were  permitted  to  receive  the  produce 
of  the  taxes  by  their  own  collectors, 
paying  the  excess  into  the  treasury. 
The  number  and  distinct  classes  of  these 
subscribers  becoming  at  length  inconve- 
nient, they  were  formed  about  the  year 
1407  into  a  single  corporation,  called  the 
Bank  of  St.  George,  which  was  from 
that  time  the  sole  national  creditor  and 
mortgagee.  The  government  of  this  was 
intrusted  to  eight  protectors.  It  soon 
became  almost  independent  of  the  state. 
Every  senator,  on  his  admission,  swore 
to  maintain  the  privileges  of  the  bank, 
which  were  confirmed  by  the  pope,  and 
even  by  the  emperor.  The  bank  inter- 
posed its  advice  in  every  measure  of 
government,  and  generally,  as  is  admit- 
ted, to  the  public  advantage.  It  equip- 
ped armaments  at  its  own  expense,  one 
of  which  subdued  the  Island  of  Corsica ; 
and  this  acquisition,  like  those  of  our 
great  Indian  corporation,  was  long  sub- 
ject to  a  company  of  merchants,  without 
any  interference  of  the  mother  country.  J 
The  increasing  wealth  of  Europe, 
whether  derived  from  internal  increase  of 
improvement  or  foreign  com-  domestic  ex- 
merce,  displayed  itself  in  more  Penditure- 
expensive  consumption,  and  greater  re- 
finements of  domestic  life.  But  these 
effects  were  for  a  long  time  very  grad- 
ual, each  .generation  making  a  few  steps 


*  G.  Villani,  1.  xi.,  c.  49. 

t  Matt.  Villani,  p.  227  (in  Muratori,  Script.  Rer. 
Ital.,  t.  xiv.). 

BizarriHist.  Genuens.,  p.  797  (Antwerp.  1579). 
Machiavelli,  Storia  Fiorentina,  I.  viii. 


486 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


(CHAP.  IX. 


in  the  progress,  which  are  hardly  discern- 
ible except  by  an  attentive  inquirer.  It 
is  not  till  the  latter  half  of  the  thirteenth 
century  that  an  accelerated  impulse  ap- 
pears to  be  given  to  society.  The  just 
government  and  suppression  of  disorder 
under  St.  Louis,  and  the  peaceful  temper 
of  his  brother  Alfonzo,  count  of  Toulouse 
and  Poitou,  gave  France  leisure  to  avail 
herself  of  her  admirable  fertility.  Eng- 
land, that  to  a  soil  not  perhaps  inferior 
to  that  of  France,  united  the  inestimable 
advantage  of  an  insular  position,  and  was 
invigorated,  above  all,  by  her  free  consti- 
tution, and  the  steady  industriousness  of 
her  people,  rose  with  a  pretty  uniform 
motion  from  the  time  of  Edward  I.  It- 
aly, though  the  better  days  of  freedom 
had  passed  away  in  most  of  her  repub- 
lics, made  a  rapid  transition  from  simpli- 
city to  refinement.  "In  those  times," 
says  a  writer  about  the  year  1300,  speak- 
ing of  the  age  of  Frederick  II.,  "the 
manners  of  the  Italians  were  rude.  A 
man  and  his  wife  ate  off  the  same  plate. 
There  was  no  wooden-handled  knives, 
nor  more  than  one  or  two  drinking-cups 
in  the  house.  Candles  of  wax  or  tallow 
were  unknown :  a  servant  held  a  torch 
during  supper.  The  clothes  of  men 
were  of  leather  imlined  :  scarcely  any 
gold  or  silver  was  seen  on  their  dress. 
The  common  people  ate  flesh  but  three 
times  a  week,  and  kept  their  cold  meat 
for  supper.  Many  did  not  drink  wine  in 
summer.  A  small  stock  of  corn  seemed 
riches.  The  portions  of  women  were 
small ;  their  dress,  even  after  marriage, 
was  simple.  The  pride  of  men'  was  to 
be  well  provided  with  arms  and  horses ; 
that  of  the  nobility  to  have  lofty  towers, 
of  which  all  the  cities  in  Italy  were  full. 
But  now  frugality  has  been  changed  for 
sumptuousness  ;  every  thing  exquisite  is 
sought  after  in  dress  :  gold,  silver,  pearls, 
silks,  and  rich  furs.  Foreign  wines  and 
rich  meats  are  required.  Hence  usury, 
rapine,  fraud,  tyranny,"*  &c.  This  pas- 
sage is  supported  by  other  testimonies 
nearly  of  the  same  time.  The  conquest 
of  Naples  by  Charles  of  Anjou,  in  1266, 

*  Ricobaldus  Ferrarensis,  apud  Murat.,  Dissert. 
23.  Francisc.  Pippinus,  ibidem.  Muratori  en- 
deavours to  extenuate  the  authority  of  this  passage, 
on  account  of  some  more  ancient  writers  who  com- 
plain of  the  luxury  of  their  times,  and  of  some  par- 
ticular instances  of  magnificence  and  expense.  But 
Ricobaldi  alludes,  as  Muratori  himself  admits,  to  the 
mode  of  living  in  the  middle  ranks,  and  not  to  that 
of  courts,  which  in  all  ages  might  occasionally  dis- 
play considerable  splendour.  I  see  nothing  to 
weaken  so  explicit  a  testimony  of  a  contemporary, 
which  in  fact  is  confirmed  by  many  writers  of  the 
next  age,  who,  according  to  the  practice  of  Italian 
chroniclers,  have  copied  it  as  their  own. 


seems  to  have  been  the  epoch  of  increas- 
ing luxury  throughout  Italy.  His  Pro- 
vencal knights  with  their  plumed  helmets 
and  golden  collars,  the  chariot  of  his 
queen  covered  with  blue  velvet,  and 
sprinkled  with  lilies  of  gold,  astonished 
the  citizens  of  Naples.*  Provence  had 
enjoyed  a  long  tranquillity,  the  natural 
source  of  luxurious  magnificence  ;  and 
Italy,  now  liberated  from  the  yoke  of  the 
empire,  soon  reaped  the  same  fruit  of  a 
condition  more  easy  and  peaceful  than 
had  been  her  lot  for  several  ages.  Dante 
speaks  of  the  change  of  manners  at  Flor- 
ence, from  simplicity  and  virtue  to  re- 
finement and  dissoluteness,  in  terms  very 
nearly  similar  to  those  quoted  above. f 

Throughout  the  fourteenth  century, 
there  continued  to  be  a  rapid  but  steady 
progression  in  England,  of  what  we  may 
denominate  elegance,  improvement,  or 
luxury ;  and  if  this  was  for  a  time  sus- 
pended in  France,  it  must  be  ascribed  to 
the  unusual  calamities  which  befell  that 
country  under  Philip  of  Valois  and  his 
son.  Just  before  the  breaking  out  of  the 
English  wars,  an  excessive  fondness  for 
dress  is  said  to  have  distinguished  not 
only  the  higher  ranks,  but  the  burghers, 
whose  foolish  emulation  at  least  indicates 
their  easy  circumstances. !  Modes  of 
dress  hardly  perhaps  deserve  our  notice 
on  their  own  account ;  yet,  so  far  as  their 
univer-salprevalence  was  a  symptom  of 
diffused  wealth,  we  should  not  overlook 
either  the  invectives  bestowed  by  the 
clergy  on  the  fantastic  extravagances  of 
fashion,  or  the  sumptuary  laws  by  which 
it  was  endeavoured  to  restrain  them. 

-The  principle  of  sumptuary  laws  was 
partly  derived  from  the  small  sumptuary 
republics  of  antiquity,  which  laws- 
might  perhaps  require  that  security  for 
public  spirit  and  equal  rights ;  partly 
from  the  austere  and  injudicious  theory 


*  Murat.,  Dissert.  23. 
f  Bellincion  Berti  vid'  io  andar  cinto 
Di  cuojo  e  d'osso,  e  venir  dallo  specchio 
La  donna  sua  senza  '1  viso  dipinto. 
E  vidi  quel  di  Nerli,  e  quel  del  Vecchio 
Esser  contenti  alia  pelle  scoverta, 
E  sue  donne  al  fuso  ed  al  pennechio. 

Paradis.,  canto  xv. 

See  too  the  rest  of  this  canto.  But  this  is  put 
in  the  mouth  of  Cacciaguida,  the  poet's  ancestor, 
who  lived  in  the  former  half  of  the  twelfth  century. 
The  change,  however,  was  probably  subsequent  to 
1250,  when  the  times  of  wealth  and  turbulence  be- 
gan at  Florence. 

t  Velly,  t.  viii.,  p.  352.  The  second  continuator 
of  Nangis  vehemently  inveighs  against  the  long 
beards  and  short  breeches  of  his  age  ;  after  the  in- 
troduction of  which  novelties,  he  judiciously  ob- 
serves, the  French  were  much  more  disposed  to  run 
away  from  their  enemies  than  before.— Spicile- 
gium,  t.  iii.,  p.  105. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


487 


of  religion  disseminated  by  the  clergy. 
These  prejudices  united  to  render  all  in- 
crease of  general  comforts  odious  under 
the  name  of  luxury  ;  and  a  third  motive, 
more  powerful  than  either,  the  jealousy 
with  which  the  great  regard  any  thing 
like  imitation  in  those  beneath  them,  co- 
operated to  produce  a  sort  of  restrictive 
code  in  the  laws  of  Europe.  Some  of 
these  regulations  are  more  ancient;  but 
the  chief  part  were  enacted,  both  in 
France  and  England,  during  the  four- 
teenth century  ;  extending  to  expenses 
of  the  table  as  well  as  apparel.  The 
first  statute  of  this  description  in  our  own 
country  was,  however,  repealed  the  next 
year  ;*  and  subsequent  provisions  were 
entirely  disregarded  by  a  nation  which 
valued  liberty  and  commerce  too  much 
to  obey  laws  conceived  in  a  spirit  hostile 
to  both.  Laws  indeed  designed  by  those 
governments  to  restrain  the  extravagance 
of  their  subjects,  may  well  justify  the  se- 
vere indignation  which  Adam  Smith  has 
poured  upon  all  such  interference  with 
private  expenditure.  The  kings  of  France 
and  England  were  undoubtedly  more 
egregious  spendthrifts  than  any  others 
in  their  dominions ;  and  contributed  far 
more  by  their  love  of  pageantry  to  excite 
a  taste  for  dissipation  in  their  people, 
than  by  their  ordinances  to  repress  it. 

Mussus,  an  historian  of  Placentia,  has 
Domestic  ^e^  a  Pretty  copious  account  of 
manners  the  prevailing  manners  among 
ontaiy.  kjg  countrymen  about  1388,  and 
expressly  contrasts  their  more  luxurious 
living  with  the  style  of  their  ancestors 
seventy  years  before  ;  when,  as  we  have 
seen,  they  had  already  made  considera- 
ble steps  towards  refinement.  This  pas- 
sage is  highly  interesting;  because  it 
shows  the  regular  tenour  of  domestic 
economy  in  an  Italian  city,  rather  than 
a  mere  display  of  individual  magnifi- 
cence, as  in  most  of  the  facts  collected 
by  our  own  and  the  French  antiquaries. 
But  it  is  much  too  long  for  insertion  in 
this  place. t  No  other  country,  perhaps, 
could  exhibit  so  fair  a  picture  of  middle 
life  :  in  France,  the  burghers  and  even 
the  inferior  gentry  were  for  the  most  part 


*  37  E.  III.  Rep.  38  E.  III.  Several  other 
statutes  of  a  similar  nature  were  passed  in  this 
and  the  ensuing  reign.  In  France  there  were 
sumptuary  laws  as  old  as  Charlemagne,  prohibiting 
or  taxing  the  use  of  furs ;  but  the  first  extensive 
regulation  was  under  Philip  the  Fair. — Velly,  t. 
vii.,  p.  64;  t.  xi.,  p.  190.  These  attempts  to  re- 
strain what  cannot  be  restrained  continued  even 
down  to  1700.— De  la  Mare,  Traite  de  la  Police,  t. 
i.,  1.  iii. 

t  Muratori,  Antichita  Italiane,  Dissert.  23,  t.  i., 
p.  325. 


in  a  state  of  poverty  at  this  period,  which 
they  concealed  by  an  affectation  of  orna- 
ment ;  while  our  English  yeomanry  and 
tradesmen  were  more  anxious  to  invigo- 
rate their  bodies  by  a  generous  diet,  than 
to  dwell  in  well-furnished  houses,  or  to 
find  comfort  in  cleanliness  and  elegance.* 
The  German  cities,  however,  had  acqui- 
red  with  liberty  the  spirit  of  improvement 
and  industry.  From  the  time  that  Henry 
V.  admitted  their  artisans  to  the  privi- 
leges of  free  burghers,  they  became  more 
and  more  prosperous  ;f  while  the  steadi- 
ness and  frugality  of  the  German  char- 
acter compensated  for  some  disadvanta- 
fes  arising  out  of  their  inland  situation, 
pire,  Nuremberg,  Ratisbon,  and  Augs- 
burg, were  not  indeed  like  the  rich  mar- 
kets of  London  and  Bruges,  nor  could 
their  burghers  rival  the  princely  mer- 
chants of  Italy;  but  they  enjoyed  the 
blessings  of  competence  diffused  over  a 
large  class  of  industrious  freemen:;  and 
in  the  fifteenth  century,  one  of  the  poli- 
test  Italians  -could  extol  their  splendid 
and  well-furnished  dwellings,  their  rich 
apparel,  their  easy  and  affluent  mode  of 
living,  the  security  of  their  rights,  and  just 
equality  of  their  laws.J 


*  These  English,  said  the  Spaniards  who  came 
over  with  Philip  II.,  have  their  houses  made  of 
sticks  and  dirt,  but  they  fare  commonly  so  well  as 
the  king. — Harrison's  Description  of  Britain,  pre- 
fixed to  Holingshed,  vol.  i.,  p.  315  (edit.  1807). 

t  Pfeffel,  t.  i.,  p.  293. 

J  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  de  Moribus  Germanorum. 
This  treatise  is  an  amplified  panegyric  upon  Ger- 
many, and  contains  several  curious  passages  :  they 
must  be  taken  perhaps  with  some  allowance ;  for 
the  drift  of  the  whole  is  to  persuade  the  Germans 
that  so  rich  and  noble  a  country  could  afford  a  lit- 
tle money  for  the  poor  pope.  Civitates  quas  vocant 
liberas,  cum,  Imperatori  solum  subjiciuntur,  cujus 
jugum  est  instar  libertatis  ;  nee  profecto  usquam 
gentium  tanta  libertas  est,  quanta  fruuntur  hujus- 
cemodi  civitates.  Nam  populi  quos  Itali  vocant 
liberos,  hi  potissimum  serviunt,  sive  Venetias  in- 
spectes,  sive  Florentiam  aut  Caenas,  in  quibus  ci- 
ves,  praeter  paucos  qui  reliquos  ducunt,  loco  man- 
cipioruni  habentur.  Cum  nee  rebus  suis  uti,  utli- 
bet,  vel  fari  quae  velint,  et  gravissimis  opprimuntur 
pecuniarum  exactionibus.  Apud  Germanos  omnia 
laeta  sunt,  omnia  jucunda  ;  nemo  suis  privatur 
bonis.  Salva  cutque  sua  hsereditas  est,  nulli  nisi 
nocenti  magistratus  nocent.  Nee  apud  eos  factio- 
nes  sicut  apud  Italas  urbes  grassantur.  Sunt  au- 
tem  supra  centum  civitates  hac  libertate  fruentes, 
p.  J058. 

In  another  part  of  his  work  p.  719,  he  gives  a 
specious  account  of  Vienna.  The  houses,  he  says, 
had  glass  windows  and  iron  doors.  Fenestrae  un- 
dique  vitreae  perlucent,  et  ostia  plerumque  ferrea. 
In  domibus  multa  et  munda  supellex.  Altae  domus 
magnificsque  visuntur.  Unum  id  dedecori  est, 
quod  tecta  plerumque  tigno  contegunt,  pauca  la- 
tere.  Caetera  aedificia  muro  lapideo  consistent. 
Pictae  domus  et  exterius  et  interius  splendent.  Ci- 
vitatis  populus  50,000  communicantium  creditur.  I 
suppose  this  gives  at  least  double  for  the  total  pop- 
ulation. He  proceeds  to  represent  the  manners  of 


488 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


No  chapter  in  the  history  of  national 
manners  would  illustrate  so  well,  if  duly 
executed,  the  progress  of  social  life,  as 
civil  archi-  that  dedicated  to  domestic  archi- 
tecture, tecture.  The  fashions  of  dress 
and  of  amusements  are  generally  capri- 
cious and  irreducible  to  rule  ;  but  every 
change  in  the  dwellings  of  mankind,  from 
*the  rudest  wooden  cabin  to  the  stately 
mansion,  has  been  dictated  by  some  prin- 
ciple of  convenience,  neatness,  comfort, 
or  magnificence.  Yet  this  most  interest- 
ing field  of  research  has  been  less  beaten 
by  our  antiquaries  than  others  compar- 
atively barren.  I  do  not  pretend  to  a 
complete  knowledge  of  what  has  been 
written  by  these  learned  inquirers ;  but  I 
can  only  name  one  book  in  which  the 
civil  architecture  of  our  ancestors  had 
been  sketched,  loosely  indeed,  but  with 
a  superior  hand ;  and  another  in  which  it 
is  partially  noticed.  I  mean  by  the  first, 
a  chapter  in  the  Appendix  to  Dr.  Whit- 
aker's  History  of  Whalley ;  and  by  the 
second,  Mr.  King's  Essays  on  ancient 
Castles  in  the  Archaeologia.*  Of  these 
I  shall  make  free  use  in  the  following 
paragraphs. 

The  most  ancient  buildings  which  we 
can  trace  in  this  island,  after  the  depar- 
ture of  the  Romans,  were  circular  tow- 
ers of  no  great  size,  whereof  many  re- 
main in  Scotland ;  erected  either  on  a 
natural  eminence,  or  on  an  artificial 
mound  of  earth.  Such  are  Conisborough 
Castle  in  Yorkshire,  and  Castleton  in 
Derbyshire,  built  perhaps  before  the  con- 
quest, f  To  the  lower  chambers  of  those 
gloomy  keeps  there  was  no  admission  of 
light  or  air,  except  through  long  narrow 
loopholes  and  an  aperture  in  the  roof. 
Regular  windows  were  made  in  the  upper 

the  city  in  a  less  favourable  point  of  view,  charging 
the  citizens  with  gluttony  and  libertinism,  the  no- 
bility with  oppression,  the  judges  with  corruption, 
&c.  Vienna  probably  had  the  vices  of  a  flourishing 
city  ;  but  the  love  of  amplification  in  so  rhetorical 
a  writer  as  JEneas  Sylvius  weakens  the  value  of 
his  testimony,  on  whichever  side  it  is  given. 

*  Vols.  iv.  and  vi. 

t  Mr.  Lysons  refers  Castleton  to  the  age  of  Will- 
iam the  Conqueror,  but  without  giving  any  reasons. 
— Lysons's  Derbyshire,  p.  ccxxxvi.  Mr.  King  had 
satisfied  himself  that  it  was  built  during  the  Hep- 
tarchy, and  even  before  the  conversion  of  the  Sax- 
ons to  Christianity  ;  but  in  this  he  gave  the  reins, 
as  usual,  to  his  imagination,  which  as  much  ex- 
ceeded his  learning  as  the  latter  did  his  judgment. 
Conisborough  should  seem,  by  the  name,  to  have 
been  a  royal  residence,  which  it  certainly  never 
was  after  the  conquest.  But  if  the  engravings  of 
the  decorative  parts  in  Archaeologia,  vol.  vi.,  p.  244, 
are  not  remarkably  inaccurate,  the  architecture  is 
too  elegant  for  the  Danes,  much  more  for  the  un- 
converted Saxons,  Both  these  castles  are  enclo- 
sed by  a  court  or  ballium,  with  a  fortified  entrance, 
like  those  erected  by  the  Normans. 


apartments.  Were  it  not  for  the  vast 
thickness  of  the  walls,  and  some  marks 
of  attention  both  to  convenience  and  dec- 
oration in  these  structures,  we  might  be 
induced  to  consider  them  as  rather  in- 
tended for  security  during  the  transient 
inroad  of  an  enemy,  than  for  a  chieftain's 
usual  residence.  They  bear  a  close  re- 
semblance, except  by  their  circular  form 
and  more  insulated  situation,  to  the  peels, 
or  square  towers  of  three  or  four  sto- 
ries, which  are  still  found  contiguous  to 
ancient  mansion-houses,  themselves  far 
more  ancient,  in  the  northern  counties,* 
and  seem  to  have  been  designed  for 
places  of  refuge. 

In  course  of  time,  the  barons  who 
owned  these  castles  began  to  covet  a 
more  comfortable  dwelling.  The  keep 
was  either  much  enlarged,  or  altogether 
relinquished  as  a  place  of  residence,  ex- 
cept in  time  of  siege  ;  while  more  conve- 
nient apartments  were  sometimes  erect- 
ed in  the  tower  of  entrance,  over  the 
great  gateway,  which  led  to  the  inner 
ballium  or  courtyard.  Thus  at  Tun- 
bridge  Castle,  this  part  of  which  is  refer- 
red by  Mr.  King  to  the  beginning  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  there  was  a  room 
twenty-eight  feet  by  sixteen  on  each 
side  of  the  gateway ;  another  above,  of 
the  same  dimensions,  with  an  interme- 
diate room  over  the  entrance ;  and  one 
large  apartment  on  a  second  floor  occu- 
pying the  whole  space,  and  intended  for 
state.  The  windows  in  this  class  of  cas- 
tles were  still  little  better  than  loopholes 
on  the  basement  story,  but  in  the  upper 
rooms  often  large  and  beautifully  orna- 
mented, though  always  looking  inwards 
to  the  court.  Edward  I.  introduced  a 
more  splendid  and  convenient  style  of 
castles,  containing  many  habitable  tow- 
ers, with  communicating  apartments. 
Conway  and  Carnarvon  will  be  familiar 
examples.  The  next  innovation  was  the 
castle-palace ;  of  which  Windsor,  if  not 
quite  the  earliest,  is  the  most  magnificent 
instance.  Alnwick,  Naworth,  Harewood, 
Spofforth,  Kenilworth,  and  Warwick, 
were  all  built  upon  this  scheme  during 
the  fourteenth  century,  but  subsequent 
enlargements  have  rendered  caution  ne- 
cessary to  distinguish  their  original  re- 
mains. "The  odd  mixture,"  says  Mr. 
King,  "  of  convenience  and  magnificence 
with  cautious  designs  for  protection  and 
defence,  and  with  the  inconveniences  of 
the  former  confined  plan  of  a  close  for- 
tress, is  very  striking."  The  provisions 
for  defence  became  now,  however,  little 

*  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Whalley.  Lysons's  Cum- 
berland,  p.  ccvi. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


489 


more  than  nugatory;  large  arched  win- 
dows, like  those  of  cathedrals,  were  in- 
troduced into  halls,  arid  this  change  in  ar- 
chitecture manifestly  bears  witness  to 
the  cessation  of  baronial  wars,  and  the 
increasing  love  of  splendour  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III. 

To  these  succeeded  the  castellated 
houses  of  the  fifteenth  century ;  such  as 
Herstmonceux  in  Sussex,  Haddon  Hall 
in  Derbyshire,  and  the  older  part  of 
Knowle  in  Kent.*  They  resembled  for- 
tified castles  in  their  strong  gateways, 
their  turrets  and  battlements,  to  erect 
which  a  royal  license  was  necessary,  but 
their  defensive  strength  could  only  have 
availed  against  a  sudden  affray  or  attempt 
at  forcible  dispossession.  They  were  al- 
ways built  round  one  or  two  courtyards, 
the  circumference  of  the  first,  when  there 
were  two,  being  occupied  by  the  offices 
and  servants'  rooms,  that  of  the  second 
by  the  state-apartments.  Regular  quad- 
rangular houses,  not  castellated,  were 
sometimes  built  during  the  same  age,  and 
under  Henry  VII.  became  universal  in 
the  superior  style  of  domestic  architec- 
ture.! The  quadrangular  form,  as  well 
from  security  and  convenience  as  from 
imitation  of  conventual  houses,  which 
were  always  constructed  upon  that  mod- 
el, was  generally  preferred ;  even  where 
the  dwelling-house,  as  indeed  was  usual, 
only  took  up  one  side  of  the  enclosure, 
and  the  remaining  three  contained  the 
offices,  stables,  and  farm-buildings,  with 
walls  of  communication.  Several  very  old 
parsonages  appear  to  have  been  built  in 
this  manner.;};  It  is,  however,  very  diffi- 
cult to  discover  any  fragments  of  nouses 
inhabited  by  the  gentry  before  the  reign, 
at  soonest,  of  Edward  III.,  or  even  to 
trace  them  by  engravings  in  the  older  to- 
pographical works ;  not  only  from  the  di- 
lapidations of  time,  but  because  very  few 
considerable  mansions  had  been  erected 
by  that  class.  A  great  part  of  England 
affords  no  stone  fit  for  building ;  and  the 
vast,  though  unfortunately  not  inexhaust- 
ible resources  of  her  oak  forests,  were 
easily  applied  to  less  durable  and  magnif- 
icent structures.  A  frame  of  massive 
timber,  independent  of  walls,  and  resem- 
bling the  inverted  hull  of  a  large  ship, 
formed  the  skeleton,  as  it  were,  of  an  an- 
cient hall;  the  principal  beams  springing 
from  the  ground  naturally  curved,  and 

*  The  ruins  of  Herstmonceux  are,  I  believe, 
tolerably  authentic  remains  of  Henry  VI.'s  age, 
but  a  modern  antiquary  asserts  that  only  one  of 
the  courts  at  Haddon  Hall  is  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury.— Lysons's  Derbyshire. 

t  Archaeologia,  vol.  vi. 

t  Blomefield's  Norfolk,  voL  iii.,  p.  242. 


forming  a  Gothic  arch  overhead.  The 
intervals  of  these  were  filled  up  with  hor- 
izontal planks ;  but  in  the  earlier  build- 
ings, at  least  in  some  districts,  no  part 
of  the  walls  was  of  stone.*  Stone 
houses  are  however  mentioned  as  be- 
longing to  citizens  of  London,  even  in 
the  reign  of  Henry  II.  ;f  and,  though  not 
often  perhaps  regularly  hewn  stones,  yet 
those  scattered  over  the  soil,  or  dug 
from  flint  quarries,  bound  together  with 
a  very  strong  and  durable  cement,  were 
employed  in  the  construction  of  manorial 
houses,  especially  in  the  western  coun- 
ties, and  other  parts  where  that  material 
is  easily  procured.^  Gradually,  even  in 
timber  buildings,  the  intervals  of  the 
main  beams,  which  now  became  perpen- 
dicular, not  throwing  off  their  curved 
springers  till  they  reached  a  considerable 
height,  were  occupied  by  stone  walls,  or, 
where  stone  was  expensive,  by  mortar 
or  plaster,  intersected  by  horizontal  or 
diagonal  beams,  grooved  into  the  princi- 
pal piers. §  This  mode  of  building  con- 
tinued for  a  long  time,  and  is  still  famil- 
iar to  our  eyes  in  the  older  streets  of  the 
metropolis  and  other  towns,  and  in  many 
parts  of  the  country. ||  Early  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  the  art  of  building  with 
brick,  which  had  been  lost  since  the  Ro- 
man dominion,  was  introduced,  probably 
from  Flanders.  Though  several  edifices 
of  that  age  are  constructed  with  this  ma- 
terial, it  did  not  come  into  general  use 
till  the  reign  of  Henry  VI. Tf  Many  con- 
siderable houses  as  well  as  public  build- 
ings were  erected  with  bricks  during  his 
reign  and  that  of  Edward  IV.,  chiefly  in 
the  eastern  counties,  where  the  deficien- 
cy of  stone  was  most  experienced.  Few, 
if  any,  brick  mansion-houses  of  the  fif- 
teenth century  exist,  except  in  a  dilapi- 
dated state;  but  Queen's  College  and 
Clare  Hall  at  Cambridge,  and  part  of 
Eton  College,  are  subsisting  witnesses  to 
the  durability  of  the  material  as  it  was 
then  employed. 

It  is  an  error  to   suppose  MeannesBof 
that  the  English  gentry  were  ordinary 
lodged  in  stately  or  even  in 


*  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Whalley. 

f  Lyttleton,  t.  iv.,  p.  130. 

j  Harrison  says  that  few  of  the  houses  of  the 
commonalty,  except  here  and  there  in  the  west 
country  towns,  were  made  of  stone,  p.  314.  This 
was  about  1570.  §  Hist,  of  Whalley. 

!!  The  ancient  man  ours  and  houses  of  our  gen- 
tlemen, says  Harrison,  are  yet,  and  for  the  most 
part,  of  strong  timber,  in  framing  whereof  our  car- 
penters have  been  and  are  worthily  preferred  be- 
fore those  of  like  science  among  all  other  nations. 
Howbeit  such  as  are  lately  builded  are  either  of 
brick  or  bard  stone,  or  both,  p.  316. 

T  Archaeologia,  vol.  i.,  p.  143 ;  vol.  iv.,  p.  91. 


490 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CftAfr.   IX. 


well-sized  houses.  Generally  speaking, 
their  dwellings  were  almost  as  inferi- 
or to  those  of  their  descendants  in 
capacity  as  they  were  in  convenience. 
The  usual  arrangement  consisted  of  an 
entrance-passage  running  through  the 
house,  with  a  hall  on  one  side,  a  parlour 
beyond,  and  one  or  two  chambers  above, 
and  on  the  opposite  side  a  kitchen,  pan- 
try, and  other  offices.*  Such  was  the 
ordinary  manor-house  of  the  fifteenth 
and  sixteenth  centuries,  as  appears  not 
only  from  the  documents  and  engravings, 
but,  as  to  the  latter  period,  from  the  build- 
ings themselves,  sometimes,  though  not 
very  frequently,  occupied  by  families 
of  consideration,  more  often  converted 
into  farmhouses  or  distinct  tenements. 
Larger  structures  were  erected  by  men 
of  great  estates  during  the  reigns  of 
Henry  VI.  and  Edward  IV.  ;  but  very 
few  can  be  traced  higher ;  and  such  has 
been  the  effect  of  time,  still  more  througli 
the  advance  or  decline  of  families,  and 
the  progress  of  architectural  improve- 
ment, than  the  natural  decay  of  these 
buildings,  that  I  should  conceive  it  diffi- 
cult to  name  a  house  in  England,  still  in- 
habited by  a  gentleman,  and  not  belong- 
ing to  the  order  of  castles,  the  principal 
apartments  of  which  are  older  than  the 
reign  of  Henry  VII.  The  instances  at 
least  must  be  extremely  few.f 

France  by  no  means  appears  to  have 
made  a  greater  progress  than  our  own 
country  in  domestic  architecture.  Except 
fortified  castles,  I  do  not  find  in  the  work 
of  a  very  miscellaneous,  but  apparently 


*  Hist,  of  Whalley.  In  Strati's  View  of  Man- 
ners we  have  an  inventory  of  furniture  in  the 
house  of  Mr.  Richard  Fermor,  ancestor  of  the  Earl 
of  Pomfret,  at  Easton,  in  Northamptonshire,  and 
another  in  that  of  Sir  Adrian  Foskewe.  Both 
these  houses  appear  to  have  been  of  the  dimen- 
sions and  arrangement  mentioned.  And  even  in 
houses  of  a  more  ample  extent,  the  bisection  of 
the  ground-plot  by  an  entrance-passage  was,  I  be- 
lieve, universal,  and  is  a  proof  of  antiquity.  Had- 
don  Hall  and  Penshurst  still  display  this  ancient 
arrangement,  which  has  been  altered  in  some  old 
houses.  About  the  reign  of  James  I.,  or  perhaps  a 
little  sooner,  architects  began  to  perceive  the  ad- 
ditional grandeur  of  entering  the  great  hall  at 
once. 

t  Single  rooms,  windows,  doorways,  &c.,  of  an 
earlier  date  may  perhaps  not  unfrequently  be 
found  ;  but  such  instances  are  always  to  be  verified 
by  their  intrinsic  evidence,  not  by  the  tradition  of 
the  place.  The  most  remarkable  fragment  of  early 
building  which  I  have  anywhere  found  mentioned 
is  at  a  house  in  Berkshire,  called  Appleton,  where 
there  exists  a  sort  of  prodigy,  an  entrance-passage 
with  circular  arches  in  the  Saxon  style,  which 
must  probably  be  as  old  as  the  reign  of  Henry  II. 
No  other  private  house  in  England,  as  I  conceive, 
can  boast  of  such  a  monument  of  antiquity. — Ly- 
sons's  Berkshire,  p.  212,  234. 


diligent  writer,*  any  considerable  dwell- 
ings mentioned  before  the  reign  of 
Charles  VII.,  and  very  few  of  so  early  a 
date.f  Jacques  Coeur,  a  famous  mer- 
chant, unjustly  persecuted  by  that  prince, 
had  a  handsome  house  at  Paris,  as  well 
as  another  at  Beaumont-sur-Oise.J  It  is 
obvious  that  the  long  calamities  which 
France  endured  before  the  expulsion  of 
the  English  must  have  retarded  this 
eminent  branch  of  national  improve- 
ment. 

Even  in  Italy,  where,  from  the  size  of 
her  cities  and  social  refinements  of  her 
inhabitants,  greater  elegance  and  splen- 
dour in  building  were  justly  to  be  expect- 
ed, the  domestic  architecture  of  the  mid- 
dle ages  did  not  attain  any  perfection. 
In  several  towns  the  houses  were  cover- 
ed with  thatch,  and  suffered  consequent- 
ly from  destructive  fires.  Costanzo,  a 
Neapolitan  historian  near  the  end  of  the 
sixteenth  century,  remarks  the  change 
of  manners  that  had  occurred  since  the 
reign  of  Joanna  II.,  one  hundred  and 
fifty  years  before.  The  great  families 
under  the  queen  expended  all  their  wealth 
on  their  retainers,  and  placed  their  chief 
pride  in  bringing  them  into  the  field. 
They  were  ill  lodged,  not  sumptuously 
clothed,  nor  luxurious  in  their  tables. 
The  house  of  Caracciola,  high  steward 
of  that  princess,  one  of  the  most  power- 
ful subjects  that  ever  existed,  having 
fallen  into  the  hands  of  persons  incom- 
parably below  his  station,  had  been  en- 
larged by  them,  as  insufficient  for  their 
accommodation. §  If  such  were  the  case 
in  the  city  of  Naples  so  late  as  the  begin- 
ning of  the  fifteenth  century,  we  may 


*  Melanges  tires  d'une  grande  bibliotheque,  par 
M.  de  Paulmy,  t.  iii.,  et  xxxi.  It  is  to  be  regretted 
that  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  never  completed  that  part 
of  his  Vie  privee  des  Frangais  which  was  to  have 
comprehended  the  history  of  civil  architecture. 
Villaret  has  slightly  noticed  its  state  about  1380, 
t.  ii.,  p.  141. 

f  Chenonceaux  in  Touraine  was  built  by  a 
nephew  of  Chancellor  Duprat ;  Gaillon  in  the  de- 
partment of  Eure  by  Cardinal  Amboise ;  both  at 
the  beginning  of  the  sixteenth  century.  •  These 
are  now  considered,  in  their  ruins,  as  among  the 
most  ancient  houses  in  France.  A  work  by  Du- 
cerceau  (Les  plus  excellens  Batimens  de  France, 
1607)  gives  accurate  engravings  of  thirty  houses  ; 
but,  with  one  or  two  exceptions,  they  seem  all  to 
have  been  built  in  the  sixteenth  century.  Even  in 
that  age,  defence  was  naturally  an  object  in  con- 
structing a  French  mansion-house ;  and  where  de- 
fence is  to  be  regarded,  splendour  and  convenience 
must  give  way.  The  name  of  chateau  was  not 
retained  without  meaning. 

t  Melanges  tires,  &c.,  t.  iii.  For  the  prosperity 
and  downfall  of  Jacques  Coeur,  see  Villaret,  t.  xvi., 
p.  11 ;  but  more  especially  Mem.  de  1'Acad.  des  In- 
script.,  t.  xx.,  p.  509. 

6  Giannone,  1st.  di  Napoli,  t.  iii.,  p.  280. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


401 


guess  how  mean  were  the  habitations  i 
less  polished  parts  of  Europe. 

The  two  most  essential  improvement 
invention  of  in  architecture  during  this  pe 
chimneys  nod,  one  of  which  had  bee 
and  glass  missed  by  the  sagacity  o 
Greece  and  Rome,  were  chim 
neys  and  glass  windows.  Nothing  ap 
parently  can  be  more  simple  than  th 
former ;  yet  the  wisdom  of  ancient  time 
had  been  content  to  let  the  smoke  escap 
by  an  aperture  in  the  centre  of  the  roof 
and  a  discovery,  of  which  Vitruvius  ha< 
not  a  glimpse,  was  made  perhaps  in  thi 
country,  by  some  forgotten  semi-barbari 
an.  About  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century  the  use  of  chimneys  is  distinctly 
mentioned  in  England  and  in  Italy ;  bu 
they  are  found  in  several  of  our  castles 
which  bear  a  much  older  date.*  This 
country  seems  to  have  lost  very  early 
the  art  of  making  glass,  which  was  pre 
served  in  France,  whence  artificers  were 
brought  into  England  to  furnish  the  win- 
dows in  some  new  churches  during  the 
seventh  century,  f  It  is  said  that  in  the 
reign  of  Henry  III.,  a  few  ecclesiastical 
buildings  had  glazed  windows .J  Suger, 
however,  a  century  before,  had  adorned 
his  great  work,  the  abbey  of  St.  Denis, 
with  windows,  not  only  glazed,  but  paint- 
ed $  and  I  presume  that  other  churches 
of  the  same  class,  both  in  France  and 
England,  especially  after  the  lancet- 
shaped  window  had  yielded  to  one  of 


*  Muratori,  Antich.  Ital.,  Dissert.  25,  p.  390. 
Beckman,  in  his  History  of  Inventions,  vol.  i.,  a 
work  of  very  great  research,  cannot  trace  any  ex- 
plicit mention  of  chimneys  beyond  the  writings  of 
John  Villani,  wherein  however  they  are  not  noticed 
as  a  new  invention.  Piers  Plowman,  a  few  years 
later  than  Villani,  speaks  of  a  "  chambre  with  a 
chimney"  in  which  rich  men  usually  dined.  But 
in  the  account-book  of  Bolton  Abbey,  under  the 
year  1311,  there  is  a  charge  pro  faciendo  camino  in 
the  rectory-house  of  Gargrave. — Whitaker's  Hist, 
of  Craven,  p.  331.  This  may,  I  think,  have  been 
only  an  iron  stove  or  firepan ;  though  Dr.  W., 
without  hesitation,  translates  it  a  chimney.  How- 
ever, Mr.  King,  in  his  observations  on  ancient  cas- 
tles, Archaeol.,vol.  vi.,and  Mr.  Strutt,  in  his  View 
of  Manners,  vol.  i.,  describes  chimneys  in  castles 
of  a  very  old  construction.  That  at  Conisborough 
in  Yorkshire  is  peculiarly  worthy  of  attention,  and 
carries  back  this  important  invention  to  a  remote 
antiquity.  Chimneys  are  still  more  modern  in 
France  ;  and  seem,  according  to  Paulmy,  to  have 
come  into  common  use  since  the  middle  of  the 
seventeenth  century.  Jadis  nos  peres  n'avoient 
qu'un  unique  chauffoir,  qui  etoit  commun  a  toute 
une  famille,  et  quelquefois  a  plusieurs,  t.  hi.,  p. 
133.  In  another  place,  however,  he  says  ;  II  parait 
que  les  tuyaux  de  cheminees  etaient  deja  tres  en 
usage  en  France,  t.  xxx.,  p.  232. 

t  Du  Cange,  v.  Vitreae.     Bentham's  History  of 
Ely,  p.  22. 

:  Matt.  Paris.    Vitae  Abbatum  St.  Alb.  122. 

$  Recueildes  Hist.,  t.  xii.,  p.  101. 


ampler  dimensions,  were  generally  dec- 
orated in  a  similar  manner.  Yet  glass  is 
said  not  to  have  been  employed  in  the 
domestic  architecture  of  France  before 
the  fourteenth  century;*  and  its  intro- 
duction into  England  was  probably  by  no 
means  earlier.  Nor  indeed  did  it  come 
into  general  use  during  the  period  of  the 
middle  ages.  Glazed  windows  were  con- 
sidered as  moveable  furniture,  and  prob- 
ably bore  a  high  price.  When  the  earls 
of  Northumberland,  as  late  as  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  left  Ahvwick  Castle,  the 
windows  were  taken  out  of  their  frames 
and  carefully  laid  by.f 

But  if  the  domestic  buildings  of  the 
fifteenth  century  would  not  seem  Furniture 
very  spacious  or  convenient  at  °f  houses, 
present,  far  less  would  this  luxurious 
generation  be  content  with  their  internal 
accommodations.  A  gentleman's  house 
ontaining  three  or  four  beds  was  extra- 
ordinarily well  provided;  few  probably 
lad  more  than  two.  The  walls  were 
commonly  bare,  without  wainscot  or  even 
plaster ;  except  that  some  great  houses 
were  furnished  with  hangings,  and  that 
perhaps  hardly  so  soon  as  the  reign  of 
Edward  IV.  It  is  unnecessary  to  add, 
hat  neither  libraries  of  books  nor  pictures 
could  have  found  a  place  among  furni- 
ure.  Silver  plate  was  very  rare,  and 
lardly  used  for  the  table.  A  few  inven- 
;ories  of  furniture  that  still  remain  ex- 
libit  a  miserable  deficiency. |  And  this 
vas  incomparably  greater  in  private  gen- 
lemen's  houses  than  among  citizens,  and 
especially  foreign  merchants.  We  have 
in  inventory  of  the  goods  belonging  to 
^ontarini,  a  rich  Venetian  trader,  at  his 
ouse  in  St.  Botolph's  Lane,  A.  D.  1481. 
rhere  appear  to  have  been  no  less  than 
en  beds,  and  glass  windows  are  especi- 
,lly  noticed  as  moveable  furniture.  No 
nention  however  is  made  of  chairs  or 
ooking-glasses.§  If  we  compare  this 


Paulmy,  t.  iii.,  p.  132.    Villaret,  t.  xi.,  p.  141. 

lacpherson,  p.  679. 

t  Northumberland  Household  Book,  preface, 
,  16.  Bishop  Percy  says,  on  the  authority  of  Har- 
son,  that  glass  was  not  commonly  used  in  the 

eign  of  Henry  VIII. 

t  See  some  curious  valuations  of  furniture  and 
ock  in  trade  at  Colchester  in  1296  and  1301. 
den's  Introduct.  to  State  of  the  Poor,  p.  20  and 

5,  from  the  rolls  of  parliament.  A  carpenter's 
ock  was  valued  at  a  shilling,  and  consisted  of  five 

>ols.  Other  tradesmen  were  almost  as  poor  ;  but 
tanner's  stock,  if  there  is  no  mistake,  was  worth 
.  7s.  10d.,  more  than  ten  times  any  other.  Tanners 
ere  principal  tradesmen,  the  chief  part  of  dress 

eing  made  of  leather.     A  few  silver  cups  and 

poons  are  the  only  articles  of  plate ;  and  as  the 
rmer  are  valued  but  at  one  or  two  shillings,  they 

ad,  I  suppose,  but  a  little  silver  on  the  rim. 
9  Nicholi's  Illustrations,  p.  119.    In  this  work, 


492 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


CHAP.  IX. 


account,  however  trifling  in  our  estima- 
tion, with  a  similar  inventory  of  furniture 
in  Skipton  Castle,  the  great  honour  of  the 
earls  of  Cumberland,  and  among  the  most 
splendid  mansions  of  the  north,  not  at 
the  same  period,  for  I  have  not  found  any 
'  inventory  of  a  nobleman's  furniture  so 
ancient,  but  in  1572,  after  almost  a  cen- 
tury of  continual  improvement,  we  shall 
be  astonished  at  the  inferior  provision  of 
the  baronial  residence.  There  were  not 
more  than  seven  or  eight  beds  in  this 
great  castle ;  nor  had  any  of  the  cham- 
bers either  chairs,  glasses,  or  carpets.* 
It  is  in  this  sense,  probably,  that  we  must 
understand  ^Eneas  Sylvius,  if  he  meant 
any  thing  more  than  to  express  a  travel- 
ler's discontent,  when  he  declares  that 
the  kings  of  Scotland  would  rejoice  to  be 
as  well  lodged  as  the  second  class  of  cit- 
izens at  Nuremberg.!  Few  burghers  of 
that  town  had  mansions,  I  presume,  equal 
to  the  palaces  of  Dumferlin  or  Stirling, 
but  it  is  not  unlikely  that  they  were  bet- 
ter furnished. 
In  the  construction  of  farmhouses  and 


among  several  interesting  facts  of  the  same  class, 
we  have  another  inventory  of  the  goods  of  "  John 
Port,  late  the  king's  servant,"  who  died  about 
1524  ;  he  seems  to  have  been  a  man  of  some  con- 
sideration, and  probably  a  merchant.  The  house 
consisted  of  a  hall,  parlour,  buttery,  and  kitchen, 
with  two  chambers,  and  one  smaller,  on  the  floor 
above  ;  a  napery,  or  linen  room,  and  three  garrets, 
besides  a  shop,  which  was  probably  detached. 
There  were  five  bedsteads  in  the  house,  and  on  the 
whole  a  great  deal  of  furniture  for  those  times ; 
much  more  than  I  have  seen  in  any  other  inven- 
tory. His  plate  is  valued  at  94Z. ;  his  jewels  at 
231.;  his  funeral  expenses  come  to  731.  6s.  8d., 
p.  119. 

*  Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Craven,  p.  289.  A  better 
notion  of  the  accommodations  usual  in  the  rank 
immediately  below  may  be  collected  from  two 
inventories  published  by  Strutt,  one  of  Mr.  Fer- 
mor's  house  at  Easton,  the  other  Sir  Adrian 
Foskewe's. — I  have  mentioned  the  size  of  these 
gentlemen's  houses  already.  In  the  former,  the 
parlour  had  wainscot,  a  table,  and  a  few  chairs ; 
the  chambers  above  had  two  best  beds,  and  there 
was  one  servant's  bed ;  but  the  inferior  servants 
had  only  mattresses  on  the  floor.  The  best  cham- 
bers had  window -shutters  and  curtains.  Mr.  Fer- 
mor,  being  a  merchant,  was  probably  better  sup- 
plied than  the  neighbouring  gentry.  His  plate, 
however,  consisted  only  of  sixteen  spoons,  and  a 
few  goblets  and  ale-pots.  Sir  Adrian  Foskewe's 
opulence  appears  to  have  been  greater ;  he  had  a 
service  of  silver  plate,  and  his  parlour  was  fur- 
nished with  hangings.  This  was  in  1539  ;  it  is  not 
*  to  be  imagined  that  a  knight  of  the  shire  a  hundred 
years  before  would  have  rivalled  even  this  scanty 
provision  of  moveables. — Strutt's  View  of  Man- 
ners, vol.  iii.,  p.  63.  These  details,  trifling  as  they 
may  appear,  are  absolutely  necessary  in  order  to 
give  an  idea  with  some  precision  of  a  state  of  na- 
tional wealth  so  totally  different  from  the  present, 
t  Cuperent  tarn  egregie  Scotorum  reges  quam 
mediocresNurembergae  civeshabitare. — ^n.  Sylv. 
apud  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allem.,  t.  v.,  p.  510. 


cottages,  especially  the  latter,  Farm. 
there  have  probably  been  fewer  houses  and 
changes  ;  and  those  it  would  be  cotta«es- 
more  difficult  to  follow.  No  building  of 
this  class  can  be  supposed  to  exist  of  the 
antiquity  to  which  the  present  work  is 
confined;  and  I  do  not  know  that  we 
have  any  document  as  to  the  inferior 
architecture  of  England,  so  valuable  as 
one  which  M.  de  Paulmy  has  quoted  for 
that  of  France,  though  perhaps  more 
strictly  applicable  to  Italy,  an  illuminated 
manuscript  of  the  fourteenth  century, 
being  a  translation  of  Crescentio's  work 
on  agriculture,  illustrating  the  customs, 
and,  among  other  things,  the  habitations 
of  the  agricultural  class.  According  to 
Paulmy,  there  is  no  other  difference  be- 
tween an  ancient  and  a  modern  farm- 
house, than  arises  from  the  introduction 
of  tiled  roofs.*  In  the  original  work  of 
Crescentio,  a  native  of  Bologna,  who  com- 
posed this  treatise  on  rural  affairs  about 
the  year  1300,  an  Italian  farmhouse, 
when  built  at  least  according  to  his  plan, 
appears  to  have  been  commodious  both 
in  size  and  arrangement.!  Cottages  in 
England  seem  to  have  generally  consist- 
ed of  a  single  room,  without  division  of 
stories.  Chimneys  were  unknown  in 
such  dwellings  till  the  early  part  of  Eliz- 
abeth's reign,  when  a  very  rapid  and  sen- 
sible improvement  took  place  in  the  com- 
forts of  our  yeomanry  and  cottagers.J 

It  must  be  remembered,  that  I  have  in- 
troduced this  disadvantageous  Ecciesias- 
representation  of  civil  architec-  ticai  archi- 
ture  as  a  proof  of  general  pov-  te 
erty  and  backwardness  in  the  refine- 
ments of  life.  Considered  in  its  higher 
departments,  that  art  is  the  principal 
boast  of  the  middle  ages.  The  common 
buildings,  especially  those  of  a  public 
kind,  were  constructed  with  skill  and  at- 
tention to  durability.  The  castellated 
style  displays  these  qualities  in  greater 
perfection ;  the  means  are  well  adapted 
to  their  objects,  and  its  imposing  gran- 
deur, though  chiefly  resulting  no  doubt 
from  massiveness  and  historical  associa- 
tion, sometimes  indicates  a  degree  of 


*  JEn.  Sylv.  apud  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allem.,  t. 
iii.,  p.  127. 

t  Crescentius  in  Commodum  Ruralium.  (Lo- 
vanise,  absque  anno.)  This  old  edition  contains 
many  coarse  wooden  cuts,  possibly  taken  from  the 
illuminations  which  Paulmy  found  in  his  manu- 
script. 

t  Harrison's  account  of  England,  prefixed  to 
Hollingshed's  Chronicles.  Chimneys  were  not 
used  in  the  farmhouses  of  Cheshire  till  within 
forty  years  of  the  publication  of  King's  Vale-royal 
(1656);  the  fire  was  in  the  midst  of  the  house, 
against  a  hob  of  clay,  and  the  oxen  lived  under  the 
same  roof.— Whitaker's  Craven,  p.  334. 


PART  H.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


493 


architectural  genius  in  the  conception. 
But  the  most  remarkable  works  of  this 
art  are  the  religious  edifices  erected  in 
the  twelfth  and  three  following  centuries. 
These  structures,  uniting  sublimity  in 
general  composition  with  the  beauties  of 
variety  and  form,  intricacy  of  parts,  skil- 
ful or  at  least  fortunate  effects  of  shadow 
and  light,  and  in  some  instances  with  ex 
traordinary  mechanical  science,  are  nat- 
urally apt  to  lead  those  antiquaries  who 
are  most  conversant  with  them  into  too 
partial  estimates  of  the  times  wherein 
they  were  founded.  They  certainly  are 
accustomed  to  behold  the  fairest  side  of 
the  picture.  It  was  the  favourite  and 
most  honourable  employment  of  eccle- 
siastical wealth,  to  erect,  to  enlarge,  to 
repair,  to  decorate  cathedral  and  con- 
ventual churches.  An  immense  capital 
must  have  been  expended  upon  these 
buildings  in  England  between  the  con- 
quest and  the  reformation.  And  it  is 
pleasing  to  observe  how  the  seeds  of 
genius,  hidden  as  it  were  under  the  frost 
of  that  dreary  winter,  began  to  bud  to 
the  first  sunshine  of  encouragement.  In 
the  darkest  period  of  the  middle  ages, 
especially  after  the  Scandinavian  incur- 
sions into  France  and  England,  ecclesi- 
astical architecture,  though  always  far 
more  advanced  than  any  other  art,  be- 
spoke the  rudeness  and  poverty  of  the 
times.  It  began  towards  the  latter  part 
of  the  eleventh  century,  when  tranquilli- 
ty, at  least  as  to  former  enemies,  was  re- 
stored, and  some  degree  of  learning  re- 
appeared, to  assume  a  more  noble  ap- 
pearance. The  Anglo-Norman  cathe- 
drals were  perhaps  as  much  distinguished 
above  other  works  of  man  in  their  own 
age,  as  the  more  splendid  edifices  of  a 
later  period.  The  science  manifested  in 
them  is  not  however  very  great;  and 
their  style,  though  by  no  means  destitute 
of  lesser  beauties,  is  upon  the  whole  an 
awkward  imitation  of  Roman  architec- 
ture, or  perhaps  more  immediately  of  the 
Saracenic  buildings  in  Spain,  and  those 
of  the  lower  Greek  empire.*  But  about 

*  The  Saracenic  architecture  was  once  con- 
ceived to  have  been  the  parent  of  the  Gothic.  But 
the  pointed  arch  does  not  occur,  I  believe,  in  any 
Moorish  buildings ;  while  the  great  mosque  of  Cor- 
dova, built  in  the  eighth  century,  resembles,  ex- 
cept by  its  superior  beauty  and  magnificence,  one 
of  our  oldest  cathedrals  ;  the  nave  of  Glocester  for 
example,  or  Durham.  Even  the  vaulting  is  simi- 
lar, and  seems  to  indicate  some  imitation,  though 
perhaps  of  a  common  model.  Compare  Archaso- 
logia,  vol.  xvii.,  plate  1  and  2,  with  Murphy's  Ara- 
bian Antiquities,  plate  5.  The  pillars  indeed  at 
Cordova  are  of  the  Corinthian  order,  perfectly  ex- 
ecuted, if  we  may  trust  the  engraving,  and  the 
work,  I  presume,  of  Christian  architects  ;  while 


the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  this 
manner  began  to  give  place  to  what  is 
improperly  denominated  the  Gothic  ar- 
chitecture ;*  of  which  the  pointed  arch, 
formed  by  the  segments  of  two  inter- 
secting semicircles,  struck  from  points 
equidistant  from  the  centre  of  a  common 
diameter,  has  been  deemed  the  essential 
characteristic.  We  are  not  concerned  at 
present  to  inquire  whether  this  style  ori- 
ginated in  France  or  Germany,  Italy  or 
England,  since  it  was  certainly  almost 
simultaneous  in  all  these  countries  ;f  nor 

those  of  our  Anglo-Norman  cathedrals  are  gener- 
ally an  imitation  of  the  Tuscan  shaft,  the  builders 
not  venturing  to  trust  their  roofs  to  a  more  slender 
support,  though  Corinthian  foliage  is  common  in 
the  capitals,  especially  those  of  smaller  ornamen- 
tal columns.  In  fact,  the  Roman  architecture  is 
universally  acknowledged  to  have  produced  what 
we  call  the  Saxon  or  Norman  ;  but  it  is  remarka- 
ble that  it  should  have  been  adopted,  with  no  varia- 
tion but  that  of  the  singular  horseshoe  arch,  by  the 
Moors  of  Spain. 

The  Gothic,  or  pointed  arch,  though  very  uncom- 
mon in  the  genuine  Saracenic  of  Spain  and  the 
Levant,  may  be  found  in  some  prints  from  eastern 
buildings ;  and  is  particularly  striking  in  the  facade 
of  the  great  mosque  at  Lucknow,  in  Salt's  designs 
for  Lord  Valentia's  Travels.  The  pointed  arch 
buildings  in  the  Holy  Land  have  all  been  traced  to 
the  age  of  the  crusades.  Some  arches,  if  they 
deserve  the  name,  that  have  been  referred  to 
this  class,  are  not  pointed  by  their  construction, 
but  rendered  such  by  cutting  off  and  hollowing  the 
projections  of  horizontal  stones. 

*  Gibbon  has  asserted,  what  might  justify  this 
appellation,  that  "  the  image  of  Theodoric's  palace 
at  Verona,  still  extant  on  a  coin,  represents  the 
oldest  and  most  authentic  model  of  Gothic  architec- 
ture," vol.  vii.,  p.  33.  For  this  he  refers  to  Maffei, 
Verona  Illustrata,  p.  31,  where  we  find  an  engra- 
ving, not  indeed  of  a  coin,  but  of  a  seal ;  the  build- 
ing represented  on  which  is  in  a  totally  dissimilar 
style.  The  following  passages  in  Cassiodorus,  for 
which  I  am  indebted  to  M.  Ginguene,  Hist.  Litter, 
de  1'Italie,  t.  i.,  p.  55,  would  be  more  to  the  pur- 
pose ;  Quid  dicamus  columnarum  junceam  proce- 
ritatem?  moles  illassublimissimasfabricarum  qua- 
si quibusdam  erectis  hastilibus  contineri.  These 
columns  of  reedy  slenderness,  so  well  described  by 
juncea  proceritas,  are  said  to  be  found  in  the  cathe- 
dral of  Montreale  in  Sicily,  built  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury.—Knight's  Principles  of  Taste,  p.  162.  They 
are  not  however  sufficient  to  justify  the  denom- 
ination of  Gothic,  which  is  usually  confined  to  the 
pointed  arch  style. 

t  The  famous  abbot  Suger,  minister  of  Louis 
VI.,  rebuilt  St.  Denis  about  1140.  The  cathedral 
of  Laon  is  said  to  have  been  dedicated  in  1114. — 
Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  ix.,  p.  220.  I  do 
not  know  in  what  style  the  latter  of  these  churches 
is  built,  but  the  former  is,  or  rather  was,  Gothic. 
Notre  Dame  at  Paris  was  begun  soon  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  twelfth  century,  and  completed  under 
St.  Louis.  Melanges  tires  d'une  grande  bibliothe- 
que,  t.  xxxi.,  p.  108.  In  England  the  earliest  spe- 
cimen I  have  seen  of  pointed  arches  is  in  a  print  of 
St.  Botolph's  priory  at  Colchester,  said  by  Strutt 
to  have  been  built  in  1110. — View  of  Manners,  vol. 
i.,  plate  30.  These  are  apertures  formed  by  exca- 
vating the  space  contained  by  the  intersection  of 
semicircular  or  Saxon  arches ;  which  are  perpet- 


494 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP. 


from  what  source  it  was  derived ;  a  ques- 
tion of  no  small  difficulty.  I  would  only 
venture  to  remark,  that  whatever  may  be 
thought  of  the  origin  of  the  pointed  arch, 
for  which  there  is  more  than  one  mode 
of  accounting,  we  must  perceive  a  very 
oriental  character  in  the  vast  profusion 
of  ornament,  especially  on  the  exterior 
surface,  which  is  as  distinguishing  a  mark 
of  Gothic  buildings  as  their  arches,  and 
contributes  in  an  eminent  degree  both  to 
their  beauties  and  to  their  defects.  This 
indeed  is  rather  applicable  to  the  later 
than  the  earlier  stage  of  architecture, 
and  rather  to  continental  than  English 
churches.  Amiens  is  in  a  far  more  florid 
style  than  Salisbury,  though  a  contem- 
porary structure.  The  Gothic  species  of 
architecture  is  thought  by  some  to  have 
reached  its  perfection,  considered  as  an 
object  of  taste,  by  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  or  at  least  to  have  lost 
something  of  its  excellence  by  the  cor- 
responding part  of  the  next  age  ;  an  effect 
of  its  early  and  rapid  cultivation,  since 
arts  appear  to  have,  like  individuals,  their 
natural  'progress  and  decay.  Yet  this 
seems,  if  true  at  all,  only  applicable  to 
England;  since  the  cathedrals  of  Co- 
logne and  Milan,  perhaps  the  most  distin- 
guished monuments  of  this  architecture, 
are  both  of  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
mechanical  execution,  at  least,  continued 
to  improve,  and  is  so  far  beyond  the  ap- 
parent intellectual  powers  of  those  times, 
that  some  have  ascribed  the  principal  ec- 
clesiastical structures  to  the  fraternity  of 
freemasons,  depositaries  of  a  concealed 
and  traditionary  science.  There  is  proba- 
bly some  ground  for  this  opinion;  and 
the  earlier  archives  of  that  mysterious 
association,  if  they  existed,  might  illus- 
trate the  progress  of  Gothic  architecture, 
and  perhaps  reveal  its  origin.  The  re- 
markable change  into  this  new  style,  that 
was  almost  contemporaneous  in  every 
part  of  Europe,*  cannot  be  explained  by 


ually  disposed,  by  way  of  ornament,  on  the  outer 
as  well  as  inner  surface  of  old  churches,  so  as  to 
cut  each  other,  and  consequently  to  produce  the 
figure  of  a  Gothic  arch ;  and  if  there  is  no  mistake 
in  the  date,  they  are  probably  among  the  most  an- 
cient of  that  style  in  Europe.  Those  at  the  church 
of  St.  Cross  near  Winchester  are  of  the  reign  of 
Stephen ;  and,  generally  speaking,  the  pointed 
style,  especially  in  vaulting,  the  most  important 
object  in  the  construction  of  a  building,  is  not  con- 
sidered as  older  than  Henry  II.  The  nave  of  Can- 
terbury cathedral,  of  the  erection  of  which  by  a 
French  architect  about  1176  we  have  a  full  ac- 
count in  Gervase  (Twysden,  Decem  Scriptores, 
col.  1289),  and  the  Temple  church,  dedicated  in 
1183,  are  the  most  ancient  English  buildings  alto- 
gether in  the  Gothic  manner. 

*  The  curious  subject  of  freemasonry  has  un- 


any  local  circumstances,  or  the   capri- 
cious taste  of  a  single  nation. 

It  would  be  a  pleasing  task  to  trace 
with  satisfactory  exactness  the  Agriculture 
slow,  and  almost  perhaps  insen-  income  de- 
sible  progress  of  agriculture  and  gJ!^J™J 
internal  improvement  during  the 
latter  period  of  the  middle  ages.  But  no 
diligence  could  recover  the  unrecorded 
history  of  a  single  village  ;  though  consid- 
erable attention  has  of  late  been  paid  to 
this  interesting  subject  by  those  antiqua- 
ries who,  though  sometimes  affecting  to 
despise  the  lights  of  modern  philosophy, 
are  unconsciously  guided  by  their  efful- 
gence. I  have  already  adverted  to  the 
wretched  condition  of  agriculture  during 
the  prevalence  of  feudal  tenures,  as  well 
as  before  their  general  establishment.* 
Yet,  even  in  the  least  civilized  ages,  there 
were  not  wanting  partial  encouragements 


fortunately  been  treated  only  by  panegyrists  or  ca- 
lumniators, both  equally  mendacious.  I  do  not 
wish  to  pry  into  the  mysteries  of  the  craft ;  but  it 
would  be  interesting  to  know  more  of  their  history 
during  the  period  when  they  were  literally  archi- 
tects. They  are  charged  by  an  act.  of  parliament, 
3  H.  VI.,  c.  1,  with  fixing  the  price  of  their  labour 
in  their  annual  chapters,  contrary  to  the  statute  of 
labourers,  and  such  chapters  are  consequently  pro- 
hibited. This  is  their  first  persecution  ;  they  have 
since  undergone  others,  and  are  perhaps  reserved 
for  still  more.  It  is  remarkable  that  masons  were 
never  legally  incorporated,  like  other  traders  ;  their 
bond  of  union  being  stronger  than  any  charter. 
The  article  Masonry,  in  the  Encyclopedia  Britan- 
nica,  is  worth  reading. 

*  I  cannot  resist  the  pleasure  of  transcribing  a 
lively  and  eloquent  passage  from  Dr.  Whitaker. 
"  Could  a  curious  observer  of  the  present  day  carry 
himself  nine  or  ten  centuries  back,  and,  ranging  the 
summit  of  Pendle,  survey  the  forked  vale  of  Cal- 
deronone  side,  and  the  bolder  margins  ofRibbleand 
Hadder  on  the  other,  instead  of  populous  towns 
and  villages,  the  castle,  the  old  tower-built  house, 
the  elegant  modern  mansion,  the  artificial  planta- 
tion, the  enclosed  park  and  pleasure-ground :  in- 
stead of  uninterrupted  enclosures,  which  have  driv- 
en sterility  almost  to  the  summit  of  the  fells,  how 
great  must  then  have  been  the  contrast,  when, 
ranging  either  at  a  distance  or  immediately  be- 
neath, his  eye  must  have  caught  vast  tracts  of  for- 
est-ground, stagnating  with  bog  or  darkened  by  na- 
tive woods,  where  the  wild  ox,  the  roe,  -the  stag, 
and  the  wolf,  had  scarcely  learned  the  supremacy 
of  man,  when,  directing  his  view  to  the  intermedi- 
ate spaces,  to  the  windings  of  the  valleys,  or  the 
expanse  of  plains  beneath,  he  could  only  have  dis- 
tinguished a  few  insulated  patches  of  culture,  each 
encircling  a  village  of  wretched  cabins,  among 
which  would  still  be  remarked  one  rude  mansion 
of  wood,  scarcely  equal  in  comfort  to  a  modern 
cottage,  yet  then  rising  proudly  eminent  above  the 
rest,  where  the  Saxon  lord,  surrounded  by  his 
faithful  cotarii,  enjoyed  a  rude  and  solitary  inde- 
pendence, owning  no  superior  but  his  sovereign." — 
Hist,  of  Whalley,  p.  133.  About  a  fourteenth  part 
of  this  parish  of  Whalley  was  cultivated  at  the 
time  of  Domesday.  This  proportion,  however, 
would  by  no  means  hold  in  the  counties  south  of 
Trent. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


495 


to  cultivation,  and  the  ameliorating  prin 
ciple  of  human  industry  struggled  agains 
destructive  revolutions  and  barbarous  dis 
order.     The  devastation  of  war  from  th 
fifth   to   the  eleventh  century  rendered 
land  the  least  costly  of  all  gifts,  though 
it  must  ever  be  the  most  truly  valuabl 
and  permanent.     Many  of  the  grants  to 
monasteries,  which  strike  us  as   enor 
mous,  were  of  districts  absolutely  wast 
ed,  which  would  probably  have  been  re 
claimed  by  no  other  means.     We  owe 
the  agricultural  restoration  of  great  par 
of  Europe  to  the  monks.     They  chose 
for  the  sake  of  retirement,  secluded  re- 
gions, which  they  cultivated    with   the 
labour   of  their  hands.*     Several  char- 
ters   are   extant,   granted   to   convents 
and  sometimes  to  laymen,  of  lands  which 
they  had  recovered  from  a  desert  condi- 
tion, after  the  ravages  of  the  Saracens. f 
Some  districts  were  allotted  to  a  body  of 
Spanish  colonists,  who  emigrated,  in  the 
reign  of  Louis  the  Debonair,  in  search  of 
a  Christian  sovereign. J    Nor  is  this  the 
only  instance   of  agricultural  colonies. 
Charlemagne    transplanted    part   of  his 
conquered  Saxons  into  Flanders,  a  coun- 
try at  that  time  almost  unpeopled ;  and, 
at  a  much  later  period,  there  was  a  re- 
markable reflux  from  the  same  country, 
or  rather  from  Holland,  to  the  coasts  of 
the  Baltic  Sea.     In  the  twelfth  century, 
great  numbers  of  Dutch  colonists  settled 
along  the  whole  line  between  the  Ems 
and  the  Vistula.     They  obtained  grants 
of  uncultivated  land  on  condition  of  fixed 
rents,  and  were  governed  by  their  own 
laws  under  magistrates  of  their  own  elec- 
tion. 


*  "  Of  the  Anglo-Saxon  husbandry  we  may  re- 
mark," says  Mr.  Turner,  "  that  Domesday  Survey 
gives  us  some  indication  that  the  cultivation  of  the 
church  lands  was  much  superior  to  that  of  any 
other  order  of  society.  They  have  much  less  wood 
upon  them,  and  less  common  of  pasture ;  and  what 
they  had  appears  often  in  smaller  and  more  irregu- 
lar pieces ;  while  their  meadow  was  more  abun- 
dant, and  in  more  numerous  distributions." — Hist, 
of  Anglo-Saxons,  vol.  ii.,  p.  167. 

f  Thus,  in  Marca  Hispanica,  Appendix,  p.  770, 
we  have  a  grant  from  Lothaire  I.  in  834,  to  a  per- 
son and  his  brother,  of  lands  which  their  father,  ab 
eremo  in  Septimania  trahens,  had  possessed  by  a 
charter  of  Charlemagne.  See  too  p.  773,  and 
other  places.  Du  Cange,  v.  Eremus,  gives  also  a 
few  instances. 

J  Du  Cange,  v.  Aprisio.  Baluze,  Capitularia,  t. 
i.,  p.  549.  They  were  permitted  to  decide  petty 
suits  among  themselves,  but  for  more  important 
matters  were  to  repair  to  the  county-court.  A  lib- 
eral policy  runs  through  the  whole  charter.  See 
more  on  the  same  subject,  id.,  p.  569. 

()  I  owe  this  fact  to  M.  Heeren,  Essai  sur  1'Influ- 
ence  des  Croisades,  p.  220.  An  inundation  in  their 
own  country  is  supposed  to  have  immediately  pro- 
duced this  emigration;  but  it  was  probably  sue- 


There  cannot  be  a  more  striking  proof 
of  the  low  condition  of  English  agricul- 
ture in  the  eleventh  century,  than  is  ex- 
hibited by  Domesday  book.  Though  al- 
most all  England  had  been  partially  cul- 
tivated, and  we  find  nearly  the  same  ma- 
nors, except  in  the  north,  which  exist  at 
present,  yet  the  value  and  extent  of  cul- 
tivated ground  are  inconceivably  small. 
With  every  allowance  for  the  inaccura- 
cies and  partialities  of  those  by  whom 
that  famous  survey  was  completed,*  we 
are  lost  in  amazement  at  the  constant 
recurrence  of  two  or  three  carucates 
in  demesne,  with  folklands  occupied  by 
ten  or  a  dozen  villeins,  valued  altogether 
at  forty  shillings,  as  the  return  of  a  manor, 
which  now  would  yield  a  competent  in- 
come to  a  gentleman.  If  Domesday  book 
can  be  considered  as  even  approaching  to 
accuracy  in  respect  of  these  estimates,  ag- 
riculture must  certainly  have  made  a  very 
material  progress  in  the  four  succeeding 
centuries.  This,  however,  is  rendered 
probable  by  other  documents.  Ingulfus, 
abbot  of  Croyland  under  the  Conqueror, 
supplies  an  early  and  interesting  evidence 
of  improvement.  Richard  de  Rules,  lord 
of  Deeping,  he  tells  us,  being  fond  of  ag- 
riculture, obtained  permission  from  the 
abbey  to  enclose  a  large  portion  of  marsh 
for  the  purpose  of  separate  pasture,  ex- 
cluding the  Welland  by  a  strong  dike, 
upon  which  he  erected  a  town,  and  ren- 
dering those  stagnant  fens  a  garden  of 
Eden.f  In  imitation  of  this  spirited  cul- 
tivator, the  inhabitants  of  Spalding  and 
some  neighbouring  villages,  by  a  com- 
non  resolution,  divided  their  marshes 
among  them ;  when  some  converting 
hem  to  tillage,  some  reserving  them  for 
meadow,  others  leaving  them  in  pasture 
"ound  a  rich  soil  for  every  purpose.  The 


:essive,  and  connected  with  political  as  well  as 
)hysical  causes  of  greater  permanence.  The  first 
nstrument  in  which  they  are  mentioned  is  a  grant 
rom  the  Bishop  of  Hamburgh  in  1106.  This  colo- 
ly  has  affected  the  local  usages,  as  well  as  the  de- 
lominations  of  things  and  places  along  the  north- 
rn  coast  of  Germany.  It  must  be  presumed  that 
large  proportion  of  the  emigrants  were  diverted 
rom  agriculture  to  people  the  commercial  cities 
which  grew  up  in  the  twelfth  century  upon  that 
oast. 

*  Ingulfus  tells  us  that  the  commissioners  were 
lious  enough  to  favour  Croyland,  returning  its 
ossessions  inaccurately,  both  as  to  measurement 
nd  value ;  non  ad  verum  pretium,  nee  ad  verum 
patium  nostrum  monasterium  librabant  miseri- 
orditer,  praecaventes  in  futurum  regis  exactioni- 
ius,  p.  79.  I  may  just  observe,  by-the-way,  that 
ngulfus  gives  the  plain  meaning  of  the  word 
)omesday,  which  has  been  disputed.  The  book 
was  so  called,  he  says,  pro  sua  generalitate  oinnia 
enementa  totius  terrse  integre  continente  ;  that  is, 
was  as  general  and  conclusive  as  the  last  judg- 
ment will  be.  f  1  Gale,  xv.  Script.,  p.  77. 


496 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


abbey  of  Croyland  and  villages  in  that 
neighbourhood  followed  this  example.* 
This  early  instance  of  parochial  enclosure 
is  not  to  be  overlooked  in  the  history  of 
social  progress.  By  the  statute  of  Mer- 
ton,  in  the  20th  of  Henry  III.,  the  lord  is 
permitted  to  approve,  that  is,  to  enclose, 
the  waste  lands  of  his  manor,  provided 
he  leave  sufficient  common  or  pasture  for 
the  freeholders.  Higden,  a  writer  who 
lived  about  the  time  of  Richard  II. ,  says, 
in  reference  to  the  number  of  hydes  and 
vills  of  England  at  the  conquest,  that  by 
clearing  of  woods  and  ploughing  up 
wastes,  there  were  many  more  of  each 
in  his  age  than  formerly.!  And  it  might 
be  easily  presumed,  independently  of 
proof,  that  woods  were  cleared,  marshes 
drained,  and  wastes  brought  into  tillage, 
during  the  long  period  that  the  house  of 
Plantagenet  sat  on  the  throne.  From 
manorial  surveys  indeed,  and  similar  in- 
struments, it  appears  that  in  some  places 
there  was  nearly  as  much  ground  culti- 
vated in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  as  at 
the  present  day.  The  condition  of  dif- 
ferent counties,  however,  was  very  far 
from  being  alike,  and  in  general  the  nor- 
thern and  western  parts  of  England  were 
the  most  backward .{ 

The  culture  of  arable  land  was  very 
imperfect.  Fleta  remarks,  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  I.  or  II.,  that  unless  an  acre 
yielded  more  than  six  bushels  of  corn, 
the  farmer  would  be  a  loser  and  the  land 
yield  no  rent.§  And  Sir  John  Cullum, 
from  very  minute  accounts,  has  calcula- 
ted that  nine  or  ten  bushels  were  a  full 
average  crop  on  an  acre  of  wheat.  An 
amazing  excess  of  tillage  accompanied, 
and  partly,  I  suppose,  produced  this  im- 
perfect cultivation.  In  Hawsted,  for  ex- 
ample, under  Edward  1.,  there  were  thir- 
teen or  fourteen  hundred  acres  of  arable, 
and  only  forty-five  of  meadow  ground. 
A  similar  disproportion  occurs  almost  in- 
variably in  every  account  we  possess. || 
This  seems  inconsistent  with  the  low 
price  of  cattle.  But  we  must  recollect 
that  the  common  pasture,  often  the  most 


*  Communi  plebiscite  viritim  inter  se  diviserunt, 
et  quidam  suas  portiones  agricolantes,  quidam  ad 
fcenum  conservantes,  quidam  ut  prius  ad  pasturarn 
suorum  animalium  separaliter  jacere  permittentes, 
terrain  pinguem  et  uberem  repererunt,  p.  94. 

t  1  Gale,  xv.  Script.,  p.  201. 

j  A  good  deal  of  information  upon  the  former 
state  of  agriculture  will  be  found  in  Cullum's  His- 
tory of  Hawsted.  Blomefield's  Norfolk  is  in  this 
respect  among  the  most  valuable  of  our  local  his- 
tories. Sir  Frederick  Eden,  in  the  first  part  of  his 
excellent  work  on  the  poor,  has  collected  several 
interesting  facts.  <S  L.  ii.,  c.  8. 

II  Cullum,  p.  100,  220.  Eden's  State  of  Poor, 
&c.,  p.  48.  Whitaker's  Craven,  p.  45,  336. 


extensive  part  of  a  manor,  is  not  inclu- 
ded, at  least  by  any  specific  measure- 
ment, in  these  surveys.  The  rent  of  land 
differed  of  course  materially ;  sixpence 
an  acre  seems  to  have  been  about  the 
average  for  arable  land  in  the  thirteenth 
century,*  though  meadow  was  at  double 
or  treble  that  sum.  But  the  landlords 
were  naturally  solicitous  to  augment  a 
revenue  that  became  more  and  more  in- 
adequate to  their  luxuries.  They  grew 
attentive  to  agricultural  concerns,  and 
perceived  that  a  high  rate  of  produce, 
against  which  their  less  enlightened  an- 
cestors had  been  used  to  clamour,  would 
bring  much  more  into  their  coffers  than 
it  took  away.  The  exportation  of  corn 
had  been  absolutely  prohibited.  But  the 
statute  of  the  15th  Henry  VI.,  c.  2,  reci- 
ting that  "  on  this  account  farmers,  and 
others  who  use  husbandry,  cannot  sell 
their  corn  but  at  a  low  price,  to  the  great 
damage  of  the  realm,"  permits  it  to  be 
sent  anywhere  but  to  the  king's  enemies, 
so  long  as  the  quarter  of  wheat  shall  not 
exceed  6s.  8d.  in  value,  or  that  of  barley 
85.  The  price  of  wool  was  fixed  in  the 
thirty-second  year  of  the  same  reign  at  a 
minimum,  below  which  no  person  was 
suffered  to  buy  it,  though  he  might  give 
more  ;f  a  provision  neither  wise  nor  equi- 
table, but  obviously  suggested  by  the 
same  motive.  Whether  the  rents  of  land 
were  augmented  in  any  degree  through 
these  measures,  I  have  not  perceived; 
their  great  rise  took  place  in  the  reign  of 
Henry  VIII.,  or  rather  afterward. J  The 
usual  price  of  land  under  Edward  IV. 
seems  to  have  been  ten  years  purchase. $ 
It  may  easily  be  presumed  that  an  Eng- 
lish writer  can  furnish  very  lit-  Its  condition 
tie  information  as  to  the  state  in  France 
of  agriculture  in  foreign  coun-  and  Italv- 
tries.  In  such  works  relating  to  France 
as  have  fallen  within  my  reach,  I  have 
found  nothing  satisfactory,  and  cannot 
pretend  to  determine  whether  the  natu- 
ral tendency  of  mankind  to  ameliorate 
their  condition  had  a  greater  influence  in 
promoting  agriculture,  or  the  vices  inhe- 
rent in  the  actual  order  of  society,  and 

*  I  infer  this  from  a  number  of  passages  in 
Blomefield,  Cullum,  and  other  writers.  Hearne 
says  that  an  acre  was  often  called  Solidata  terras ; 
because  the  yearly  rent  of  one  on  the  best  land  was 
a  shilling. — Lib.  Nig.  Scacc.,  p.  31. 

t  Rot.  Parl.,  vol.  v.,  p.  275. 

i  A  passage  in  Bishop  Latimer's  sermons,  too 
often  quoted  to  require  repetition,  shows  that  land 
was  much  underlet  about  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  His  father,  he  says,  kept  half  a  dozen 
husbandmen,  and  milked  thirty  cows,  on  a  farm  of 
three  or  four  pounds  a  year.  It  is  not  surprising 
that  he  lived  as  plentifully  as  his  son  describes. 

$  Rymer,  t.  xii.,  p.  204. 


PART  I!.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


497 


those  public  misfortunes  to  which  that 
kingdom  was  exposed,  in  retarding  it.* 
The  state  of  Italy  was  far  different ;  the 
rich  Lombard  plains,  still  more  fertili- 
zed by  irrigation,  became  a  garden,  and 
agriculture  seems  to  have  reached  the 
excellence  which  it  still  retains.  The 
constant  warfare  indeed  of  neighbouring 
cities  is  not  very  favourable  to  industry ; 
and  upon  this  account  we  might  incline 
to  place  the  greatest  territorial  improve- 
ment of  Lombardy  at  an  era  rather  poste- 
rior to  that  of  her  republican  government ; 
but  from  this  it  primarily  sprung;  and 
without  the  subjugation  of  the  feudal  ar- 
istocracy, and  that  perpetual  demand 
upon  the  fertility  of  the  earth  which  an 
increasing  population  of  citizens  produ- 
ced, the  valley  of  the  Po  would  not  have 
yielded  more  to  human  labour  than  it  had 
done  for  several  preceding  centuries. f 
Though  Lombardy  was  extremely  popu- 
lous in  the  thirteenth  and  fourteenth  cen- 
turies, she  exported  large  quantities  of 
corn. |  The  very  curious  treatise  of  Cres- 
centius  exhibits  the  full  details  of  Italian 
husbandry  about  1300,  and  might  afford 
an  interesting  comparison  to  those  who 
are  acquainted  with  its  present  state. 
That  state,  indeed,  in  many  parts  of  Italy, 
displays  no  symptoms  of  decline.  But 
whatever  mysterious  influence  of  soil  or 
climate  has  scattered  the  seeds  of  death 
on  the  western  regions  of  Tuscany,  had 
not  manifested  itself  in  the  middle  ages. 
Among  uninhabitable  plains,  the  travel- 
ler is  struck  by  the  ruins  of  innumerable 
castles  and  villages,  monuments  of  a  time 
when  pestilence  was  either  unfelt,  or  had 
at  least  not  forbade  the  residence  of  man- 
kind. Volterra,  whose  deserted  walls 
look  down  upon  that  tainted  solitude, 
was  once  a  small  but  free  republic ;  Sie- 
na, round  whom,  though  less  depopula- 
ted, the  malignant  influence  hovers,  was 
once  almost  the  rival  of  Florence.  So 
melancholy  and  apparently  irresistible  a 
decline  of  culture  and  population  through 
physical  causes,  as  seems  to  have  grad- 
ually overspread  a  large  portion  of  Italy, 
has  not  perhaps  been  experienced  in  any 
other  part  of  Europe,  unless  we  except 
Iceland. 

The  Italians  of  the  fourteenth  century 
„   seem  to  have  paid  some  atten- 

Gardening.     .  \.      ,  . 

tion  to  an  art,  of  which,  both  as 
related  to  cultivation  and  to  architecture, 
our  own  forefathers  were  almost  entirely 

*  Velley  and  Villaret  scarcely  mention  the  sub- 
ject ;  and  Le  Grand  merely  tells  us  that  it  was  en- 
tirely neglected ;  but  the  details  of  such  an  art 
even  in  its  state  of  neglect  might  be  interesting. 

t  Muratori,  Dissert.  21.     J  Denina,  1.  xi.,  c.  7. 


ignorant.  Crescentius  dilates  upon  hor- 
ticulture, and  gives  a  pretty  long  list  of 
herbs  both  esculent  and  medicinal.*  His 
notions  about  the  ornamental  department 
are  rather  beyond  what  we  should  ex- 
pect, and  I  do  not  know  that  his  scheme 
of  a  flower-garden  could  be  much  amend- 
ed. His  general  arrangements,  which 
are  minutely  detailed  with  evident  fond- 
ness for  the  subject,  would  of  course  ap- 
pear too  formal  at  present ;  yet  less  so 
than  those  of  subsequent  times ;  and 
though  acquainted  with  what  is  called 
the  topiary  art,  that  of  training  or  cutting 
trees  into  regular  figures,  he  does  not 
seem  to  run  into  its  extravagance.  Reg- 
ular gardens,  according  to  Paulmy,  were 
not  made  in  France  till  the  sixteenth  or 
even  seventeenth  century  ;f  yet  one  is 
said  to  have  existed  at  the  Louvre,  of 
much  older  construction.!  England,  I 
believe,  had  nothing  of  the  ornamental 
kind,  unless  it  were  some  trees  regularly 
disposed  in  the  orchard  of  a  monastery. 
Even  the  common  horticultural  art  for 
culinary  purposes,  though  not  entirely 
neglected,  since  the  produce  of  gardens 
is  sometimes  mentioned  in  ancient  deeds, 
had  not  been  cultivated  with  much  at- 
tention.§  The  esculent  vegetables  now 
most  in  use  were  introduced  in  the  reign 
of  Elizabeth,  and  some  sorts  a  great  deal 
later. 

I  should  leave  this  slight  survey  of  eco- 
nomical history  still  more  im-  changes  in 
perfect,  were  I  to  make  no  ob-  value  of 
servation  on  the  relative  values  money- 
of  money.  Without  something  like  pre- 
cision in  our  notions  upon  this  subject,  ev- 
ery statistical  inquiry  becomes  a  source 
of  confusion  and  error.  But  consider- 
able difficulties  attend  the  discussion* 
These  arise  principally  from  two  causes ; 
the  inaccuracy  or  partial  representations 
of  historical  writers,  on  whom  we  are 
accustomed  too  implicitly  to  rely,  and 
the  change  of  manners,  which  renders  a 
certain  command  over  articles  of  pur- 
chase less  adequate  to  our  wants  than  it 
was  in  former  ages. 

The  first  of  these  difficulties  is  capable 
of  being  removed  by  a  circumspect  use 
of  authorities.  When  this  part  of  statis- 
tical history  began  to  excite  attention, 
which  was  hardly  perhaps  before  the  pub- 
lication of  Bishop  Fleetwood's  Chronicon 
Preciosum,  so  few  authentic  documents 
riad  been  published  with  respect  to  prices, 
that  inquirers  were  glad  to  have  recourse 


*  Denina,  1.  vi. 

t  Idem,  t.  iii.,  p.  145 ;  t.  xxxi.,  p.  258. 

j  De  la  Mare,  Trait6  de  la  Police,  t.  iii.,  p.  380. 

<j  Eden's  State  of  Poor,  vol.  I,  p.  51. 


498 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


to  historians,  even  when  not  contempo 
rary,  for  such  facts  as  they  had  thought 
fit  to  record.  But  these  historians  were 
sometimes  too  distant  from  the  times 
concerning  which  they  wrote,  and  too 
careless  in  their  general  character,  to 
merit  much  regard ;  and  even  when  con- 
temporary, were  often  credulous,  remote 
from  the  concerns  of  the  world,  and,  at 
the  best,  more  apt  to  register  some  ex- 
traordinary phenomenon  of  scarcity  or 
cheapness,  than  the  average  rate  of  pe- 
cuniary dealings.  The  one  ought,  in  my 
opinion,  to  be  absolutely  rejected  as  tes- 
timonies, the  other  to  be  sparingly  and 
diffidently  admitted.*  For  it  is  no  longer 
necessary  to  lean  upon  such  uncertain 
witnesses.  During  the  last  century  a 
very  laudable  industry  has  been  shown 
by  antiquaries  in  the  publication  of  ac- 
count-books belonging  to  private  persons, 
registers  of  expenses  in  convents,  returns 
of  markets,  valuations  of  goods,  tavern- 
bills,  and,  in  short,  every  document,  how- 
ever trifling  in  itself,  by  which  this  im- 
portant subject  can  be  illustrated.  A  suf- 
ficient number  of  such  authorities,  pro- 
ving the  ordinary  tenour  of  prices,  rather 
than  any  remarkable  deviations  from  it, 
are  the  true  basis  of  a  table,  by  which  all 
changes  in  the  value  of  money  should  be 
measured.  I  have  little  doubt  but  that 
such  a  table  might  be  constructed  from 
the  data  we  possess,  with  tolerable  ex- 
actness, sufficient  at  least  to  supersede 
one  often  quoted  by  political  economists, 
but  which  appears  to  be  founded  upon 

*  Sir  F.  Eden,  whose  table  of  prices,  though 
capable  of  some  improvement,  is  perhaps  the  best 
that  has  appeared,  would,  1  think,  have  acted  bet- 
ter, by  omitting  all  references  to  mere  historians, 
and  relying  entirely  on  regular  documents.  I  do 
not,  however,  include  local  histories,  such  as  the 
Annals  of  Dunstaple,  when  they  record  the  mar- 
ket-prices of  their  neighbourhood,  in  respect  of 
which  the  book  last  mentioned  is  almost  in  the  na- 
ture of  a  register.  Dr.  Whitaker  remarks  the  in- 
exactness of  Stowe,  who  says  that  wheat  sold  in 
London,  A.  D.  1514,  at  20s.  a  quarter ;  whereas  it 
appears  to  have  been  at  9s.  in  Lancashire,  where  it 
was  always  dearer  than  in  the  metropolis. — Hist, 
of  Whalley,  p.  97.  It  is  an  odd  mistake,  into  which 
SirF.  Eden  has  fallen,  when  he  asserts  and  argues 
on  the  supposition,  that  the  price  of  wheat  fluctua- 
ted, in  the  thirteenth  century,  from  Is.  to  6Z.  8s.  a 
quarter,  vol.  i.,  p.  18.  Certainly,  if  any  chronicler 
had  mentioned  such  a  price  as  the  latter,  equiva- 
lent to  150Z.  at  present,  we  should  either  suppose 
that  his  text  was  corrupt,  or  reject  it  as  an  absurd 
exaggeration.  But,  in  fact,  the  author  has,  through 
haste,  mistaken  6s.  8d.  for  6/.  8*.,  as  will  appear  by 
referring  to  his  own  table  of  prices,  where  it  is  set 
down  rightly.  It  is  observed  by  Mr.  Macpherson, 
a  very  competent  judge,  that  the  arithmetical  state- 
ments of  the  best  historians  of  the  middle  ages  are 
seldom  correct,  owing  partly  to  their  neglect  of  ex- 
amination, and  partly  to  blunders  of  transcribers. — 
Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p.  423. 


very   superficial    and   erroneous    inqui- 
ries.* 

It  is  by  no  means  required  that  I 
should  here  offer  such  a  table  of  values, 
which,  as  to  every  country  except  Eng- 
land, I  have  no  means  of  constructing, 
and  which,  even  as  to  England,  would  be 
subject  to  many  difficulties.  But  a  read- 
er unaccustomed  to  these  investigations 
ought  to  have  some  assistance  in  com- 
paring the  prices  of  ancient  times  with 
those  of  his  own.  I  will  therefore,  with- 
out attempting  to  ascend  very  high,  for 
we  have  really  no  sufficient  data  as  to 
the  period  immediately  subsequent  to  the 
conquest,  much  less  that  which  prece- 
ded, endeavour  at  a  sort  of  approxima- 
tion for  the  thirteenth  and  fifteenth  cen- 
turies. In  the  reigns  of  Henry  III.  and 
Edward  I.,  previously  to  the  first  debase- 
ment of  the  coin  by  the  latter  in  1301, 
the  ordinary  price  of  a  quarter  of  wheat 
appears  to  have  been  about  four  shillings, 
and  that  of  barley  and  oats  in  propor- 
tion. A  sheep  was  rather  sold  high  at  a 
shilling,  and  an  ox  might  be  reckoned  at 
ten  or  twelve. f  The  value  of  cattle  is  of 
course  dependant  upon  their  breed  and 
condition;  and  we  have  unluckily  no 
early  account  of  butcher's  meat ;  but  we 
can  hardly  take  a  less  multiple  than 
about  thirty  for  animal  food,  and  eighteen 
or  twenty  for  corn,  in  order  to  bring  the 
prices  of  the  thirteenth  century  to  a 
level  with  those  of  the  present  day.J 
Combining  the  two,  and  setting  the  com- 
parative clearness  of  cloth  against  the 
cheapness  of  fuel  and  many  other  arti- 
cles, we  may  perhaps  consider  any 
given  sum  under  Henry  III.  and  Edward 
[.  as  equivalent  in  general  command 


The  table  of  comparative  values  by  Sir  George 
Shuckburgh  (Philosoph.  Transact,  for  1798,  p. 
196)  is  strangely  incompatible  with  every  result  to 
which  my  own  reading  has  led  me.  It  is  the  hasty 
attempt  of  a  man  accustomed  to  different  studies  ; 
and  one  can  neither  pardon  the  presumption  of  ob- 
truding such  a  slovenly  performance  on  a  subject 
where  the  utmost  diligence  was  required,  nor  the 
affectation  with  which  he  apologizes  for  "  descend- 
ng  from  the  dignity  of  philosophy." 

t  Blomefield's  History  of  Norfolk,  and  Sir  J.  Cul- 
um's  of  Hawsted,  furnish  several  pieces  even  at 
;his  early  period.  Most  of  them  are  collected  by 
Sir  F.  Eden.  Fleta  reckons  four  shillings  the 
average  price  of  a  quarter  of  wheat  in  his  time,  1. 
ii.,  c.  84.  This  writer  has  a  digression  on  agricul- 
ture, whence,  however,  less  is  to  be  collected  than 
we  should  expect. 

J  The  fluctuations  of  price  have  unfortunately 
seen  so  great  of  late  years,  that  it  is  almost  as  dif- 
ficult to  determine  one  side  of  our  equation  as  the 
other.  Any  reader,  however,  has  it  in  his  power 
to  correct  my  proportions,  and  adopt  a  greater  or 
less  multiple,  according  to  his  own  estimate  of 
current  prices,  or  the  changes  that  may  take  place 
from  the  time  when  this  is  written  [1816]. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


499 


over  commodities  to  about  twenty-four 
or  twenty-five  times  their  nominal  value 
at  present.  Under  Henry  VI.  the  coin 
had  lost  one  third  of  its  weight  in  silver, 
which  caused  a  proportional  increase  of 
money  prices  ;*  but,  so  far  as  I  can  per- 
ceive, there  had  been  no  diminution  in 
the  value  of  that  metal.  We  have  not 
much  information  as  to  the  fertility  of 
the  mines  which  supplied  Europe  during 
the  middle  ages  ;  but  it  is  probable  that 
the  drain  of  silver  towards  the  East, 
joined  to  the  ostentatious  splendour  of 
courts,  might  fully  absorb  the  usual 
produce.  By  the  statute  15  H.  VI.,  c.  2, 
the  price  up  to  which  wheat  might  be 
exported  is  fixed  at  Qs.  8d.,  a  point  no 
doubt  above  the  average ;  and  the  private 
documents  of  that  period,  which  are  suf- 
ficiently numerous,  lead  to  a  similar  re- 
sult, f  Sixteen  will  be  a  proper  multiple, 


*  I  have  sometimes  been  surprised  at  the  facility 
with  which  prices  adjusted  themselves  to  the 
quantity  of  silver  contained  in  the  current  coin,  in 
ages  which  appear  too  ignorant  and  too  little  com- 
mercial for  the  application  of  this  mercantile  prin- 
ciple. But  the  extensive  dealings  of  the  Jewish 
and  Lombard  usurers,  who  had  many  debtors  in 
almost  all  parts  of  the  country,  would  of  itself  in- 
troduce a  knowledge,  that  silver,  not  its  stamp, 
was  the  measure  of  value.  I  have  mentioned  in 
another  place  (vol.  i.,  p.  185)  the  heavy  discontents 
excited  by  this  debasement  of  the  coin  in  France  ; 
but  the  more  gradual  enhancement  of  nominal  prices 
in  England  seems  to  have  prevented  any  strong 
manifestations  of  a  similar  spirit  at  the  succes- 
sive reductions  in  value  which  the  coin  experienced 
from  the  year  1300.  The  connexion  however  be- 
tween commodities  and  silver  was  well  understood. 
Wykes,  an  annalist  of  Edward  I.'s  age,  tells  us 
that  the  Jews  clipped  our  coin  till  it  retained 
hardly  half  its  due  weight,  the  effect  of  which  was 
a  general  enhancement  of  prices  and  decline  of 
foreign  trade :  Mercatores  transmarini  cum  merci- 
moniis  suis  regnum  Anglise  minus  solito  frequenta- 
bant ;  necnon  quod  omnimoda  venalium  genera  in- 
comparabiliter  solito  fuerunt  cariora.— 2  Gale,  xv. 
Script.,  p.  107.  Another  chronicler  of  the  same 
age  complains  of  bad  foreign  money,  alloyed  with 
copper ;  nee  erat  in  quatuor  aut  quinque  ex  iis 

pondus  unius  denarii  argenti Eratque  pessi- 

mum  saeculum  pro  tali  moneta,  et  fiebant  commu- 
tationes  plurimae  in  emptione  et  venditione  rerum. 
Edward,  as  the  historian  informs  us,  bought  in  this 
bad  money  at  a  rate  below  its  value,  in  order  to 
make  a  profit ;  and  fined  some  persons  who  inter- 
fered with  his  traffic. — W.  Hemingford,  ad  ann. 
1299. 

t  These  will  chiefly  be  found  in  Sir  F.  Eden's 
table  of  prices  ;  the  following  may  be  added  from 
the  account-book  of  a  convent  between  1415  and 
1425.  Wheat  varied  from  4s.  to  6s.  —barley  from 
3s.  2d.  to  4s.  I0d.— oats  from  1*.  8d.  to  2s.  4d.— 
oxen  from  12s.  to  16s. — sheep  from  1*.  2d.  to  Is. 
4d. — butter  %d.  per  Ib. — eggs  twenty-five  for  Id. — 
cheese  \d.  per  Ib.— Lansdowne  MSS.,  vol.  i.,Nos. 
28  and  29.  These  prices  do  not  always  agree  with 
those  given  in  other  documents  of  equal  authority 
in  the  same  period;  but  the  value  of  provisions 
varied  in  different  countries,  and  still  more  so  in 
different  seasons  of  the  year 
I  12 


when  we  would  bring  the  general  value 
of  money  in  this  reign  to  our  present 
standard,* 

But  after  ascertaining  the  proportional 
values  of  money  at  different  periods  by  a 
comparison  of  the  prices  in  several  of 
the  chief  articles  of  expenditure,  which 
is  the  only  fair  process,  we  shall  some- 
times be  surprised  at  incidental  facts  of 
this  class  which  seem  irreducible  to  any 
rule.  These  difficulties  arise  not  so 
much  from  the  relative  scarcity  of  partic- 
ular commodities,  which  it  is  for  the 
most  part  easy  to  explain,  as  from  the 
change  in  manners  and  in  the  usual 
mode  of  living.  We  have  reached  in 
this  age  so  high  a  pitch  of  luxury,  that 
we  can  hardly  believe  or  comprehend  the 
frugality  of  ancient  times ;  and  have  in 
general  formed  mistaken  notions  as  to 
the  habits  of  expenditure  which  then 
prevailed.  Accustomed  to  judge  of  feudal 
and  chivalrous  ages  by  works  of  fiction, 
or  by  historians  who  embellished  their 
writings  with  accounts  of  occasional  fes- 
tiv^Js  and  tournaments,  and  sometimes 
inattentive  enough  to  transfer  the  man- 
ners of  the  seventeenth  to  the  fourteenth 
century,  we  are  not  at  all  aware  of  the 
usual  simplicity  with  which  the  gentry 
lived  under  Edward  I.  or  even  Henry 
VI.  They  drank  little  wine ;  they  had 
no  foreign  luxuries ;  they  rarely  or  never 
kept  male  servants,  except  for  husband- 
ry ;  their  horses,  as  we  may  guess  by 
the  price,  were  indifferent ;  thej-  seldom 
travelled  beyond  their  county.  And 
even  their  hospitality  must  have  been 
greatly  limited,  if  the  value  of  manors 
were- really  no  greater  than  we  find  it  in 
many  surveys.  Twenty-four  seems  a 
sufficient  multiple  when  we  would  raise 


*  I  insert  the  following  comparative  table  of 
English  money  from  Sir  Frederick  Eden.  The 
unit,  or  present  value,  refers  of  course  to  that  of 
the  shilling  before  the  last  coinage,  which  redu- 
ced it. 


Value  of  pound 
sterling  present 
money; 

Proportion. 

Conquest,    1066 

2        18        H 

2.906 

28  E.  I.,       1300 

2        17        5 

2.871 

18  E.  III.,    1344 

2        12        5£ 

2.622 

20  E.  III.,     1346 

2        11         8 

2.583 

27  E.  IH,»     1353 

266 

2.325 

13  H.  IV.»     1412 

1        18        9 

1.937 

4  E.  IV.,     1464 

1         11        0 

1.55 

18  H.  VIII.,  1527 

1          7        6| 

1.378 

34  H.  VIII.*  1543 

1          3        31 

1.163 

36  H.  VIII.,  1545 

0        13      1H 

0.698 

37  H.  VlIL,  1546 

0          9        3| 

0.466 

5  E.  VI.,     1551 

0          4        7} 

0.232 

6  E.  VI.,     1552 

1          0        6f 

1.028 

1  Mary,      1553 

1          0        6| 

1..024 

2  Eliz.,       1560 

108 

1  .033 

43  Eliz.,       1601  1 

1          0        0 

1.000 

500 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[Cmr.  IX. 


a  sum  mentioned  by  a  writer  under  Ed- 

ward I.  to  the  same  real  value  expressed 

in  our  present  money,  but  an  income  of 

£10  or  .£20  was  reckoned  a  competent 

estate  for  a  gentleman  ;  at  least  the  lord 

of  a  single  manor  would  seldom  have 

enjoyed  more.     A  knight  who  possessed 

£150  per  annum  passed  for   extremely 

rich.*    Yet  this  was  not  equal  in  com- 

mand over  commodities   to    j£4000    at 

present.     But  this  income  was  compara- 

tively free  from  taxation,  and  its  expendi- 

ture lightened  by  the  services  of  his  vil- 

leins.    Such  a  person,  however,   must 

have  been  among  the  most  opulent  of 

country  gentlemen.     Sir  John  Fortescue 

speaks  of  five  pounds  a  year  as  "  a  fair 

living  for  a  yeoman,"  a  class  of  whom  he 

is  not  at  all  inclined  to  diminish  the  im- 

portance. f     So,  when  Sir  William  Dru- 

ry,  one  of  the  richest  men  in  Suffolk,  be- 

queathed in  1493  fifty  marks  to  each  of  his 

daughters,  we  must  not  imagine  that  this 

was  of  greater  value  than  four  or  five 

hundred  pounds  at  this  day,  but  remark 

the   family   pride,    and  want  of  ready 

money,  which  induced  country  gentle- 

men to  leave  their  younger  children  in 

poverty.!    Or,  if  we  read  that  the  ex- 

pense of  a  scholar  at  the  university  in 

1514   was  but  five  pounds  annually,  we 

should  err  in  supposing  that  he  had  the 

liberal  accommodation  which  the  present 

age  deems   indispensable,  but  consider 

how  much  could  be  afforded  for  about 

sixty  pounds,  which  will  be  not  far  from 

the    proportion.     And   what    would    a 

modern  lawyer  say  to  the  following  en- 

try in  the  churchwarden's  accounts  of  St. 

Margaret,  Westminster,  for  1476  :  ^Also 

Eaid  to  Roger  Fylpott,  learned  in  the 
iw,  for  his  counsel  giving,  3s.  Sd.,  with 
fourpence  for  his  dinner  ?"fy  Though 
fifteen  times  the  fee  might  not  seem  alto- 
gether inadequate  at  present,  five  shillings 
would  hardly  furnish*  the  table  of  a  bar- 
rister, even  if  the  fatidiousness  of  our 


p.  424,    from   Matt. 


and  Absolute  Monarchy, 


*  Macpherson's  Ann 
Paris. 

t  Difference  of  Li 
p.  133. 

t  Hist,  of  Hawsted,  p.  141. 

§  Nicholls's  Illustrations,  p.  2.  One  fact  of  this 
class  did,  I  own,  stagger  me.  The  great  Earl  of 
Warwick  writes  to  a  private  gentleman,  Sir 
Thomas  Tudenham,  begging  the  loan  of  ten  or 
twenty  pounds  to  make  up  a  sum  he  had  to  pay. 
—  Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  84.  What  way  shall 
we  make  this  commensurate  to  the  present  value 
of  money  ?  But  an  ingenious  friend  suggested, 
what  I  do  not  question  is  the  case,  that  this  was 
one  of  many  letters  addressed  to  the  adherents  of 
Warwick,  in  order  to  raise  by  their  contributions  a 
considerable  sum.  It  is  curious,  in  this  light,  as 
an  illustration  of  manners. 


manners  would  admit  of  his  accepting 
such  a  dole.  But  this  fastidiousness, 
which  considers  certain  kinds  of  remu- 
neration degrading  to  a  man  of  liberal 
condition,  did  not  prevail  in  those  sim- 
ple ages.  It  would  seem  rather  strange 
that  a  young  lady  should  learn  needle- 
work and  good-breeding  in  a  family  of 
superior  rank,  paying  for  her  board ;  yet 
such  was  the  laudable  custom  of  the  fif- 
teenth and  even  sixteenth  centuries,  as 
we  perceive  by  the  Paston  Letters,  and 
even  later  authorities.* 

There  is  one  very  unpleasing  remark 
which  every  one  who  attends  to  Labourers 
the  subject  of  prices  will  be  in-  better  paid 
duced  to  make,  that  the  labour-  than  at  P™- 
ing  classes,  especially  those  en-  sent' 
gaged  in  agriculture,  were  better  provided 
with  the  means  of  subsistence  in  the  reign 
of  Edward  III.  or  of  Henry  VI.  than  they 
are  at  present.  In  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, Sir  John  Cullum  observes,  a  harvest- 
man  had  fourpence  a  day,  which  enabled 
him  in  a  week  to  buy  a  comb  of  wheat ; 
but  to  buy  a  comb  of  wheat,  a  man  must 
now  (1784)  work  ten  or  twelve  days.f 
So,  under  Henry  VI.,  if  meat  was  at  a 
farthing  and  a  half  the  pound,  which  I 
suppose  was  about  the  truth,  a  labourer 
earning  threepence  a  day,  or  eighteen 
pence  in  the  week,  could  buy  a  bushel  of 
wheat  at  six  shillings  the  quarter,  and 
twenty-four  pounds  of  meat  for  his  fam- 
ily. A  labourer  at  present,  earning  twelve 
shillings  a  week,  can  only  buy  half  a 
bushel  of  wheat  at  eighty  shillings  the 
quarter,  and  twelve  pounds  of  meat  at 
sevenpence.  Several  acts  of  parliament 
regulate  the  wages  that  might  be  paid  to 
Labourers  of  different  kinds.  Thus  the 
statute  of  labourers,  in  1350,  fixed  the 
wages  of  reapers  during  harvest  at  three- 
Dence  a  day  without  diet,  equal  to  five  shil- 
ings  at  present ;  that  of  23  H.  VI.,  c.  12, 
n  1444,  fixed  the  reapers'  wages  at  five- 
Dence,  and  those  of  common  workmen 
n  building  at  3£d.,  equal  to  6s.  8d.  and 
45.  Sd. ;  that  of  11  H.  VIL,  c.  22,  in  1496, 
.eaves  the  wages  of  labourers  in  harvest 
as  before,  but  rather  increases  those  of 
ordinary  workmen.  The  yearly  wages 
of  a  chief  hind  or  shepherd,  by  the  act  of 
1444,  were  £l.  4s.,  equivalent  to  about 
£20  ;  those  of  a  common  servant  in  hus- 
Dandry,  185.  4d.,  with  meat  and  drink ; 
they  were  somewhat  augmented  by  the 
statute  of  1496.|  Yet,  although  these 

*  Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  244.  Cullum's 
Hawsted,  p.  182. 

t  Hist,  of  Hawsted,  p.  228. 

j  See  these  rates  more  at  length  in  Eden's  State 
of  the  Poor,  vol.  i.,  p.  32,  &c. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


501 


wages  are  regulated  as  a  maximum,  by 
acts  of  parliament,  which  may  naturally 
be  supposed  to  have  had  a  view  rather 
towards  diminishing  than  enhancing  the 
current  rate,  I  am  not  fully  convinced 
that  they  were  not  rather  beyond  it ;  pri- 
vate accounts  at  least  do  not  always  cor- 
respond with  these  statutable  prices.* 
And  it  is  necessary  to  remember,  that  the 
uncertainty  of  employment,  natural  to 
so  imperfect  a  state  of  husbandry,  must 
have  diminished  the  labourers'  means  of 
subsistence.  Extreme  dearth,  not  more 
owing  to  adverse  seasons  than  to  improv- 
ident consumption,  was  frequently  en- 
dured, f  But,  after  every  allowance  of 
this  kind,  I  should  find  it  difficult  to  resist 
the  conclusion,  that  however  the  labourer 
has  derived  benefit  from  the  cheapness 
of  manufactured  commodities,  and  from 
many  inventions  of  common  utility,  he  is 
much  inferior  in  ability  to  support  a  fam- 
ily to  his  ancestors  three  or  four  centu- 
ries ago.  I  know  not  why  some  have 
supposed  that  meat  was  a  luxury  seldom 
obtained  by  the  labourer.  Doubtless  he 
could  not  have  procured  as  much  as  he 
pleased.  But,  from  the  greater  cheap- 
ness of  cattle,  as  compared  with  corn,  it 
seems  to  follow,  that  a  more  considera- 
ble portion  of  his  ordinary  diet  consisted 
of  animal  food  than  at  present.  It  was 
remarked  by  Sir  John  Fortescue,  that  the 
English  lived  far  more  upon  animal  diet 
than  their  rivals  the  French ;  and  it  was 
natural  to  ascribe  their  superior  strength 
and  courage  to  this  cause.|  I  should 
feel  much  satisfaction  in  being  convinced 
that  no  deterioration  in  the  state  of  the 
labouring  classes  has  really  taken  place ; 
yet  it  cannot,  I  think,  appear  extraordi- 
nary to  those  who  reflect,  that  the  whole 
population  of  England,  in  the  year  1377, 

*  In  the  Archaeologia,  vol.  xviii.,  p.  281,  we  have 
a  bailiff's  account  of  expenses  in  1387,  where  it  ap- 
pears that  a  ploughman  had  sixpence  a  week,  and 
five  shillings  a  year,  with  an  allowance  of  diet ; 
which  seems  to  have  been  only  pottage.  These 
wages  are  certainly  not  more  than  fifteen  shillings 
a  week  in  present  value ;  which,  though  materially 
above  the  average  rate  of  agricultural  labour,  is 
less  so  than  some  of  the  statutes  would  lead  us  to 
expect.  Other  facts  may  be  found  of  a  similar 
nature. 

f  See  that  singular  book,  Piers  Plowman's  Vis- 
ion, p.  145  (Whitaker's  edition),  for  the  different 
modes  of  living  before  and  after  harvest.  The 
passage  may  be  found  in  Ellis's  Specimens,  vol.  i., 
p.  151. 

t  Fortescue's  Difference  between  Abs.  and  Lim. 
Monarchy,  p.  19.  The  passages  in  Fortescue 
which  bear  on  his  favourite  theme,  the  liberty  and 
consequent  happiness  of  the  English,  are  very  im- 
portant, and  triumphantly  refute  those  superficial 
writers  who  would  make  us  believe  that  they  were 
a  set  of  beggarly  slaves. 


did  not  much  exceed  2,300,000  souls, 
about  one  fifth  of  the  results  upon  the  last 
enumeration,  an  increase  with  which  that 
of  the  fruits  of  the  earth  cannot  be  sup- 
posed to  have  kept  an  even  pace.* 

The  second  head  to  which  I  referred 
the  improvements  of  European  improve- 
society  in  the  latter  period  of  the  mem  in  the 
middle  ages,  comprehends  sev-  IS  of  M 
eral  changes,  not  always  con-  Europe, 
nected  with  each  other,  which  contributed 
to  inspire  a  more  elevated  tone  of  moral 
sentiment,  or  at  least  to  restrain  the  com- 
mission of  crimes.  But  the  general  ef- 
fect of  these  upon  the  human  character 
is  neither  so  distinctly  to  be  traced,  nor 
can  it  be  arranged  with  so  much  attention 
to  chronology  as  the  progress  of  com- 
mercial wealth,  or  of  the  arts  that  depend 
upon  it.  We  cannot,  from  any  past  ex- 
perience, indulge  the  pleasing  vision  of  a 
constant  and  parallel  relation  between 
the  moral  and  intellectual  energies,  the 
virtues  and  the  civilization  of  mankind. 
Nor  is  any  problem  connected  with  phi- 
losophical history  more  difficult  than  to 
compare  the  relative  characters  of  differ- 
ent generations,  especially  if  we  include 
a  large  geographical  surface  in  our  esti- 
mate. Refinement  has  its  evils  as  well 
as  barbarism ;  the  virtues  that  elevate  a 
nation  in  one  century  pass  in  the  next  to 
a  different  region ;  vice  changes  its  form 
without  losing  its  essence;  the  marked 
features  of  individual  character  stand  out 
in  relief  from  the  surface  of  history,  and 
mislead  our  judgment  as  to  the  general 
course  of  manners ;  while  political  revo- 
lutions and  a  bad  constitution  of  govern- 
ment may  always  undermine  or  subvert 
the  improvements  to  which  more  favour- 
able circumstances  have  contributed.  In 
comparing,  therefore,  the  fifteenth  with 
the  twelfth  century,  no  one  would  deny 
the  vast  increase  of  navigation  and  man- 
ufactures, the  superior  refinement  of 
manners,  the  greater  diffusion  of  litera- 
ture. But  should  I  assert  that  man  had 
raised  himself  in  the  latter  period  above 
the  moral  degradation  of  a  more  barbar- 
ous age,  I  might  be  met  by  the  question 
whether  history  bears  witness  to  any 
greater  excesses  of  rapine  and  inhuman- 
ity than  in  the  wars  of  France  and  Eng- 
land under  Charles  VII.,  or  whether  the 
rough  patriotism  and  fervid  passions  of 
the  Lombards  in  the  twelfth  century 


••  Besides  the  books  to  which  I  have  occasion- 
ally referred,  Mr.  Ellis's  Specimens  of  English 
Poetry,  vol.  i.,  chap.  13,  contain  a  short  digression, 
but  from  well-selected  materials,  on  the  private  life 
of  the  English  in  the  middling  and  lower  ranks 
about  the  fifteenth  century. 


502 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


were  not  better  than  the  systematic 
treachery  of  their  servile  descendants 
three  hundred  years  afterward.  The 
proposition  must  therefore  be  greatly 
limited ;  yet  we  can  scarcely  hesitate  to 
admit,  upon  a  comprehensive  view,  that 
there  were  several  changes  during  the 
four  last  of  the  middle  ages,  which  must 
naturally  have  tended  to  produce,  and 
some  of  which  did  unequivocally  produce, 
a  meliorating  effect,  within  the  sphere  of 
their  operation,  upon  the  moral  character 
of  society. 

The  first,  and  perhaps  the  most  impor- 
Eievation  of  tant  of  these,  was  the  gradual 
the  lower  elevation  of  those  whom  unjust 
systems  of  polity  had  long  de- 
pressed ;  of  the  people  itself,  as  opposed 
to  the  small  number  of  rich  and  noble,  by 
the  abolition  or  desuetude  of  domestic 
and  predial  servitude,  and  by  the  privi- 
leges extended  to  corporate  towns.  The 
condition  of  slavery  is  indeed  perfectly 
consistent  with  the  observance  of  moral 
obligations ;  yet  reason  and  experience 
will  justify  the  sentence  of  Homer,  that 
he  who  loses  his  liberty  loses  half  his 
virtue.  Those  who  have  acquired,  or 
may  hope  to  acquire,  property  of  their 
own,  are  most  likely  to  respect  that  of 
others;  those  whom  law  protects  as  a 
parent  are  most  willing  to  yield  her  a 
filial  obedience;  those  who  have  much 
to  gain  by  the  good- will  of  their  fellow- 
citizens  are  most  interested  in  the  pres- 
ervation of  an  honourable  character.  I 
have  been  led,  in  different  parts  of  the 
present  work,  to  consider  these  great 
revolutions  in  the  order  of  society  under 
other  relations  than  that  of  their  moral 
efficacy ;  and  it  will  therefore  be  unne- 
cessary to  dwell  upon  them ;  especially 
as  this  efficacy  is  indeterminate,  though, 
I  think,  unquestionable,  and  rather  to  be 
inferred  from  general  reflections,  than 
capable  of  much  illustration  by  specific 
facts. 

We  may  reckon,  in  the  next  place, 
Police  among  tne  causes  of  moral  im- 
provement, a  more  regular  admin- 
istration of  justice  according  to  fixed 
laws,  and  a  more  effectual  police.  Wheth- 
er the  courts  of  judicature  were  guided 
by  the  feudal  customs  or  the  Roman  law, 
it  was  necessary  for  them  to  resolve  liti- 
gated questions  with  precison  and  uni- 
formity. Hence  a  more  distinct  theory 
of  justice  and  good  faith  was  gradually 
apprehended  ;  and  the  moral  sentiments 
of  mankind  were  corrected,  as  on  such 
subjects  they  often  require  to  be,  by 
clearer  and  better  grounded  inferences 
of  reasoning.  Again,  though  it  cannot 


be  said  that  lawless  rapine  was  perfectly 
restrained  even  at  the  end  of  the  fifteenth 
century,  a  sensible  amendment  had  been 
everywhere  experienced.  Private  war- 
fare, the  licensed  robbery  of  feudal  man- 
ners, had  been  subjected  to  so  many  mor- 
tifications by  the  kings  of  France,  and  es- 
pecially by  St.  Louis,  that  it  can  hardly 
be  traced  beyond  the  fourteenth  century. 
In  Germany  and  Spain  it  lasted  longer ; 
but  the  various  associations  for  maintain- 
ing tranquillity  in  the  former  country  had 
considerably  diminished  its  violence  be- 
fore the  great  national  measure  of  public 
peace  adopted  under  Maximilian.*  Acts 
of  outrage  committed  by  powerful  men 
became  less  frequent  as  the  executive 
government  acquired  more  strength  to 
chastise  them.  We  read  that  St.  Louis, 
the  best  of  French  kings,  imposed  a  fine 
upon  the  Lord  of  Vernon  for  permitting  a 
merchant  to  be  robbed  in  his  territory 
between  sunrise  and  sunset.  For,  by  the 
customary  law,  though  in  general  ill  ob- 
served, the  lord  was  bound  to  keep  the 
roads  free  from  depredators  in  the  day- 
time, in  consideration  of  the  toll  he  receiv- 
ed from  passengers.f  The  same  prince 
was  with  difficulty  prevented  from  passing 
a  capital  sentence  on  Enguerrand  de  Cou- 
cy,  a  baron  of  France,  for  a  murder.J 
Charles  the  Fair  actually  put  to  death  a 
nobleman  of  Languedoc  for  a  series  of 
robberies,  notwithstanding  the  interces- 
sion of  the  provincial  nobility.  $  The 
towns  established  a  police  of  their  own 
for  internal  security,  and  rendered  them- 
selves formidable  to  neighbouring  plun- 


*  Besides  the  German  historians,  see  Du  Cange, 
v.  Ganerbium,  for  the  confederacies  in  the  empire, 
and  Hermandatum  for  those  in  Castile.  These 
appear  to  have  been  merely  voluntary  associations, 
and  perhaps  directed  as  much  towards  the  preven- 
tion of  robbery  as  of  what  is  strictly  called  pri- 
ate  war.  But  no  man  can  easily  distinguish  of- 
fensive war  from  robbery  except  by  its  scale ;  and 
where  this  was  so  considerably  reduced,  the  two 
modes  of  injury  almost  coincide.  In  Aragon  there 
was  a  distinct  institution  for  the  maintenance  of 
peace,  the  kingdom  being  divided  into  unions  or 
juntas,  with  a  chief  officer,  called  Suprajunctari- 
us,  at  their  head.— Du  Cange,  v.  Juncta. 

f  Renault,  Abreg6  Chronol.  a  Pan  1255.  The  in- 
stitutions of  Louis  IX.  and  his  successors  relating 
to  police,  form  a  part,  though  rather  a  smaller  part 
than  we  should  expect  from  the  title,  of  an  im- 
mense work,  replete  with  miscellaneous  informa- 
tion, by  Delamare,  Traite  de  la  Police,  4  vols.  in 
folio.  A  sketch  of  them  may  be  found  in  Velly,  t. 
v.,  p.  349  ;  t.  xviii.,  p.  437. 

$  Velly,  t.  v.,  p.  162,  where  this  incident  is  told  in 
an  interesting  manner  from  William  de  Nangis. 
Boulainvilliers  has  taken  an  extraordinary  view  of 
the  king's  behaviour. — Hist,  de  1' Ancient  Gouverne- 
ment,  t  ii.,  p.  26.  In  his  eyes  princes  and  plebe- 
ians were  made  to  be  the  slaves  of  a  feudal  aristoc- 
racy. $  Velly,  t.  viii.,  p.  132. 


PABT  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


503 


derers.  Finally,  though  not  before  the 
reign  of  Louis  XL,  an  armed  force  was 
established  for  the  preservation  of  po- 
lice.* Various  means  were  adopted  in 
England  to  prevent  robberies,  which  in- 
deed were  not  so  frequently  perpetrated 
as  they  were  on  the  continent,  by  men 
of  high  condition.  None  of  these,  per- 
haps, had  so  much  efficacy  as  the  fre- 
quent sessions  of  judges  under  commis- 
sions of  jail  delivery.  But  the  spirit  of 
this  country  has  never  brooked  that  co- 
ercive police  which  cannot  exist  without 
breaking  in  upon  personal  liberty  by  irk- 
some regulations  and  discretionary  exer- 
cise of  power ;  the  sure  instrument  of 
tyranny,  which  renders  civil  privileges 
at  once  nugatory  and  insecure,  and  by 
which  we  should  dearly  purchase  some 
real  benefits  connected  with  its  slavish 
discipline. 

I  have  some  difficulty  in  adverting  to 
Religious  another  source  of  moral  im- 
sects.  provement  during  this  period,  the 
growth  of  religious  opinions  adverse  to 
those  of  the  established  church,  both  on 
account  of  its  great  obscurity,  and  be- 
cause many  of  these  heresies  were  mixed 
up  with  an  excessive  fanaticism.  But 
they  fixed  themselves  so  deeply  in  the 
hearts  of  the  inferior  and  more  numer- 
ous classes,  they  bore,  generally  speak- 
ing, so  immediate  a  relation  to  the  state 
of  manners,  and  they  illustrate  so  much 
that  more  visible  and  eminent  revolution 
which  ultimately  arose  out  of  them  in  the 
sixteenth  century,  that  I  must  reckon 
these  among  the  most  interesting  phe- 
nomena in  the  progress  of  European  so- 
ciety. 

Many  ages  elapsed,  during  which  no 
remarkable  instance  occurs  of  a  popular 
deviation  from  the  prescribed  line  of  be- 
lief; and  pious  Catholics  console  them- 
selves by  reflecting  that  their  forefathers, 
in  those  times  of  ignorance,  slept  at  least 
the  sleep  of  orthodoxy,  and  that  their 
darkness  was  interrupted  by  no  false 
lights  of  human  reasoning.!  But  from 
the  twelfth  century  this  can  no  longer  be 
their  boast.  An  inundation  of  heresy 
broke  in  that  age  upon  the  church, 
which  no  persecution  was  able  thor- 
oughly to  repress,  till  it  finally  over- 
spread half  the  surface  of  Europe.  Of 
this  religious  innovation  we  must  seek  the 
commencement  in  a  different  part  of  the 
globe.  The  Manicheans  afford  an  emi- 
nent example  of  that  durable  attachment 
to  a  traditional  creed,  which  so  many 
ancient  sects,  especially  in  the  East,  have 


Velly,  t.  xviii.,  p.  437. 

Fleury,  3me  Discours  sur  1'Hist.  Eccles. 


cherished  through  the  vicissitudes  of 
ages,  in  spite  of  persecution  and  con- 
tempt. Their  plausible  and  widely  ex- 
tended system  had  been  in  early  times 
connected  with  the  name  of  Christianity, 
however  incompatible  with  its  doctrines 
and  its  history.  After  a  pretty  long  obscu- 
rity, the  Manichean  theory  revived  with 
some  modification  in  the  western  parts 
of  Armenia,  and  was  propagated  in  the 
eighth  and  ninth  centuries  by  a  sect  de- 
nominated Paulicians.  Their  tenets  are 
not  to  be  collected  with  absolute  cer- 
tainty from  the  mouths  of  their  adversa- 
ries, and  no  apology  of  their  own  sur- 
vives. There  seems,  however,  to  be 
sufficient  evidence  that  the  Paulicians, 
though  professing  to  acknowledge  and 
even  to  study  the  apostolical  writings, 
ascribed  the  creation  of  the  world  to  an 
evil  deity,  whom  they  supposed  also  to 
be  the  author  of  the  Jewish  law,  and 
consequently  rejected  all  the  Old  Testa- 
ment. Believing,  with  the  ancient  Gnos- 
tics, that  our  Saviour  was  clothed  on 
earth  with  an  impassive  celestial  body,* 
they  denied  the  reality  of  his  death 

*  The  most  authentic  account  of  the  Paulicians 
is  found  in  a  little  treatise  of  Petrus  Siculus,  who 
lived  about  870,  under  Basil  the  Macedonian.  He 
had  been  employed  on  an  embassy  to  Tephrico, 
the  principal  town  of  these  heretics,  so  that  he 
might  easily  be  well  informed ;  and,  though  he  is 
sufficiently  bigoted,  I  do  not  see  any  reason  to  ques- 
tion the  general  truth  of  his  testimony,  especially 
as  it  tallies  so  well  with  what  we  learn  of  the  pre- 
decessors and  successors  of  the  Paulicians.  They 
had  rejected  several  of  the  Manichean  doctrines, 
those,  I  believe,  which  were  borrowed  from  the 
Oriental,  Gnostic,  and  Cabbalistic  philosophy  of 
emanation ;  and  therefore  readily  condemned  Ma- 
nes, TTpo8v/jn>)s  avaQsfimi^aai  Mav^ra.  But  they  re- 
tained his  capital  errors,  so  far  as  regarded  the 
principle  of  dualism,  which  he  had  taken  from 
Zerdusht's  religion,  and  the  consequences  he  had 
derived  from  it.  Petrus  Siculus  enumerates  six 
Panlician  heresies.  1.  They  maintained  the  exist- 
ence of  two  deities  ;  the  one  evil,  and  the  creator 
of  this  world,  the  other  good,  called  irarqp  sirapavio^ 
the  author  of  that  which  is  to  come.  2.  They  re- 
fused to  worship  the  Virgin,  and  asserted  that 
Christ  brought  his  body  from  Heaven.  3.  They 
rejected  the  Lord's  Supper :  4.  And  the  adoration 
of  the  cross.  5.  They  denied  the  authority  of  the 
Old  Testament,  but  admitted  the  New,  except  the 
epistles  of  St.  Peter,  and  perhaps  the  Apocalypse. 
6.  They  did  not  acknowledge  the  order  of  priests. 

There  seems  every  reason  to  suppose  that  the 
Paulicians,  notwithstanding  their  mistakes,  were 
endowed  with  sincere  and  zealous  piety,  and  stu- 
dious of  the  Scriptures.  A  Paulician  woman  asked 
a  young  man  if  he  had  read  the  Gospels ;  he  replied, 
that  laymen  were  not  permitted  to  do  so,  but  only 
the  clergy  :  UK  sl-c^iv  fi/Jtiv  rotj  KOGfiiKois  uai  TOVTO, 
avayivuHTKftv,  ci  prj  rots  ttpevai  fiovois,  p.  57.  A  curious 
proof  that  the  Scriptures  were  already  forbidden  in 
the  Greek  church,  which,  I  am  inclined  to  believe, 
notwithstanding  the  leniency  with  which  Protest- 
ant writers  have  treated  it,  was  always  more  cor- 
rupt and  more  intolerant  than  the  Latin. 


504 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


and  resurrection.  These  errors  exposed 
them  to  a  long  and  cruel  persecution, 
during  which  a  colony  of  exiles  was 
planted  by  one  of  the  Greek  emperors  in 
Bulgaria.*  From  this  settlement  they 
silently  promulgated  their  Manichean 
creed  over  the  western  regions  of  Chris- 
tendom. A  large  part  of  the  commerce 
of  those  countries  with  Constantinople 
was  carried  on  for  several  centuries  by 
the  channel  of  the  Danube.  This  opened 
an  immediate  intercourse  with  the  Pau- 
licians,  who  may  be  traced  up  that  river 
through  Hungary  and  Bavaria,  some- 
times taking  the  route  of  Lombardy  into 
Swisserland  and  France, f  In  the  last 

*  Gibbon,  c.  54.  This  chapter  of  the  historian 
of  the  Decline  and  Fall  upon  the  Paulicians  ap- 
pears to  be  accurate,  as  well  as  luminous,  and  is  at 
least  far  superior  to  any  modern  work  on  the  sub- 
ject. 

t  It  is  generally  agreed  that  the  Manicheans 
from  Bulgaria  did  not  penetrate  into  the  west  of 
Europe  before  the  year  1000;  and  they  seem  to 
have  been  in  small  numbers  till  about  1140.  We 
find  them,  however,  early  in  the  eleventh  century. 
Under  the  reign  of  Robert,  in  1007,  several  heretics 
were  burnt  at  Orleans  for  tenets  which  are  repre- 
sented as  Manichean. — Velly,  t.  ii.,  p.  307.  These 
are  said  to  have  been  imported  from  Italy ;  and  the 
heresy  began  to  strike  root  in  that  country  about 
the  same  time. — Muratori,  Dissert.  60. — (Antichita 
Italiane,  t.  iii.,  p.  304.)  The  Italian  Manicheans 
were  generally  called  Paterini,  the  meaning  of 
which  word  has  never  been  explained.  We  find 
few  traces  of  them  in  France  at  this  time ;  but 
about  the  beginning  of  the  twelfth  century,  Gui- 
bert,  bishop  of  Soissons,  describes  the  heretics  of 
that  city,  who  denied  the  reality  of  the  death  and 
resurrection  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  rejected  the  sacra- 
ments.— Hist.  Litte>aire  de  la  France,  t.  x.,  p.  451. 
Before  the  middle  of  that  age,  the  Cathari,  Henri- 
cians,  Petrobussians,  and  others  appear,  and  the 
new  opinions  attracted  universal  notice.  Some  of 
these  sectaries,  however,  were  not  Manicheans. — 
Mosheim,  vol.  iii.,  p.  116. 

The  acts  of  the  inquisition  of  Toulouse,  pub- 
lished by  Limborch,  from  an  ancient  manuscript 
(stolen,  as  I  presume,  though  certainly  not  by  him- 
self, out  of  the  archives  of  that  city),  contain  many 
additional  proofs  that  the  Albigenses  held  the 
Manichean  doctrine.  Limborch  himself  will  guide 
the  reader  to  the  principal  passages,  p.  30.  In 
fact,  the  proof  of  Manicheism  among  the  heretics 
of  the  twelfth  century  is  so  strong  (for  I  have  con- 
fined myself  to  those  of  Languedoc,  and  could 
easily  have  brought  other  testimony  as  to  the 
Cathari),  that  I  should  never  have  thought  of  ar- 
guing the  point,  but  for  the  confidence  of  some 
modern  ecclesiastical  writers.  What  can  we  think 
of  one  who  says, "  It  was  not  unusual  to  stigmatize 
new  sects  with  the  odious  name  of  Manichees, 
though  /  know  no  evidence  that  there  were  any  real 
remains  of  that  ancient  sect  in  the  twelfth  cen- 
tury."—Milner's  History  of  the  Church,  vol.  iii.,  p. 
380.  Though  this  writer  was  by  no  means  learn- 
ed enough  for  the  task  he  undertook,  he  could  not 
be  ignorant  of  facts  related  by  Mosheim  and  other 
common  historians. 

I  will  only  add,  in  order  to  obviate  cavilling, 
that  I  use  the  word  Albigenses  for  the  Manichean 
sects,  without  pretending  to  assert  that  their  doc- 


country,  and  especially  in  its  southern 
and  eastern  provinces,  they  became 
conspicuous  under  a  variety  of  names ; 
such  as  Catharists,  Picards,  Paterins,  but, 
above  all,  Albigenses.  It  is  beyond  a 
doubt  that  many  of  these  sectaries  owed 
their  origin  to  the  Paulicians ;  the  appel- 
lation of  Bulgarians  was  distinctively  be- 
stowed upon  them;  and,  according  to 
some  writers,  they  acknowledged  a  pri- 
mate or  patriarch  resident  in  that  coun- 
try.* The  tenets  ascribed  to  them  by  all 
contemporary  authorities  coincide  so  re- 
markably with  those  held  by  the  Pauli- 
cians, and  in  earlier  times  by  the  Mani- 
cheans, that  I  do  not  see  how  we  can 
reasonably  deny  what  is  confirmed  by 
separate  and  uncontradictory  testimo- 
nies, and  contains  no  intrinsic  want  of 
probability.! 


trines  prevailed  more  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Albi 
than  elsewhere.  The  main  position  is,  that  a  large 
part  of  the  Languedocian  heretics  against  whom 
the  crusade  was  directed  had  imbibed  the  Pauli- 
cian  opinions.  If  any  one  chooses  rather  to  call 
them  Catharists,  it  will  not  be  material. 

*  Mat.  Paris,  p.  267.  (A,  D.  1223.)  Circa  dies 
istos,  haeretici  Albigenses  constituerunt  sibi  An- 
tipapam  in  finibus  Bulgarorum,  Croatiae  et  Dal- 
matiae,  nomine  Bartholomaeum,  &c.  We  are  as- 
sured by  good  authorities  that  Bosnia  was  full  of 
Manicheans  and  Arians  as  late  as  the  middle  of  the 
fifteenth  century. — ^Eneas  Sylvius,  p.  407.  Spon- 
danus,  ad  ann.  1460.  Mosheim. 

t  There  has  been  so  prevalent  a  disposition 
among  English  divines  to  vindicate  not  only  the 
morals  and  sincerity,  but  the  orthodoxy  of  these 
Albigenses,  that  I  deern  it  necessary  to  confirm 
what  I  have  said  in  the  text  by  some  authorities, 
especially  as  few  readers  have  it  in  their  power  to 
examine  this  very  obscure  subject.  Petrus  Mo- 
nachus,  a  Cistercian  monk,  who  wrote  a  history  of 
the  crusades  against  the  Albigenses,  gives  an  ac- 
count of  the  tenets  maintained  by  the  different 
heretical  sects.  Many  of  them  asserted  two  prin- 
ciples or  creative  beings ;  a  good  one  for  things 
invisible,  an  evil  one  for  things  visible ;  the  former 
author  of  the  New  Testament,  the  latter  of  the 
Old.  Novurn  Testamentum  benigno  deo,  vetus 
vero  maligno  attribuebant ;  et  illud  omnino  repu- 
diabant,  praeter  quasdam  auctoritates,  quas  de  Ve- 
teri  Testamento,  Novo  sunt  inserts?,  quas  ob  Novi 
reverentiam  Testament!,  recipere  dignum  aestima- 
bant.  A  vast  number  of  strange  errors  are  imputed 
to  them,  most  of  which  are  not  mentioned  by  Ala- 
nus,  a  more  dispassionate  writer. — Du  Chesne, 
Scriptores  Francorum,  t.  v.,  p.  556.  This  Alanus 
de  Insulis,  whose  treatise  against  heretics,  written 
about  1200,  was  published  by  Masson  at  Lyons  in 
1612,  has  left,  I  think,  conclusive  evidence  of  the 
Manicheism  of  the  Albigenses.  He  states  their  ar- 
gument upon  every  disputed  point  as  fairly  as  pos- 
sible, though  his  refutation  is  of  course  more  at 
length.  It  appears  that  great  discrepances  of 
opinion  existed  among  these  heretics,  but  the  gen- 
eral tenour  of  their  doctrines  is  evidently  Mani- 
chean. Aiunt  haeretici  temporis  nostri  quod  duo 
suntprincipiarerum,  principiumlucis  et  principium 
tenebrarum,  &c.  This  opinion,  strange  as  we  may 
think  it,  was  supported  by  Scriptural  texts ;  so  in- 
sufficient is  a  mere  acquaintance  with  the  sacred 
writings  to  secure  unlearned  and  prejudiced  minds 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


505 


But  though  the  derivation  of  these  her- 
etics called  Albigenses  from  Bulgaria  is 
sufficiently  proved,  it  is  by  no  means  to 
be  concluded  that  all  who  incurred  the 
same  imputation  either  derived  their  faith 
from  the  same  country,  or  had  adopted 
the  Manichean  theory  of  the  Paulicians. 
From  the  very  invectives  of  their  ene- 
mies, and  the  acts  of  the  inquisition,  it  is 
manifest  that  almost  every  shade  of  het- 
erodoxy was  found  among  these  dissi- 
dents, till  it  vanished  in  a  single  protest- 
ation against  the  wealth  and  tyranny  of 
the  clergy.  Those  who  were  absolutely 
free  from  any  taint  of  Manicheism  are 
properly  called  Waldenses ;  a  name  per- 
petually confounded  in  later  times  with 
that  of  Albigenses,  but  distinguishing  a 
sect  probably  of  separate  origin,  and  at 
least  of  different  tenets.  These,  according 
Waldenses  to  ^J16  majority  of  writers,  took 
their  appellation  from  Peter 
Waldo,  a  merchant  of  Lyons,  the  parent, 
about  the  year  1160,  of  a  congregation  of 
seceders  from  the  church,  who  spread 
very  rapidly  over  France  and  Germany.* 

from  the  wildest  perversions  of  their  meaning! 
Some  denied  the  reality  of  Christ's  body ;  others 
his  being  the  Son  of  God ;  many  the  resurrection 
of  the  body;  some  even  of  a  future  state.  They 
asserted  in  general  the  Mosaic  law  to  have  pro- 
ceeded from  the  devil,  proving  this  by  the  crimes 
committed  during  its  dispensation,  arid  by  the  words 
of  St.  Paul,  "the  law  entered  that  sin  might 
abound."  They  rejected  infant  baptism,  but  were 
divided  as  to  the  reason  ;  some  saying  that  infants 
could  not  sin,  and  did  not  need  baptism ;  others, 
that  they  could  not  be  saved  without  faith,  and 
consequently  that  it  was  useless.  They  held  sin 
after  baptism  to  be  irremissible.  It  does  not  appear 
that  they  rejected  either  of  the  sacraments.  They 
laid  great  stress  upon  the  imposition  of  hands, 
which  seems  to  have  been  their  distinctive  rite. 

One  circumstance,  which  both  Alanus  and  Rob- 
ertus  Monachus  mention,  and  which  other  author- 
ities confirm,  is  their  division  into  two  classes  ;  the 
Perfect,  and  the  Credentes,  or  Consolati,  both  of 
which  appellations  are  used.  The  former  abstain- 
ed from  animal  food  and  from  marriage,  and  led  in 
every  respect  an  austere  life.  The  latter  were  a 
kind  of  lay  brethren,  living  in  a  secular  manner. 
This  distinction  is  thoroughly  Manichean,  and 
leaves  no  doubt  as  to  the  origin  of  the  Albigenses. 
See  Beausobre,  Hist,  du  Manicheisme,  t.  ii.,  p. 
762  and  777.  This  candid  writer  represents  the 
early  Manicheans  as  a  harmless  and  austere  set 
of  enthusiasts,  exactly  what  the  Paulicians  and 
Albigenses  appear  to  have  been  in  succeeding  ages. 
As  many  calumnies  were  vented  against  one  as  the 
other. 

*  The  contemporary  writers  seem  uniformly  to 
represent  Waldo  as  the  founder  of  the  Waldenses  ; 
and  I  arn  not  aware  that  they  refer  the  locality  of 
that  sect  to  the  valleys  of  Piedmont,  between  Ex- 
iles and  Pignerol  (see  Leger's  map),  which  have 
so  long  been  distinguished  as  the  native  country  of 
the  Vaudois.  In  the  acts  of  the  inquisition,  we 
find  Waldenses,  sive  pauperes  de  Lugduno,  used 
as  equivalent  terms ;  and  it  can  hardly  be  doubted 
that  the  poor  men  of  Lyons  were  the  disciples  of 
Waldo.  Alanus,  the  second  book  of  whose  treatise 


According  to  others,  the  original  Wal- 
denses were  a  race  of  uncorrupted  shep- 
herds, who,  in  the  valleys  of  the  Alps, 
had  shaken  off,  or  perhaps  never  learned, 
the  system  of  superstition  on  which  the 
Catholic  church  depended  for  its  ascend- 
ency. I  am  not  certain  whether  their 
existence  can  be  distinctly  traced  beyond 
the  preaching  of  Waldo,  but  it  is  well 
known  that  the  proper  seat  of  the  Wal- 
denses or  Vaudois  has  long  continued  to 
be  in  certain  valleys  of  Piedmont.  These 
pious  and  innocent  sectaries,  of  whom 
the  very  monkish  historians  speak  well, 
appear  to  have  nearly  resembled  the 
modern  Moravians.  They  had  ministers 
of  their  own  appointment,  and  denied 
the  lawfulness  of  oaths  and  of  capital 


against  heretics  is  an  attack  upon  the  Waldenses, 
expressly  derives  them  from  Waldo.  Petrus  Mo- 
nachus does  the  same.  These  seem  strong  author- 
ities, as  it  is  not  easy  to  perceive  what  advantage 
they  could  derive  from  misrepresentation.  It  has 
been,  however,  a  position  zealously  maintained  by 
some  modern  writers  of  respectable  name,  that  the 
people  of  the  valleys  had  preserved  a  pure  faith 
for  several  ages  before  the  appearance  of  Waldo. 
I  have  read  what  is  advanced  on  this  head  by  Le- 
ger  (Histoire  des  Eglises  Vaudoises),  and  by  Allix 
(Remarks  on  the  Ecclesiastical  History  of  the 
Churches  of  Piedmont),  but  without  finding  any 
sufficient  proof  for  this  supposition,  which,  never- 
theless, is  not  to  be  rejected  as  absolutely  improb- 
able.  Their  best  argument  is  deduced  from  an  an- 
cient poem  called  La  Noble  LoiQon,  an  original 
manuscript  of  which  is  in  the  public  library  of 
Cambridge.  This  poem  is  alleged  to  bear  date  in 
1100,  more  than  half  a  century  before  the  appear- 
ance of  Waldo.  But  the  lines  that  contain  the 
date  are  loosely  expressed,  and  may  very  well  suit 
with  any  epoch  before  the  termination  of  the 
twelfth  century. 

Ben  ha  mil  et  cent  ans  compli  entierament 
Che  fu  scritta  loro  que  sen  al  derier  temp. 
Eleven  hundred  years  are  now  gone  and  past, 
Since  thus  it  was  written ;  these  times  are  the  last. 
I  have  found,  however,  a  passage  in  a  late  work, 
which  remarkably  illustrates  the  antiquity  of  Al- 
pine protestantism,  if  we  may  depend  on  the  date 
it  assigns  to  the  quotation.  Mr.  Planta's  History 
of  Swisserland,  p.  93, 4to  edit.,  contains  the  follow- 
ing note.  "  A  curious  passage,  singularly  descrip- 
tive of  the  character  of  the  Swiss,  has  lately  been 
discovered  in  a  MS.  chronicle  of  the  abbey  of  Cor- 
vey,  which  appears  to  have  been  written  about  the 
beginning  of  the  twelfth  century.  Religionem  nos- 
tram,  et  omnium  Latins  ecclesiae  Christianorum 
fidem,  laici  ex  Suavia,  Suicia,  et  Bavaria  humiliare 
voluerunt ;  homines  seducti  ab  antiqua  progenie 
simplicium  hominum,  qui  Alpes  et  viciniam  habi- 
tant, et  semper  amant  antiqua.  In  Suaviam,  Ba- 
variam  et  Italmm  borealem  ssepe  intrant  illorum 
(ex  Suicia)  mercatores,  qui  biblia  ediscunt  memo- 
riter,  et  ritus  ecclesise  aversantur,  quos  credunt  esse 
novos.  Nolunt  imagines  veneran,  reliquias  sanc- 
torum aversantur,  olera  comedunt,  raro  mastican- 
tes  carnem,  alii  nunquam.  Appellamus  eos  idcir- 
co  Manichaeos.  Horum  quidam  ab  Hungaria  ad 
eos  convenerunt,"  &c.  It  is  a  pity  that  the  quota- 
tion has  been  broken  off,  as  it  might  have  illus- 
trated the  connexion  of  the  Bulgarians  with  these 
sectaries. 


506 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX, 


punishment.  In  other  respects  their 
opinions  probably  were  not  far  removed 
from  those  usually  called  Protestant. 
A  simplicity  of  dress,  and  especially 
the  use  of  wooden  sandals,  was  affect- 
ed by  this  people.* 

I  have  already  had  occasion  to  relate 
the  severe  persecution  which  nearly  ex- 
terminated the  Albigenses  of  Languedoc 
at  the  close  of  the  twelfth  century,  and 
involved  the  counts  of  Toulouse  in  their 
ruin.  The  Catharists,  a  fraternity  of  the 
same  Paulician  origin,  more  dispersed 
than  the  Albigenses,  had  previously  sus- 
tained a  similar  trial.  Their  belief  was 
certainly  a  compound  of  strange  errors 
with  truth ;  but  it  was  attended  by  quali- 
ties of  a  far  superior  lustre  to  orthodoxy, 
by  a  sincerity,  a  piety,  and  a  self-devo- 
tion, that  almost  purified  the  age  in  which 
they  lived. f  It  is  always  important  to 


*  The  Waldenses  were  always  considered  as 
much  less  erroneous  in  their  tenets  than  the  Albi- 
genses or  Manicheans.  Erant  praeterea  alii  hasre- 
tici,  says  Robert  Monachus  in  the  passage  above 
quoted,  qui  Waldenses  dicebantur,  a  quodam  Wal- 
dio  nomine  Lugdunensi.  Hi  quidem  mali  erant, 
sed  comparatipne  aliorum  haereticorum  longe  mi- 
nus perversi;  in  multis  enim  nobiscum  convenie- 
bant,  in  quibusdam  dissentiebant.  The  only  faults 
he  seems  to  impute  to  them  are  the  denial  of  the 
lawfulness  of  oaths  and  capital  punishment,  and 
the  wearing  wooden  shoes.  By  this  peculiarity  of 
wooden  sandals  (sabots)  they  got  the  name  of 
Sabbatati  or  Insabbatati.—  (Du  Cange.)  William 
du  Puy,  another  historian  of  the  same  time,  makes 
a  similar  distinction.  Erant  quidam  Ariani,  qui- 
dam  Manichaei,  quidam  etiam  Waldenses  sive  Lug- 
dunenses,  qui  licet  inter  se  dissides,  omnes  tamen 
in  animarum  perniciem  contra  fidem  Catholicam 
conspirabant  ;  et  illi  quidem  Waldenses  contra  ali- 
os  acutissime  disputant.—  Du  Chesne,  t.  v.,  p.  666. 
Alanus,  in  his  second  book,  where  he  treats  of  the 
Waldenses,  charges  them  principally  with  disre- 
garding the  authority  of  the  church  and  preaching 
without  a  regular  mission.  It  is  evident,  however, 
from  the  acts  of  the  Inquisition,  that  they  denied 
the  existence  of  purgatory  ;  and  I  should  suppose 
that,  even  at  that  time,  they  had  thrown  off  most 
of  the  popish  system  of  doctrine,  which  is  so  near- 
ly connected  with  clerical  wealth  and  power.  The 
difference  made  in  these  records  between  the  Wal- 
denses and  the  Manichean  sects,  shows  that  the 
imputations  cast  upon  the  latter  were  not  indiscrim- 
inate calumnies.  See  Limborch,  p.  201  and  228. 

The  History  of  Languedoc,  by  Vaissette  and 
Vich,  contains  a  very  good  account  of  the  secta- 
ries in  that  country  ;  but  I  have  not  immediate  ac- 
cess to  the  book.  I  believe  that  proof  will  be 
found  of  the  distinction  between  the  Waldenses 
and  Albigenses  in  t.  hi.,  p.  466.  But  I  am  satisfied 
that  no  one  who  has  looked  at  the  original  author- 
ities will  dispute  the  proposition.  These  Beneelic- 
tin  historians  represent  the  Henricians,  an  early 
sect  of  reformers,  condemned  by  the  council  of 
Lombez,  in  1165,  as  Manichees.  Mosheim  consid- 
ers them  as  of  the  Vaudois  school.  They  appeared 
some  time  before  Waldo. 

t  The  general  testimony  of  their  enemies  to  the 
rity  of  morals  among  the  Langnedocian  and 
y  nese  sectaries  is  abundantly  sufficient.  One 


pu 
L 


perceive  that  these  high  moral  excellen- 
ces have  no  necessary  connexion  with 
speculative  truths ;  and  upon  this  account 
I  have  been  more  disposed  to  state  ex- 
plicitly the  real  Manicheism  of  the  Albi- 
genses ;  especially  as  Protestant  writers, 
considering  all  the  enemies  of  Rome  as 
their  friends,  have  been  apt  to  place  the 
opinions  of  these  sectaries  in  a  very  false 
light.  In  the  course  of  time,  undoubtedly, 
the  system  of  their  Paulician  teachers 
would  have  yielded,  if  the  inquisitors  had 
admitted  the  experiment,  to  a  more  ac- 
curate study  of  the  Scriptures,  and  to  the 
knowledge  which  they  would  have  im- 
bibed from  the  church  itself.  And,  in 
fact,  we  find  that  the  peculiar  tenets  of 
Manicheism  died  away  after  the  middle 
of  the  thirteenth  century,  although  a 
spirit  of  dissent  from  the  established 
creed  broke  out  in  abundant  instances 
during  the  two  subsequent  ages. 

We  are  in  general  deprived  of  explicit 
testimonies  in  tracing  the  revolutions  of 
popular  opinion.  Much  must  therefore 
be  left  to  conjecture ;  but  I  am  inclined 
to  attribute  a  very  extensive  effect  to  the 
preaching  of  these  heretics.  They  ap- 
pear in  various  countries  nearly  during 
the  same  period,  in  Spain.  Lombardy, 
Germany,  Flanders,  and  England,  as  well 
as  France.  Thirty  unhappy  persons  con- 
victed of  denying  the  sacraments,  are 
said  to  have  perished  at  Oxford  by  cold 


Regnier,  who  had  lived  among  them,  and  became 
afterward  an  inquisitor,  does  them  justice  in  this 
respect. — See  Turner's  History  of  England  for  sev- 
eral other  proofs  of  this.  It  must  be  confessed, 
that  the  Catharists  are  not  free  from  the  imputa- 
tion of  promiscuous  licentiousness.  But  whether 
this  was  a  mere  calumny,  or  partly  founded  upon 
truth,  I  cannot  determine.  Their  prototypes,  the 
ancient  Gnostics,  are  said  to  have  been  divided 
into  two  parties,  the  austere  and  the  relaxed  ;  both 
condemning  marriage  for  opposite  reasons.  Ala- 
nus,  in  the  book  above  quoted,  seems  to  have 
taken  up  several  vulgar  prejudices  against  the 
Cathari.  He  gives  an  etymology  of  their  name 
a  catta ;  quia  osculantur  posteriora  catti ;  in  cujus 
specie,  ut  aiunt,  appareret  iis  Lucifer,  p.  146.  This 
notable  charge  was  brought  afterward  against  the 
Templars. 

As  to  the  Waldsnses,  their  innocence  is  out  of 
all  doubt.  No  book  can  be  written  in  a  more  edi- 
fying manner  than  La  Noble  Loi<jon,  of  which  large 
extracts  are  given  by  Leger,  in  his  Histoire  des 
Eglises  Vaudoises.  Four  lines  are  quoted  by  Vol- 
taire (Hist.  Universelle,  c.  69)  as  a  specimen  of 
the  Provencal  language,  though  they  belong  rather 
to  the  patois  of  the  valleys.  But  as  he  has  not 
copied  them  rightly,  and  as  they  illustrate  the  sub- 
ject of  this  note,  I  shall  repeat  them  here  from 
Leger,  p.  28. 
Que  sel  se  troba  alcun  bon  que  vollia  amar  Dio 

e  terner  Jeshu  Xrist, 

Que  non  vollia  maudire,  ni  jura,  ni  mentir, 
Ni  avoutrar,  ni  aucire,  ni  penre  de  1'autruy, 
Ni  venjar  se  de  li  sio  ennemie, 
Illi  dison  quel  es  Vaudes  e  degne  de  murir. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OP  SOCIETY. 


507 


and  famine  in  the  reign  of  Henry  I 
In  every  country  the  new  sects  appea 
to  have  spread  chiefly  among  the  lowe 
people,  which,  while  it  accounts  for  th 
imperfect  notice  of  historians,  indicate 
a  more  substantial  influence  upon  th 
moral  condition  of  society  than  the  con 
version  of  a  few  nobles  or  ecclesiastics. 
But  even  where  men  did  not  absolutel 
enlist  under  the  banners  of  any  new  sec 
they  were  stimulated  by  the  temper  o 
their  age  to  a  more  zealous  and  inde 


*  It  would  be  difficult  to  specify  all  the  disperse 
authorities  which  attest  the  existence  of  the  sect 
derived  from  the  Waldenses  and  Paulicians  in  th 
twelfth,  thirteenth,  and  fourteenth  centuries.  Be 
sides  Mosheim,  who  has  paid  considerable  atten 
tion  to  the  subject,  I  would  mention  some  article 
in  Du  Cange  which  supply  gleanings;  namely 
Beghardi,  Bulgari,  Lollardi,  Paterini,  Picardi,  Pifli 
Populicani. 

Upon  the  subject  of  the  Waldenses  and  Albi 
genses  generally,  I  have  borrowed  some  light  from 
Mr.  Turner's  History  of  England,  vol.  ii.,  p.  377 
393.  This  learned  writer  has  seen  some  books  tha 
have  not  fallen  into  my  way  ;  and  I  am  indebted  to 
him  for  a  knowledge  of  Alanus's  treatise,  which  '. 
have  since  read.  At  the  same  time  I  must  observe 
that  Mr.  Turner  has  not  perceived  the  essentia 
distinction  between  the  two  leading  sects. 

The  name  of  Albigenses  does  not  frequently 
occur  after  the  middle  of  the  thirteenth  century 
but  the  Waldenses,  or  sects  bearing  that  denomi- 
nation, were  dispersed  over  Europe.  As  a  term 
of  different  reproach  was  derived  from  the  wore 
Bulgarian,  so  vauderie,  or  the  profession  of  the 
Vaudois,  was  sometimes  applied  to  witchcraft. 
Thus,  in  the  proceedings  of  the  Chambre  Brulante 
at  Arras,  in  1459,  against  persons  accused  of  sor- 
cery, their  crime  is  denominated  vauderie.  The 
fullest  account  of  this  remarkable  story  is  found  in 
the  Memoirs  of  Du  Clercq,  first  published  in  the 
general  collection  of  Historical  Memoirs,  t.  ix.,  p. 
430,  471.  It  exhibits  a  complete  parallel  to  the 
events  that  happened  in  1682  at  Salem,  in  New- 
England.  A  few  obscure  persons  were  accused  of 
vauderie,  or  witchcraft.  After  their  condemnation, 
which  was  founded  on  confessions  obtained  by  tor- 
ture, and  afterward  retracted,  an  epidemical  conta- 
gion of  superstitious  dread  was  diffused  all  around. 
Numbers  were  arrested,  burnt  alive  by  order  of  a 
tribunal  instituted  for  the  detection  of  this  offence, 
or  detained  in  prison ;  so  that  no  person  in  Arras 
thought  himself  safe.  It  was  believed  that  many 
were  accused  for  the  sake  of  their  possessions, 
which  were  confiscated  to  the  use  of  the  church. 
At  length  the  Duke  of  Burgundy  interfered,  and 
put  a  stop  to  the  persecutions.  The  whole  narra- 
tive in  Du  Clercq  is  interesting,  as  a  curious  docu- 
ment of  the  tyranny  of  bigots,  and  of  the  facility 
with  which  it  is  turned  to  private  ends. 

To  return  to  the  Waldenses  :  the  principal  course 
of  their  emigration  is  said  to  have  been  into  Bohe- 
mia, where,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  the  name  was 
borne  by  one  of  the  seceding  sects.  By  their  pro- 
fession of  faith,  presented  to  Ladislaus  Posthumus, 
it  appears  that  they  acknowledged  the  corporal  pres- 
ence in  the  eucharist,  but  rejected  purgatory  and 
other  Romish  doctrines.  See  it  in  the  Fasciculus 
Rerum  expetendarum  et  fugiendarum,  a  collection 
of  treatises  illustrating  the  origin  of  the  Reforma- 
tion, originally  published  at  Cologne  in  1535,  and 
reprinted  at  London  in  1690. 


pendent  discussion  of  their  religious  sys- 
tem.   A  curious  illustration  of  this   is 
furnished  by  one  of  the  letters  of  Inno- 
cent III.     He  had  been  informed  by  the 
Bishop  of  Metz,  as  he  states  to  the  clergy 
of  the  diocess,  that  no  small  multitude  of 
laymen  and  women  having  procured  a 
translation  of  the  gospels,  epistles  of  St. 
Paul,  the  psalter,  Job,  and  other  books 
of  Scripture,  to  be  made  for  them  into 
French,  meet  in  secret  conventicles  to 
hear  them  read,  and  preach  to  each  other, 
avoiding  the  company  of  those  who  do 
not  join  in  their  devotion,  and  having 
been  reprimanded  for  this  by  some  of 
their  parish  priests,  have  withstood  them, 
alleging  reasons  from  the  Scriptures  why 
they  should  not  be  so  forbidden.     Some 
of  them  too  deride  the  ignorance  of  their 
ministers,  and  maintain  that  their  own 
books  teach  them  more  than  they  can 
learn  from  the  pulpit,  and  that  they  can 
express  it  better.     Although  the  desire 
of  reading  the  Scriptures,  Innocent  pro- 
ceeds, is  rather  praiseworthy  than  rep- 
rehensible, yet  they  are  to  be  blamed  for 
frequenting  secret  assemblies,  for  usurp- 
"ng  the  office  of  preaching,  deriding  their 
own  ministers,  and  scorning  the  company 
of  such  as  do  not  concur  in  their  novel- 
ies.     He  presses  the  bishop  and  chap- 
er  to  discover  the  author  of  this  trans- 
ation,  which  could  not  have  been  made 
without  a  knowledge  of  letters,  and  what 
were  his  intentions,  and  what  degree  of 
rthodoxy  and  respect  for  the  Holy  See 
hose  who  used  it  possessed.     This  let- 
er  of  Innocent  III.,  however,  consider- 
ng  the  nature  of  the  man,  is  sufficiently 
emperate   and  conciliatory.     It  seems 
lot  to  have   answered  its  end;   for  in 
another  letter  he  complains  that  some 
members  of  this  little  association  con- 
inued  refractory,  and  refused  to  obey 
ither  the  bishop  or  the  pope.* 
In    the   eighth   and    ninth    centuries, 
vhen  the  Vulgate  had  ceased  to  be  gen- 
rally  intelligible,  there  is  no  reason  to 
uspect  any  intention  in  the  church   to 
eprive    the     laity    of   the    Scriptures, 
^ranslations  were  freely  made  into  the 
ernacular  languages,  and  perhaps  read 
n  churches,  although  the  acts  of  saints 
ere  generally  deemed  more  instructive. 
Louis  the    Debonair    is    said   to    have 
aused   a  German  version  of  the  New 
estament  to  be  made.     Otfrid,  in  the 
ame  century,  rendered  the  gospels,  or 


*  Opera  Innocent.  III.,  p.  468,  537.  A  transla- 
on  of  the  Bible  had  been  made  by  direction  of 
eter  Waldo;  but  whether  this  used  in  Lomrin 
as  the  same,  does  not  appear.  Metz  was  full  of 
the  Vaudois,  as  we  find  by  other  authorities. 


508 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


rather  abridged  them,  into  German  verse. 
This  work  is  still  extant,  and  is  in  sev- 
eral respects  an  object  of  curiosity.*  In 
the  eleventh  or  twelfth  century,  we  find 
translations  of  the  Psalms,  Job,  and  the 
Maccabees  into  French. f  But  after  the 
diffusion  of  heretical  opinions,  or,  what 
was  much  the  same  thing,  of  free  inquiry, 
it  became  expedient  to  secure  the  ortho- 
dox faith  from  lawless  interpretation. 
Accordingly  the  council  of  Toulouse,  in 
1229,  prohibited  the  laity  from  posses- 
sing the  Scriptures ;  and  this  precaution 
was  frequently  repeated  upon  subsequent 
occasions. 

The  ecclesiastical  history  of  the  thir- 
teenth or  fourteenth  centuries  teems 
with  new  sectaries  and  schismatics,  va- 
rious in  their  aberrations  of  opinion,  but 
all  concurring  in  detestation  of  the  estab- 
lished church.J  They  endured  severe 
persecutions  with  a  sincerity  and  firm- 
ness which  in  any  cause  ought  to  com- 
mand respect.  But  in  general  we  find 
an  extravagant  fanaticism  among  them  ; 
and  I  do  not  know  how  to  look  for  any 
amelioration  of  society  from  the  Fran- 
ciscan seceders,  who  quibbled  about  the 
property  of  things  consumed  by  use,  or 
from  the  mystical  visionaries  of  different 
appellations,  whose  moral  practice  was 
sometimes  more  than  equivocal.  Those 
who  feel  any  curiosity  about  such  sub- 
jects, which  are  by  no  means  unimpor- 
tant, as  they  illustrate  the  history  of  the 
human  mind,  will  find  them  treated  very 
fully  by  Mosheim.  But  the  original 
sources  of  information  are  not  always 
accessible  in  this  country,  and  the  re- 
search would  perhaps  be  more  fatiguing 
than  profitable. 

I  shall,  for  an  opposite  reason,  pass 
Loiinrds  of  lightly  over  the  great  revolution 
England.  m  religious  opinion  wrought  in 
England  by  Wicliffe,  which  will  gen- 
erally be  familiar  to  the  reader  from  our 
common  historians.  Nor  am  I  concern- 
ed to  treat  of  theological  inquiries,  or  to 
write  a  history  of  the  church.  Consid- 
ered in  its  effect  upon  manners,  the  sole 
point  which  these  pages  have  in  view, 
the  preaching  of  this  new  sect  certainly 


*  Schilteri    Thesaurus  Antiq.   Teutonicorum, 
t.ii. 

t  Mem.  de  I'Acad.  des  Inscript.,  t.  xvii.,  p.  720. 
j  The  application  of  the  visions  of  the  Apoca- 
lypse to  the  corruptions  of  Rome  has  commonly 
been  said  to  have  been  first  made  by  the  Francis- 
can seceders.  But  it  may  be  traced  higher,  and  is 
remarkably  pointed  out  by  Dante. 

Di  voi  pastor  s'  accorse  '1  Vangelista, 
Quando  colei,  chi  siede  sovra  1'  acque, 
jfyjtaneggiar  co'  regi  a  lui  fii  vista. 

Inferno,  cant.  xbc. 


produced  an  extensive  reformation.  But 
their  virtues  were  by  no  means  free  from 
some  unsocial  qualities,  in  which,  as 
well  as  in  their  superior  attributes,  the 
Lollards  bear  a  very  close  resemblance 
to  the  Puritans  of  Elizabeth's  reign :  a 
moroseness  that  proscribed  all  cheerful 
amusements,  an  uncharitable  malignity 
that  made  no  distinction  in  condemning 
the  established  clergy,  and  a  narrow  pre- 
judice that  applied  the  rules  of  the  Jew- 
ish law  to  modern  institutions.*  Some 
of  their  principles  were  far  more  danger- 
ous to  the  good  order  of  society,  and 
cannot  justly  be  ascribed  to  the  Puritans, 
though  they  grew  afterward  out  of  the 
same  soil.  Such  was  the  notion,  which 
is  imputed  also  to  the  Albigenses,  that 
civil  magistrates  lose  their  right  to  gov- 
ern by  committing  sin,  or,  as  it  was  quaint- 
ly expressed  in  the  seventeenth  century, 
that  dominion  is  founded  in  grace.  These 
extravagances,  however,  do  not  belong 
to  the  learned  and  politic  Wicliffe,  how- 
ever they  might  be  adopted  by  some  of 
his  enthusiastic  disciples. f  Fostered  by 
the  general  ill-will  towards  the  church, 
his  principles  made  vast  progress  in 
England,  and,  unlike  those  of  earlier 
sectaries,  were  embraced  by  men  of 
rank  and  civil  influence.  Notwithstand- 
ing the  check  they  sustained  by  the  san- 
guinary law  of  Henry  IV.,  it  is  highly 
probable  that  multitudes  secretly  cherish- 
ed them  down  to  the  era  of  the  Reform- 
ation. 

From  England  the  spirit  of  religious 
innovation  was  propagated  into  Hussites  of 
Bohemia ;  for  though  John  Huss  Bohemia, 
was  very  far  from  embracing  all  the  doc- 
trinal systems  of  Wicliffe,  it  is  manifest 
that  his  zeal  had  been  quickened  by  the 


*  Walsingham,  p.  238.  Lewis's  Life  of  Pea- 
cock, p.  65.  Bishop  Peacock's  answer  to  the  Lol- 
lards of  his  time  contains  passages  well  worthy  of 
Hooker,  both  for  weight  of  matter  and  dignity  of 
style,  setting  forth  the  necessity  and  importance  of 
"  the  moral  law  of  kinde,  or  moral  philosophic,"  in 
opposition  to  those  who  derive  all  morality  from 
revelation. 

This  great  man  fell  afterward  under  the  dis- 
pleasure of  the  church  for  propositions,  not  indeed 
heretical,  but  repugnant  to  her  scheme  of  spiritual 
power.  He  asserted  indirectly  the  right  of  pri- 
vate judgment,  and  wrote  on  theological  subjects 
in  English,  which  gave  much  offence.  In  fact, 
Peacock  seems  to  have  hoped  that  his  acute  rea- 
soning would  convince  the  people,  without  requi* 
ring  an  implicit  faith.  But  he  greatly  misunder- 
stood the  principle  of  an  infallible  church.  Lew- 
is's Life  of  Peacock  does  justice  to  his  character, 
which,  I  need  not  say,  is  unfairly  represented  by 
such  historians  as  Collier,  and  such  antiquaries  as 
Thomas  Hearne. 

t  Lewis's  Life  of  Wicliffe,  p.  115.  Lenfant, 
Hist,  du  Concilede  Constance,  t.  i.,  p.  213. 


PART  ll.j 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY 


writings  of  that  reformer.*  Inferior  to 
the  Englishman  in  ability,  but  exciting 
greater  attention  by  his  constancy  and 
sufferings,  as  well  as  by  the  memorable 
war  which  his  ashes  kindled,  the  Bohe- 
mian martyr  was  even  more  eminently 
the  precursor  of  the  Reformation.  But 
still  regarding  these  dissensions  merely  in 
a  temporal  light,  I  cannot  assign  any  ben- 
eficial effect  to  the  schism  of  the  Hussites, 
at  least  in  its  immediate  results,  and  in 
the  country  where  it  appeared.  Though 
some  degree  of  sympathy  with  their 
cause  is  inspired  by  resentment  at  the  ill 
faith  of  their  adversaries,  and  by  the  as- 
sociations of  civil  and  religious  liberty, 
we  cannot  estimate  the  Taborites  and 
other  sectaries  of  that  description  but  as 
ferocious  and  desperate  fanatics. f  Per- 
haps beyond  the  confines  of  Bohemia, 
more  substantial  good  may  have  been 
produced  by  the  influence  of  its  reforma- 
tion, and  a  better  tone  of  morals  inspired 
into  Germany.  But  I  must  again  repeat, 
that  upon  this  obscure  and  ambiguous 
subject  I  assert  nothing  definitely,  and 
little  with  confidence.  The  tendencies 
of  religious  dissent  in  the  four  ages  be- 
fore the  Reformation  appear  to  have  gen- 
erally conduced  towards  the  moral  im- 
provement of  mankind ;  and  facts  of  this 
nature  occupy  a  far  greater  space  in  a 
philosophical  view  of  society  during  that 
period  than  we  might  at  first  imagine; 
but  every  one  who  is  disposed  to  prose- 
cute this  inquiry  will  assign  their  charac- 
ter according  to  the  result  of  his  own 
investigations. 

But  the  best  school  of  moral  discipline 
institution  which  the  middle  ages  afforded 
of  chivalry.  was  the  institution  of  chivalry. 
There  is  something  perhaps  to  allow  for 
the  partiality  of  modern  writers  upon  this 
interesting  subject;  yet  our  most  skepti- 
cal criticism  must  assign  a  decisive  influ- 
ence to  this  great  source  of  human  im- 
provement. The  more  deeply  it  is  con- 
sidered, the  more  we  shall  become  sensi- 
ble of  its  importance. 

There  are,  if  I  may  so  say,  three  pow- 

*  Huss  does  not  appear  to  have  rejected  any  of 
the  peculiar  tenets  of  popery. — Lenfant,  p.  414.  He 
embraced,  like  Wicliffe,  the  predestinarian  system 
of  Augustin,  without  pausing  at  any  of  those  infer- 
ences, apparently  deducible  from  it,  which,  in  the 
heads  of  enthusiasts,  may  produce  such  extensive 
mischief.  These  were  maintained  by  Huss  (id.,  p. 
328),  though  not  perhaps  so  crudely  as  by  Luther. 
Every  thing  relative  to  the  history  and  doctrine  of 
Huss  and  his  followers  will  be  found  in  Lenfant's 
three  works,  on  the  councils  of  Pisa,  Constance, 
and  Basle. 

t  Lenfant,  Hist,  de  la  Guerre  des  Hussites  et  du 
Concile  de  Basle.— Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands, 
t.v. 


erful  spirits,  which  have  from  time  to 
time  moved  over  the  face  of  the  waters, 
and  given  a  predominant  impulse  to  the 
moral  sentiments  and  energies  of  man- 
kind. These  are  the  spirits  of  liberty,  of 
religion,  and  of  honour.  It  was  the  prin- 
cipal business  of  chivalry  to  animate  and 
cherish  the  last  of  these  three.  And 
whatever  high  magnanimous  energy  the 
love  of  liberty  or  religious  zeal  has  ever 
imparted,  was  equalled  by  the  exquisite 
sense  of  honour  which  this  institution 
preserved. 

It  appears  probable,  that  the  custom  of 
receiving  arms  at  the  age  of  Its  orj  In 
manhood  with  some  solemnity, 
was  of  immemorial  antiquity  among  the 
nations  that  overthrew  the  Roman  em- 
pire. For  it  is  mentioned  by  Tacitus  to 
have  prevailed  among  their  German  an- ' 
cestors ;  and  his  expressions  might  have 
been  used  with  no  great  variation  to  de- 
scribe the  actual  ceremonies  of  knight- 
hood.* There  was  even  in  that  remote 
age  a  sort  of  public  trial  as  to  the  fitness 
of  the  candidate,  which,  though  perhaps 
confined  to  his  bodily  strength  and  activi- 
ty, might  be  the  germe  of  that  refined  in- 
vestigation which  was  thought  necessary 
in  the  perfect  stage  of  chivalry.  Proofs, 
though  rare  and  incidental,  might  be  ad- 
duced to  show,  that  in  the  time  of  Charle- 
magne, and  even  earlier,  the  sons  of 
monarchs  at  least  did  not  assume  manly 
arms  without  a  regular  investiture.  And 
in  the  eleventh  century,  it  is  evident  that 
this  was  a  general  practice. f 

This  ceremony,  however,  would  per- 
haps of  itself  have  done  little  towards 
forming  that  intrinsic  principle  which 
characterized  the  genuine  chivalry.  But 
in  the  reign  of  Charlemagne  we  find  a 
military  distinction,  that  appears,  in  fact 
as  well  as  in  name,  to  have  given  birth  to 
that  institution.  Certain  feudal  tenants, 
and  I  suppose  also  allodial  proprietors, 
were  bound  to  serve  on  horseback, 
equipped  with  the  coat  of  mail.  These 
were  called  Caballarii,  from  which  the 
word  chevaliers  is  an  obvious  corrup- 

*  Nihil  neque  publicae  neque  privatae  rei  nisi  ar- 
mati  agunt.  Sect  arma  sumere  non  ante  cuiquam 
moris,  quam  civitas  suffecturum  probaverit.  Turn 
in  ipso  concilio,  vel  principum  aliquis,  vel  pater, 
vel  propinquus  scuto  frameaque  juvenem  ornant ; 
haec  apud  eos  toga,  hie  primus  juventae  honos  ;  ante 
hoc  domus  pars  videntur,  mox  reipublicse. — De 
Moribus  German.,  c.  13. 

t  William  of  Malmsbury  says  that  Alfred  con- 
ferred knighthood  on  Athelstan,  donatum  chla- 
myde  cpccinea,  gemmato  balteo,  ense  Saxonico 
cum  vagina  aurea,  1.  ii.,  c.  6.  St.  Palaye  (Memoires 
sur  la  Chevalerie,  p.  2)  mentions  other  instances  ; 
which  may  also  be  found  in  Du  Cange's  Glossary, 
v.  Arma,  and  in  his  22d  dissertation  on  Joinville. 


510 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


tion.*    But  he  who  fought  on  horseback, 
and  had  been  invested  with  peculiar  arms 
in   a    solemn  manner,   wanted   nothing 
more  to  render  him  a  knight.     Chivalry 
therefore  may,  in  a  general  sense,  be  re- 
ferred to  the  age  of  Charlemagne.     We 
may  however  go   farther,   and  observe 
that  these  distinctive  advantages  above 
ordinary  combatants  were  probably  the 
sources  of  that  remarkable  valour  and 
that  keen  thirst  for  glory  which  became 
the  essential   attributes   of   a    knightly 
character.  (For  confidence  in  our  skill 
and  strength  is  the  usual  foundation  of 
courage  :  it  is  by  feeling  ourselves  able 
to  surmount  common  dangers,  that  we 
become  adventurous  enough  to  encounter 
those  of  a  more  extraordinary  nature, 
and  to  which   more  glory  is    attached. 
The    reputation    of    superior    personal 
prowess,  so  difficult  to  be  attained  in  the 
course  of  modern  warfare,  and  so  liable 
to   erroneous  representations,  was    al- 
ways  within  the  reach  of  the  stoutest 
knight,    and    was    founded    on    claims 
which  could  be  measured  with  much  ac- 
curacy.    Such  is  the  subordination  and 
mutual  dependance  in  a  modern  army, 
that  every  man  must  be  content  to  divide 
his  glory  with  his  comrades,  his  general, 
or  his  soldiers.     But  the  soul  of  chivalry 
was  individual  honour,  coveted  in  so  en- 
tire and   absolute   a  perfection,  that  it 
must  not  be  shared  with  an  army  or  a 
nation.     Most  of  the  virtues  it  inspired 
were  what  we  may  call  independent,  as 
opposed  to  those  which  are  founded  upon 
social  relations.     The  knights-errant  of 
romance  perform  their  best  exploits  from 
the  love  of  renown,  or  from  a  sort  of  ab- 
stract sense  of  justice,  rather  than  from 
any  solicitude  to  promote  the  happiness 
of  mankind.     If  these  springs  of  action 
are  less  generally  beneficial,  they  are, 
however,  more  connected  with  elevation 
of  character  than  the   systematic   pru- 
dence of  men  accustomed  to  social  life. 
This  solitary  and  independent  spirit  of 
chivalry,  dwelling,   as  it  were,  upon   a 
rock,   and  disdaining  injustice  or  false- 
hood from  the  consciousness  of  internal 
dignity,  without  any  calculation  of  their 
consequences,   is  not    unlike  what   we 
sometimes  read  of  Arabian  chiefs  or  the 
North  American  Indians. f     These  na- 


*  Comites  et  vassalli  nostri  qui  beneficia  habere 
noscuntur,  et  caballarii  omnes  ad  placitum  nostrum 
yeniant  bene  preparati.— Capitularia,  A.  D.  807, 
in  Baluze,  t.  i.,  p.  460. 

t  We  must  take  for  this  the  more  favourable 
representations  of  the  Indian  nations.  A  deteri- 
orating intercourse  with  Europeans,  or  a  race  of 
European  extraction,  has  tended  to  efface  those 


tions,  so  widely  remote  from  each  other, 
seem  to  partake  of  that  moral  energy, 
which,  among  European  nations,  far  re- 
mote from  both  of  them,  was  excited  by 
the  spirit  of  chivalry.  But  the  most 
beautiful  picture  that  was  ever  portrayed 
of  this  character  is  the  Achilles  of  Ho- 
mer, the  representative  of  chivalry  in  its 
most  general  form,  with  all  its  sincerity 
and  unyielding  rectitude,  all  its  courte- 
sies and  munificence.  Calmly  indiffer- 
ent to  the  cause  in  which  he  is  engaged, 
and  contemplating  with  a  serious  and 
unshaken  look  the  premature  death  that 
awaits  him,  his  heart  only  beats  for  glory 
and  friendship.  To  this  sublime  charac- 
ter, bating  that  imaginary  completion  by 
which  the  creations  of  the  poet,  like 
those  of  the  sculptor,  transcend  all  single 
works  of  nature,  there  were  probably 
many  parallels  in  the  ages  of  chivalry : 
especially  before  a  set  education  and  the 
refinements  of  society  had  altered  a  little 
the  natural  unadulterated  warrior  of  a  ru- 
der period.  One  illustrious  example  from 
this  earlier  age  is  the  Cid  Ruy  Diaz, 
whose  history  has  fortunately  been  pre- 
served much  at  length  in  several  chroni- 
cles of  ancient  date,  and  in  one  valuable 
poem ;  and  though  I  will  not  say  that  the 
Spanish  hero  is  altogether  a  counterpart 
of  Achilles  in  gracefulness  and  urbanity, 
yet  was  he  inferior  to  none  that  ever 
lived  in  frankness,  honour,  and  magna- 
nimity.* 


virtues,  which  possibly  were  rather  exaggerated  by 
earlier  writers. 

*  Since  this  passage  was  written,  I  have  found 
a  parallel  drawn  by  Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  in  his  val- 
uable History  of  England,  between  Achilles  and 
Elichard  Cosur  de  Lion;  the  superior  justness  of 
which  I  readily  acknowledge.  The  real  hero  does 
not  indeed  excite  so  much  interest  in  me  as  the 
poetical ;  but  the  marks  of  resemblance  are  very 
striking,  whether  we  consider  their  passions,  their 
talents,  their  virtues,  their  vices,  or  the  waste  of 
their  heroism. 

The  two  principal  persons  in  the  Iliad,  if  I  may 
digress  into  the  observation,  appear  to  me  repre- 
sentatives of  the  heroic  character  in  its  two  lead- 
ing varieties  ;  of  the  energy  which  has  its  sole 
principle  of  action  within  itself,  and  of  that  .which 
borrows  its  impulse  from  external  relations ;  of  the 
spirit  of  honour,  in  short,  and  of  patriotism.  As 
every  sentiment  of  Achilles  is  independent  and 
self-supported,  so  those  of  Hector  all  bear  refer- 
ence to  his  kindred  and  his  country.  The  ardour 
of  the  one  might  have  been  extinguished  for  want 
of  nourishment  in  Thessaly ;  but  that  of  the  other 
might,  we  fancy,  have  never  been  kindled  but  for 
the  dangers  of  Troy.  Peace  could  have  brought 
no  delight  to  the  one  but  from  the  memory  of  war ; 
war  had  no  alleviation  to  the  other  but  from  the 
images  of  peace.  Compare,  for  example,  the  two 
speeches,  beginning  II.  Z.,  441,  and  II.  II.,  49  ;  or 
rather  compare  the  two  characters  throughout  the 
Iliad.  So  wonderfully  were  those  two  great  springs 
of  human  sympathy,  variously  interesting  accord- 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


611 


In  the  first  state  of  chivalry,  it  was 
Its  connex-  closely  connected  with  the  mil- 
ion  with  itary  service  of  fiefs.  The  Ca- 
feudai  ser-  ballarii  in  the  Capitularies,  the 
Milites  of  the  eleventh  and 
twelfth  centuries,  were  landholders  who 
followed  their  lord  or  sovereign  into  the 
field.  A  certain  value  of  land  was  term- 
ed in  England  a  knight's  fee,  or,  in  Nor- 
mandy, feudum  loricae,  fief  de  haubert, 
from  the  coat  of  mail  which  it  entitled 
and  required  the  tenant  to  wear ;  a  mil- 
itary tenure  was  said  to  be  by  service  in 
chivalry.  To  serve  as  knights,  mounted 
and  equipped,  was  the  common  duty  of 
vassals  ;  it  implied  no  personal  merit,  it 
gave  of  itself  a  claim  to  no  civil  privi- 
leges. But  this  knight- service,  founded 
upon  a  feudal  obligation,  is  to  be  careful- 
ly distinguished  from  that  superior  chiv- 
alry, in  which  all  was  independent  and 
voluntary.  The  latter,  in  fact,  could 
hardly  flourish  in  its  full  perfection  till 
This  con-  the  military  service  of  feudal  ten- 
nexion  ure  began  to  decline  ;  namely,  in 
the  thirteenth  century.  The  or- 
igin of  this  personal  chivalry  I  should 
incline  to  refer  to  the  ancient  usage  of 
voluntary  commendation,  which  I  have 
mentioned  in  a  former  chapter.  Men 
commended  themselves,  that  is,  did 
homage  and  professed  attachment  to  a 
prince  or  lord ;  generally  indeed  for  pro- 
tection or  the  hope  of  reward,  but  some- 
times probably  for  the  sake  of  distin- 
guishing themselves  in  his  quarrels. 
When  they  received  pay,  which  must 
have  been  the  usual  case,  they  were  lit- 
erally his  soldiers  or  stipendiary  troops. 
Those  who  could  afford  to  exert  their 
valour  without  recompense  were  like  the 
knights  of  whom  we  read  in  romance, 
who  served  a  foreign  master  through 
love,  or  thirst  of  glory,  or  gratitude. 
The  extreme  poverty  of  the  lower  nobil- 
ty,  arising  from  the  subdivision  of  fiefs, 
and  the  politic  generosity  of  rich  lords, 
made  this  connexion  as  strong  as  that 
of  territorial  dependance.  A  younger 
brother,  leaving  the  paternal  estate,  in 
which  he  took  a  slender  share,  might 
look  to  wealth  and  dignity  in  the  service 
of  a  powerful  count.  Knighthood,  which 
he  could  not  claim  as  his  legal  right,  be- 
came the  object  of  his  chief  ambition. 
It  raised  him  in  the  scale  of  society, 
equalling  him  in  dress,  in  arms,  and  in 
title,  to  the  rich  landholders.  As  it  was 
due  to  his  merit,  it  did  much  more  than 


ing  to  the  diversity  of  our  tempers,  first  touched 
by  that  ancient  patriarch, 

a  quo,  ceu  fonte  perenni, 
Vatum  Pieriis  ora  rigantur  aquis. 


equal  him  to  those  who  had  no  preten- 
sions but  from  wealth ;  and  the  territo- 
rial knights  became  by  degrees  ashamed 
of  assuming  the  title  till  they  could  chal- 
lenge it  by  real  desert. 

This  class  of  noble  and  gallant  cava- 
liers, serving  commonly  for  Effect  of  the 
pay,  but  on  the  most  honoura-  crusades  on 
ble  footing,  became  far  more  chivalry- 
numerous  through  the  crusades  ;  a  great 
epoch  in  the  history  of  European  socie- 
ty. In  these  wars,  as  all  feudal  service 
was  out  of  the  question,  it  was  necessa- 
ry for  the  richer  barons  to  take  into  their 
pay  as  many  knights  as  they  could  afford 
to  maintain  :  speculating,  so  far  as  such 
motives  operated,  on  an  influence  with 
the  leaders  of  the  expedition,  and  on  a 
share  of  plunder  proportioned  to  the 
number  of  their  followers.  During  the 
period  of  the  crusades,  we  find  the  insti- 
tution of  chivalry  acquire  its  full  vigour 
as  an  order  of  personal  nobility ;  and 
its  original  connexion  with  feudal  ten- 
ure, if  not  altogether  effaced,  became 
in  a  great  measure  forgotten  in  the 
splendour  and  dignity  of  the  new  form 
which  it  wore. 

The  crusaders,  however,  changed  in 
more  than  one  respect  the  char-  Chivgl 
acter  of  chivalry.  Before  that  conne/ted 
epoch  it  appears  to  have  had  no  ™th  reii- 
particular  reference  to  religion.  glon' 
Ingulfus  indeed  tells  us  that  the  Anglo- 
Saxons  preceded  the  ceremony  of  inves- 
titure by  a  confession  of  their  sins,  and 
other  pious  rites,  and  they  received  the 
order  at  the  hands  of  a  priest  instead  of 
a  knight.  But  this  was  derided  by  the 
Normans  as  effeminacy,  and  seems  to 
have  proceeded  from  the  extreme  devo- 
tion of  the  English  before  the  conquest.* 
We  can  hardly  perceive,  indeed,  why  the 
assumption  of  arms  to  be  used  in  butch- 
ering mankind  should  be  treated  as  a 
religious  ceremony.  The  clergy,  to  do 
them  justice,  constantly  opposed  the 
private  wars  in  which  the  courage  of 
those  ages  wasted  itself;  and  all  blood- 
shed was  subject  in  strictness  to  a  ca- 
nonical penance.  But  the  purposes  for 
which  men  bore  arms  in  a  crusade  so 
sanctified  their  use,  that  chivalry  acquired 
the  character  as  much  of  a  religious  as  a 
niilitary  institution.  For  many  centu- 
ries, the  recovery  of  the  Holy  Land  was 
constantly  at  the  heart  of  a  brave  and 
superstitious  nobility ;  and  every  knight 

*  Ingulfus  in  Gale,  xv.  Scriptores,  t.  i.,  p.  70. 
William  Rufus,  however,  was  knighted  by  Arch- 
bishop Lanfranc,  which  looks  as  if  the  ceremony 
was  not  absolutely  repugnant  to  the  Norman  prac« 
tice. 


512 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


was  supposed  at  his  creation  to  pledge 
himself,  as  occasion  should  arise,  to  that 
cause.  Meanwhile,  the  defence  of  God's 
law  against  infidels  was  his  primary  and 
standing  duty.  A  knight,  whenever  pres- 
ent at  mass,  held  the  point  of  his  sword 
before  him  while  the  gospel  was  read, 
to  signify  his  readiness  to  support  it. 
Writers  of  the  middle  ages  compare  the 
knightly  to  the  priestly  character  in  an 
elaborate  parallel,  and  the  investiture  of 
the  one  was  supposed  analogous  to  the 
ordination  of  the  other.  The  ceremonies 
upon  this  occasion  were  almost  wholly 
religious.  The  candidate  passed  nights 
in  prayer  among  priests  in  a  church ;  he 
received  the  sacraments  ;  he  entered  into 
a  bath,  and  was  clad  with  a  white  robe, 
in  allusion  to  the  presumed  purification 
of  his  life ;  his  sword  was  solemnly 
blessed ;  every  thing,  in  short,  was  con- 
trived to  identify  his  new  condition  with 
the  defence  of  religion,  or  at  least  of  the 
church.* 

To  this  strong  tincture  of  religion, 
And  with  which  entered  into  the  composi- 
gaiiantry.  tion  of  chivalry  from  the  twelfth 
century,  was  added  another  ingredient 
equally  distinguishing.  A  great  respect 
for  the  female  sex  had  always  been  a  re- 
markable characteristic  of  the  Northern 
nations.  The  German  women  were  high 
spirited  and  virtuous;  qualities  which 
might  be  causes  or  consequences  of 
the  veneration  with  which  they  were 
regarded.  I  am  not  sure  that  we  could 
trace  very  minutely  the  condition  of 
women  for  the  period  between  the  sub- 
version of  the  Roman  empire  and  the 
first  crusade ;  but  apparently  man  did  not 
grossly  abuse  his  superiority;  and  in 
point  of  civil  rights,  and  even  as  to  the 
inheritance  of  property,  the  two  sexes 
were  placed  perhaps  as  nearly  on  a  level 
as  the  nature  of  such  warlike  societies 
would  admit.  There  seems,  however,  to 
have  been  more  roughness  in  the  social 
intercourse  between  the  sexes  than  we 
find  in  later  periods.  The  spirit  of  gal- 
lantry, which  became  so  animating  a 
principle  of  chivalry,  must  be  ascribed  to 
the  progressive  refinement  of  society  du- 
ring the  twelfth  and  two  succeeding  cen- 
turies. In  a  rude  state  of  manners,  as 
among  the  lower  people  in  all  ages, 
woman  has  not  full  scope  to  display 


*  Du  Cange,  v.  Miles,  and  22d  Dissertation  on 
Joinville.  St.  Palaye,  M6m  sur  la  Chevalerie,  part 
ii.  A  curious  original  illustration  of  this,  as  well 
as  of  other  chivalrous  principles,  will  be  found  in 
I'Ordene  de  Chevalerie,  a  long  metrical  romance 
published  in  Barbazan's  Fabliaux,  t.  i.,  p.  59  (edit. 
1808). 


those  fascinating  graces,  by  which  na- 
ture has  designed  to  counterbalance  the 
strength  and  energy  of  mankind.  Even 
where  those  jealous  customs  that  degrade 
alike  the  two  sexes  have  not  prevailed, 
her  lot  is  domestic  seclusion ;  nor  is  she 
fit  to  share  in  the  boisterous  pastimes  of 
drunken  merriment,  to  which  the  inter- 
course of  an  unpolished  people  is  confi- 
ned. But  as  a  taste  for  the  more  elegant 
enjoyments  of  wealth  arises,  a  taste 
which  it  is  always  her  policy  and  her  de- 
light to  nourish,  she  obtains  an  ascend- 
ency at  first  in  the  lighter  hour,  and  from 
thence  in  the  serious  occupations  of  life. 
She  chases  or  brings  into  subjection  the 
god  of  wine,  a  victory  which  might  seem 
more  ignoble  were  it  less  difficult,  and 
calls  in  the  aid  of  divinities  more  propi- 
tious to  her  ambition.  The  love  of  be- 
coming ornament  is  not  perhaps  to  be  re- 
garded in  the  light  of  vanity ;  it  is  rather 
an  instinct  which  woman  has  received 
from  nature  to  give  effect  to  those  charms 
that  are  her  defence;  and  when  com- 
merce began  to  minister  more  effectually 
to  the  wants  of  luxury,  the  rich  furs  of 
the  North,  the  gay  silks  of  Asia,  the 
wrought  gold  of  domestic  manufacture, 
illumined  the  halls  of  chivalry,  and  cast, 
as  if  by  the  spell  of  enchantment,  that 
ineffable  grace  over  beauty  which  the 
choice  and  arrangement  of  dress  are  cal- 
culated to  bestow.  Courtesy  had  always 
been  the  proper  attribute  of  knighthood ; 
protection  of  the  weak  its  legitimate  duty ; 
but  these  were  heightened  to  a  pitch  of 
enthusiasm  when  woman  became  their 
object.  There  was  little  jealousy  shown 
in  the  treatment  of  that  sex,  at  least  in 
France,  the  fountain  of  chivalry;  they 
were  present  at  festivals,  at  tournaments, 
and  sat  promiscuously  in  the  halls  of  their 
castle.  The  romance  of  Perceforest  (and 
romances  have  always  been  deemed  good 
witnesses  as  to  manners)  tells  of  a  feast 
where  eight  hundred  knights  had  each  of 
them  a  lady  eating  off  his  plate.*  For  to 
eat  off  the  same  plate  was  a  usual  mark 
of  gallantry  or  friendship. 

Next  therefore,  or  even  equal  to  devo- 
tion, stood  gallantry  among  the  princi- 
ples of  knighthood.  But  all  comparison 
between  the  two  was  saved  by  blending 
them  together.  The  love  of  God  and 
the  ladies  was  enjoined  as  a  single  duty. 
He  who  was  faithful  and  true  to  his  mis- 


*  Y  cut  huit  cens  chevaliers  s6ant  a  table ;  et  si 
n'y  eust  celui  qui  n'eust  une  dame  ou  une  pucelle 
a  son  ecuelle.  In  Lancelot  du  Lac,  a  lady  who 
was  troubled  with  a  jealous  husband  complains 
that  it  was  a  long  time  since  a  knight  had  eaten  off 
her  plate.— Le  Grand,  t.  i.,  p.  24. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


513 


tress  was  held  sure  of  salvation  in  the 
theology  of  castles,  though  not  of  clois- 
ters.* Froissart  announces  that  he  had 
undertaken  a  collection  of  amorous  poe- 
try with  the  help  of  God  and  of  love ; 
and  Boccace  returns  thanks  to  each  for 
their  assistance  in  the  Decameron.  The 
laws  sometimes  united  in  this  general 
homage  to  the  fair.  We  will,  says 
James  II.  of  Aragon,  that  every  man, 
whether  knight  or  no,  who  shall  be  in 
company  with  a  lady,  pass  safe  and  un- 
molested, unless  he  be  guilty  of  murder.f 
Louis  II.,  duke  of  Bourbon,  instituting  the 
order  of  the  Golden  Shield,  enjoins  his 
knights  to  honour  above  all  the  ladies, 
and  not  to  permit  any  one  to  slander 
them,  "because  from  them,  after  God, 
comes  all  the  honour  that  men  can  ac- 
\  quire.  "J 

The  gallantry  of  those  ages,  which 
was  very  often  adulterous,  had  certainly 
no  right  to  profane  the  name  of  religion  ; 
but  its  union  with  valour  was  at  least 
more  natural,  and  became  so  intimate, 
that  the  same  word  has  served  to  express 
both  qualities.  In  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish wars  especially,  the  knights  of  each 
country  brought  to  that  serious  conflict 
the  spirit  of  romantic  attachment  which 
had  been  cherished  in  the  hours  of  peace. 
They  fought  at  Poitiers  or  Verneuil  as 
they  had  fought  at  tournaments,  bearing 
over  their  armour  scarves  and  devices, 
as  the  livery  of  their  mistresses,  and  as- 
serting the  paramount  beauty  of  her  they 
served,  in  vaunting  challenges  towards 
the  enemy.  Thus,  in  the  middle  of  a 
keen  skirmish  at  Cherbourg,  the  squad- 
rons remained  motionless,  while  one 
knight  challenged  to  a  single  combat  the 
most  amorous  of  the  adversaries.  Such 
a  defiance  was  soon  accepted ;  and  the 
battle  only  recommenced  when  one  of 
the  champions  had  lost  his  life  for  his 
love.fy  In  the  first  campaign  of  Edward's 
war,  some  young  English  knights  wore  a 
covering  over  one  eye,  vowing,  for  the 
sake  of  their  ladies,  never  to  see  with 
both  till  they  should  have  signalized 
their  prowess  in  the  field.  ||  These  ex- 
travagances of  chivalry  are  so  common 
that  they  form  part  of  its  general  charac- 
ter, and  prove  how  far  a  course  of  action 


*  Le  Grand,  Fabliaux,  t.  iii.,  p.  438.  St.  Palaye, 
t.  i.,  p.  41.  I  quote  St.  Palaye's  Memoirs  from  the 
first  edition  in  1759,  which  is  not  the  best. 

t  Statuimus,  quod  omnis  homo,  sive  miles  sive 
alius,  qui  iverit  cum  domina  generosa,  salvus  sit 
atque  securus,  nisi  fuerit  homicida. — De  Marca, 
Marca  Hispanica,  p.  1428. 

%  Le  Grand,  t.  i.,  p.  120.  St.  Palaye,  t.  i.,  p.  13, 
134,  221.  Fabliaux,  Romances,  &c.,  passim. 

§  St.  Palaye,  p.  222.         I!  Froissart,  p.  33. 


which  depends  upon  the  impulses  of  sen- 
timent may  come  to  deviate  from  com- 
mon sense. 

It  cannot  be  presumed  that  this  enthu- 
siastic veneration,  this  devotedness  ill 
life  and  death,  were  wasted  upon  ungrate- 
ful natures.  The  goddesses  of  that  idol- 
atry knew  too  well  the  value  of  their 
worshippers.  There  has  seldom  been 
such  adamant  about  the  female  heart  as 
can  resist  the  highest  renown  for  valour 
and  courtesy,  united  with  the  steadiest 
fidelity.  "  He  loved  (says  Froissart  of 
Eustace  d'Auberthicourt),  and  afterward 
married  Lady  Isabel,  daughter  of  the 
Count  of  Juliers.  This  lady,  too,  loved 
Lord  Eustace  for  the  great  exploits  in 
arms  which  she  heard  told  of  him,  and 
she  sent  him  horses  and  loving  letters, 
which  made  the  said  Lord  Eustace  more 
bold  than  before,  and  he  wrought  such 
feats  of  chivalry  that  all  in  his  company 
were  gainers."*  It  were  to  be  wished 
that  the  sympathy  of  love  and  valour  had 
always  been  as  honourable.  But  the 
morals  of  chivalry,  we  cannot  deny,  were 
not  pure.  In  the  amusing  fictions  which 
seem  to  have  been  the  only  popular  read- 
ing of  the  middle  ages,  there  reigns  a  li- 
centious spirit,  not  of  that  slighter  kind 
which  is  usual  in  such  compositions,  but 
indicating  a  general  dissoluteness  in  the 
intercourse  of  the  sexes.  This  has  often 
been  noticed  of  Boccaccio  and  the  early 
Italian  novelists ;  but  it  equally  charac- 
terized the  tales  and  romances  of  France, 
whether  metrical  or  in  prose,  and  all  the 
poetry  of  the  Troubadours. f  The  viola- 
tion of  marriage-vows  passes  in  them  for 
an  incontestable  privilege  of  the  brave 
and  the  fair ;  and  an  accomplished  knight 
seems  to  have  enjoyed  as  undoubted  pre- 
rogatives, by  general  consent  of  opinion, 
as  were  claimed  by  the  brilliant  courtiers 
of  Louis  XV. 

But  neither  that  emulous  valour  which 
chivalry  excited,  nor  the  religion  and 
gallantry  which  were  its  animating  prin- 
ciples, alloyed  as  the  latter  were  by  the 
corruption  of  those  ages,  could  have  ren- 
dered its  institution  materially  conducive 
to  the  moral  improvement  of  society. 
There  were,  however,  excellences  of  a 
very  high  class  which  it  equally  encour- 
aged. In  the  books  professedly  written 
to  lay  down  the  duties  of  knighthood,  they 
appear  to  spread  over  the  whole  compass 

*  St.  Palaye,  p.  268. 

t  The  romances  will  speak  for  themselves  ;  and 
the  character  of  the  Provencal  morality  may  be 
collected  from  Millot,  Hist,  des  Troubadours,  pas- 
sim ;  and  from  Sismondi,  Literature  du  Midi,  t.  i., 
p.  179,  &c.  See  too  St.  Palave,  t.  ii.,  p.  62  and  68. 


514 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


of  human  obligations.  But  these,  like 
other  books  of  morality,  strain  their 
schemes  of  perfection  far  beyond  the 
actual  practice  of  mankind.  A  juster  es- 
timate of  chivalrous  manners  is  to  be  de- 
duced from  romances.  Yet  in  these,  as 
in  all  similar  fictions,  there  must  be  a  few 
ideal  touches  beyond  the  simple  truth  of 
character;  and  the  picture  can  only  be 
interesting  when  it  ceases  to  present  im- 
ages of  mediocrity  or  striking  imperfec- 
tion. But  they  referred  their  models  of 
fictitious  heroism  to  the  existing  standard 
of  moral  approbation ;  a  rule  which,  if 
it  generally  falls  short  of  what  reason 
and  religion  prescribe,  is  always  beyond 
the  average  tenour  of  human  conduct. 
From  these  and  from  history  itself  we 
may  infer  the  tendency  of  chivalry  to  el- 
evate and  purify  the  moral  feelings. 
Three  virtues  may  particularly  be  no- 
Virtues  ticed>  as  essential,  in  the  estima- 
deemedes-  tion  of  mankind,  to  the  charac- 
scntiai  to  ter  of  a  knight ;  loyalty,  courte- 
chivalry-  sy,  and  munificence. 

The  first  of  these,  in  its  original  sense, 
Loyalty  may  be  defined'  fidelity  to  engage- 
ments ;  whether  actual  promises, 
or  such  tacit  obligations  as  bound  a  vas- 
sal to  his  lord,  and  a  subject  to  his  prince. 
It  was  applied  also,  and  in  the  utmost 
strictness,  to  the  fidelity  of  a  lover  to- 
wards the  lady  he  served.  Breach  of 
faith,  and  especially  of  an  express  prom- 
ise, was  held  a  disgrace  that  no  valour 
could  redeem.  False,  perjured,  disloyal, 
recreant,  were  the  epithets  which  he 
must  be  compelled  to  endure  who  had 
swerved  from  a  plighted  engagement, 
even  towards  an  enemy.  This  is  one  of 
the  most  striking  changes  produced  by 
chivalry.  Treachery,  the  usual  vice  of 
savage  as  well  as  corrupt  nations,  be- 
came infamous  during  the  vigour  of  that 
discipline.  As  personal  rather  than  na- 
tional feelings  actuated  its  heroes,  they 
never  felt  that  hatred,  much  less  that 
fear  of  their  enemies,  which  blind  men 
to  the  heinousness  of  ill  faith.  In  the 
wars  of  Edward  III.,  originating  in  no 
real  animosity,  the  spirit  of  honourable 
as  well  as  courteous  behaviour  towards 
the  foe  seems  to  have  arrived  at  its  high- 
est point.  Though  avarice  may  have 
been  the  primary  motive  of  ransoming 
prisoners,  instead  of  putting  them  to 
death,  their  permission  to  return  home 
on  the  word  of  honour,  in  order  to  pro- 
cure the  stipulated  sum,  an  indulgence 
never  refused,  could  only  be  founded  on 
experienced  confidence  in  the  principles 
of  chivalry.* 

*  St.  Palaye,  part  ii. 


A  knight  was  unfit  to  remain  a  member 
of  the  order  if  he  violated  his 
faith ;  he  was  ill  acquainted  with  °  urtesy' 
its  duties  if  he  proved  wanting  in  cour- 
tesy. This  word  expressed  the  most 
highly  refined  good-breeding,  founded 
less  upon  a  knowledge  of  ceremonious 
politeness,  though  this  was  not  to  be 
omitted,  than  on  the  spontaneous  mod- 
esty, self-denial,  and  respect  for  others, 
which  ought  to  spring  from  his  heart. 
Besides  the  grace  which  this  beautiful 
virtue  threw  over  the  habits  of  social 
life,  it  softened  down  the  natural  rough- 
ness of  war,  and  gradually  introduced 
that  indulgent  treatment  of  prisoners 
which  was  almost  unknown  to  antiquity. 
Instances  of  this  kind  are  continual  in  the 
later  period  of  the  middle  ages.  An  Ital- 
ian writer  blames  the  soldier  who  wound- 
ed Eccelin,  the  famous  tyrant  of  Padua, 
after  he  was  taken.  He  deserved,  says 
he,  no  praise,  but  rather  the  greatest  in- 
famy for  his  baseness ;  since  it  is  as  vile 
an  act  to  wound  a  prisoner,  whether  no- 
ble or  otherwise,  as  to  strike  a  dead 
body.*  Considering  the  crimes  of  Ecce- 
lin, this  sentiment  is  a  remarkable  proof 
of  generosity.  The  behaviour  of  Ed- 
ward III.  to  Eustace  de  Ribaumont,  after 
the  capture  of  Calais,  and  that,  still  more 
exquisitely  beautiful,  of  the  Black  Prince 
to  his  royal  prisoner  at  Poitiers,  are  such 
eminent  instances  of  chivalrous  virtue, 
that  I  omit  to  repeat  them  only  because 
they  are  so  well  known.  Those  great 
princes,  too,  might  be  imagined  to  have 
soared  far  above  the  ordinary  track  of 
mankind.  But,  in  truth,  the  knights  who 
surrounded  them  and  imitated  their  ex- 
cellences were  only  inferior  in  opportu- 
nities of  displaying  the  same  virtue. 
After  the  battle  of  Poitiers,  "  the  English 
and  Gascon  knights,"  says  Froissart, 
having  entertained  their  prisoners,  went 
home  each  of  them  with  the  knights  or 
squires  he  had  taken,  whom  he  then  ques- 
tioned upon  their  honour,  what  ransom 
they  could  pay  without  inconvenience, 
and  easily  gave  them  credit;  and  it  was 
common  for  men  to  say  that  they  would 
not  straighten  any  knight  or  squire,  so 
that  he  should  not  live  well  and  keep  up 
his  honour."!  Liberality  indeed,  and 


*  Non  laudem  meruit,  sed  summae  potius  oppro 
brium  vilitatis;  nam  idem  facinus  est  putandum, 
captum  nobilem  vel  ignobilem  offendere,  vel  ferire, 
quam  gladio  caedere  cadaver. — Rolandinus  in 
Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  viii.,  p.  351. 

t  Froissart,  1.  i.,  c.  161.  He  remarks  in  another 
place,  that  all  English  and  French  gentlemen 
treat  their  prisoners  well ;  not  so  the  Germans,  who 
put  them  in  fetters,  in  order  to  extort  more  money, 
c.  136. 


PAfcT   II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


515 


Liberality  disdain  of  money»  might  be  reck- 
oned, as  I  have  said,  among  the 
essential  virtues  of  chivalry.  All  the  ro- 
mances inculcate  the  duty  of  scattering 
their  wealth  with  profusion,  especially 
towards  minstrels,  pilgrims,  and  the  poor- 
er members  of  their  own  order.  The 
last,  who  were  pretty  numerous,  had  a 
constant  right  to  succour  from  the  opu- 
lent ;  the  castle  of  every  lord,  who  re- 
spected the  ties  of  knighthood,  was  open 
with  more  than  usual  hospitality  to  the 
traveller  whose  armour  announced  his 
dignity,  though  it  might  also  conceal  his 
poverty.* 

Valour,  loyalty,  courtesy,  munificence, 
formed  collectively  the  character 
e*  of  an  accomplished  knight,  so  far 
as  was  displayed  in  the  ordinary  tenour 
of  his  life,  reflecting  these  virtues  as  an 
unsullied  mirror.  Yet  something  more 
was  required  for  the  perfect  idea  of  chiv- 
alry, and  enjoined  by  its  principles;  an 
active  sense  of  justice,  an  ardent  indig- 
nation against  wrong,  a  determination  of 
courage  to  its  best  end,  the  prevention  or 
redress  of  injury.  It  grew  up  as  a  salu- 
tary antidote  in  the  midst  of  poisons, 
while  scarce  any  law  but  that  of  the 
strongest  obtained  regard,  and  the  rights 
of  territorial  property,  which  are  only 
right  as  they  conduce  to  general  good, 
became  the  means  of  general  oppression. 
The  real  condition  of  society,  it  has 
sometimes  been  thought,  might  suggest 
stories  of  knight-errantry,  which  were 
wrought  up  into  the  popular  romances 
of  the  middle  ages.  A  baron,  abusing 
the  advantage  of  an  inaccessible  castle 
in  the  fastnesses  of  the  Black  Forest  or 
the  Alps,  to  pillage  the  neighbourhood, 
and  confine  travellers  in  his  dungeon, 
though  neither  a  giant  nor  a  Saracen, 
was  a  monster  not  less  formidable,  and 
could  perhaps  as  little  be  destroyed 
without  the  aid  of  disinterested  bravery. 
Knight-errantry,  indeed,  as  a  profession, 
cannot  rationally  be  conceived  to  have 
had  any  existence  beyond  the  precincts 
of  romance.  Yet  there  seems  no  im- 
probability in  supposing  that  a  knight, 
journeying  through  uncivilized  regions 
in  his  way  to  the  Holy  Land  or  to  the 
court  of  a  foreign  sovereign,  might  find 
himself  engaged  in  adventures  not  very 

*  St.  Palaye,  part  iv.,  p.  312,  367,  &c.  Le 
Grand,  Fabliaux,  t.  i.,  p.  115,  167.  It  was  the  cus- 
tom in  Great  Britain  (says  the  romance  of  Perce- 
forest,  speaking  of  course  in  an  imaginary  history), 
that  noblemen  and  ladies  placed  a  helmet  on  the 
highest  point  of  their  castles,  as  a  sign  that  all  per- 
sons of  such  rank  travelling  that  road  might  boldly 
enter  their  houses  like  their  own.— St.  Palaye, 
p.  367. 

Kk2 


dissimilar  to  those  which  are  the  theme 
of  romance.  We  cannot  indeed  expect 
to  find  any  historical  evidence  of  such 
incidents. 

The  characteristic  virtues  of  chivalry 
bear  so  much   resemblance   to  Resem- 
those  which  eastern  writers  of 
the  same  period  extol,  that  I  am 

a  little  disposed  to  SUSpect   Eu-   manners. 

rope  of  having  derived  some  improve- 
ment from  imitation  of  Asia.  Though 
the  crusades  began  in  abhorrence  of  in- 
fidels, this  sentiment  wore  off  in  some 
degree  before  their  cessation;  and  the 
regular  intercourse  of  commerce,  some- 
times of  alliance,  between  the  Christians 
of  Palestine  and  the  Saracens,  must  have 
removed  part  of  the  prejudice,  while  ex- 
perience of  their  enemy's  courage  and 
generosity  in  war  would  with  those 
gallant  knights  serve  to  lighten  the  re- 
mainder. The  romancers  expatiate  with 
pleasure  on  the  merits  of  Saladin,  who 
actually  received  the  honour  of  knight- 
hood from  Hugh  of  Tabaria  his  prisoner. 
An  ancient  poem,  entitled  the  Order  of 
Chivalry,  is  founded  upon  this  story,  and 
contains  a  circumstantial  account  of  the 
ceremonies,  as  well  as  duties,  which  the 
institution  required.*  One  or  two  other 
instances  of  a  similar  kind  bear  witness 
to  the  veneration  in  which  the  name  of 
knight  was  held  among  the  eastern  na- 
tions. And  certainly,  excepting  that  ro- 
mantic gallantry  towards  women,  which 
their  customs  would  not  admit,  the  Ma- 
hometan chieftains  were  for  the  most  part 
abundantly  qualified  to  fulfil  the  duties 
of  European  chivalry.  Their  manners 
had  been  polished  and  courteous,  while 
the  western  kingdoms  were  compara- 
tively barbarous. 

The  principles  of  chivalry  were  not,  I 
think,  naturally  productive  of  Evils  produced 
many  evils.  For  it  is  unjust  by  the  spirit  of 
to  class  those  acts  of  oppres-  chivfllry- 
sion  or  disorder  among  the  abuses  of 
knighthood,  which  were  committed  in 
spite  of  its  regulations,  and  were  only 
prevented  by  them  from  becoming  more 
extensive.  The  license  of  times  so  im- 
perfectly civilized  could  not  be  expected 
to  yield  to  institutions  which,  like  those 
of  religion,  fell  prodigiously  short  in  their 
practical  result  of  the  reformation  which 
they  were  designed  to  work.  Man's 
guilt  and  frailty  have  never  admitted 
more  than  a  partial  corrective.  But  some 
bad  consequences  may  be  more  fairly 
ascribed  to  the  very  nature  of  chivalry. 
I  have  already  mentioned  the  dissolute- 


*  Fabliaux  de  Barbasan,  t. 


516 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


ness  which  almost  unavoidably  resulted 
from  the  prevailing  tone  of  gallantry. 
And  yet  we  sometimes  find,  in  the  wri- 
tings of  those  times,  a  spirit  of  pure  but 
exaggerated  sentiment;  and  the  most 
fanciful  refinements  of  passion  are  min- 
gled by  the  same  poets  with  the  coarsest 
immorality.  An  undue  thirst  for  mili- 
tary renown  was  another  fault  that  chiv- 
alry must  have  nourished;  and  the  love 
of  war,  sufficiently  pernicious  in  any 
shape,  was  more  founded,  as  I  have  ob- 
served, on  personal  feelings  of  honour, 
and  less  on  public  spirit,'  than  in  the  citi- 
zens of  free  states.  A  third  reproach 
may  be  made  to  the  character  of  knight- 
hood, that  it  widened  the  separation  be- 
tween the  different  classes  of  society, 
and  confirmed  that  aristocratic al  spirit 
of  high  birth,  by  which  the  large  mass  of 
mankind  were  kept  in  unjust  degradation. 
Compare  the  generosity  of  Edward  III. 
towards  Eustace  de  Ribaumont  at  the 
siege  of  Calais,  with  the  harshness  of 
his  conduct  towards  the  citizens.  This 
may  be  illustrated  by  a  story  from  Join- 
ville,  who  was  himself  imbued  with  the 
full  spirit  of  chivalry,  and  felt  like  the 
best  and  bravest  of  his  age.  He  is 
speaking  of  Henry,  count  of  Champagne, 
who  acquired,  says  he,  very  deservedly, 
the  surname  of  Liberal,  and  adduces  the 
following  proof  of  it.  A  poor  knight  im- 
plored of  him  on  his  knees  one  day  as 
much  money  as  would  serve  to  marry  his 
two  daughters.  One  Arthault  de  Nogent, 
a  rich  burgess,  willing  to  rid  the  count  of 
this  importunity,  but  rather  awkward,  we 
must  own,  in  the  turn  of  his  argument, 
said  to  the  petitioner,  My  lord  has  al- 
ready given  away  so  much  that  he  has 
nothing  left.  Sir  Villain,  replied  Henry, 
turning  round  to  him,  you  do  not  speak 
truth  in  saying  that  I  have  nothing  left 
to  give  when  I  have  got  yourself.  Here, 
Sir  Knight,  I  give  you  this  man,  and  war- 
rant your  possession  of  him.  Then,  says 
Joinville,  the  poor  knight  was  not  at  all 
confounded,  but  seized  hold  of  the  bur- 
gess fast  by  the  collar,  and  told  him  he 
should  not  go  till  he  had  ransomed  him- 
self. And  in  the  end  he  was  forced  to 
pay  a  ransom  of  five  hundred  pounds. 
The  simple-minded  writer  who  brings 
this  evidence  of  the  Count  of  Cham- 
pagne's liberality  is  not  at  ail  struck 
with  the  facility  of  a  virtue  that  is  exer- 
cised at  the  cost  of  others.* 

There  is  perhaps  enough  in  the  nature 
Circumstan-  °^  tn^s  institution,  and  its  con- 
ces  tending  geniality  to  the  habits  of  a 
to  promote  it.  warlike  generation,  to  account 


*  Joinville  in  Collection  des  Memoires,  t.  i.,  p.  43. 


for  the  respect  in  which  it  was  held 
throughout  Europe.  But  several  collat- 
eral circumstances  served  to  invigorate 
its  spirit.  Besides  the  powerful  efficacy 
with  which  the  poetry  and  romance  of 
the  middle  ages  stimulated  those  sus- 
ceptible minds  which  were  alive  to  no 
other  literature,  we  may  enumerate  four 
distinct  causes  tending  to  the  promotion 
of  chivalry. 

The  first  of  these  was  the  regular 
scheme  of  education,  according  Regular  ed- 
to  which  the  sons  of  gentlemen,  ucation  for 
from  the  age  of  seven  years,  knighthood. 
were  brought  up  in  the  castles  of  supe- 
rior lords,  where  they  at  once  learned  the 
whole  discipline  of  their  future  profes- 
sion, and  imbibed  its  emulous  and  enthu- 
siastic spirit.  This  was  an  inestimable  ad- 
vantage to  the  poorer  nobility,  who  could 
hardly  otherwise  have  given  their  chil- 
dren the  accomplishments  of  their  sta- 
tion. From  seven  to  fourteen  these 
boys  were  called  pages  or  varlets ;  at 
fourteen  they  bore  the  name  of  esquire. 
They  were  instructed  in  the  manage- 
ment of  arms,  in  the  art  of  horsemanship, 
in  exercises  of  strength  and  activity. 
They  became  accustomed  to  obedience 
and  courteous  demeanour,  serving  their 
lord  or  lady  in  offices  which  had  not  yet 
become  derogatory  to  honourable  birth, 
and  striving  to  please  visiters,  and  espe- 
cially ladies,  at  the  ball  or  banquet. 
Thus  placed  in  the  centre  of  all  that 
could  awaken  their  imaginations,  the 
creed  of  chivalrous  gallantry,  supersti- 
tion, or  honour,  must  have  made  indeli- 
ble impressions.  Panting  for  the  glory 
which  neither  their  strength  nor  the  es- 
tablished rules  permitted  them  to  antici- 
pate, the  young  scions  of  chivalry  attend- 
ed their  masters  to  the  tournament,  and 
even  to  the  battle,  and  riveted  with  a 
sigh  the  armour  they  were  forbidden  to 
wear.* 

It  was  the  constant  policy  of  sover- 
eigns to  encourage  this  institu-  Encourage- 
tion,  which  furnished  them  with  JJJ.jJJegf 
faithful  supports,  and  counter-  Tounia- 
acted  the  independent  spirit  of  ments. 
feudal  tenure.  Hence  they  displayed  a 
lavish  magnificence  in  festivals  and  tour- 
naments, which  may  be  reckoned  a  sec- 
ond means  of  keeping  up  the  tone  of 
chivalrous  feeling.  The  kings  of  France 
and  England  held  solemn  or  plenary 
courts  at  the  great  festivals,  or  at  other 
times,  where  the  name  of  knight  was 
always  a  title  to  admittance ;  and  the 
masque  of  chivalry,  if  I  may  use  the  ex- 
pression, was  acted  in  pageants  and  cer- 


St.  Palaye,  part  i. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


517 


emonies,  fantastical  enough  in  our  ap- 
prehension, but  well  calculated  for  those 
heated  understandings.  Here  the  pea- 
cock and  the  pheasant,  birds  of  high 
fame  in  romance,  received  the  homage 
of  all  true  knights.*  The  most  singular 
festival  of  this  kind  was  that  celebrated 
by  Philip,  duke  of  Burgundy,  in  1453. 
In  the  midst  of  the  banquet  a  pageant 
was  introduced,  representing  the  calami- 
tous state  of  religion  in  consequence  of 
the  recent  capture  of  Constantinople. 
This  was  followed  by  the  appearance  of 
a  pheasant,  which  was  laid  before  the 
duke,  and  to  which  the  knights  present 
addressed  their  vows  to  undertake  a  cru- 
sade, in  the  following  very  characteristic 
preamble  :  I  swear  before  God  my  crea- 
tor in  the  first  place,  and  the  glorious 
Virgin  his  mother,  and  next  before  the 
ladies  and  the  pheasant. f  Tournaments 
were  a  still  more  powerful  incentive  to 
emulation.  These  may  be  considered 
to  have  arisen  about  the  middle  of  the 
eleventh  century  ;  for  though  every  mar- 
tial people  have  found  diversion  in  repre- 
senting the  image  of  war,  yet  the  name 
of  tournaments,  and  the  laws  that  regu- 
lated them,  cannot  be  traced  any  higher.! 
Every  scenic  performance  of  modern 
times  must  be  tame  in  comparison  of 
these  animating  combats.  At  a  tourna- 
ment, the  space  enclosed  within  the  lists 
was  surrounded  by  sovereign  princes  and 
their  noblest  barons,  by  knights  of  estab- 
lished renown,  and  all  that  rank  and 
beauty  had  most  distinguished  among 
the  fair.  Covered  with  steel,  and  known 
only  by  their  emblazoned  shield,  or  by 
the  favours  of  their  mistresses,  a  still 
prouder  bearing,  the  combatants  rushed 
forward  to  a  strife  without  enmity,  but 
not  without  danger.  Though  their  weap- 
ons were  pointless,  and  sometimes  only 
of  wood,  though  they  were  bound  by 
the  laws  of  tournaments  to  strike  only 
upon  the  strong  armour  of  the  trunk,  or, 
as  it  was  called,  between  the  four  limbs, 
those  impetuous  conflicts  often  termina- 
ted in  wounds  and  death.  The  church 
uttered  her  excommunications  in  vain 
against  so  wanton  an  exposure  to  peril ; 
but  it  was  more  easy  for  her  to  excite 
than  to  restrain  that  martial  enthusiasm. 


*  Du  Cange,  5me  Dissertation  sur  Joinville.  St. 
Palaye,  t.  i.,  p.  87,  118.  Le  Grand,  t.  i.,  p.  1-1. 

t  St.  Palaye,  t.  i.,  p.  191. 

i  Godfrey  de  Preuilly,  a  French  knight,  is  said 
by  several  contemporary  writers  to  have  invented 
tournaments  ;  which  must  of  course  be  understood 
in  a  limited  sense.  The  Germans  ascribe  them  to 
Henry  the  Fowler;  but  this,  according  to  Du 
Cange,  is  on  no  authority. — 6me  Dissertation  sur 
Joinville. 


Victory  in  a  tournament  was  little  less 
glorious,  and  perhaps  at  the  moment 
more  exquisitely  felt,  than  in  the  field ; 
since  no  battle  could  assemble  such  wit- 
nesses of  valour.  "  Honour  to  the  sons 
of  the  brave"  resounded  amid  the  din  of 
martial  music  from  the  lips  of  the  min- 
strels, as  the  conqueror  advanced  to  re- 
ceive the  prize  from  his  queen  or  his 
mistress;  while  the  surrounding  multi- 
tude acknowledged  in  his  prowess  of  that 
day  an  augury  of  triumphs  that  might  in 
more  serious  contests  be  blended  with 
those  of  his  country.* 

Both  honorary  and  substantial  privi- 
leges belonged  to  the  condition  privileges 
of  knighthood,  and  had  of  course  of  knigiu- 
a  material  tendency  to  preserve  hood- 
its  credit.  A  knight  was  distinguished 
abroad  by  his  crested  helmet,  his  weighty 
armour  whether  of  mail  or  plate,  bear- 
ing his  heraldic  coat,  by  his  gilded  spurs, 
his  horse  barded  with  iron  or  clothed  in 
housing  of  gold ;  at  home  by  richer  silks 
and  more  costly  furs  than  were  permit- 
ted to  squires,  and  by  the  appropriated 
colour  of  scarlet.  He  was  addressed  by 
titles  of  more  respect. f  Many  civil  of- 
fices, by  rule  of  usage,  were  confined  to 
his  order.  But  perhaps  its  chief  privi- 
lege was  to  form  one  distinct  class  of 
nobility,  extending  itself  throughout  great 
part  of  Europe,  and  almost  independent, 
as  to  its  rights  and  dignities,  of  any  par- 
ticular sovereign.  Whoever  had  been 
legitimately  dubbed  a  knight  in  one 
country,  became,  as  it  were,  a  citizen  of 
universal  chivalry,  and  might  assume 
most  of  its  privileges  in  any  other.  Nor 
did  he  require  the  act  of  a  sovereign  to 
be  thus  distinguished.  It  was  a  funda- 
mental principle  that  any  knight  might 
confer  the  order ;  responsible  only  in  his 
own  reputation  if  he  used  lightly  so  high 
a  prerogative.  But  as  all  the  distinctions 
of  rank  might  have  been  confounded  if 
this  right  had  been  without  limit,  it  was 
an  equally  fundamental  rule,  that  it 
could  only  be  exercised  in  favour  of 
gentlemen.^ 


*  St.  Palaye,  part  ii.  and  part  iii.  au  commence- 
ment. Du  Cange,  Dissert.  6  and  7  :  and  Glossa- 
ry, v.  Torneamentum.  Le  Grand,  Fabliaux,  t.  i., 
p.  184. 

t  St.  Palaye,  part  iv.  Selden's  Titles  of  Hon- 
our, p.  806.  There  was  not,  however,  so  much 
distinction  in  England  as  in  France. 

t  St.  Palaye,  vol.  i.,  p.  70,  has  forgotten  to  make 
this  distinction.  It  is,  however,  capable  of  abun- 
dant proof.  Gunther,  in  his  poem  called  Ligurin- 
us,  observes  of  the  Milanese  republic : 

Quqslibet  ex  humili  vulgo,  quod  Gallia  fcedum 

Judicat,  accingi  gladio  concedit  equestri. 
Otho  of  Frisirigen  expresses  the  same  in  prose.    It 
is  said,  in  the  Establishments  of  St.  Louis,  that  if 


618 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.   IX. 


The  privileges  annexed  to  chivalry 
were  of  peculiar  advantage  to  the  vavas- 
sors,  or  inferior  gentry,  as  they  tended 
to  counterbalance  the  influence  which 
territorial  wealth  threw  into  the  scale 
of  their  feudal  suzerains.  Knighthood 
brought  these  two  classes  nearly  to  a 
level ;  and  it  is  owing  perhaps  in  no  small 
degree  to  this  institution,  that  the  lower 
nobility  saved  themselves,  notwithstand- 
ing their  poverty,  from  being  confounded 
with  the  common  people. 

Lastly,  the  customs  of  chivalry  were 
maintained  by  their  connexion  with  mil- 

any  one  not  being  a  gentleman  on  the  father's  side 
was  knighted,  the  king  or  baron  in  whose  territory 
he  resides  may  hack  off  his  spurs  on  a  dunghill, 
c.  130.  The  Count  de  Nevers,  having  knighted  a 
person  who  was  not  noble  ex  parte  paterna,  was 
lined  in  the  king's  court.  The  king,  however 
(Philip  III.),  confirmed  the  knighthood. — Daniel, 
Hist,  de  la  Milice  Franchise,  p.  98.  Fuit  proposi- 
tum  (says  a  passage  quoted  by  Daniel)  contra  corn- 
item  Flandriensem,  quod  non  poterat,  nee  debebat 
1'acere  de  villano  militem,  sine  auctoritate  regis, 
ibid.  Statuimus,  says  James  I.  of  Aragon,  in  1234, 
ut  nullusfaciat  militem  nisi  filium  militis. — Marca 
Hispanica,  p.  1428.  Selden,  Titles  of  Honour,  p. 
592,  produces  other  evidence  to  the  same  effect. 
And  the  Emperor  Sigismund,  having  conferred 
knighthood,  during  his  stay  at  Paris  in  1415,  on  a 
person  incompetent  to  receive  it  for  want  of  nobili- 
ty, the  French  were  indignant  at  his  conduct,  as  an 
assumption  of  sovereignty. — Villaret,  t.  xiii.,  p. 
397.  We  are  told,  however,  by  Giannone,  1.  xx., 
C.  3,  that  nobility  was  not  in  fact  required  for  re- 
ceiving chivalry  at  Naples,  though  it  was  in 
France. 

The  privilege  of  every  knight  to  associate 
qualified  persons  to  the  order  at  his  pleasure,  last- 
ed very  long  in  France ;  certainly  down  to  the 
English  wars  of  Charles  VII.  (Monstrelet,  part 
ii.,  folio  50),  and,  if  I  am  not  mistaken,  down  to  the 
time  of  Francis  I.  But  in  England,  where  the 
spirit  of  independence  did  not  prevail  so  much 
among  the  nobility,  it  soon  ceased.  Selden  men- 
tions one  remarkable  instance  in  a  writ  of  the  29th 
year  of  Henry  III,  summoning  tenants  in  capite  to 
come  and  receive  knighthood  from  the  king,  ad  re- 
cipiendum  a  nobis  arma  militaria ;  and  tenants  of 
mesne  lords  to  be  knighted  by  whomsoever  they 
pleased,  ad  recipiendum  arma  de  quibuscunque 
voluerint. — Titles  of  Honour,  p.  792.  But  soon 
after  this  time  it  became  an  established  principle 
of  our  law,  that  no  subject  can  confer  knighthood 
except  by  the  king's  authority.  Thus  Edward 
III.  grants  to  a  burgess  of  Lyndia  in  Guienne  (I 
know  not  what  place  this  is)  the  privilege  of  re- 
ceiving that  rank  at  the  hands  of  any  knight,  his 
want  of  noble  birth  notwithstanding.— Rymer,  t. 
v.,  p.  623.  It  seems,  however,  that  a  different  law 
obtained  in  some  places.  Twenty-three  of  the 
chief  inhabitants  of  Beaucaire,  partly  knights, 
partly  burgesses,  certified,  in  1298,  that  the  im- 
memorial usage  of  Beaucaire  and  of  Provence  had 
been,  for  burgesses  to  receive  knighthood  at  the 
hands  of  noblemen,  without  the  prince's  permis- 
sion.— Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Languedpc,  t.  hi.,  p.  530. 
Burgesses  in  the  great  commercial  towns  were 
considered  as  of  a  superior  class  to  the  roturiers. 
and  possessed  a  kind  of  demi-nobility.  Charles 
V.  appears  to  have  conceded  a  similar  indulgence 
to  the  citizens  of  Paris.— Villaret,  t.  x.,  p.  248. 


itary  service.  After  armies  connexion 
which  we  may  call  compara-  with  mm- 
tively  regular,  had  superseded  t«nr  service, 
in  a  great  degree  the  feudal  mi-  ° 
litia,  princes  were  anxious  to  bid  high  for 
the  service  of  knights,  the  best  equipped 
and  bravest  warriors  of  the  time,  on 
whose  prowess  the  fate  of  battles  was 
for  a  long  period  justly  supposed  to  de- 
pend. War  brought  into  relief  the  gen- 
erous virtues  of  chivalry,  and  gave  lustre 
to  its  distinctive  privileges.  The  rank 
was  sought  with  enthusiastic  emulation, 
through  heroic  achievements,  to  which, 
rather  than  to  mere  wealth  and  station, 
it  was  considered  to  belong.  In  the 
wars  of  France  and  England,  by  far  the 
most  splendid  period  of  this  institution,  a 
promotion  of  knights  followed  every  suc- 
cess, besides  the  innumerable  cases 
where  the  same  honour  rewarded  indi- 
vidual bravery.*  It  may  here  be  men- 
tioned, that  an  honorary  distinction  was 
made  between  knights-bannerets  and 
bachelors.f  The  former  were  the  rich- 
est and  best  accompanied.  No  Knights- 
man  could  properly  be  a  ban-  bannerets 
neret  unless  he  possessed  a  JJ[Jbache~ 
certain  estate,  and  could  bring 
a  certain  number  of  lances  into  the  field.J 
His  distinguishing  mark  was  the  square 
banner,  carried  by  a  squire  at  the  point 
of  his  lance ;  while  the  knight  bachelor 
had  only  the  coronet  or  pointed  pendant. 
When  a  banneret  was  created,  the  gen- 
eral cut  off  this  pendant  to  render  it 
square. §  But  this  distinction,  however  it 


*  St.  Palaye,  partiii.,  passim. 

f  The  word  bachelor  has  been  commonly  de- 
rived from  has  chevalier,  in  opposition  to  banneret. 
But  this,  however  plausible,  is  unlikely  to  be  right. 
We  do  not  find  any  authority  for  the  expression 
has  chevalier,  nor  any  equivalent  in  Latin,  bacca- 
laureus  certainly  not  suggesting  that  sense ;  and  it 
is  strange  that  the  corruption  should  obliterate  ev- 
ery trace  of  the  original  term.  Bachelor  is  a  very 
old  word,  and  is  used  in  early  French  poetry  for  a 
young  man,  as  bachelette  is  for  a  girl.  So  also  in 
Chaucer, 

"  A  yonge  squire, 
A  lover,  and  a  lusty  bachelor." 

%  Du  Cange,  Dissertation  9me  sur  Joinville.  The 
number  of  men-at-arms  whom  a  banneret  ought  to 
command  was  properly  fifty.  But  Olivier  de  la 
Marche  speaks  of  twenty-five  as  sufficient ;  and  it 
appears  that,  in  fact,  knights-banneret  often  did  not 
bring  so  many. 

§  Ibid.  Olivier  de  la  Marche  (Collection  des 
M6moires,  t.  viii.,  p.  337)  gives  a  particular  exam- 
ple of  this ;  and  makes  a  distinction  between  the 
bachelor,  created  a  banneret  on  account  of  his  es- 
tate, and  the  hereditary  banneret,  who  took  a  pub- 
lic opportunity  of  requesting  the  sovereign  to  un- 
fold his  family  banner,  which  he  had  before  borne 
wound  round  his  lance.  The  first  was  said  relever 
banniere ;  the  second,  entrer  en  banniere.  This 
difference  is  more  fully  explained  by  Daniel,  Hist. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OP  SOCIETY. 


519 


elevated  the  banneret,  gave  him  no  claim 
to  military  command,  except  over  his  own 
dependants  or  men-at-arms.  Chandos 
was  still  a  knight-bachelor  when  he  led 
part  of  the  Prince  of  Wales's  army  into 
Spain.  He  first  raised  his  banner  at  the 
battle  of  Navarette;  and  the  narration 
that  Froissart  gives  of  the  ceremony  will 
illustrate  the  manners  of  chivalry,  and 
the  character  of  that  admirable  hero,  the 
conqueror  of  Du  Guesclin  and  pride  of 
English  chivalry,  whose  fame  with  pos- 
terity has  been  a  litt.le  overshadowed  by 
his  master's  laurels.*  What  seems  more 
extraordinary  is,  that  mere  squires  had 
frequently  the  command  over  knights. 
Proofs  of  this  are  almost  continual  in 
Froissart.  But  the  vast  estimation  in 
which  men  held  the  dignity  of  knight- 
hood led  them  sometimes  to  defer  it  for 
great  part  of  their  lives,  in  hope  of  signal- 
izing their  investiture  by  some  eminent 
exploit. 

These  appear  to  have  been  the  chief 
Decline  of  means  of  nourishing  the  princi- 
ciuvairy.  pies  of  chivalry  among  the  nobil- 
ity of  Europe.  But,  notwithstanding  all 
encouragement,  it  underwent  the  usual 
destiny  of  human  institutions.  St.  Palaye, 
to  whom  we  are  indebted  for  so  vivid  a  pic- 
ture of  ancient  manners,  ascribes  the  de- 
cline of  chivalry  in  France  to  the  profu- 
sion with  which  the  order  was  lavished 
under  Charles  VI.,  the  establishment  of 
the  companies  of  ordonnance  by  Charles 
VII.,  and  to  the  extension  of  knightly 
honours  to  lawyers  and  other  men  of 
civil  occupation  by  Francis  I.f  But  the 
real  principle  of  decay  was  something 
different  from  these  three  subordinate 
circumstances,  unless  so  far  as  it  may 
bear  some  relation  to  the  second.  It 
was  the  invention  of  gunpowder  that 
eventually  overthrew  chivalry.  From 
the  time  when  the  use  of  fire-arms  be- 
came tolerably  perfect,  the  weapons  of 
former  warfare  lost  their  efficacy,  and 
physical  force  was  reduced  to  a  very 
subordinate  place  in  the  accomplishments 
of  a  soldier.  The  advantages  of  a  disci- 
plined infantry  became  more  sensible  ; 
and  the  lancers,  who  continued  till  almost 
the  end  of  the  sixteenth  century  to 
charge  in  a  long  line,  felt  the  punishment 
of  their  presumption  and  indiscipline. 
Even  in  the  wars  of  Edward  III.,  the  dis- 
advantageous tactics  of  chivalry  must 

de  la  Milice  Franqoise,  p.  116.  Chandos's  banner 
was  unfolded,  not  cut,  at  Navarette.  We  read 
sometimes  of  esquire-bannerets,  that  is,  of  banner- 
ets by  descent,  not  yet  knighted. 

•  Froissart,  part  i.,  c.  241. 

f  M<Sm.  sur  la  Chevalerie,  part  v. 


have  been  perceptible;  but  the  milita- 
ry art  had  not  been  sufficiently  studied  to 
overcome  the  prejudices  of  men  eager  for 
individual  distinction.  Tournaments  be- 
came less  frequent ;  and,  after  the  fatal 
accident  of  Henry  II.,  were  entirely  dis- 
continued in  France.  Notwithstanding 
the  convulsions  of  the  religious  wars,  the 
sixteenth  century  was  more  tranquil  than 
any  that  had  preceded ;  and  thus  a  large 
part  of  the  nobility  passed  their  lives  in 
pacific  habits,  and,  if  they  assumed  the 
honours  of  chivalry,  forgot  their  natural 
connexion  with  military  prowess.  This 
is  far  more  applicable  to  England,  where, 
except  from  the  reign  of  Edward  IIL  to 
that  of  Henry  VI.,  chivalry,  as  a  military 
institution,  seems  not  to  have  found  a 
very  congenial  soil.*  To  these  circum- 
stances, immediately  affecting  the  milita- 
ry condition  of  nations,  we  must  add  the 
progress  of  reason  and  literature,  which 
made  ignorance  discreditable  even  in  a 
soldier,  and  exposed  the  follies  of  ro- 
mance to  a  ridicule  which  they  were 
very  ill  calculated  to  endure. 

The  spirit  of  chivalry  left  behind  it  a 
more  valuable  successor.  The  character 
of  knight  gradually  subsided  in  that  of 
gentleman;  and  the  one  distinguishes 
European  society  in  the  sixteenth  and 
seventeenth  centuries,  as  much  as  the 
other  did  in  the  preceding  .ages.  A  jeal- 
ous sense  of  honour,  less  romantic,  but 
equally  elevated,  a  -ceremonious  gallantry 
and  politeness,  a  strictness  in  devotional 
observances,  a  high  pride  of  birth,  and 
feeling  of  independence  upon  any  sover- 
eign for  the  dignity  it  gave,  a  sympathy 
for  martial  honour,  though  more  subdued 


*  The  prerogative  exercised  by  the  kings  of 
England  of  compelling  men  sufficiently  qualified 
in  point  of  estate  to  take  on  them  the  honour  of 
knighthood,  was  inconsistent  with  the  true  spirit 
of  chivalry.  This  began,  according  to  Lord  Lyt- 
tleton,  under  Henry  III. — Hist,  of  Henry  II.,  vol. 
ii.,  p.  238.  Independently  of  this,  several  causes 
tended  to  render  England  less  under  the  influence 
of  chivalrous  principles  than  France  or  Germany ; 
such  as  her  comparatively  peaceful  state,  the 
smaller  share  she  took  in  the  crusades,  her  inferi- 
ority in  romances  of  knight-errantry,  but,  above  all, 
the  democratical  character  of  her  laws  and  govern- 
ment. Still  this  is  only  to  be  understood  relatively 
to  the  two  other  countries  above  named  ;  for  chiv- 
alry was  aiways  in  high  repute  among  us,  nor  did 
any  nation  produce  more  admirable  specimens  of 
its  excellences. 

I  arn  not  minutely  acquainted  with  the  state  of 
chivalry  in  Spain,  where  it  seems  to  have  flourished 
considerably.  Italy,  except  in  Naples,  and  perhaps 
Piedmont,  displayed  little  of  its  spirit;  which 
neither  suited  the  free  republics  of  the  twelfth  and 
thirteenth,  nor  the  jealous  tyrannies  of  the  follow- 
ing  centuries.  Yet  even  here  we  find  enough  to 
furnish  Muratori  with  materials  for  his  53d  disser- 
tation. 


520 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


by  civil  habits,  are  the  lineaments  which 
prove  an  indisputable  descent.  The  cav- 
aliers of  Charles  I.  were  genuine  suc- 
cessors of  Edward's  knights ;  and  the 
resemblance  is  much  more  striking  if 
we  ascend  to  the  civil  wars  of  the  League. 
Time  has  effaced  much  also  of  this  gen- 
tlemanly, as  it  did  before  of  the  chival- 
rous character.  From  the  latter  part  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  its  vigour  and 
purity  have  undergone  a  tacit  decay,  and 
yielded,  perhaps  in  every  country,  to  in- 
creasing commercial  wealth,  more  dif- 
fused instruction,  the  spirit  of  general 
liberty  in  some,  and  of  servile  obsequi- 
ousness in  others,  the  modes  of  life  in 
great  cities,  and  the  levelling  customs  of 
social  intercourse.* 
It  is  now  time  to  pass  to  a  very  differ- 
ent subject.  The  third  head 
e'  under  which  I  classed  the  im- 
provements of  society  during  the  four 
last  centuries  of  the  middle  ages,  was 
that  of  literature.  But  I  must  apprize 
the  reader  not  to  expect  any  general 
view  of  literary  history,  even  in  the  most 
abbreviated  manner.  Such  an  epitome 
would  not  only  be  necessarily  superficial, 
but  foreign,  in  many  of  its  details,  to  the 
purposes  of  this  chapter,  which,  attempt- 
ing to  develop  the  circumstances  that 
gave  a  new  complexion  to  society,  con- 
siders literature  only  so  far  as  it  exer- 
cised a  general  and  powerful  influence. 
The  private  researches,  therefore,  of  a 
single  scholar,  unproductive  of  any  ma- 
terial effect  in  his  generation,  ought  not 
to  arrest  us,  nor  indeed  would  a  series 
of  biographical  notices,  into  which  liter- 
ary history  is  apt  to  fall,  be  very  instruc- 
tive to  a  philosophical  inquirer.  But  I 
have  still  a  more  decisive  reason  against 
taking  a  large  range  of  literary  history 
into  the  compass  of  this  work,  founded 
on  the  many  contributions  which  have 
been  made  within  the  last  forty  years  to 
that  department,  some  of  them  even 
since  the  commencement  of  my  own 

*  The  well-known  Memoirs  of  St.  Palaye  are 
the  best  repository  of  interesting  and  illustrative 
facts  respecting  chivalry.  Possibly  he  may  have 
relied  a  little  too  much  on  romances,  whose  pic- 
tures will  naturally  be  overcharged.  Froissart 
himself  has  somewhat  of  this  partial  tendency,  and 
the  manners  of  chivalrous  times  do  not  make  so 
fair  an  appearance  in  Monstrelet.  In  the  Memoirs 
of  la  Tremouille  (Collect,  des  Mem.,  t.  xiv.,  p. 
169),  we  have  perhaps  the  earliest  delineation  from 
the  life  of  those  severe  and  stately  virtues  in  high- 
born ladies,  of  which  our  own  country  furnishes 
so  many  examples  in  the  sixteenth  and  seventeenth 
centuries,  and  which  were  derived  from  the  influ- 
ence of  chivalrous  principles.  And  those  of  Bayard 
in  the  same  collection  (t.  xiv.  and  xv.)  are  a  beau- 
tiful exhibition  of  the  best  effects  of  that  discipline. 


labour.*  These  have  diffused  so  general 
an  acquaintance  with  the  literature  of 
the  middle  ages,  that  I  must,  in  treating 
the  subject,  either  compile  secondary  in- 
formation from  well-known  books,  or 
enter  upon  a  vast  field  of  reading,  with 
little  hope  of  improving  upon  what  has 
been  already  said,  or  even  acquiring  credit 
for  original  research.  I  shall  therefore 
confine  myself  to  four  points  :  the  study 
of  civil  law ;  the  institution  of  universi- 
ties ;  the  application  of  modern  languages 
to  literature,  and  especially  to  poetry; 
and  the  revival  of  ancient  learning. 

The  Roman  law  had  been  nominally 
preserved  ever  since  the  de-  Civillaw 
struction  of  the  empire;  and  a 
great  portion  of  the  inhabitants  of  France 
and  Spain,  as  well  as  Italy,  were  govern- 
ed by  its  provisions.  But  this  was  a 
mere  compilation  from  the  Theodosian 
code ;  which  itself  contained  only  the 
more  recent  laws  promulgated  after  the 
establishment  of  Christianity,  with  some 
fragments  from  earlier  collections.  It 
was  made  by  order  of  Alaric,  king  of  the 
Visigoths,  about  the  year  500,  and  it  is 
frequently  confounded  with  the  Theodo- 
sian code  by  writers  of  the  dark  ages.f 
The  code  of  Justinian,  reduced  into  sys- 
tem after  the  separation  of  the  two  for- 
mer countries  from  the  Greek  empire, 
never  obtained  any  authority  in  them; 
nor  was  it  received  in  the  part  of  Italy 
subject  to  the  Lombards.  But  that  this 
body  of  laws  was  absolutely  unknown  in 
the  West  during  any  period  seems  to 
have  been  too  hastily  supposed.  Some 
of  the  more  eminent  ecclesiastics,  as 
Hincmar  and  Ivon  of  Chartres,  occasion- 
ally refer  to  it,  and  bear  witness  to  the 
regard  which  the  Roman  church  had 
uniformly  paid  to  its  decisions.! 

The  revival  of  the  study  of  jurispru- 
dence, as  derived  from  the  laws  of  Jus- 
tinian, has  generally  been  ascribed  to  the 
discovery  made  of  a  copy  of  the  Pan- 
dects at  Amalfi,  in  1135,  when  that  city 
was  taken  by  the  Pisans.  This  fact, 
though  not  improbable,  seems  not  to 


*  Four  very  recent  publications  (not  to  mention 
that  of  Buhle  on  modern  philosophy)  enter  much 
at  large  into  the  middle  literature ;  those  of  M. 
Ginguene  and  M.  Sismondi,  the  History  of  Eng- 
land by  Mr.  Sharon  Turner,  and  the  Literary 
History  of  the  Middle  Ages  by  Mr.  Berington.  All 
of  these  contain  more  or  less  useful  information 
and  judicious  remarks ;  but  that  of  Ginguene  is 
among  the  most  learned  and  important  works  of 
this  century.  I  have  no  hesitation  to  prefer  it,  as 
far  as  its  subjects  extend,  to  Tiraboschi. 

t  Heineccius,  Hist.  Juris  German.,  c.  i.,  s.  15. 

j  Giannone,  L  iv.,  c.  6.  Selden,  ad  Fletam, 
p.  1071. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


521 


rest  upon  sufficient  evidence.*  But  its 
truth  is  the  less  material,  as  it  appears 
to  be  unequivocally  proved  that  the  study 
of  Justinian's  system  had  recommenced 
before  that  era.  Early  in  the  twelfth 
century,  a  professor  named  Irneriusf 
opened  a  school  of  civil  law  at  Bologna, 
where  he  commented,  if  not  on  the  Pan- 
dects, yet  on  the  other  books,  the  Insti- 
tutes and  Code,  which  were  sufficient  to 
teach  the  principles  and  inspire  the  love 
of  that  comprehensive  jurisprudence. 
The  study  of  law,  having  thus  revived, 
made  a  surprising  progress  ;  within  fifty 
years  Lombardy  was  full  of  lawyers,  on 
whom  Frederick  Barbarossa  and  Alex- 
ander III.,  so  hostile  in  every  other  re- 
spect, conspired  to  shower  honours  and 
privileges.  The  schools  of  Bologna  were 
pre-eminent  throughout  this  century  for 
legal  learning.  There  seem  also  to  have 
been  seminaries  at  Modena  and  Mantua ; 
nor  was  any  considerable  city  without 
distinguished  civilians.  In  the  next  age 
they  became  still  more  numerous,  and 
their  professors  more  conspicuous,  and 
universities  arose  at  Naples,  Padua,  and 
other  places,  where  the  Roman  law  was 
the  object  of  peculiar  regard.^ 

There  is  apparently  great  justice  in 
the  opinion  of  Tiraboschi,  that  by  acqui- 
ring internal  freedom  and  the  right  of  de- 
termining controversies  by  magistrates 
of  their  own  election,  the  Italian  cities 
were  led  to  require  a  more  extensive  and 
accurate  code  of  written  laws  than  they 
had  hitherto  possessed.  These  munici- 
pal judges  were  chosen  from  among  the 
citizens,  and  the  succession  to  offices 
was  usually  so  rapid,  that  almost  every 
freeman  might  expect  in  his  turn  to  par- 
take in  the  public  government,  and  con- 
sequently in  the  administration  of  jus- 
tice. The  latter  had  always  indeed  been 
exercised  in  the  sight  of  the  people  by 
the  count  and  his  assessors  under  the 
Lombard  and  Carlo vingian  sovereigns  ; 
but  the  laws  were  rude,  the  proceedings 
tumultuary,  and  the  decisions  perverted 
by  violence.  The  spirit  of  liberty  begot 
a  stronger  sense  of  right ;  and  right,  it 
was  soon  perceived,  could  only  be  se- 
cured by  a  common  standard.  Magis- 
trates holding  temporary  offices,  and 
little  elevated,  in  those  simple  times, 
above  the  citizens  among  whom  they 

*  Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.,  p.  359.  Ginguene,  Hist. 
Litt.  de  1'Italie,  t.  i.,  p.  155. 

t  Irnerius  is  sometimes  called  Guarnerius, 
sometimes  Warnerius  ;  the  German  W  is  changed 
into  Gu  by  the  Italians,  and  occasionally  omitted, 
especially  in  latinizing,  for  the  sake  of  euphony  or 
purity. 

t  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  38  ;  t.  v.,  p.  55. 


were  to  return,  could  only  satisfy  the 
suiters,  and  those  who  surrounded  their 
tribunal,  by  proving  the  conformity  of 
their  sentences  to  acknowledged  authori- 
ties. And  the  practice  of  alleging  rea- 
sons in  giving  judgment  would  of  itself 
introduce  some  uniformity  of  decision, 
and  some  adherence  to  great  rules  of 
justice  in  the  most  arbitrary  tribunals ; 
while,  on  the  other  hand,  those  of  a  free 
country  lose  part  of  their  title  to  respect, 
and  of  their  tendency  to  maintain  right, 
whenever,  either  in  civil  or  criminal 
questions,  the  mere  sentence  of  a  judge 
is  pronounced  without  explanation  of  its 
motives. 

The  fame  of  this  renovated  jurispru- 
dence spread  very  rapidly  from  Italy 
over  other  parts  of  Europe.  Students 
flocked  from  all  parts  of  Bologna;  and 
some  eminent  masters  of  that  school  re- 
peated its  lessons  in  distant  countries. 
One  of  these,  Placentinus,  explained  the 
digest  at  Montpelier  before  the  end  of 
the  twelfth  century;  and  the  collection 
of  Justinian  soon  came  to  supersede  the 
Theodosian  code  in  the  dominions  of 
Toulouse.*  Its  study  continued  to  flour- 
ish in  the  universities  of  both  these  cit- 
ies ;  and  hence  the  Roman  law,  as  it  is 
exhibited  in  the  system  of  Justinian,  be- 
came the  rule  of  all  tribunals  in  the 
southern  provinces  of  France.  Its  au- 
thority in  Spain  is  equally  great,  or  at 
least  is  only  disputed  by  that  of  the  can- 
onists ;f  and  it  forms  the  acknowledged 
basis  of  decision  in  all  the  Germanic  tri- 
bunals, sparingly  modified  by  the  ancient 
feudal  customaries,  which  the  jurists  of 
the  empire  reduce  within  narrow  bounds.  J 
In  the  northern  parts  of  France,  where 
the  legal  standard  was  sought  in  local 
customs,  the  civil  law  met  naturally  with 
less  regard.  But  the  code  of  St.  Louis 
borrows  from  that  treasury  many  of  its 
provisions,  and  it  was  constantly  cited  in 
pleadings  before  the  parliament  of  Paris, 
either  as  obligatory  by  way  of  authority, 
or  at  least  as  written  wisdom,  to  which 
great  deference  was  shown. §  Yet  its 


*  Tiraboschi,  t.  v.  Vaissette,  Hist,  de  Langue- 
doc,  t.  ii.,  p.  517 ;  t.  iii.,  p.  527  ;  t.  iv.,  p.  504. 

t  Duck,  De  Usu  Juris  civilis,  1.  ii.,  c.  6. 

j  Idem,  1.  ii.,  c.  2. 

()  Idem,  1.  ii.,  c.  5,  s.  30,31.  Fleury,  Hist,  du 
Droit  Frangois,  p.  74  (prefixed  to  Argou,  Institu- 
tions au  Droit  Francois,  edit.  1787),  says  that  it  was 
a  great  question  among  lawyers,  and  still  undeci- 
ded (i.  e.,  in  1674),  whether  the  Roman  law  was 
the  common  law  in  the  pays  coutumiers,  as  to 
those  points  wherein  their  local  customs  were  si- 
lent. And,  if  I  understand  Denisart  (Dictionnaire 
des  Decisions,  art.  Droit-6crit),  the  affirmative  pre- 
vailed. It  is  plain,  at  least  by  the  Causes  Celebres, 
that  appeal  was  continually  made  to  the  principles 


522 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


study  was  long  prohibited  in  the  univer- 
sity of  Paris,  from  a  disposition  of  the 
popes  to  establish  exclusively  their  de- 
cretals, though  the  prohibition  was  si- 
lently disregarded.* 

As  early  as  the  reign  of  Stephen,  Vaca- 
its  intro-  rms'  a  lawyer  of  Bologna,  taught 
auction  at  Oxford  with  great  success ;  but 
into  Eng-  the  students  of  scholastic  theol- 
ogy opposed  themselves,  from 
some  unexplained  reason,  to  this  new 
jurisprudence,  and  his  lectures  were  in- 
terdicted, t  About  the  time  of  Henry  III. 
and  Edward  I.,  the  civil  law  acquired 
some  credit  in  England;  but  a  system 
entirely  incompatible  with  it  had  estab- 
lished itself  in  our  courts  of  justice ;  and 
the  Roman  jurisprudence  was  not  only 
soon  rejected,  but  became  obnoxious.! 
Everywhere,  however,  the  clergy  com- 
bined its  study  with  that  of  their  own 
canons ;  it  was  a  maxim  that  every  can- 
onist must  be  a  civilian,  and  that  no  one 
could  be  a  good  civilian  unless  he  were 
also  a  canonist.  In  all  universities,  de- 
grees are  granted  in  both  laws  conjoint- 
ly ;  and  in  all  courts  of  ecclesiastical  ju- 
risdiction, the  authority  of  Justinian  is 
cited,  when  that  of  Gregory  or  Clement 
is  wanting.^ 

I  should  earn  little  gratitude  for  my  ob- 
The  eider  scure  diligence,  were  I  to  dwell 
civilians  °n  the  forgotten  teachers  of  a 
little  re-  science  that  is  likely  soon  to  be 
forgotten.  These  elder  profes- 
sors of  Roman  jurisprudence  are  infect- 
ed, as  we  are  told,  with  the  faults  and  ig- 
norance of  their  time ;  failing  in  the  ex- 
position of  ancient  law  through  incorrect- 
ness of  manuscripts  and  want  of  subsid- 
iary learning,  or  perverting  their  sense 
through  the  verbal  subtleties  of  scholas- 
tic philosophy.  It  appears  that,  even  a 
hundred  years  since,  neither  Azzo  and 


of  the  civil  law  in  the  factums  of  Parisian  advo- 
cates. 

*  Crevier,  Hist,  de  PUniversite  de  Paris,  t.  i.,p. 
316;  t.  ii.,  p.  275. 

t  Johan.  Salisburiensis,  apud  Selden  ad  Fletam, 
p.  1082. 

J  Selden,  ubt  supra,  p.  1095—1104.  This  pas- 
sage is  worthy  of  attention.  Yet,  notwithstanding 
Selden's  authority,  I  am  not  satisfied  that  he  has 
not  extenuated  the  effect  of  Bracton's  predilection 
for  the  maxims  of  Roman  jurisprudence.  No  early 
lawyer  has  contributed  so  much  to  form  our  own 
system  as  Bracton ;  and  if  his  definitions  and  rules 
are  sometimes  borrowed  from  the  civilians,  as  all 
admit,  our  common  law  may  have  indirectly  re- 
ceived greater  modification  from  that  influence 
than  its  professors  were  ready  to  acknowledge,  or 
even  than  they  knew.  A  full  view  of  this  subject 
is  still,  I  think,  a  desideratum  in  the  history  of 
English  law,  which  it  would  illustrate  in  a  very  in- 
teresting manner. 

$  Duck,  De  Usu  Juris  civilis,  1.  i.,  c.  87. 


Accursius,  the  principal  civilians  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  nor  Bartolus  and 
Baldus,  the  more  conspicuous  luminaries 
of  the  next  age,  nor  the  later  writings  of 
Accolti,  Fulgosius,  and  Panormitanus, 
were  greatly  regarded  as  authorities ;  un- 
less it  were  in  Spain,  where  improvement 
is  always  odious,  and  the  name  of  Bar- 
tolus inspired  absolute  deference.*  In 
the  sixteenth  century,  Alciatus,  and  the 
greater  Cujacius,  became  as  it  were  the 
founders  of  a  new  and  more  enlightened 
academy  of  civil  law,  from  which  the  la- 
ter jurists  derived  their  lessons.  And  the 
But  their  names,  or  at  least  their  science  it- 
writings,  are  rapidly  passing  to  self  on  the 
the  gulf  that  absorbed  their  pre- 
decessors.  The  stream  of  literature, 
that  has  so  remarkably  altered  its  chan- 
nel within  the  last  century,  has  left  no 
region  more  deserted  than  those  of  the 
civil  and  canon  law.  Except  among  the 
immediate  disciples  of  the  papal  court, 
or  perhaps  in  Spain,  no  man,  I  suppose, 
throughout  Europe,  will  ever  again  un- 
dertake the  study  of  the  one ;  and  the 
new  legal  systems  which  the  moral  and 
political  revolutions  of  this  age  have  pro- 
duced and  are  likely  to  diffuse,  will  leave 
little  influence  or  importance  to  the  oth- 
er. Yet,  as  their  character,  so  their  fate 
will  not  be  altogether  similar.  The  can- 
on law,  fabricated  only  for  a  usurpation 
that  can  never  be  restored,  will  become 
absolutely  useless,  as  if  it  had  never  ex- 
isted ;  like  a  spacious  city  in  the  wilder- 
ness, though  not  so  splendid  and  interest- 
ing as  Palmyra.  But  the  code  of  Jus- 
tinian, stripped  of  its  impurer  alloy,  and 
of  the  tedious  glosses  of  its  commenta- 
tors, will  form  the  basis  of  other  systems, 
and  mingling,  as  we  may  hope,  with  the 
new  institutions  of  philosophical  legisla- 
tors, continue  to  influence  the  social  rela- 
tions of  mankind,  long  after  its  direct  au- 
thority shall  have  been  abrogated.  The 
ruins  of  ancient  Rome  supplied  the  mate- 
rials of  a  new  city ;  and  the  fragments 
of  her  law,  which  have  already  been 
wrought  into  the  recent  codes  of  France 
and  Prussia,  will  probably,  under  other 
names,  guide  far  distant  generations  by 
the  sagacity  of  Modestinus  and  Ulpian.f 


*  Gravina,  Origines  Juris  civilis,  p.  196. 

f  Those,  if  any  such  there  be,  who  feel  some  cu- 
riosity about  the  civilians  of  the  middle  ages,  will 
find  a  concise  and  elegant  account  in  Gravma,  De 
Origine  Juris  civilis,  p.  166— 206.— (Lips.,  1708.) 
Tiraboschi  contains  perhaps  more  information ;  but 
his  prolixity,  on  a  theme  so  unimportant,  is  very 
wearisome.  Of  what  use  could  he  think  it  to  dis- 
cuss the  dates  of  all  transactions  in  the  lives  of 
Bartolus  and  Baldus  (to  say  nothing  of  obscurer 
names)  when  nobody  was  left  to  care  who  Baldus 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


523 


schools 


The  establishment  of  public  schoo 
Public         in  France  is  owing  to  Charl 
niagne.     At  his  accession,  w 
are  assured  that  no  means  o 
magne.        education  existed  in  his  domin 
ions  ;*   and,  in  order  to  restore  in  som 
degree  the  spirit  of  letters,  he  was  com 
pelled  to  invite  strangers  from  countrie 
where  learning  was  not   so  thorough] 
extinguished.     Alcuin  of  England,  Cle 
ment  of  Ireland,  Theodulf  of  Germany 
were  the  true  Paladins  who  repaired  t 
his  court.    With  the  help  of  these  he  re 
vived  a  few  sparks  of  diligence,  and  estab 
lished  schools  in  different  cities  of  hi 
empire  ;  nor  was  he  ashamed  to  be  th 
disciple  of  that  in  his  own  palace  unde 
the  care  of  Alcuin.  t    His  two  next  sue 
cessors,  Louis  the  Debonair  and  Oharle 
the  Bald,  were  also  encouragers  of  let 
ters  ;    and  the  schools  of  Lyons,  Fulda 
Corvey,  Rheims,  and  some  other  cities 
might  be  said  to  flourish  in  the  ninth  cen 
tury.J    In  these  were  taught  the  trivium 
and  quadrivium,  a  long  established  divis 
ion  of  sciences  ;  the  first  comprehending 
grammar,  or  what  we  now  call  philology 
logic,  and  rhetoric;    the  second  music 
arithmetic,  geometry,  and   astronomy. 
But  in  those  ages  scarcely  anybody  mas 
tered  the  latter  four;   and  to  be  perfec 
in   the   three   former  was   exceedingly 
rare.     All  those  studies,  however,  were 
referred  to  theology,  and  that  in  the  nar 
rowest  manner  ;  music,  for  example,  be 
ing  reduced  to  church  chanting,  and  as 
tronomy  to  the  calculation  of  Easter.] 
Alcuin   forbade   the  Latin  poets   to  be 
read;^f  and  this  discouragement  of  secu- 
lar learning  was  very  general;    though 
some,  as  for  instance  Raban,  permitted  a 
slight  tincture  of  it,  as  subsidiary  to  reli- 
gious instruction.** 


and  Bartolus  were  ?  Besides  this  fault,  it  is  evi- 
dent that  Tiraboschi  knew  very  little  of  law,  and 
had  not  read  the  civilians  of  whom  he  treats ; 
whereas  Gravina  discusses  their  merits  not  only 
with  legal  knowledge,  but  with  an  acuteness  of 
criticism,  which,  to  say  the  truth,  Tiraboschi  never 
shows  except  on  a  date  or  a  name. 

*  Ante  ipsum  dominum  Carolum  regem  in  Gal- 
lia  nullumfuit  studium  liberalium  artium.  Mona- 
chus  Engolismensis,  apud  Launoy,  De  Scholis  per 
occidentem  instauratis,  p.  5.  See  too  Histoire  Lit- 
teraire  de  la  France,  t.  iv.,  p.  1. 

f  Idem,  ibid.  There  was  a  sort  of  literary  club 
among  them,  where  the  members  assumed  ancient 
names.  Charlemagne  was  called  David  ;  Alcuin, 
Horace  ,  another,  Demetas,  &c. 

}  Hist.  Litteraire,  p.  217,  &c. 

§  This  division  of  the  sciences  is  ascribed  to  St. 
Augustin ;  and  was  certainly  established  early  in 
the  sixth  century. — Brucker,  Historia  Critica  Phi- 
losophise, t.  iii.,  p.  597. 

||  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p.  126. 

IT  Crevier,  Hist,  de  1'Univ.  de  Paris,  t.  i.,  p.  28, 

**  Brucker,  t.  iii.,  p.  612.    Raban  Maurus  was 


About  the  latter  part  of  the  eleventh 
century,  a  greater  ardour  for  in-  university 
tellectual  pursuits  began  to  show  of  Paris, 
itself  in  Europe,  which  in  the  twelfth 
broke  out  into  a  flame.     This  was  mani- 
fested in  the  numbers  who   repaired  to 
the  public  academies  or  schools  of  phi- 
losophy.    None  of  these  grew  so  early 
into  reputation  as  that  of  Paris.     This 
cannot,  indeed,  as  has  been  vainly  pre- 
tended, trace    its    pedigree   to   Charle- 
magne.    The  first  who   is  said  to  have 
read  lectures  at  Paris  was  Remigius  of 
Auxerre,  about  the  year  900.*    For  the 
two  next  centuries  the  history  of  this 
school  is  very  obscure ;  and  it  would  be 
hard  to  prove  an  unbroken  continuity,  or 
at  least    a  dependance  and   connexion 
of  its  professors.     In  the  year  1100,  we 
find   William    of  Champeaux    teaching 
logic,  and  apparently  some  higher  parts 
of  philosophy,  with  much  credit.     But 
this  preceptor  was  eclipsed  by  his  disci- 
ple, afterward  his  rival  and  adversary, 
Peter  Abelard,  to  whose  brilliant  Abelard 
and  hardy  genius  the  university 
of  Paris  appears  to  be   indebted  for  its 
rapid  advancement.     Abelard  was  almost 
;he  first  who  awakened  mankind  in  the 
ages  of  darkness  to  a  sympathy  with  in- 
tellectual excellence.     His  bold  theories, 
not  the  less  attractive  perhaps  for  tread- 
ing upon  the  bounds  of  heresy,  his  im- 
pudent vanity,  that  scorned  the  regu- 
arly  acquired  reputation  of  older  men, 
allured  a   multitude   of   disciples,   who 
would  never  have  listened  to  an  ordinary 
eacher.     It  is   said,  that  twenty  cardi- 
lals   and  fifty  bishops  had  been  among 
lis  hearers. f     Even  in  the  wilderness, 
where  he  had  erected  the  monastery  of 
Paraclete,  he  was  surrounded  by  enthu- 

the 


iastic  admirers,  relinquishing  the  luxu- 
ies,  if  so  they  might  be  called,  of  Paris, 
or  the  coarse  living  and  imperfect  ac- 
ommodation  which  that  retirement  could 
fford.J  But  the  whole  of  Abelard's  life 

was  the  shipwreck  of  genius;  and  of 
enius  both  the  source  of  his  own  ca- 
amities  and  unserviceable  to  posterity. 

There  are  few  lives  of  literary  men  more 

nteresting,  or  more  diversified  by  suc- 
ess  and  adversity,  by  glory  and  humili- 
tion,  by  the  admiration  of  mankind  and 
le  persecution  of  enemies  ;  nor  from 

which,  I  may  add,  more  impressive  les- 
ons  of  moral  prudence  may  be  derived, 
ne  of  Abelard's  pupils  was  Peter  Lom- 
ard,  afterward  archbishop  of  Paris,  and 


lief  of  the  cathedral  school  at  Fulda,  in  the  ninth 

ntury.  *  Crevier,  p.  66. 

t  Crevier,  p.  171.    Brucker,  p.  677.     Tirabos- 

hi,  t.  iii.,  p.  275.  J  Brucker,  p.  750. 


524 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


author  of  a  work  called  the  Book  of  Sen- 
tences, which  obtained  the  highest  au- 
thority among  the  scholastic  disputants. 
The  resort  of  students  to  Paris  became 
continually  greater  ;  they  appear,  before 
the  year  1169,  to  have  been  divided  into 
nations  ;*  and  probably  they  had  an  elect- 
ed rector  and  voluntary  rules  of  disci- 
pline about  the  same  time.  This,  how- 
ever, is  not  decisively  proved;  but  in 
the  last  year  of  the  twelfth  century,  they 
obtained  their  earliest  charter  from  Philip 
Augustus.! 

The  opinion  which  ascribes  the  found- 
University  ation  of  the  university  of  Ox- 
of  oxford.  ford  to  Alfred,  if  it  cannot  be 
maintained  as  a  truth,  contains  no  intrin- 
sic marks  of  error.  Ingulfus,  abbot  of 
Croyland,  in  the  earliest  authentic  pas- 
sage that  can  be  adduced  to  this  point,! 
declares  that  he  was  sent  from  Westmin- 
ster to  the  school  at  Oxford,  where  he 
learned  Aristotle,  and  the  two  first 
books  of  Tully's  rhetoric. §  Since  a 
school  for  dialectics  and  rhetoric  subsist- 
ed at  Oxford,  a  town  of  but  middling 
size,  and  not  the  seat  of  a  bishop,  we  are 
naturally  led  to  refer  its  foundation  to 
one  of  our  kings  ;  and  none  who  had 
reigned  after  Alfred  appears  likely  to 
have  manifested  such  zeal  for  learning. 
However,  it  is  evident  that  the  school 
of  Oxford  was  frequented  under  Edward 


*  The  faculty  of  arts  in  the  university  of  Paris 
was  divided  into  four  nations ;  those  of  France, 
Picardy,  Normandy,  and  England.  These  had 
distinct  suffrages  in  the  affairs  of  the  university, 
and  consequently,  when  united,  outnumbered  the 
three  higher  faculties  of  theology,  law,  and  medi- 
cine. In  1169,  Henry  II.  of  England  offers  to  re- 
fer his  dispute  with  Becket  to  the  provinces  of  the 
school  of  Paris. 

f  Crevier,  t.  i.,  p.  279.  The  first  statute  regula- 
ting the  discipline  of  the  university  was  given  by 
Robert  de  Coupon,  legate  of  Henorius  III.,  in 
1215,  id.,  p.  296. 

$  No  one  probably  would  choose  to  rely  on  a 
passage  found  in  one  manuscript  of  Asserius, 
which  has  all  appearance  of  an  interpolation.  It 
is  evident,  from  an  anecdote  in  Wood's  History  of 
Oxford,  vol.  i.,  p.  23  (Gutch's  edition),  that  Cam- 
den  did  not  believe  in  the  authenticity  of  this  pas- 
sage, though  he  thought  proper  to  insert  it  in  the 
Britannia. 

()  The  mention  of  Aristotle  at  so  early  a  period 
might  seem  to  throw  some  suspicion  on  this  pas- 
sage. But  it  is  impossible  to  detach  it  from  the 
context ;  and  the  works  of  Aristotle  intended  by 
Ingulfus  were  translations  of  parts  of  his  logic  by 
Boethius  and  Victorin. — Brucker,  p.  678.  A  pas- 
sage indeed  in  Peter  of  Blois's  continuation  of  In- 
gulfus, where  the  study  of  Averroes  is  said  to 
have  taken  place  at  Cambridge  some  years  before 
he  was  born,  is  of  a  different  complexion,  and 
must  of  course  be  rejected  as  spurious.  In  the 
Gesta  Comitum  Andegavensium,  Fulk,  count  of 
Aniou,  who  lived  about  920,  is  said  to  have  been 
skilled  Aristotelicis  et  Ciceronianis  ratiocination- 
ibus. 


the  Confessor.  There  follows  an  inter- 
val of  above  a  century,  during  which  we 
have,  I  believe,  no  contemporary  evi- 
dence of  its  continuance.  But  in  the 
reign  of  Stephen,  Vacarius  read  lectures 
there  upon  civil  law ;  and  it  is  reasona- 
ble to  suppose  that  a  foreigner  would 
not  have  chosen  that  city  if  he  had  not 
found  a  seminary  of  learning  already 
established.  It  was  probably  inconsid- 
erable, and  might  have  been  interrupted 
during  some  part  of  the  preceding  centu- 
ry.* In  the  reign  of  Henry  II.,  or  at 
least  of  Richard  I.,  Oxford  became  a 
very  flourishing  university,  and  in  1201, 
according  to  Wood,  contained  3000 
scholars.!  The  earliest  charters  were 
granted  by  John. 

If  it  were  necessary  to  construe  the 
word  university  in  the  strict  university 
sense  of  a  legal  incorporation,  of  Bologna. 
Bologna  might  lay  claim  to  a  higher 
antiquity  than  either  Paris  or  Oxford. 
There  are  a  few  vestiges  of  studies  pur- 
sued in  that  city  even  in  the  eleventh 
century  ;J  but  early  in  the  next,  the  revi- 
val of  the  Roman  jurisprudence,  as  has 
been  already  noticed,  brought  a  throng 
of  scholars  round  the  chairs  of  its  profes- 
sors. Frederick  Barbarossa,  in  1158,  by 
his  authentic  or  rescript  entitled  Habita, 
took  these  under  his  protection,  and  per- 
mitted them  to  be  tried  in  civil  suits  by 
their  own  judges.  This  exemption  from 
the  ordinary  tribunals,  and  even  from 
those  of  the  church,  was  naturally  covet- 
ed by  other  academies;  it  was  granted 
to  the  university  of  Paris  by  its  earliest 
charter  from  Philip  Augustus,  Encoura?e. 
and  to  Oxford  by  John.  From  ment  given 
this  time  the  golden  age  of  uni-  [°eginiversi~ 
versities  commenced  ;  and  it  is 
hard  to  say  whether  they  were  favoured 
most  by  their  sovereigns  or  by  the  see 
of  Rome.  Their  history  indeed  is  full 
of  struggles  with  the  municipal  authori- 
ties, and  with  the  bishops  of  their  several 
cities,  wherein  they  were  sometimes  the 
aggressors,  and  generally  the  conquerors. 
From  all  parts  of  Europe  students  resort- 
ed to  these  renowned  seats  of  learning 


*  It  may  be  remarked,  that  John  of  Salisbury, 
who  wrote  in  the  first  years  of  Henry  II. 's  reign, 
since  his  Policraticus  is  dedicated  to  Becket,  be- 
fore he  became  archbishop,  makes  no  mention  of 
Oxford,  which  he  would  probably  have  done  if  it 
had  been  an  eminent  seat  of  learning  at  that  time. 

f  Wood's  Hist,  and  Antiquities  of  Oxford,  p. 
177.  The  Benedictins  of  St.  Maur  say  that,  there 
was  an  eminent  school  of  canon  law  at  Oxford 
about  the  end  of  the  twelfth  century,  to  which 
many  students  repaired  from  Paris. — Hist.  Litt.  de 
la  France,  t.  ix.,  p.  216. 

t  Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.,  p.  259,  et  alibi.  Muratori, 
Dissert.  43. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


525 


with  an  eagerness  for  instruction  which 
may  astonish  those  who  reflect  how  little 
of  what  we  now  deem  useful  could  be 
imparted.  At  Oxford,  under  Henry  III., 
it  is  said  that  there  were  30,000  scholars ; 
an  exaggeration  which  seems  to  imply 
that  the  real  number  was  very  great.* 
A  respectable  contemporary  writer  as- 
serts that  there  were  full  10,000  at  Bo- 
logna about  the  same  time.f  I  have  not 
observed  any  numerical  statement  as  to 
Paris  during  this  age ;  but  there  can  be 
no  doubt  that  it  was  more  frequented 
than  any  other.  At  the  death  of  Charles 
VII.,  in  1453,  it  contained  25,000  stu- 
dents.J  In  the  thirteenth  century,  other 
universities  sprang  up  in  different  coun- 
tries :  Padua  and  Naples,  under  the  pat- 
ronage of  Frederick  II.,  a  zealous  and 
useful  friend  to  letters,^  Toulouse  and 
Montpelier,  Cambridge  and  Salamanca. || 
Orleans,  which  had  long  been  distin- 
guished as  a  school  of  civil  law,  received 
the  privileges  of  incorporation  early  in 
the  fourteenth  century;  and  Angers  be- 
fore the  expiration  of  the  same  age.TJ 
Prague,  the  earliest  and  most  eminent 
of  German  universities,  was  founded  in 
1350;  a  secession  from  thence  of  Saxon 

*  "  But  among  these,"  says  Anthony  Wood,  "  a 
company  of  varlets,  who  pretended  to  be  scholars, 
shuffled  themselves  in,  and  did  act  much  villany  in 
the  university  by  thieving,  whoring,  quarrelling, 
&c.  They  lived  under  no  discipline,  neither  had 
they  tutors ;  but  only,  for  fashion  sake,  would  some- 
times thrust  themselves  into  the  schools  at  ordi- 
nary lectures,  and  when  they  went  to  perform  any 
mischief,  then  would  they  be  accounted  scholars, 
that  so  they  might  free  themselves  from  the  juris- 
diction of  the  burghers,"  p.  206.  If  we  allow  three 
varlets  to  one  scholar,  the  university  will  still  have 
been  very  fully  frequented  by  the  latter. 

t  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  47.  Azarius,  about  the 
middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  says,  the  number 
was  about  13,000  in  his  time. — Muratori,  Script. 
Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xvi.,  p.  325. 

t  Villaret,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xvi.,  p.  341.  This 
may  perhaps  require  to  be  taken  with  allowance. 
But  Paris  owes  a  great  part  of  its  buildings  on  the 
southern  bank  of  the  Seine  to  the  university.  The 
students  are  said  to  have  been  about  12,000  before 
1480.— Crevier,  t.  iv.,  p.  410. 

$  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  43  and  46. 

I!  The  earliest  authentic  mention  of  Cambridge 
as  a  place  of  learning,  if  I  mistake  not,  is  in  Mat- 
thew Paris,  who  informs  us,  that  in  1209,  John 
having  caused  three  clerks  of  Oxford  to  be  hanged 
on  suspicion  of  murder,  the  whole  body  of  scholars 
left  that  city,  and  emigrated,  some  to  Cambridge, 
some  to  Reading,  in  order  to  carry  on  their  studies 
(p.  191,  edit.  1684).  But  it  may  be  conjectured, 
with  some  probability,  that  they  were  led  to  a 
town  so  distant  as  Cambridge  ^y  the  previous  es- 
tablishment of  academical  instruction  in  that  place. 
The  incorporation  of  Cambridge  is  in  1231  (15  Hen. 
III.),  so  that  there  is  no  great  difference  in  the  legal 
antiquity  of  our  two  universities. 

f  Crevier,  Hist,  de  1'Universite  de  Paris,  t.  ii.,  p. 
216;  t.  iii.,  p.  140 


students?  in  consequence  of  the  nation- 
ality of  the  Bohemians  and  the  Hussite 
schism,  gave  rise  to  that  of  Leipsic.* 
The  fifteenth  century  produced  several 
new  academical  foundations  in  France 
and  Spain. 

A  large  proportion  of  scholars,  in  most 
of  those  institutions,  were  drawn  by  the 
love  of  science  from  foreign  countries. 
The  chief  universities  had  their  own  par- 
ticular departments  of  excellence.  Paris 
was  unrivalled  for  scholastic  theology; 
Bologna  and  Orleans,  and  afterward 
Bourges,  for  jurisprudence ;  Montpelier 
for  medicine.  Though  national  prejudi- 
ces, as  in  the  case  of  Prague,  sometimes 
interfered  with  this  free  resort  of  for- 
eigners to  places  of  education,  it  was  in 
general  a  wise  policy  of  government,  as 
well  as  of  the  universities  themselves,  to 
encourage  it.  The  thirty-fifth  article  of 
the  peace  of  Bretigni  provides  for  the 
restoration  of  former  privileges  to  stu- 
dents respectively  in  the  French  and  Eng- 
lish universities. f  Various  letters  pat- 
ent will  be  found  in  Rymer's  collection, 
securing  to  Scottish  as  well  as  French 
natives  a  safe  passage  to  their  place  of 
education.  The  English  nation,  including 
however  the  Flemings  and  Germans,! 
had  a  separate  vote  in  the  faculty  of  arts 
at  Paris.  But  foreign  students  were  not, 
I  believe,  so  numerous  in  the  English 
academies. 

If  endowments  and  privileges  are  the 
means  of  quickening  a  zeal  for  letters, 
they  were  liberally  bestowed  in  the  three 
last  of  the  middle  ages.  Crevier  enumer- 
ates fifteen  colleges,  founded  in  the  uni- 
versity of  Paris  during  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, besides  one  or  two  of  a  still  earlier 
date.  Two  only,  or  at  most  three,  ex- 
isted in  that  age  at  Oxford,  and  but  one 
at  Cambridge.  In  the  next  two  centu- 
ries, these  universities  could  boast,  as 
every  one  knows,  of  many  splendid 
foundations;  though  much  exceeded  in 
number  by  those  of  Paris.  Considered 
as  ecclesiastical  institutions,  it  is  not 
surprising  that  the  universities  obtained, 
according  to  the  spirit  of  their  age,  an 
exclusive  cognizance  of  civil  or  criminal 
suits  affecting  their  members.  This 
jurisdiction  was,  however,  local  as  well 
as  personal,  and  in  reality  encroach- 
ed on  the  regular  police  of  their  cities. 
At  Paris  the  privilege  turned  to  a  flagrant 
abuse,  and  gave  rise  to  many  scandalous 
contentions. $  Still  more  valuable  ad- 


*  Pfeffel,  Abrege  Chronologique  de  1'Hist.  de 
PAllemagne,  p.  550,  607. 

t  Rymer,  t.  vi.,  p.  292.     \  Crevier,  t  ii.,  p.  398. 
§  Crevier  and  Villaret,  passim. 


526 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


vantages  were  those  relating  to  ecclesi- 
astical preferments,  of  which  a  large 
proportion  was  reserved  in  France  to 
academical  graduates.  Something  of 
the  same  sort,  though  less  extensive, 
may  still  be  placed  in  the  rules  respect- 
ing plurality  of  benefices  in  our  English 
church. 

This  remarkable  and  almost  sudden 
Causes  of  transition  from  a  total  indiffer- 
their  celeb-  ence  to  all  intellectual  pursuits 
rity-  cannot  be  ascribed  perhaps  to 
any  general  causes.  The  restoration  of 
the  civil,  and  the  formation  of  the  canon 
law,  were  indeed  eminently  conducive  to 
it,  and  a  large  proportion  of  scholars  in 
most  universities  confined  themselves 
to  jurisprudence.  But  the  chief  attrac- 
Schoiastic  tion  to  the  studious  was  the 
philosophy,  new  scholastic  philosophy.  The 
love  of  contention,  especially  with  such 
arms  as  the  art  of  dialectics  supplies  to 
an  acute  understanding,  is  natural 
enough  to  mankind.  That  of  specula- 
ting upon  the  mysterious  questions  of 
metaphysics  and  theology  is  not  less  so. 
These  disputes  and  speculations,  howev- 
er, appear  to  have  excited  little  interest, 
till,  after  the  middle  of  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury, Roscelin,  a  professor  of  logic,  re- 
vived the  old  question  of  the  Grecian 
schools  respecting  universal  ideas,  the 
reality  of  which  he  denied.  This  kindled 
a  spirit  of  metaphysical  discussion,  which 
Lanfranc  and  Anselm,  successively  arch- 
bishops of  Canterbury,  kept  alive;  and 
in  the  next  century,  Abelard  and  Peter 
Lombard,  especially  the  latter,  completed 
the  scholastic  system  of  philosophizing. 
The  logic  of  Aristotle  seems  to  have  been 
partly  known  in  the  eleventh  century, 
although  that  of  Augustin  was  perhaps 
in  higher  estimation  ;*  in  the  twelfth  it 
obtained  more  decisive  influence.  His 
metaphysics,  to  which  the  logic  might 
be  considered  as  preparatory,  were  intro- 
duced through  translations  from  the  Ara- 
bic, and  perhaps  also  from  the  Greek, 
early  in  the  ensuing  century.f  This 

*  Brucker,  Hist.  Grit.  Philosophise,  t.  iii.,  p.  678. 

t  Id.,  ibid.  Tiraboschi  conceives  that  the  trans- 
lations of  Aristotle  made  by  command  of  Frederick 
II.  were  directly  from  the  Greek,  t.  iv.,  p.  145 ;  and 
censures  Brucker  for  the  contrary  opinion.  Buhle, 
however  (Hist,  de  la  Philosophic  Moderne,  t.  i.,  p. 
696),  appears  to  agree  with  Brucker.  It  is  almost 
certain  that  versions  were  made  from  the  Arabic 
Aristotle  :  which  itself  was  not  immediately  taken 
from  the  Greek,  but  from  a  Syriac  medium.— Gin- 
guene,  Hist.  Litt.  de  1'Italie,  t.  i.,  p.  212  (on  the 
authority  of  M.  Langles). 

It  was  not  only  a  knowledge  of  Aristotle  that 
the  scholastics  of  Europe  derived  from  the  Arabic 
language.  His  writings  had  produced  in  the  flour- 
ishing Mahometan  kingdoms  a  vast  number  of 


work,  condemned  at  first  by  the  decrees 
of  popes  and  councils,  on  account  of  its 
supposed  tendency  to  atheism,  acquired 
by  degrees  an  influence,  to  which  even 
popes  and  councils  were  obliged  to 
yield.  The  Mendicant  Friars,  establish- 
ed throughout  Europe  in  the  thirteenth 
century,  greatly  contributed  to  promote 
the  Aristotelian  philosophy ;  and  its  final 
reception  into  the  orthodox  system  of 
the  church  may  chiefly  be  ascribed  to 
Thomas  Aquinas,  the  boast  of  the  Do- 
minican order,  and  certainly  the  most 
distinguished  metaphysician  of  the  mid- 
dle ages.  His  authority  silenced  all  scru- 
ples as  to  that  of  Aristotle,  and  the  two 
philosophers  were  treated  with  equally 
implicit  deference  by  the  later  school- 
men.* 

This  scholastic  philosophy,  so  famous 
for  several  ages,  has  since  passed  away 
and  been  forgotten.  The  history  of  liter- 
ature, like  that  of  empire,  is  full  of  revo- 
lutions. Our  public  libraries  are  ceme- 
teries of  departed  reputation ;  and  the 
dust  accumulating  upon  their  untouched 
volumes  speaks  as  forcibly  as  the  grass 
that  waves  over  the  ruins  of  Babylon. 
Few,  very  few,  for  a  hundred  years  past, 
have  broken  the  repose  of  the  immense 
works  of  the  schoolmen.  None  perhaps 
in  our  own  country  have  acquainted  them- 
selves particularly  with  their  contents. 
Leibnitz,  however,  expressed  a  wish  that 
some  one  conversant  with  modern  phi- 
losophy would  undertake  to  extract  the 


commentators,  and  of  metaphysicians  trained  in 
the  same  school.  Of  these,  Averroes,  a  native  of 
Cordova,  who  died  early  in  the  thirteenth  century, 
was  the  most  eminent.  It  would  be  curious  to 
examine  more  minutely  than  has  hitherto  been 
done  the  original  writings  of  these  famous  men, 
which  no  doubt  have  suffered  in  translation.  A 
passage  in  Al  Gazel,  which  Mr.  Turner  has  ren- 
dered from  the  Latin,  with  all  the  disadvantage  of 
a  double  remove  from  the  author's  words,  appears 
to  state  the  argument  in  favour  of  that  class  of 
nominalists,  called  conceptualists  (the  only  realists 
who  remain  in  the  present  age),  with  more  clear- 
ness and  precision  than  any  thing  I  have  seen  from 
the  schoolmen.  Al  Gazel  died  in  1126,  and  conse- 
quently might  have  suggested  this  theory  to  Abe- 
lard,  which  however  is  not  probable. — Turner's 
Hist,  of  England,  vol.  i.,  p.  513. 

*  Brucker,  Hist.  Grit.  Philosophic,  t.  iii.  I 
have  found  no  better  guide  than  Brucker.  But  he 
confesses  himself  not  to  have  read  the  original 
writings  of  the  scholastics;  an  admission  which 
every  reader  will  perceive  to  be  quite  necessary. 
Consequently,  he  gives  us  rather  a  verbose  decla- 
mation against  their  philosophy,  than  any  clear 
view  of  its  character.  Of  the  valuable  works  late- 
ly published  in  Germany  on  the  history  of  Philoso- 
phy, I  have  only  seen  that  of  Buhle,  which  did  not 
fall  into  my  hands  till  I  had  nearly  written  these 
pages.  Tiedeman  and  Tenneman  are,  I  believe, 
still  untranslated. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


627 


scattered  particles  of  gold  which  may  be 
hidden  in  their  abandoned  mines.  This 
wish  has  been  at  length  partially  fulfilled 
by  three  or  four  of  those  industrious  stu- 
dents and  keen  metaphysicians,  who  do 
honour  to  modern  Germany.  But  most 
of  their  works  are  unknown  to  me  except 
by  repute ;  and  as  they  all  appear  to  be 
formed  on  a  very  extensive  plan,  I  doubt 
whether  even  those  laborious  men  could 
afford  adequate  time  for  this  ungrateful 
research.  Yet  we  cannot  pretend  to 
deny,  that  Roscelin,  Anselm,  Abelard, 
Peter  Lombard,  Albertus  Magnus,  Thom- 
as Aquinas,  Duns  Scotus,  and  Ockham, 
were  men  of  acute  and  even  profound 
understandings,  the  giants  of  their  own 
generation.  Even  with  the  slight  knowl- 
edge we  possess  of  their  tenets,  there 
appear  through  the  cloud  of  repulsive 
technical  barbarisms  rays  of  metaphys- 
ical genius  which  this  age  ought  not 
to  despise.  Thus,  in  the  works  of  An- 
selm is  found  the  celebrated  argument  of 
Des  Cartes  for  the  existence  of  a  Deity, 
deduced  from  the  idea  of  an  infinitely 
perfect  being.  One  great  object  that| 
most  of  the  schoolmen  had  in  view  was 
to  establish  the  principles  of  natural  the- 
ology by  abstract  reasoning.  This  rea- 
soning was  doubtless  liable  to  great  diffi- 
culties. But  a  modern  writer,  who 
seems  tolerably  acquainted  with  the  sub- 
ject, assures  us  that  it  would  be  difficult 
to  mention  any  theoretical  argument  to 
prove  the  divine  attributes,  or  any  objec- 
tion capable  of  being  raised  against  the 
proof,  which  we  do  not  find  in  some  of 
the  scholastic  philosophers.*  The  most 
celebrated  subjects  of  discussion,  and 
those  on  which  this  class  of  reasoners 
were  most  divided,  were  the  reality  of 
universal  ideas,  considered  as  extrinsic 
to  the  human  mind,  and  the  freedom  of 
will.  These  have  not  ceased  to  occupy 
the  thoughts  of  metaphysicians;  but  it 
will  generally  be  allowed  that  the  preva- 
lence of  the  Realists  in  the  former  ques- 
tion does  not  give  a  favourable  impres- 
sion of  the  scholastic  system. f 


*  Buhle,  Hist,  de  la  Philos.  Moderne,  t.  i.,  p. 
723.  This  author  raises,  upon  the  whole,  a  favour- 
able notion  of  Anselm  and  Aquinas  ;  but  he  hard- 
ly notices  any  other. 

t  Mr.  Turner  has,  with  his  characteristic  spirit  of 
enterprise,  examined  some  of  the  writings  of  our 
chief  English  schoolmen,  Duns  Scotus  and  Ock- 
ham  (Hist,  of  Eng.,  vol.  i.),  and  even  given  us  some 
extracts  from  them.  They  seem  to  me  very  friv- 
olous, so  far  as  I  can  collect  their  meaning.  Ock- 
harn,  in  particular,  falls  very  short  of  what  I  had  ex- 
pected ;  and  his  nominalism  is  strangely  different 
from  that  of  Berkeley.  We  can  hardly  reckon  a 
man  in  the  right,  who  is  so  by  accident,  and  through 
sophistical  reasoning.  However,  a  well-known 


But  all  discovery  of  truth  by  means  of 
these  controversies  was  rendered  hope- 
less by  two  insurmountable  obstacles : 
the  authority  of  Aristotle,  and  that  of  the 
church.  Wherever  obsequious  rever- 
ence is  substituted  for  bold  inquiry,  truth, 
if  she  is  not  already  at  hand,  will  never 
be  attained.  The  scholastics  did  not  un- 
derstand Aristotle,  whose  original  wri- 
tings they  could  not  read  ;*  but  his  name 
was  received  with  implicit  faith.  They 
learned  his  peculiar  nomenclature,  and 
fancied  that  he  had  given  them  realities. 
The  authority  of  the  church  did  them 
still  more  harm.  It  has  been  said,  and 
probably  with  much  truth,  that  their  met- 
aphysics were  injurious  to  their  theology. 
But  I  must  observe  in  return,  that  their 
theology  was  equally  injurious  to  their 
metaphysics.  Their  disputes  continually 
turned  upon  questions  either  involving 
absurdity  and  contradiction,  or  at  best 
inscrutable  by  human  comprehension. 
Those  who  assert  the  greatest  antiquity 
of  the  Roman  Catholic  doctrine  as  to  the 
real  presence,  allow  that  both  the  word 
and  the  definition  of  transubstantiation 
are  owing  to  the  scholastic  writers.  Their 
subtleties  were  not  always  so  well  re- 
ceived. They  reasoned  at  imminent 
peril  of  being  charged  with  heresy,  which 
Roscelin,  Abelard,  Lombard,  and  Ock- 
ham,  did  not  escape.  In  the  virulent 
factions  that  arose  out  of  their  metaphys- 
ical quarrels,  either  party  was  eager  to 
expose  its  adversary  to  detraction  and 
persecution.  The  nominalists  were  ac- 
cused, one  hardly  sees  why,  with  redu- 
cing, like  Sabellius,  the  persons  of  the 
Trinity  to  modal  distinctions.  The  Real- 


article  in  the  Edinburgh  Review,  No.  LIII.,  p. 
204,  gives,  from  Tenneman,  a  more  favourable  ac- 
count of  Ockham. 

Perhaps  I  may  have  imagined  the  scholastics  to 
be  more  forgotten  than  they  really  are.  Within  a 
short  time,  I  have  met  with  four  living  English 
writers  who  have  read  parts  of  Thomas  Aquinas  ; 
Mr.  Turner,  Mr.  Berington,  Mr.  Coleridge,  and 
the  Edinburgh  Reviewer.  Still  I  cannot  bring  my- 
self to  think  that  there  are  four  more  in  this  coun- 
try who  could  say  the  same.  Certain  portions, 
however,  of  his  writings  are  still  read  in  the  course 
of  instruction  of  some  Catholic  universities. 

*  Roger  Bacon,  by  far  the  truest  philosopher  of 
the  middle  ages,  complains  of  the  ignorance  of 
Aristotle's  translators.  Every  translator,  he  ob- 
serves, ought  to  understand  his  author's  subject, 
and  the  two  languages  from  which  and  into  which 
he  is  to  render  the  work.  But  none  hitherto,  ex- 
ept  Boethius,  have  sufficiently  known  the  lan- 
guages ;  nor  has  one,  except  Robert  Grostete  (the 
famous  bishop  of  Lincoln),  had  a  competent  ac- 
quaintance with  science.  The  rest  make  egregi- 
ous errors  in  both  respects.  And  there  is  so  much 
misapprehension  and  obscurity  in  the  Aristotelian 
writings  as  thus  translated,  that  no  one  under- 
stands them.— Opus  Majus,  p.  45. 


528 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


ists,  with  more  pretence,  incurred  the 
imputation  of  holding  a  language  that  sa- 
voured of  atheism.*  In  the  controversy 
which  the  Dominicans  and  Franciscans, 
disciples  respectively  of  Thomas.  Aqui- 
nas and  Duns  Scotus,  maintained  about 
grace  and  free-will,  it  was  of  course  still 
more  easy  to  deal  in  mutual  reproaches 
of  heterodoxy.  But  the  schoolmen  were 
in  general  prudent  enough  not  to  defy  the 
censures  of  the  church ;  and  the  popes, 
in  return  for  the  support  they  gave  to  all 
exorbitant  pretensions  of  the  Holy  See, 
connived  at  this  factious  wrangling,  which 
threatened  no  serious  mischief,  as  it  did 
not  proceed  from  any  independent  spirit 
of  research.  Yet,  with  all  their  apparent 
conformity  to  the  received  creed,  there 
was,  as  might  be  expected  from  the  cir- 
cumstances, a  great  deal  of  real  deviation 
from  orthodoxy,  and  even  of  infidelity. 
The  scholastic  mode  of  dispute,  admit- 
ting of  no  termination,  and  producing  no 
conviction,  was  the  sure  cause  of  skep- 
ticism ;  and  the  system  of  Aristotle, 
especially  with  the  commentaries  of 
Averroes,  bore  an  aspect  very  unfavour- 
able to  natural  religion. f  The  Aristote- 
lian philosophy,  even  in  the  hands  of  the 
master,  was  like  a  barren  tree,  that  con- 
ceals its  want  of  fruit  by  profusion  of 
leaves.  But  the  scholastic  ontology  was 
much  worse.  What  could  be  more  tri- 
fling than  disquisitions  about  the  nature 
of  angels,  their  modes  of  operation,  their 
means  of  conversing,  or  (for  these  were 
distinguished)  the  morning  and  evening 
state  of  their  understandings  '?|  Into  such 
follies  the  schoolmen  appear  to  have 
launched,  partly  because  there  was  less 
danger  of  running  against  a  heresy  in  a 
matter  where  the  church  had  defined  so 
little;  partly  from  their  presumption, 
which  disdained  all  inquiries  into  the  hu- 
man mind,  as  merely  a  part  of  physics ; 
and  in  no  small  degree  through  a  spirit 
of  mystical  fanaticism,  derived  from  the 
oriental  philosophy,  and  the  latter  Pla- 
tonists,  which  blended  itself  with  the 
cold-blooded  technicalities  of  the  Aristo- 

*  Brucker,  p.  733,  912.  Mr.  Turner  has  fallen 
into  some  confusion  as  to  this  point,  and  supposes 
the  nominalist  system  to  have  had  a  pantheistical 
tendency,  not  clearly  apprehending  its  characteris- 
tics, p.  512. 

t  Petrarch  gives  a  curious  account  of  the  irreli- 
gion  that  prevailed  among  the  learned  at  Venice 
and  Padua,  in  consequence  of  their  unbounded  ad- 
miration for  Aristotle  and  Averroes.  One  of  this 
school,  conversing  with  him,  after  expressing  much 
contempt  for  the  Apostles  and  Fathers,  exclaimed  : 
Utinam  tu  Averroim  pati  posses,  ut  videres  quanto 
ille  tuis  his  nugatoribus  major  sit! — M6m.  de  Pe- 
trarque,  t.  iii.,  p.  759.  Tiraboschi,  t.  v.,  p.  162. 

t  Brucker,  p.  898. 


telian  school.*  But  this  unproductive 
waste  of  the  faculties  could  not  last  for 
ever.  Men  discovered  that  they  had  giv- 
en their  time  for  the  promise  of  wisdom, 
and  been  cheated  in  the  bargain.  What 
John  of  Salisbury  observes  of  the  Paris- 
ian dialectitians  in  his  own  time,  that  af- 
ter several  years  absence  he  found  them 
not  a  step  advanced,  and  still  employed 
in  urging  and  parrying  the  same  argu- 
ments, was  equally  applicable  to  the  pe- 
riod of  centuries.  After  three  or  four 
hundred  years,  the  scholastics  had  not 
untied  a  single  knot,  nor  added  one  une- 
quivocal truth  to  the  domain  of  philos- 
ophy. As  this  became  more  evident,  the 
enthusiasm  for  that  kind  of  learning  de- 
clined ;  after  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth 
century,  few  distinguished  teachers  arose 
among  the  schoolmen ;  and  at  the  revival 
of  letters,  their  pretended  science  had 
no  advocates  left  but  among  the  prejudi- 
ced or  ignorant  adherents  of  established 
systems.  How  different  is  the  state  of 
genuine  philosophy,  the  zeal  for  which 
will  never  wear  out  by  length  of  time  or 


*  This  mystical  philosophy  appears  to  have  been 
introduced  into  Europe  by  John  Scotus,  whom 
Buhle  treats  as  the  founder  of  the  scholastic  phi- 
losophy ;  though,  as  it  made  no  sensible  progress 
for  two  centuries  after  his  time,  it  seems  more  nat- 
ural to  give  that  credit  to  Roscelin  and  Anselm. 
Scotus,  or  Erigena,  as  he  is  perhaps  more  frequent- 
ly called,  took  up,  through  the  medium  of  a  spuri- 
ous work,  ascribed  to  Dionysius  the  Areopagite, 
that  remarkable  system,  which  has  from  time  im- 
memorial prevailed  in  some  schools  of  the  East, 
wherein  all  external  phenomena,  as  well  as  all 
subordinate  intellects,  are  considered  as  emanating 
from  the  Supreme  Being,  into  whose  essence  they 
are  hereafter  to  be  absorbed.  This  system,  repro- 
duced under  various  modifications,  and  combined 
with  various  theories  of  philosophy  and  religion, 
is  perhaps  the  most  congenial  to  the  spirit  of  soli- 
tary speculation,  and  consequently  the  most  ex- 
tensively diffused  of  any  which  those  high  themes 
have  engendered.  It  originated,  no  doubt,  in  sub- 
lime conceptions  of  Divine  omnipotence  and  ubi- 
quity. But  clearness  of  expression,  or  indeed  of 
ideas,  being  not  easily  connected  with  mysticism, 
the  language  of  philosophers  adopting  the  theory 
of  emanation  is  often  hardly  distinguishable  from 
that  of  the  pantheists.  Brucker,  very  unjustly,  as 
I  imagine  from  the  passages  he  quotes,  accuses 
John  Erigena  of  pantheism.— (Hist.  Crit.  Philos., 
p.  620.)  The  charge  would,  however,  be  better 
grounded  against  some  whose  style  might  deceive 
an  unaccustomed  reader.  In  fact,  the  philosophy 
of  emanation  leads  very  nearly  to  the  doctrine  of 
a  universal  substance,  which  begot  the  atheistic 
system  of  Spinoza,  and  which  appears  to  have  re- 
vived \yith  similar  consequences  among  the  meta- 
physicians of  Germany.  How  very  closely  the 
language  of  this  oriental  philosophy,  or  even  of 
that  which  regards  the  Deity  as  the  soul  of  the 
world,  may  verge  upon  pantheism,  will  be  per- 
ceived (without  the  trouble  of  reading  the  first 
book  of  Cudworth)  from  two  famous  passages  of 
Virgil  and  Lucan. — Georg.,  1.  iv.,  v.  219 ;  and  Phar- 
salia,  1.  viii.,  v.  578. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


629 


change  of  fashion,  because  the  inquirer, 
unrestrained  by  authority,  is  perpetually 
cheered  by  the  discovery  of  truth  in  re- 
searches which  the  boundless  riches  of 
nature  seem  to  render  indefinitely  pro- 
gressive ! 

Yet,  upon  a  general  consideration,  the 
attention  paid  in  the  universities  to 
scholastic  philosophy  may  be  deemed  a 
source  of  improvement  in  the  intellectu- 
al character,  when  we  compare  it  with 
the  perfect  ignorance  of  some  preceding 
ages.  Whether  the  same  industry  would 
not  have  been  more  profitably  directed, 
if  the  love  of  metaphysics  had  not  in- 
tervened, is  another  question.  Philolo- 
gy, or  the  principles  of  good  taste,  de- 
generated through  the  prevalence  of 
school  logic.  The  Latin  compositions 
of  the  twelfth  century  are  better  than 
those  of  the  three  that  followed ;  at 
least  on  the  northern  side  of  the  Alps. 
I  do  not,  however,  conceive  that  any 
real  correctness  of  taste  or  general  ele- 
gance of  style  was  likely  to  subsist  in 
so  imperfect  a  condition  of  society. 
These  qualities  seem  to  require  a  certain 
harmonious  correspondence  in  the  tone 
of  manners,  before  they  can  establish  a 
prevalent  influence  over  literature.  A 
more  real  evil  was  the  diverting  studious 
men  from  mathematical  science.  Early 
in  the  twelfth  century,  several  persons, 
chiefly  English,  had  brought  into  Europe 
some  of  the  Arabian  writings  on  geome- 
try and  physics.  In  the  thirteenth  the 
works  of  Euclid  were  commented  upon 
by  Campano  ;*  and  Roger  Bacon  was 
fully  acquainted  with  them.f  Algebra, 

*  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  150. 

t  There  is  a  very  copious  and  sensible  account 
of  Roger  Bacon  in  Wood's  History  of  Oxford,  vol. 
i.,  p.  332  (Gutch's  edition).  I  am  a  little  surprised 
that  Antony  should  have  found  out  Bacon's  merit. 
It  is  like  an  oyster  judging  of  a  line-of-battle  ship. 
But  I  ought  not  to  gibe  at  the  poor  antiquary  when 
he  shows  good  sense. 

The  resemblance  between  Roger  Bacon  and  his 
greater  namesake  is  very  remarkable.  Whether 
Lord  Bacon  ever  read  the  Opus  Majus,  I  know  not, 
but  it  is  singular  that  his  favourite  quaint  expres- 
sion, prasrogativas  scientiarum,  should  be  found  in 
that  work,  though  not  used  with  the  same  allusion 
to  the  Roman  comitia.  And  whoever  reads  the 
sixth  part  of  the  Opus  Majus,  upon  experimental 
science,  must  be  struck  by  it  as  the  prototype,  in 
spirit,  of  the  Novum  Organum.  The  same  san- 
guine and  sometimes  rash  confidence  in  the  effect 
of  physical  discoveries,  the  same  fondness  for  ex- 
periment, the  same  preference  of  inductive  to  ab- 
stract reasoning,  pervade  both  works.  Roger  Ba- 
con's philosophical  spirit  may  be  illustrated  by  the 
following  passage:  Duo  sunt  modi  cognoscendi; 
scilicet  per  argumentum  et  experimentum.  Ar- 
gumentum concludit  et  facit  nos  concludere  ques- 
tionem ;  sed  non  certificat  neque  removet  dubita- 
tionem,  ut  quiescat  animus  in  intuitu  veritatis,  nisi 
L  1 


as  far  as  the  Arabians  knew  it,  extending 
to  quadratic  equations,  was  actually  in 
the  hands  of  some  Italians  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  same  age,  and  pre- 
served for  almost  three  hundred  years  as 
a  secret,  though  without  any  conception 
of  its  importance.  As  abstract  mathe- 
matics require  no  collateral  aid,  they 
may  reach  the  highest  perfection  in 
ages  of  general  barbarism;  and  there 
seems  to  be  no  reason  why,  if  the  course 
of  study  had  been  directed  that  way, 
there  should  not  have  arisen  a  Newton 
or  a  La  Place,  instead  of  an  Aquinas  or 
an  Ockham.  The  knowledge  displayed 
by  Roger  Bacon  and  by  Albertus  Mag- 
nus, even  in  the  mixed  mathematics, 
under  every  disadvantage  from  the  im- 
perfection of  instruments  and  the  want 
of  recorded  experience,  are  sufficient  to 
inspire  us  with  regret  that  their  contem- 
poraries were  more  inclined  to  astonish- 
ment than  to  emulation.  These  inqui- 
ries indeed  were  subject  to  the  ordeal 
of  fire,  the  great  purifier  of  books  and 
men;  for  if  the  metaphysician  stood  a 
chance  of  being  burnt  as  a  heretic, 
the  natural  philosopher  was  in  not  less 
jeopardy  as  a  magician.* 

A  far  more  substantial  cause  of  intel- 
lectual improvement  was  the  cultivation 
development  of  those  new  Ian-  of  the  new 
guages  that  sprang  out  of  the  laneuages- 
corruption  of  Latin.     For  three  or  four 
centuries  after  what  was  called  the  ro- 
mance tongue  was   spoken   in  France, 
there  remain  but  few  vestiges  of  its  em- 
ployment in  writing ;  though  we  cannot 
draw    an  absolute    inference  from    our 
want  of  proof,  and  a  critic  o&  much  au- 
thority supposes    translations   to    have 
been  made  into  it  for  religious  purposes 
from  the  time  of  Charlemagne.!  Divi8ion  of 
During   this   period  the    Ian-  the  romance 
guage  was  split  into  two  very  tongue  into 
separate  dialects,  the  regions  tv 
of  which  may  be  considered,  though  by 
no   means    strictly,    as  divided  by  the 


earn  inveniat  via  experientiae ;  quia  multi  habent 
argumenta  ad  scibilia,  sed  quia  non  habent  experi- 
entiam,  negligunt  ea,  neque  vitant  nociva  nee 
persequuntur  bona.  Si  enim  aliquis  homo,  qui  nun- 
quam  vidit  ignem,  probavit  per  argumenta  sufficien- 
tia  quod  ignis  comburit  et  laedit  res  et  destruit,  nun- 
quam  prqpter  hoc  quiesceret  animus  audientis,  nee 
ignem  vitaret  antequam  poneret  manum  vel  rem 
combustibilem  ad  ignem,  ut  per  experientiam  pro- 
baret  quod  argumentum  edocebat ;  sed  assumta  ex- 
perientia  combustionis  certificatur  animus  et  qui- 
escit  in  fulgore  veritatis,  quo  argumentum  non  suf- 
ficit,  sed  experientia,  p.  446. 

*  See  the  fate  of  Cecco  d'  Ascoli  in  Tiraboschi, 
t.  v.,  p.  174. 

t  Le  Boeuf,  Me"m.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscript.,  _t. 
xvii,,  p.  711. 


530 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


Loire.  These  were  called  the  Langue 
d'Oil  and  the  Langue  d'Oc  ;  or,  in  more 
modern  terms,  the  French  and  Provencal 
dialects.  In  the  latter  of  these  I  know 
of  nothing  which  can  even  by  name  be 
traced  beyond  the  year  1100.  About 
that  time,  Gregory  de  Bechada,  a  gentle- 
man of  Limousin,  recorded  the  memo- 
rable events  of  the  first  crusade,  then  re- 
cent, in  a  metrical  history  of  great 
length.*  This  poem  has  altogether  per- 
ished ;  which,  considering  the  populari- 
ty of  its  subject,  as  M.  Sismondi  justly 
remarks,  would  probably  not  have  been 
the  case  if  it  had  possessed  any  merit. 
But  very  soon  afterward,  a  multitude  of 
poets,  like  a  swarm  of  summer  insects, 
appeared  in  the  southern  provinces  of 
Troubadours  France.  These  were  the  cel- 
of  Provence,  ebrated  Troubadours,  whose 
fame  depends  far  less  on  their  positive 
excellence  than  on  the  darkness  of  pre- 
ceding ages,  on  the  temporary  sensation 
they  excited,  and  their  permanent  influ- 
ence on  the  state  of  European  poetry. 
From  William,  count  of  Poitou,  the  ear- 
liest troubadour  on  record,  who  died  in 
1126,  to  their  extinction  about  the  end 
of  the  next  century,  there  were  probably 
several  hundred  of  these  versifiers  in  the 
language  of  Provence,  though  not  al- 
ways natives  of  France.  Millot  has 
published  the  lives  of  one  hundred  and 
forty-two,  besides  the  names  of  many 
more  whose  history  is  unknown ;  and  a 
still  greater  number,  it  cannot  be  doubt- 
ed, are  unknown  by  name.  Among 
those  poets  are  reckoned  a  king  of  Eng- 
land (Richard  L),  two  of  Aragon,  one  of 
Sicily,  a  dauphin  of  Auvergne,  a  count  of 
Foix,  a  prince  of  Orange,  many  noble- 
men, and  several  ladies.  One  can  hard- 
ly pretend  to  account  for  this  sudden  and 
transitory  love  of  verse  ;  but  it  is  mani- 
festly one  symptom  of  the  rapid  impulse 
which  the  human  mind  received  in  the 
twelfth  century,  and  contemporaneous 
with  the  severer  studies  that  began  to 
flourish  in  the  universities.  It  was  en- 
couraged by  the  prosperity  of  Langue- 
doc  and  Provence,  undisturbed,  compara- 
tively with  other  countries,  by  internal 

*  Gregorius,  cognomento  Bechada,  de  Castro 
de  Turribus,  professione  miles,  subtilissimi  ingenii 
vir,  aliquantulum  imbutus  literis,  riorum  gesta 
proeliorum  matern£  lingua  rythmo  vulgari,  ut  pop- 
ulus  pleniter  intelligerel,  ingens  volumen  decenter 
composuit,  et  ut  vera  et  faceta  verba  proferret,  duo- 
decim  annorum  spatium  super  hoc  opus  operam  de- 
dit.  Ne  vero  vilesceret  propter  verbum  vulgare,  non 
sine  prascepto  episcopi  Eustorgii,  et  consilio  Gau- 
berti  Normanni  hoc  opus  aggressus  est.  I  tran- 
scribe this  from  M.  Heeren's  Essai  sur  les  Croi- 
sades,  p.  447  ;  whose  reference  is  to  Labbe,  Biblio- 
theca  nova  MSS.,  t.  ii.,  p.  296. 


warfare,  and  disposed  by  the  temper  of 
their  inhabitants  to  feel  with  voluptuous 
sensibility  the  charm  of  music  and  am- 
orous poetry.  But  the  tremendous  storm 
that  fell  upon  Languedoc  in  the  crusade 
against  the  Albigeois  shook  off  the  flow- 
ers of  Provencal  verse  ;^ind  the  final  ex- 
tinction of  the  fief  of  Toulouse,  with  the 
removal  of  the  counts  of  Provence  to 
Naples,  deprived  the  troubadours  of  their 
most  eminent  patrons.  An  attempt  was 
made  in  the  next  century  to  revive  them, 
by  distributing  prizes  for  the  best  compo- 
sition in  the  Floral  Games  of  Toulouse, 
which  have  sometimes  been  erroneous- 
ly referred  to  a  higher  antiquity.*  This 
institution  perhaps  still  remains ;  but, 
even  in  its  earliest  period,  it  did  not  es- 
tablish the  name  of  any  Provencal  poet. 
Nor  can  we  deem  those  fantastical  so- 
lemnities, styled  Courts  of  Love,  where 
ridiculous  questions  of  metaphysical  gal- 
lantry were  debated  by  poetical  advo- 
cates, under  the  presidency  and  arbitra- 
tion of  certain  ladies,  much  calculated 
to  bring  forward  any  genuine  excellence. 
They  illustrate,  however,  what  is  more 
immediately  my  own  object,  the  general 
ardour  for  poetry,  and  the  manners  of 
those  chivalrous  ages.f 

The  great  reputation  acquired  by  the 
troubadours,  and  panegyrics  Their  poeti- 
lavished  on  some  of  them  by  cai  character. 
Dante  and  Petrarch,  excited  a  curios- 
ity among  literary  men  which  has  been 
a  good  deal  disappointed  by  further  ac- 
quaintance. An  excellent  French  anti- 
quarian of  the  last  age,  La  Curne  de  St. 
Palaye,  spent  great  part  of  his  life  in 
accumulating  manuscripts  of  Provencal 
poetry,  very  little  of  which  had  ever  been 
printed.  Translations  from  part  of  this 
collection,  with  memorials  of  the  writers, 
were  published  by  Millot;  and  we  cer- 
tainly do  not  often  meet  with  passages 
in  his  three  volumes  which  give  us  any 
poetical  pleasure.  J  Some  of  the  original 
poems  have  since  been  published,  and 
the  extracts  made  from  them  by  the  re- 
cent historians  of  southern  literature  are 


*  De  Sade,  Vie  de  Petrarque,  t.  i.,  p.  155.  Sis- 
mondi, Litt.  du  Midi,  t.  i.,  p.  228. 

t  For  the  Courts  of  Love,  see  De  Sade,  Vie  de 
Petrarque,  t.  ii.,  note  19.  Le  Grand,  Fabliaux,  t. 
i.,  p.  270.  Roquefort,  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Francoise, 
p.  94.  I  have  never  had  patience  to  look  at  the 
older  writers  who  have  treated  this  tiresome  sub- 
ject. It  is  a  satisfaction  to  reflect,  that  the  coun- 
try which  has  produced  more  eminent  and  origi- 
nal poets  than  any  other  has  never  been  infected 
by  the  fopperies  of  academies  and  their  prizes. 
Such  an  institution  as  the  Society  degli  Arcndi 
could  at  no  time  have  endured  public  ridicule  in 
England  for  a  fortnight. 

t  Histoire  Litt.  des  Troubadours,  Paris,  1774. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


531 


rather  superior.    The  troubadours  chieflj 
confined  themselves  to  subjects  of  love 
or  rather  gallantry,  and  to  satires  (sir 
ventes)  which  are  sometimes  keen  anc 
spirited.     No  romances  of  chivalry,  and 
hardly  any  tales,  are  found  among  thei; 
works.     There   seems   a   general   defi 
ciency  of  imagination,  and  especially  01 
that  vivid  description  which  distinguishes 
works  of  genius  in  the  rudest  period  of 
society.     In   the  poetry   of   sentiment 
their  favourite  province,  they  seldom  at 
tain  any  natural  expression,  and  conse- 
quently produce  no  interest.     I  speak,  of 
course,  on  the  presumption  that  the  bes 
specimens  have  been  exhibited  by  those 
who  have  undertaken  the  task.     It  musl 
be    allowed,   however,   that  we   cannot 
judge  of  the  troubadours  at  a  greater  dis- 
advantage than  through  the  prose  trans- 
lations of  Millot.     Their  poetry  was  en- 
tirely of  that  class  which  is   allied  to 
music,  and  excites  the  fancy  or  feelings 
rather  by  the  power  of  sound  than  any 
stimulancy  of  imagery  and  passion.    Pos- 
sessing a  flexible  and  harmonious  lan- 
guage, they  invented  a  variety  of  metri- 
cal arrangements,  perfectly  new  to  the 
nations  of  Europe.     The  Latin  hymns 
were  striking,  but  monotonous,  the  metre 
of  the  northern  French  unvaried ;  but  in 
Provencal  poetry  almost  every  length  of 
verse,  from  two  syllables  to  twelve,  and 
the  most  intricate  disposition  of  rhymes, 
were  at  the  choice  of  the  troubadour. 
The  canzoni,  the  sestine,  all  the  lyric 
metres  of  Italy  and    Spain,  were  bor- 
rowed from  his  treasury.     With  such  a 
command  of  poetical  sounds,  it  was  natu- 
ral that  he  should  inspire  delight  into 
ears  not  yet  rendered  familiar  to  the  arti- 
fices of  verse ;  and  even  now  the  frag- 
ments of  these  ancient  lays,  quoted  by 
M.  Sismondi  and  M.  Ginguene,  seem  to 
possess  a  sort  of  charm  that  has  evapo- 
rated in  translation.     Upon  this  harmony, 
and  upon  the  facility  with  which  mankind 
are  apt  to  be  deluded  into  an  admiration 
of  exaggerated  sentiment  in  poetry,  they 
depended  for  their  influence.     And,  how- 
ever vapid  the  songs  of  Provence  may 
seem  to  our   apprehensions,  they  were 
undoubtedly  the  source  from  which  poe- 
try for  many  centuries  derived  a  great 
portion  of  its  habitual  language.*  ^^ 

*  Two  very  modern  French  writers,  M.  Gin- 
guen<$  (Histoire  Litteraire  d'ltalie,  Paris,  1811)  and 
M.  Sismondi  (Litterature  du  Midi  de  1'Europe, 
Paris,  1813)  have  revived  the  poetical  history  of  the 
troubadours.  To  them,  still  more  than  to  Millot 
and  Tiraboschi,  I  would  acknowledge  my  obliga- 
tions for  the  little  I  have  learned  in  respect  of 
this  forgotten  school  of  poetry.  Notwithstanding, 
however,  the  heaviness  of  Millet's  work,  a  fault 
L12 


It  has  been  maintained  by  some  anti- 
quaries that  the  northern  ro-  Northern 
mance,  or  what  we  properly  call  French 
French,  was  not  formed  until  the  P°etry  and 
tenth  century,  the  common  dia-  prose> 
lect  of  all  France  having  previously  re- 
sembled that  of  Languedoc.  This  hy- 
pothesis may  not  be  indisputable;  but 
the  question  is  not  likely  to  be  settled, 
as  scarcely  any  written  specimens  of 
romance,  even  of  that  age,  have  sur- 
vived.* In  the  eleventh  century,  among 
other  more  obscure  productions  both  in 
prose  and  metre,  there  appears  what,  if 
unquestioned  as  to  authenticity,  would  be 
a  valuable  monument  of  this  language ; 
the  laws  of  William  the  Conqueror. 
These  are  preserved  in  a  manuscript  of 
Ingulfus's  History  of  Croyland,  a  blank 
being  left  in  other  copies  where  they 
should  be  inserted.!  They  are  written 
in  an  idiom  so  far  removed  from  the 
Provencal,  that  one  would  be  disposed 
to  think  the  separation  between  these 
two  species  of  romance  of  older  standing 
than  is  commonly  allowed.  But  it  has 
been  thought  probable  that  these  laws, 
which  in  fact  were  a  mere  repetition  of 
those  of  Edward  the  Confessor,  were 
originally  published  in  Anglo-Saxon,  the 
only  language  intelligible  to  the  people, 
and  translated,  at  a  subsequent  period, 

some  Norman  monk  into  French.^ 
This,  indeed,  is  not  quite  satisfactory,  as 
t  would  have  been  more  natural  for  such 
a  transcriber  to  have  rendered  them  into 
Latin ;  and  neither  William  nor  his  suc- 
cessors were  accustomed  to  promulgate 
any  of  their  ordinances  in  the  vernacular 
"anguage  of  England. 


not  imputable  to  himself,  though  Ritson,  as  f  re- 
~nember,  calls  him,  in  his  own  polite  style,  "a 
)lockhead,"  it  will  always  be  useful  to  the  inquirer 
nto  the  manners  and  opinions  of  the  middle  ages, 
rom  the  numerous  illustrations  it  contains  of  two 
general  facts ;  the  extreme  dissoluteness  of  morals 
among  the  higher  ranks,  and  the  prevailing  ani- 
mosity of  all  classes  against  the  clergy. 

*  Hist.  Litt.  de  la  France,  t.  vii,,  p.  58.  Le 
3oeuf,  according  to  these  Benedictins,  has  pub- 
ished  some  poetical  fragments  of  the  tenth  centu- 
y ;  and  they  quote  part  of  a  charter  as  old  as  940 
n  romance,  p.  59.  But  that  antiquary,  in  a  me- 
moir printed  in  the  seventeenth  volume  of  the 
LCademy  of  Inscriptions,  which  throws  more  light 
n  the  infancy  of  the  French  language  than  any 
hing  within  my  knowledge,  says  only  that  the 
arliest  specimens  of  verse  in  the  royal  library  are 
f  the  eleventh  century  au  plus  tard,  p.  717.  M. 
e  la  Rue  is  said  to  have  found  some  poems  of  the 
leventh  century  in  the  British  Museum.— Roque- 
ort,  Etat  de  la  Po£sie  Franqoise,  p.  206.  Le 
Sceuf  's  fragment  may  be  found  in  this  work,  p.  379 ; 
;  seems  nearer  to  the  Provengal  than  the  French 
ialect. 

t  Gale,  xv.  Script.,  t.  i.,  p.  88. 

t  Ritson's  Dissert'atidn  On  Rdmance,  p.  60. 


532 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


The  use  of  a  popular  language  be- 
came more  common  after  the  year  1100. 
Translations  of  some  books  of  Scripture 
and  acts  of  saints  were  made  about  that 
time,  or  even  earlier,  and  there  are 
French  sermons  of  St.  Bernard,  from 
which  extracts  have  been  published,  in 
the  royal  library  at  Paris.*  In  1126,  a 
charter  was  granted  by  Louis  VI.  to  the 
city  of  Beauvais  in  French.!  Metrical 
compositions  are  in  general  the  first 
literature  of  a  nation,  and  even  if  no  dis- 
tinct proof  could  be  adduced,  we  might 
assume  their  existence  before  the  twelfth 
century.  There  is,  however,  evidence, 
not  to  mention  the  fragments  printed  by 
Le  Boeuf,  of  certain  lives  of  saints  trans- 
lated into  French  verse  by  Thibault  de 
Vernon,  a  canon  of  Rouen,  before  the 
middle  of  the  preceding  age.  And  we 
are  told  that  Taillefer,  a  Norman  min- 
strel, recited  a  song  or  romance  on  the 
deeds  of  Roland,  before  the  army  of  his 
countrymen,  at  the  battle  of  Hastings  in 
1066.  Philip  de  Than,  a  Norman  subject 
of  Henry  I.,  seems  to  be  the  earliest  poet 
whose  works  as  well  as  name  have  reach- 
ed us,  unless  we  admit  a  French  transla- 
tion of  the  work  of  one  Marbode  upon 
precious  stones  to  be  more  ancient.J 
This  de  Than  wrote  a  set  of  rules  for 
computation  of  time,  and  an  account  of 
different  calendars.  A  happy  theme  for 
inspiration,  without  doubt !  Another  per- 
formance of  the  same  author  is  a  trea- 
tise on  birds  and  beasts,  dedicated  to  Ad- 
elaide, queen  of  Henry  1 4  But  a  more 
famous  votary  of  the  muses  was  Wace, 
a  native  of  Jersey,  who,  about  the  begin- 
ning of  Henry,  II. 's  reign,  turned  Geof- 
frey of  Monmouth's  history  into  French 
metre.  Besides  this  poem,  called  Le 
Brut  d'Angleterre,  he  composed  a  series 
of  metrical  histories,  containing  the  tran- 
sactions of  the  dukes  of  Normandy,  from 
Rollo,  their  great  progenitor,  who  gave 
names  to  the  Roman  de  Rou,  down  to 
his  own  age.  Other  productions  are  as- 

*  Hist.  Litt,  t.  ix.,  p.  149.  Fabliaux  par  Barba- 
san,  vol.  i.,  p.  9,  edit.  1808.  Mem.  de  1'Academie 
des  Inscr.,  t.  xv.  and  xvii.,  p.  714,  &c. 

t  Mabillon  speaks  of  this  as  the  oldest  French 
instrument  he  had  seen.  But  the  Benedictins 
quote  some  of  the  eleventh  century. — Hist.  Litt.,  t. 
•vii.,  p.  59.  This  charter  is  supposed  by  the  au- 
thors of  Nouveau  Traite  de  Diplomatique  to  be 
translated  from  the  Latin,  t.  iv.,  p.  519.  French 
charters,  they  say,  are  not  common  before  the  age 
of  Louis  IX. ;  and  this  is  confirmed  by  those  pub- 
lished in  Martenne's  Thesaurus  Anecdotorum, 
which  are  very  commonly  in  French  from  his 
reign,  but  hardly  ever  before. 

I  Ravaliere  Revol.  de  la  Langue  Fran^oise,  p. 
116,  doubts  the  age  of  this  translation. 

$  Archaeologia,  vols.  xii.  and  xiii. 


cribed  to  Wace,  who  was  at  least  a  pro- 
lific versifier,  and,  if  he  seem  to  deserve 
no  higher  title  at  present,  has  a  claim  to 
indulgence,  and  even  to  esteem,  as  hav- 
ing far  excelled  his  contemporaries,  with- 
out any  superior  advantages  of  knowl- 
edge. In  emulation,  however,  of  his 
fame,  several  Norman  writers  addicted 
themselves  to  composing  chronicles,  or 
devotional  treatises  in  metre.  The  court 
of  our  Norman  kings  was  to  the  early 
poets  in  the  Langue  d'Oil,  what  those  of 
Aries  and  Toulouse  were  to  the  trouba- 
dours. Henry  I.  was  fond  enough  of 
literature  to  obtain  the  surname  of  Beau- 
clerc ;  Henry  II.  was  more  indisputably 
an  encourager  of  poetry ;  and  Richard  I. 
has  left  compositions  of  his  own  in  one 
or  other  (for  the  point  is  doubtful)  of  the 
two  dialects  spoken  in  France.* 

If  the  poets  of  Normandy  had  never 
gone  beyond  historical  and  reli-  Norman  ro- 

glOUS  subjects,  they  WOUld  prob-  mancesand 

ably  have  had  less  claim  to  our  tales- 
attention  than  their  brethren  of  Provence. 
But  a  different  and  far  more  interesting 
species  of  composition  began  to  be  culti- 
vated in  the  latter  part  of  the  twelfth 
century.  Without  entering  upon  the 
controverted  question  as  to  the  origin  of 
romantic  fictions,  referred  by  one  party 
to  the  Scandinavians,  by  a  second  to  the 
Arabs,  by  others  to  the  natives  of  Bot- 
any, it  is  manifest  that  the  actual  stories 
upon  which  one  early  and  numerous 
class  of  romances  was  founded  are  rela- 
ted to  the  traditions  of  the  last  people. 
These  are  such  as  turn  upon  the  fable  of 
Arthur;  for  though  we  are  not  entitled 
to  deny  the  existence  of  such  a  person- 
age, his  story  seems  chiefly  the  creation 
of  Celtic  vanity.  Traditions  current  in 
Britany,  though  probably  derived  from 
this  island,  became  the  basis  of  Geoffrey 
of  Monmouth's  Latin  prose,  which,  as 
has  been  seen,  was  transfused  into  French 
metre  by  Wace.f  The  vicinity  of  Nor- 
mandy enabled  its  poets  to  enrich  their 
narratives  with  other  Armorican  fictions, 
all  relating  to  the  heroes  who  had  sur- 
rounded the  table  of  the  son  of  Uther.  An 


*  Millot  says  that  Richard's  sirventes  (satirical 
songs)  have  appeared  in  French,  as  well  as  Pro- 
ven<jal,  but  that  the  former  is  probably  a  translation. 
— Hist,  des  Troubadours,  vol.  i.,  p.  54.  Yet  I  have 
met  with  no  writer  who  quotes  them  in  the  latter 
language,  and  M.  Ginguene,  as  well  as  Le  Grand 
d'Aussy,  consider  Richard  as  a  trouveur. 

t  This  derivation  of  the  romantic  stories  of  Ar- 
thur, which  Le  Grand  d'Aussy  ridiculously  .attrib- 
utes to  the  jealousy  entertained  by  the  English  of 
the  renown  of  Charlemagne,  is  stated  in  a  very 
perspicuous  and  satisfactory  manner  by  Mr.  Ellis 
in  his|  Specimens  of  Early  English  Metrical  Ro- 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


equally  imaginary  history  of  Charlemagne 
gave  rise  to  a  new  family  of  romances. 
The  authors  of  these  fictions  were  call- 
ed Trouveurs,  a  name  obviously  identical 
with  that  of  Troubadours.  But,  except 
in  name,  there  was  no  resemblance  be- 
tween the  minstrels  of  the  northern  and 
southern  dialects.  The  invention  of  one 
class  was  turned  to  description,  that  of 
the  other  to  sentiment;  the  first  were 
epic  in  their  form  and  style,  the  latter 
almost  always  lyric.  We  cannot  per- 
haps give  a  better  notion  of  their  dissim- 
ilitude, than  by  saying  that  one  school 
produced  Chaucer,  and  the  other  Pe- 
trarch. Besides  these  romances  of  chiv- 
alry, the  trouveurs  displayed  their  pow- 
ers of  lively  narration  in  comic  tales  or 
fabliaux  (a  name  sometimes  extended  to 
the  higher  romance),  which  have  aided 
the  imagination  of  Boccace  and  La  Fon- 
taine. These  compositions  are  certainly 
more  entertaining  than  those  of  the  trou- 
badours; but,  contrary  to  what  I  have 
said  of  the  latter,  they  often  gain  by  ap- 
pearing in  a  modern  dress.  Their 
versification,  which  doubtless  had  its 
charm,  when  listened  to  around  the 
hearth  of  an  ancient  castle,  is  very  lan- 
guid and  prosaic,  and  suitable  enough  to 
the  tedious  prolixity  into  which  the  nar- 
rative is  apt  to  fall ;  and  though  we  find 
many  sallies  of  that  arch  and  sprightly 
simplicity  which  characterizes  the  old 
language  of  France  as  well  as  England, 
it  requires,  upon  the  whole,  a  factitious 
taste  to  relish  these  Norman  tales,  con- 
sidered as  poetry  in  the  higher  sense  of 
the  word,  distinguished  from  metrical  fic- 
tion. 

A  manner  very  different  from  that  of 
Roman  de  the  fabliaux  was  adopted  in  the 
la  Rose.  Roman  de  la  Rose,  begun  by 
William  de  Loris  about  1250,  and  com- 
pleted by  John  de  Meun  half  a  century 
later.  This  poem,  which  contains  about 
16,000  lines  in  the  usual  octo-syllable 
verse,  from  which  the  early  French  wri- 
ters seldom  deviated,  is  an  allegorical 
vision,  wherein  love,  and  the  other  pas- 
sions or  qualities  connected  with  it,  pass 
over  the  stage,  without  the  intervention, 
I  believe,  of  any  less  abstract  personages. 
Though  similar  allegories  were  not  un- 
known to  the  ancients,  and,  which  is  more 
to  the  purpose,  may  be  found  in  other 
productions  of  the  thirteenth  century, 
none  had  been  constructed  so  elaborate- 
ly as  that  of  the  Roman  de  la  Rose.  Cold 
and  tedious  as  we  now  consider  this  spe- 
cies of  poetry,  it  originated  in  the  crea- 
tive power  of  imagination,  and  appealed 
to  more  refined  feeling  than  the  common 


metrical  narratives  could  excite.  This 
poem  was  highly  popular  in  the  middle 
ages,  and  became  the  source  of  those 
numerous  allegories  which  had  not  ceas- 
ed in  the  seventeenth  century. 

The  French  language  was  employed  in 
prose  as  well  as  in  metre.  In-  works  in 
deed,  it  seems  to  have  had  almost  French 
an  exclusive  privilege  in  this  re-  Prose- 
spect.  The  language  of  Oil,  says  Dante, 
in  his  treatise  on  vulgar  speech,  prefers 
its  claim  to  be  ranked  above  those  of  Oc 
and  Si  (Provencal  and  Italian),  on  the 
ground  that  all  translations  or  composi- 
tions in  prose  have  been  written  therein, 
from  its  greater  facility  and  grace  ;  such 
as  the  books  compiled  from  the  Trojan 
and  Roman  stories,  the  delightful  fables 
about  Arthur,  and  many  other  works  of 
history  and  science.*  I  have  mentioned 
already  the  sermons  of  St.  Bernard,  and 
translations  from  Scripture.  The  laws 
of  the  kingdom  of  Jerusalem  purport  to 
have  been  drawn  up  immediately  after 
the  first  crusade ;  and  though  their  lan- 
guage has  been  materially  altered,  there 
seems  no  doubt  that  they  were  original- 
ly compiled  in  French. f  Besides  some 
charters,  there  are  said  to  have  been 
prose  romances  before  the  year  1200.J 
Early  in  the  next  age,  Ville  Hordouin, 
seneschal  of  Champagne,  recorded  the 
capture  of  Constantinople  in  the  fourth 
crusade,  an  expedition,  the  glory  and  re- 
ward of  which  he  had  personally  shared, 
and,  as  every  original  work  of  prior  date 
has  either  perished,  or  is  of  small  im- 
portance, may  be  deemed  the  father  of 
French  prose.  The  establishments  of 
St.  Louis,  and  the  law  treatise  of  Beau- 


*  Prose  e  Rime  di  Dante,  Venez,  1758,  t.  iv.,  p. 
261.  Dante's  words,  biblia  cum  Trojanorum  Ro- 
manorumque  gestibus  compilata,  seem  to  bear  no 
other  meaning  than  what  I  have  given.  But  there 
may  be  a  doubt  whether  biblia  is  ever  used  except 
for  the  Scriptures ;  and  the  Italian  translator  ren- 
ders it,  cioe  la  bibbia,  i  fatti  de  iTrojani,  e  de  i  Ro- 
mani.  In  this  case  something  is  wrong  in  the  ori- 
ginal Latin,  and  Dante  will  have  alluded  to  the 
translations  of  parts  of  Scripture  made  into  French, 
as  mentioned  in  the  text. 

f  The  Assises  de  Jerusalem  have  undergone  two 
revisions ;  one  in  1250,  by  order  of  John  d'Ibelin, 
count  of  Jaffa,  and  a  second  in  1369,  by  sixteen 
commissioners  chosen  by  the  states  of  the  kingdom 
of  Cyprus.  Their  language  seems  to  be  such  as 
might  be  expected  from  the  time  of  the  former  re- 
vision. 

J  Several  prose  romances  were  written  or  trans- 
lated from  the  Latin  about  1170,  and  afterward. 
Mr.  Ellis  seems  inclined  to  dispute  their  antiquity. 
But,  besides  the  authorities  of  La  Ravaliere  and 
Tressan,  the  latter  of  which  is  not  worth  much,  a 
late  very  extensively  informed  writer  seems  to 
have  put  this  matter  out  of  doubt.— Roquefort  Fla- 
mericourt,  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Fran<jaise  dans  les 
12«*  et  13me  siecles,  Paris,  1815,  p.  147. 


. 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


manoir,  fill  up  the  interval  of  the  thir- 
teenth century,  and  before  its  conclusion 
we  must  suppose  the  excellent  memoirs 
of  Joinville  to  have  been  composed, 
sinpe  they  are  dedicated  to  Louis  X.,  in 
1315,  when  the  author  could  hardly  be 
less  than  ninety  years  of  age.  Without 
prosecuting  any  farther  the  history  of 
French  literature,  I  will  only  mention  the 
translations  of  Livy  and  Sallust,  made  in 
the  reign  and  by  the  order  of  John,  with 
those  of  Cesar,  Suetonius,  Ovid,  and  parts 
of  Cicero,  which  are  due  to  his  successor 
Charles  V.* 

I  confess  myself  wholly  uninformed  as 
Spanish  to  the  original  formation  of  the 
language.  Spanish  language,  and  as  to  the 
epoch  of  its  separation  into  the  two  prin- 
cipal dialects  of  Castile  and  Portugal  or 
Gallicia  ;f  nor  should  1  perhaps  have  al- 
luded to  the  literature  of  that  peninsula, 
were  it  not  for  a  remarkable  poem  which 
shines  out  among  the  minor  lights  of 
those  times.  This  is  a  metrical  life  of 
the  Cid  Ruy  Diaz,  written  in  a  barba- 
rous style  and  with  the  rudest  inequality 
of  measure,  but  with  a  truly  Homeric 
warmth  and  vivacity  of  delineation.  It 
is  much  to  be  regretted  that  the  author's 
name  has  perished,  but  its  date  seems  to 
be  not  later  than  the  middle  of  the  twelfth 
century,  while  the  hero's  actions  were 
yet  recent,  and  before  the  taste  of  Spain 
had  been  corrupted  by  the  Provencal 
troubadours,  whose  extremely  different 
manner  would,  if  it  did  not  pervert  the 
poet's  genius,  at  least  have  impeded  his 
popularity.  A  very  competent  judge  has 

*  Villaret,  Hist,  de  France,  t.  xi.,  p.  121.  De 
Sade,  Vie  de  Petrarque,  t.  iii.,  p.  548.  Charles  V. 
had  more  learning  than  most  princes  of  his  time. 
Christine  de  Pisan,  a  lady  who  has  written  me- 
moirs, or  rather  a  eulogy  of  him,  says  that  his  fa- 
ther le  fist  introdire  en  lettres  moult  suffisamment, 
et  tant  que  competemment  entendoit  son  Latin,  et 
souffisamment  scavoit  lesreglesde  grammaire  ;  la 
quelle  chose  pleust  a  dieu  qu'  ainsi  fust  accoutu- 
mee  entre  les  princes. — Collect,  de  Me'm.,  t.  v.,  p. 
103,  190,  &c, 

t  The  earliest  Spanish  that  I  remember  to  have 
seen  is  an  instrument  in  Martenne,  Thesaurus 
Anecdotorum,  t.  i.,  p.  263 ;  the  date  of  which  is 
1095.  Persons  more  conversant  with  the  antiqui- 
ties of  that  country  may  possibly  go  farther  back. 
Another  of  1101  is  published  in  Marina's  Teoria  de 
las  Cortes,  t.  iii.,  p.  1.  It  is  in  a  Vidimus  by  Peter 
the  Cruel,  and  cannot,  I  presume,  have  been  a 
translation  from  the  Latin.  Yet  the  editors  of 
Nouveau  Tr,  de  Diplom.  mention  a  charter  of 
1243  as  the  earliest  they  are  acquainted  with  in 
the  Spanish  language,  t.  iv.,  p.  525. 

Charters  in  the  German  language,  according  to 
the  same  work,  first  appear  in  the  time  of  the  Em- 
peror Rodolph,  after  1272,  and  became  usual  in  the 
next  century,  p.  523,  But  Struvius  mentions  an 
instrument  of  1235  as  the  -earliest  in  German. — 
Corp,  Hist.  Germ,,  p.  457. 


pronounced  the  poem  of  the  Cid  to  be 
"decidedly  and  beyond  comparison  the 
finest  in  the  Spanish  language."  It  is  at 
least  superior  to  any  that  was  written  in 
Europe  before  the  appearance  of  Dante.* 
A  strange  obscurity  envelops  the  in- 
fancy of  the  Italian  language.  Earlywri. 
Though  it  is  certain  that  gram-  ters  m  the 
matical  Latin  had  ceased  to  be  Italian- 
employed  in  ordinary  discourse,  at  least 
from  the  time  of  Charlemagne,  we  have 
not  a  single  passage  of  undisputed  au- 
thenticity, in  the  current  idiom,  for  near- 
ly four  centuries  afterward.  Though  Ital- 
ian phrases  are  mixed  up  in  the  barba- 
rous jargon  of  some  charters,  not  an  in- 
strument is  extant  in  that  language  be- 
fore the  year  1200 ;  unless  we  may  reck- 
on one  in  the  Sardinian  dialect  (which,  I 
believe,  was  rather  Provencal  than  Ital- 
ian), noticed  by  Muratori.f  Nor  is  there 
a  vestige  of  Italian  poetry  older  than  a 
few  fragments  of  Ciullo  d'Alcamo,  a  Si- 
cilian, who  must  have  written  before 
1193,  since  he  mentions  Saladin  as  then 
living. |  This  may  strike  us  as  the  more 
remarkable,  when  we  consider  the  polit- 
ical circumstances  of  Italy  in  the  elev- 
enth and  twelfth  centuries.  From  the 
struggles  of  her  spirited  republics  against 
the  emperors,  and  their  internal  factions, 
we  might,  upon  all  general  reasoning,  an- 
ticipate the  early  use  and  vigorous  culti- 
vation of  their  native  language.  Even  if 
it  were  not  yet  ripe  for  historians  and 
philosophers,  it  is  strange  that  no  poet 
should  have  been  inspired  with  songs  of 
triumph  or  invective  by  the  various  for- 
tunes of  his  country.  But,  on  the  con- 
trary, the  poets  of  Lombardy  became 
troubadours,  and  wasted  their  genius  in 
Provencal  love-strains  at  the  courts  of 
princes.  The  Milanese  and  other  Lom- 
bard dialects  were  indeed  exceedingly 
rude,  but  this  rudeness  separated  them 
more  decidedly  from  Latin ;  nor  is  it  pos- 
sible that  the  Lombards  could  have  em- 
ployed that  language  intelligibly  for  any 
public  or  domestic  purpose.  And  indeed, 
in  the  earliest  Italian  compositions  that 

e  An  extract  from  this  poem  was  published  in 
1808,  by  Mr.  Southey,  at  the  end  of  his  "  Chroni- 
cle of  the  Cid,"  the  materials  of  which  it  partly 
supplied,  accompanied  by  an  excellent  version  by 
a  gentleman,  who  is  distinguished,  among  many 
other  talents,  for  an  unrivalled  felicity  in  expres- 
sing the  peculiar  manner  of  authors  whom  he 
translates  or  imitates.  M.  Sismondi  has  given 
other  passages,  in  the  third  volume  of  his  essay  on 
Southern  Literature.  This  popular  and  elegant 
work  contains  some  interesting  and  not  very  com- 
mon information  as  to  the  early  Spanish  poets  in 
the  Provencal  dialect,  as  well  as  those  who  wrote 
in  Castilian. 

t  Dissert.  32.          t  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  340. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


535 


have  been  published,  the  new  language  is 
so  thoroughly  formed,  that  it  is  easy  to 
infer  a  very  long  disuse  of  that  from 
which  it  was  derived.  The  Sicilians 
claim  the  glory  of  having  first  adapted 
their  own  harmonious  dialect  to  poetry. 
Frederick  11.  both  encouraged  their  art 
and  cultivated  it;  among  the  very  first 
essays  of  Italian  verse  we  find  his  pro- 
ductions and  those  of  his  chancellor, 
Piero  delle  Vigne.  Thus  Italy  was  des- 
tined to  owe  the  beginnings  of  her  na- 
tional literature  to  a  foreigner  and  an 
enemy.  These  poems  are  very  short  and 
very  few ;  those  ascribed  to  St.  Francis 
about  the  same  time  are  hardly  distin- 
guishable from  prose ;  but  after  the  mid- 
dle of  the  thirteenth  century,  the  Tuscan 
poets  awoke  to  a  sense  of  the  beauties 
which  their  native  language,  refined  from 
the  impurities  of  vulgar  speech,*  could 
display  ;  and  the  genius  of  Italian  litera- 
ture was  rocked  upon  the  restless  waves 
of  the  Florentine  democracy.  Ricordano 
Malespini,  the  first  historian,  and  nearly 
the  first  prose  writer  in  Italian,  left  me- 
morials of  the  republic  down  to  the  year 
1281,  which  was  that  of  his  death,  and  it 
was  continued  by  Giacchetto  Malespini 
to  1286.  These  are  little  inferior  in  pu- 
rity of  style  to  the  best  Tuscan  authors  ; 
for  it  is  the  singular  fate  of  that  language 
to  have  spared  itself  all  intermediate 
stages  of  refinement,  and  starting  the  la-st 
in  the  race,  to  have  arrived  almost  in- 
stantaneously at  the  goal.  There  is  an 
interval  of  not  much  more  than  half  a 
century  between  the  short  fragment  of 
Ciullo  d'Alcamo,  mentioned  above,  and 
the  poems  of  Guido  Guinizzelli,  Guitone 
d'Arezzo,  and  Guido  Cavalcante  ;  which, 
in  their  diction  and  turn  of  thought,  are 
sometimes  not  unworthy  of  Petrarch. f 

*  Dante,  in  his  treatise  De  vulgar!  Eloquentii, 
reckons  fourteen  or  fifteen  dialects,  spoken  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Italy,  all  of  which  were  debased  by 
impure  modes  of  expression.  But  the  "  noble,  prin- 
cipal, and  courtly  Italian  idiom,"  was  that  which 
belonged  to  every  city,  and  seemed  to  belong  to 
none,  and  which,  if  Italy  had  a  court,  would  be  the 
language  of  that  court,  p.  274,  277. 

Allowing  for  the  metaphysical  obscurity  in 
which  Dante  chooses  to  envelop  the  subject,  this 
might  perhaps  be  said  at  present.  The  Florentine 
dialect  has  its  peculiarities,  which  distinguish  it 
from  the  general  Italian  language,  though  these  are 
seldom  discerned  by  foreigners,  nor  always  by  na- 
tives, with  whom  Tuscan  is  the  proper  denomina- 
tion of  their  national  tongue. 

f  Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  309—377.  Ginguen6,  vol. 
i.,  c.  6.  The  style  of  the  Vita  Nuova  of  Dante, 
written  soon  after  the  death  of  his  Beatrice,  which 
happened  in  1290,  is  hardly  distinguishable  by  a 
foreigner  from  that  of  Machiavel  or  Castiglione. 
Yet  so  recent  was  the  adoption  of  this  language, 
that  the  celebrated  master  of  Dante,  Brunetto  La- 
tini,  had  written  his  Tesoro  in  French ;  and  gives, 


But  at  the  beginning  of  the  next  age 
arose  a  much  greater  genius,  the 
true  father  of  Italian  poetry,  and  D 
the  first  name  in  the  literature  of  the 
middle  ages.  This  was  Dante,  or  Du- 
rante  Alighieri,  born  in  1265,  of  a  re- 
spectable family  at  Florence.  Attached 
to  the  Guelf  party,  which  had  then  ob- 
tained a  final  ascendency  over  its  rival, 
he  might  justly  promise  himself  the  nat- 
ural reward  of  talents  under  a  free  gov- 
ernment, public  trust,  and  the  esteem  of 
his  compatriots.  But  the  Guelfs  unhap- 
pily were  split  into  two  factions,  the  Bi- 
anchi  and  the  Neri,  with  the  former  of 
whom,  and,  as  it  proved,  the  unsuccess- 
ful side,  Dante  was  connected.  In  1300 
he  filled  the  office  of  one  of  the  Priori,  or 
chief  magistrates  at  Florence ;  and  hav- 
ing manifested  in  this,  as  was  alleged, 
some  partiality  towards  the  Bianchi,  a 
sentence  of  proscription  passed  against 
him  about  two  years  afterward,  when  it 
became  the  turn  of  the  opposite  faction 
to  triumph.  Banished  from  his  country, 
and  baffled  in  several  efforts  of  his 
friends  to  restore  their  fortunes,  he  had 
no  resource  but  at  the  courts  of  the  Sea- 
las  at  Verona,  and  oth«r  Italian  princes, 
attaching  himself  in  adversity  to  the  Im- 
perial interests,  and  tasting  in  his  own 
language  the  bitterness  of  another's 
bread.*  In  this  state  of  exile  he  finish- 
ed, if  he  did  not  commence,  his  great 
poem,  the  Divine  Comedy;  a  representa- 
tion of  the  three  kingdoms  of  futurity, 
Hell,  Purgatory,  and  Paradise,  divided 
into  one  hundred  cantos,  and  containing 
about  14,000  lines.  He  died  at  Ravenna 
in  1321. 

Dante  is  among  the  very  few  who 
have  created  the  national  poetry  of  their 
country.  For  notwithstanding  the  pol- 
ished elegance  of  some  earlier  Italian 
verse,  it  had  been  confined  to  amorous 
sentiments ;  and  it  was  yet  to  be  seen 
that  the  language  could  sustain  for  a 


as  a  reason  for  it,  that  it  was  a  more  agreeable  and 
usual  language  than  his  own.  Et  se  aucuns  de- 
mandoit  pourquoi  chis  livre  est  ecris  en  romans, 
selon  la  raison  de  France,  pour  chose  que  nous 
sommes  ytalien,  je  diroie  que  ch'est  pour  chose 
que  nous  sommes  en  France :  1'autre  pour  chose 
que  la  parleure  en  est  plus  delitable  et  plus  commune  a 
toiites  gens.  There  is  said  to  be  a  manuscript  his- 
tory of  Venice  down  to  1275,  in  the  Florentine  li- 
brary, written  in  French  by  Martin  de  Canale,  who 
says  that  he  has  chosen  that  language,  parceque 
la  langue  franceise  cort  parmi  le  monde,  et  est  la 
plus  delitable  a  lire  et  a  oir  que  nulle  autre.— Gin- 
guene,  vol.  i.,  p.  384. 

*  Tu  proverai  ci   (says   Cacciaguida  to  him) 

come  sa  di  sale 

II  pane  altrui,  e  come  6  duro  calle 
II  scendere  e  '1  salir  per, altrui  scale. 

Paradis.,  cant.  16. 


636 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


greater  length  than  any  existing  poem 
except  the  Iliad,  the  varied  style  of  nar- 
ration, reasoning,  and  ornament.  Of  al 
writers  he  is  the  most  unquestionably 
original.  Virgil  was  indeed  his  inspiring 
genius,  as  he  declares  himself,  and  as 
may  sometimes  be  perceived  in  his  dic- 
tion ;  but  his  tone  is  so  peculiar  and  char- 
acteristic, that  few  readers  would  be  wil- 
ling at  first  to  acknowledge  any  resem- 
blance. He  possessed,  in  an  extraordi- 
nary degree,  a  command  of  language,  the 
abuse  of  which  led  to  his  obscurity  and 
licentious  innovations.  No  poet  ever  ex- 
celled him  in  conciseness,  and  in  the  rare 
talent  of  finishing  his  pictures  by  a  few 
bold  touches ;  the  merit  of  Pindar  in  his 
better  hours.  How  prolix  would  the  sto- 
ries of  Francesca  or  of  Ugolino  have  be- 
come in  the  hands  of  Ariosto,  or  of  Tas- 
so,  or  of  Ovid,  or  of  Spenser  !  This  ex- 
cellence indeed  is  most  striking  in  the 
first  part  of  his  poem.  Having  formed 
his  plan  so  as  to  give  an  equal  length  to 
the  three  regions  of  his  spiritual  world, 
he  found  himself  unable  to  vary  the  ima- 
ges of  hope  or  beatitude,  and  the  Para- 
dise is  a  continual  accumulation  of  de- 
scriptions, separately  beautiful,  but  uni- 
form and  tedious.  Though  images  deri- 
ved from  light  and  music  are  the  most 
pleasing,  and  can  be  borne  longer  in  poe- 
try than  any  others,  their  sweetness  palls 
upon  the  sense  by  frequent  repetition, 
and  we  require  the  intermixture  of  sharp- 
er flavours.  Yet  there  are  detached  pas- 
sages of  great  excellence  in  this  third 
part  of  Dante's  poem ;  and  even  in  the 
long  theological  discussions  which  occu- 
py the  greater  proportion  of  its  thirty- 
three  cantos,  it  is  impossible  not  to  ad- 
mire the  enunciation  of  abstract  positions 
with  remarkable  energy,  conciseness,  and 
sometimes  perspicuity.  The  twelve  first 
cantos  of  the  Purgatory  are  an  almost 
continual  flow  of  soft  and  brilliant  poe- 
try. The  seven  last  are  also  very  splen- 
did, but  there  is  some  heaviness  in  the 
intermediate  parts.  Fame  has  justly 
given  the  preference  to  the  Inlerno, 
which  displays  throughout  a  more  vigor- 
ous and  masterly  conception;  but  the 
mind  of  Dante  cannot  be  thoroughly  ap- 
preciated without  a  perusal  of  his  entire 
poem. 

The  most  forced  and  unnatural  turns, 
the  most  barbarous  licenses  of  idiom,  are 
found  in  this  poet,  whose  power  of  ex- 
pression is,  at  other  times,  so  peculiarly 
nappy.  His  style  is  indeed  generally 
free  from  those  conceits  of  thought 
which  discredited  the  other  poets  of  his 
country ;  but  no  sense  is  too  remote  for 


a  word  which  he  finds  convenient  for  his 
measure  or  his  rhyme.  It  seems  indeed 
as  if  he  never  altered  a  line  on  account 
of  the  necessity  of  rhyme,  but  forced  an- 
other or  perhaps  a  third  into  company 
with  it.  For  many  of  his  faults  no  suffi- 
cient excuse  can  be  made.  But  it  is  can- 
did to  remember,  that  Dante,  writing  al- 
most in  the  infancy  of  a  language  which 
he  contributed  to  create,  was  not  to  an- 
ticipate that  words,  which  he  borrowed 
from  the  Latin  and  from  the  provincial 
dialects,  would  by  accident,  or  through 
the  timidity  of  later  writers,  lose  their 
place  in  the  classical  idiom  of  Italy.  If 
Petrarch,  Bembo,  and  a  few  more,  had 
not  aimed  rather  at  purity  than  copious- 
ness, the  phrases  which  now  appear  bar- 
barous, and  are  at  least  obsolete,  might 
have  been  fixed  by  use  in  poetical  lan- 
guage. 

The  great  characteristic  excellence  of 
Dante  is  elevation  of  sentiment,  to  which 
his  compressed  diction  and  the  emphatic 
cadences  of  his  measure  admirably  cor- 
respond. We  read  him,  not  as  an  amu- 
sing poet,  but  as  a  master  of  moral  wis- 
dom, with  reverence  and  awe.  Fresh 
from  the  deep  and  serious,  though  some- 
what barren  studies  of  philosophy,  and 
schooled  in  the  severer  discipline  of  ex- 
perience, he  has  made  of  his  poem  a  mir- 
ror of  his  mind  and  life,  the  register  of 
his  solicitudes  and  sorrows,  and  of  the 
speculations  in  which  he  sought  to  es- 
cape their  recollection.  The  banished 
magistrate  of  Florence,  the  disciple  of 
Brunetto  Latini,  the  statesman  accus- 
tomed to  trace  the  varying  fluctuations 
of  Italian  faction,  is  for  ever  before  our 
eyes.  For  this  reason,  even  the  prodi- 
gal display  of  erudition,  which  in  an  epic 
poem  would  be  entirely  misplaced,  in- 
creases the  respect  we  feel  for  the  poet, 
though  it  does  not  tend  to  the  reader's 
gratification.  Except  Milton,  he  is  much 
the  most  learned  of  all  the  great  poets, 
and,  relatively  to  his  age,  far  more  learn- 
ed than  Milton.  In  one  so  highly  en- 
dowed by  nature,  and  so  consummate  by 
instruction,  we  may  well  sympathize 
with  a  resentment  which  exile  and  pov- 
erty rendered  perpetually  fresh.  The 
heart  of  Dante  was  naturally  sensible,  and 
even  tender ;  his  poetry  is  full  of  simple 
comparisons  from  rural  life ;  and  the  sin- 
cerity of  his  early  passion  for  Beatrice 
3ierces  through  the  vale  of  allegory 
which  surrounds  her.  But  the  memory 
of  his  injuries  pursues  him  into  the  im- 
mensity of  eternal  light  ;*  and,  in  the  com- 


*  Paradiso,  cant.  16. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


537 


pany  of  saints  and  angels,  his  unforgiving 
spirit  darkens  at  the  name  of  Florence. 

This  great  poem  was  received  in  Italy 
with  that  enthusiastic  admiration  which 
attaches  itself  to  works  of  genius  only  in 
ages  too  rude  to  listen  to  the  envy  of 
competitors  or  the  fastidiousness  of  crit- 
ics. Almost  every  library  in  that  coun- 
try contains  manuscript  copies  of  the  Di- 
vine Comedy,  and  an  account  of  those 
who  have  abridged  or  commented  upon 
it  would  swell  to  a  volume.  It  was  thrice 
printed  in  the  year  1472,  and  at  least  nine 
times  within  the  fifteenth  century.  The 
city  of  Florence,  in  1373,  with  a  magna- 
nimity which  almost  redeems  her  origi- 
nal injustice,  appointed  a  public  professor 
to  read  lectures  upon  Dante  ;  and  it  was 
hardly  less  honourable  to  the  poet's  mem- 
ory, that  the  first  person  selected  for  this 
office  was  Boccaccio.  The  universities 
of  Pisa  and  Piacenza  imitated  this  exam- 
ple; but  it  is  probable  that  Dante's  ab- 
struse philosophy  was  often  more  re- 
garded in  their  chairs  than  his  higher  ex- 
cellences.* Italy  indeed,  and  all  Europe, 
had  reason  to  be  proud  of  such  a  master. 
Since  Claudian,  there  had  been  seen  for 
nine  hundred  years  no  considerable  body 
of  poetry,  except  the  Spanish  poem  of 
the  Cid,  of  which  no  one  had  heard  be- 
yond the  peninsula,  that  could  be  said  to 
pass  mediocrity ;  and  we  must  go  much 
farther  back  than  Claudian  to  find  any 
one  capable  of  being  compared  with 
Dante.  His  appearance  made  an  epoch 
in  the  intellectual  history  of  modern  na- 
tions, and  banished  the  discouraging  sus- 
picion which  long  ages  of  lethargy  tend- 
ed to  excite,  that  nature  had  exhausted 
her  fertility  in  the  great  poets  of  Greece 
and  Rome.  It  was  as  if,  at  some  of  the 
ancient  games,  a  stranger  had  appeared 
upon  the  plain,  and  thrown  his  quoit 
among  the  marks  of  former  casts,  which 
tradition  had  ascribed  to  the  demigods. 
But  the  admiration  of  Dante,  though  it 
gave  a  general  impulse  to  the  human 
mind,  did  not  produce  imitators.  I  am 
unaware  at  least  of  any  writer,  in  what- 
ever language,  who  can  be  said  to  have 
followed  the  steps  of  Dante  ;  I  mean  not 
so  much  in  his  subject  as  in  the  charac- 
ter of  his  genius  and  style.  His  orbit  is 
still  all  his  own,  and  the  track  of  his 
wheels  can  never  be  confounded  with 
that  of  a  rival. f 


*  Velli,  Vita  di  Dante.    Tiraboschi. 

t  The  source  from  which  Dante  derived  the 
scheme  and  general  idea  of  his  poem  has  been  a 
subject  of  inquiry  in  Italy.  To  his  original  mind 
one  might  have  thought  the  sixth  JEneid  would 
have  sufficed.  But  besides  several  legendary  vis- 


In  the  same  year  that  Dante  was  ex- 
pelled from  Florence,  a  notary, 
by  name  Petracco,  was  involved  p 
in  a  similar  banishment.  Retired  to 
Arezzo,  he  there  became  the  father  of 
Francis  Petrarch.  This  great  man  shared 
of  course,  during  his  early  years,  in  the 
adverse  fortune  of  his  family,  which  he 
was  invincibly  reluctant  to  restore,  ac- 
cording to  his  father's  wish,  by  the  pro- 
fession of  jurisprudence.  The  strong 
bias  of  nature  determined  him  to  polite 
letters  and  poetry.  These  are  seldom 
the  fountains  of  wealth';  yet  they  would 
perhaps  have  been  such  to  Petrarch,  if 
his  temper  could  have  borne  the  sacrifice 
of  liberty  for  any  worldly  acquisitions. 
At  the  city  of  Avignon,  where  his  parents 
had  latterly  resided,  his  graceful  appear- 
ance and  the  reputation  of  his  talents  at- 
tracted one  of  the  Colonna  family,  then 
bishop  of  Lombes  in  Gascony.  In  him, 
and  in  other  members  of  that  great 
house,  never  so  illustrious  as  in  the  four- 
teenth century,  he  experienced  the  union 
of  patronage  and  friendship.  This,  how- 
ever, was  not  confined  to  the  Colonnas. 
Unlike  Dante,  no  poet  was  ever  so  liber- 
ally and  sincerely  encouraged  by  the 
great ;  nor  did  any,  perhaps,  ever  carry 
to  that  perilous  intercourse  a  spirit  more 
irritably  independent,  or  more  free  from 
interested  adulation.  He  praised  his 
friends  lavishly,  because  he  loved  them 
ardently ;  but  his  temper  was  easily  sus- 
ceptible of  offence,  and  there  must  have 
been  much  to  tolerate  in  that  restlessness 
and  jealousy  of  reputation,  which  is  per- 
haps the  inevitable  failing  of  a  poet.* 


ions  of  the  12th  and  13th  centuries,  it  seems  prob- 
able that  he  derived  hints  from  the  Tesoretto  of  his 
master  in  philosophical  studies,  Brunette  Latini. — 
Ginguene,  t.  ii.,  p.  8. 

*  There  is  an  unpleasing  proof  of  this  quality  in 
a  letter  to  Boccaccio  on  Dante,  whose  merit  he 
rather  disingenuously  extenuates  ;  and  whose  pop- 
ularity evidently  stung  him  to  the  quick. — De  Sade, 
t.  iii.,  p.  512.  Yet  we  judge  so  ill  of  ourselves,  that 
Petrarch  chose  envy  as  the  vice  from  which  of  all 
others  he  was  most  free.  In  his  dialogue  with  St. 
Augustin,  he  says ;  Quicquid  libuerit,  dicito ;  modo 
me  non  accuses  invidiae.  AUG.  Utinam  non  tibi 
magis  superbia  quam  invidia  nocuisset :  nam  hoc 
crimine,  me  judice,  liber  es. — De  Contemptu  Mun- 
di,  edit.  1581,  p.  342. 

I  have  read  in  some  modern  book,  but  know  not 
where  to  seek  the  passage,  that  Petrarch  did  not 
intend  to  allude  to  Dante  in  the  letter  to  Boccaccio 
mentioned  above,  but  rather  to  Zanobi  Strata,  a 
contemporary  Florentine  poet,  whom,  however  for- 
gotten at  present,  the  bad  taste  of  a  party  in  criti. 
cism  preferred  to  himself. — Matteo  Villani  men- 
tions them  together  as  the  two  great  ornaments  of 
his  age.  This  conjecture  seems  probable,  for  some 
expressions  are  not  in  the  least  applicable  to  Dante, 
But,  whichever  was  intended,  the  letter  equally 
shows  the  irritable  humour  of  Petrarch. 


538 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


But  every  thing  was  forgiven  to  a  man 
who  was  the  acknowledged  boast  of  his 
age  and  country.  Clement  VI.  conferred 
one  or  two  sinecure  benefices  upon  Pe- 
trarch, and  would  probably  have  raised 
him  to  a  bishopric,  if  he  had  chosen  to 
adopt  the  ecclesiastical  profession.  But 
he  never  took  orders,  the  clerical  tonsure 
being  a  sufficient  qualification  for  holding 
canonries.  The  same  pope  even  afforded 
him  the  post  of  apostolical  secretary,  and 
this  was  repeated  by  Innocent  VI.  I 
know  not  whether  we  should  ascribe  to 
magnanimity,  or  to  a  politic  motive,  the 
behaviour  of  Clement  VI.  towards  Pe- 
trarch, who  had  pursued  a  course  as  vex- 
atious as  possible  to  the  Holy  See.  For 
not  only  he  made  the  residence  of  the 
supreme  pontiffs  at  Avignon,  and  the 
vices  of  their  court,  the  topic  of  invec- 
tives, too  well  founded  to  be  despised, 
but  he  had  ostentatiously  put  himself  for- 
ward as  the  supporter  of  Nicola  di  Rien- 
zi  in  a  project  which  could  evidently  have 
no  other  aim  than  to  wrest  the  city  of 
Rome  from  the  temporal  sovereignty  of 
its  bishop.  Nor  was  the  friendship  and 
society  of  Petrarch  less  courted  by  the 
most  respectable  Italian  princes  ;  by  Rob- 
ert, king  of  Naples,  by  the  Visconti,  the 
Correggi  of  Parma,  the  famous  doge  of 
Venice,  Andrew  Dandolo,  and  the  Carrara 
family  of  Padua,  under  whose  protection 
he  spent  the  latter  years  of  his  life.  Sto- 
ries are  related  of  the  respect  shown  to 
him  by  men  in  humbler  stations  which 
are  perhaps  still  more  satisfactory.*  But 
the  most  conspicuous  testimony  of  pub- 
lic esteem  was  bestowed  by  the  city  of 
Rome,  in  his  solemn  coronation  as  lau- 
reate poet,  in  the  capitol.  This  ceremony 
took  place  in  1341 ;  and  it  is  remarkable 
that  Petrarch  had  at  that  time  composed 
no  works  which  could,  in  our  estimation, 
give  him  pretensions  to  so  singular  an 
honour. 

The  moral  character  of  Petrarch  was 
formed  of  dispositions  peculiarly  calcula- 
ted for  a  poet.  An  enthusiast  in  the 
emotions  of  love  and  friendship,  of  glo- 

*  A  goldsmith  of  Bergamo,  by  name  Henry  Ca- 
pra,  smitten  with  an  enthusiastic  love  of  letters 
and  of  Petrarch,  earnestly  requested  the  honour  of 
a  visit  from  the  poet.  The  house  of  this  good 
tradesman  was  full  of  representations  of  his  person, 
and  of  inscriptions  with  his  name  and  arms.  No 
expense  had  been  spared  in  copying  all  his  works 
as  they  appeared.  He  was  received  by  Capra  with 
a  princely  magnificence;  lodged  in  a  chamber 
hung  with  purple,  and  a  splendid  bed  on  which  no 
one  before  or  after  him  was  permitted  to  sleep. 
Goldsmiths,  as  we  may  judge  by  this  instance, 
were  opulent  persons  ;  yet  the  friends  of  Petrarch 
dissuaded  him  from  this  visit,  as  derogatory  to  his 
own  elevated  station.— De  Sade,  t.  iii.,  p.  496. 


ry,  of  patriotism,  of  religion,  he  gave  the 
rein  to  all  their  impulses ;  and  there  is 
not  perhaps  a  page  in  his  Italian  writing 
which  does  not  bear  the  trace  of  one  or 
other  of  these  affections.  By  far  the 
most  predominant,  and  that  which  has 
given  the  greatest  celebrity  to  his  name, 
is  his  passion  for  Laura.  Twenty  years 
of  unrequited  and  almost  unaspiring  love 
were  lightened  by  song ;  and  the  attach- 
ment, which,  having  long  survived  the 
beauty  of  its  object,*  seems  to  have  at 
one  time  nearly  passed  from  the  heart  to 
the  fancy,  was  changed  to  an  intenser 
feeling,  and  to  a  sort  of  celestial  adora- 
tion, by  her  death.  Laura,  before  the 
time  of  Petrarch's  first  accidental  meet- 
ing with  her,  was  united  in  marriage  with 
another;  a  fact  which,  besides  some 
more  particular  evidence,  appears  to  me 
deducible  from  the  whole  tenour  of  his 
poetry. f  Such  a  passion  is  undoubtedly 
not  capable  of  a  moral  defence ;  nor 


*  See  the  beautiful  sonnet,  Erano  i  capei  d'  oro 
all'  aura  sparsi.  In  a  famous  passage  of  his  Con- 
fessions, he  says ;  Corpus  illud  egregium  morbis  et 
crebris  partubus  exhaustum,  multurn  pristini  vigo- 
ris  amisit.  Those  who  maintain  the  virginity  of 
Laura  are  forced  to  read  perturbationibus  instead  of 
partubus.  Two  manuscripts  in  the  royal  library  at 
Paris  have  the  contraction  ptbus,  which  leaves  the 
matter  open  to  controversy.  De  Sade  contends 
that  "  crebris"  is  less  applicable  to  "  perturbationi- 
bus" than  to  "partubus."  I  do  not  know  that 
there  is  much  in  this  ;  but  I  am  clear  that  corpus 
exhaustum  partubus  is  much  the  more  elegant 
Latin  expression  of  the  two. 

t  The  Abbe  de  Sade,  in  those  copious  memoirs 
of  the  life  of  Petrarch,  which  illustrate  in  an  agree- 
able though  rather  prolix  manner  the  civil  and  lite- 
rary history  of  Provence  and  Italy  in  the  fourteenth 
century,  endeavoured  to  establish  his  own  descent 
from  Laura,  as  the  wife  of  Hugues  de  Sade,  and 
aorn  in  the  family  de  Noves.  This  hypothesis  has> 
since  been  received  with  general  acquiescence  by 
iterary  men ;  and  Tiraboschi  in  particular,  whose 
talent  lay  in  these  petty  biographical  researches, 
and  who  had  a  prejudice  against  every  thing  that 
came  from  France,  seems  to  consider  it  as  deci- 
sively proved.  But  it  has  been  called  in  question 
n  a  modern  publication  by  the  late  Lord  Wood- 
louselee. — (Essay  on  the  Life  and  Character  of 
Petrarch,  1810.)  I  shall  not  offer  any  opinion  as 
to  the  identity  of  Petrarch's  mistress  with 'Laura 
de  Sade ;  but  the  main  position  of  Lord  W.'s  essay, 
hat  Laura  was  an  unmarried  woman,  and  the  ob- 
ect  of  an  honourable  attachment  in  her  lover, 
seems  irreconcilable  with  the  evidence  that  his 
writings  supply.  1.  There  is  no  passage  in  Pe 
rarch,  whether  of  poetry  or  prose,  that  alludes  to 
he  virgin  character  of  Laura,  or  gives  her  the  usu- 
al appellations  of  unmarried  women,  puella  in 
Latin,  or  donzella  in  Italian ;  even  in  the  Trionfo 
della  Castita,  where  so  obvious  an  opportunity  oc- 
curred. Yet  this  was  naturally  to  be  expected 
from  so  ethereal  an  imagination  as  that  of  Petrarch, 
always  inclined  to  invest  her  with  the  halo  of  ce- 
estial  purity.  We  know  how  Milton  took  hold 
of  the  mystical  notions  of  virginity ;  notions 
more  congenial  to  the  religion  of  Petrarch  than  his 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


639 


would  I  seek  its  palliation  so  much  in  the 
prevalent  manners  of  his  age,  by  which, 
however,  the  conduct  of  even  good  men 
is  generally  not  a  little  influenced,  as  in 
the  infirmity  of  Petrarch's  character, 
which  induced  him  both  to  obey  and  to 
justify  the  emotions  of  his  heart.  The 
lady  too,  whose  virtue  and  prudence  we 
are  not  to  question,  seems  to  have  tem- 
pered the  light  and  shadow  of  her  coun- 
tenance so  as  to  preserve  her  admirer 
from  despair,  and  consequently  to  pro- 
long his  sufferings  and  servitude. 

The  general  excellences  of  Petrarch 
are  his  command  over  the  music  of  his 
native  language,  his  correctness  of  style, 
scarcely  two  or  three  words  that  he  has 
used  having  been  rejected  by  later  wri- 
ters, his  exquisite  elegance  of  diction, 
improved  by  the  perpetual  study  of  Vir- 
gil ;  but,  far  above  all,  that  tone  of  pure 
and  melancholy  sentiment,  which  has 
something  in  it  unearthly,  and  forms  a 
strong  contrast  to  the  amatory  poems  of 
antiquity.  Most  of  these  are  either  li- 
centious or  uninteresting ;  and  those  of 
Catullus,  a  man  endowed  by  nature  with 
deep  and  serious  sensibility,  and  a  poet, 
in  my  opinion,  of  greater  and  more  va- 

Quod  tibi  perpetuus  pudor,  et  sine  labe  juventas 
Pura  fuit,  quod  nulla  tori  libata  voluptas, 
En  etiam  tibi  virginei  servantur  honores. 

Epitaphium  Damonis. 

2.  The  coldness  of  Laura  towards  so  passionate 
and  deserving  a  lover,  if  no  insurmountable  obsta- 
cle intervened  during  his  twenty  years  of  devotion, 
would  be  at  least  a  mark  that  his  attachment  was 
misplaced,  and  show  him  in  rather  a  ridiculous 
light.  It  is  not  surprising,  that  persons  believing 
Laura  to  be  unmarried,  as  seems  to  have  been  the 
case  with  the  Italian  commentators,  should  have 
thought  his  passion  affected  and  little  more  than 
poetical.  But,  upon  the  contrary  supposition,  a 
thread  runs  through  the  whole  of  his  poetry,  and 
gives  it  consistency.  A  love  on  the  one  side,  in- 
stantaneously conceived,  and  retained  by  the  sus- 
ceptibility of  a  tender  heart  and  ardent  fancy ; 
nourished  by  slight  encouragement,  and  seldom 
presuming  to  hope  for  more  ;  a  mixture  of  prudence 
and  coquetry  on  the  other,  kept  within  bounds  ei- 
ther by  virtue  or  by  the  want  of  mutual  attachment, 
yet  not  dissatisfied  with  fame  more  brilliant  and 
flattery  more  refined  than  had  ever  before  been  the 
lot  of  woman— these  are  surely  pretty  natural  cir- 
cumstances, and  such  as  do  not  render  the  story- 
less  intelligible.  Unquestionably,  such  a  passion  is 
not  innocent.  But  Lord  Woodhouselee,  who  is  so 
much  scandalized  at  it,  knew  little,  one  would 
think,  of  the  fourteenth  century.  His  standard  is 
taken  not  from  Avignon,  but  from  Edinburgh,  a 
much  better  place,  no  doubt,  and  where  the  moral 
barometer  stands  at  a  very  different  altitude.  In 
one  passage,  p.  188,  he  carries  his  strictness  to  an 
excess  of  prudery.  From  all  we  know  of  the  age 
of  Petrarch,  the  only  matter  of  astonishment  is  the 
persevering  virtue  of  Laura.  The  troubadours 
boast  of  much  better  success  with  Provencal  ladies 
3.  But  the  following  passage  from  Petrarch's  dia- 
logues with  St.  Augustin,  the  work,  as  is  well 


ried  genius  than  Petrarch,  are  contami- 
nated, above  all  the  rest,  with  the  most 
degrading  grossness.  Of  this  there  is 
lot  a  single  instance  in  the  poet  of  Vau- 
3luse  ;  and  his  strains,  diffused  and  ad- 
mired as  they  have  been,  may  have  con- 
ferred a  benefit  that  criticism  cannot  es- 
timate, in  giving  elevation  and  refinement 
to  the  imaginations  of  youth.  The  great 
defect  of  Petrarch  was  his  want  of  strong 
original  conception,  which  prevented  him 
from  throwing  off  the  affected  and  over- 
strained manner  of  the  Provencal  trouba- 
dours, and  of  the  earlier  Italian  poets. 
Among  his  poems,  the  Triumphs  are  per- 
haps superior  to  the  Odes,  as  the  latter 
are  to  the  Sonnets;  and  of  the  latter, 
those  written  subsequently  to  the  death 
of  Laura  are  in  general  the  best.  But 
that  constrained  and  laborious  measure 
cannot  equal  the  graceful  flow  of  the  can- 
zone, or  the  vigorous  compression  of  the 
terza  rima.  The  Triumphs  have  also  a 
claim  to  superiority,  as  the  only  poetical 
composition  of  Petrarch  that  extends  to 
any  considerable  length.  They  are  in 
some  degree,  perhaps,  an  imitation  of  the 
dramatic  Mysteries,  and  form  at  least  the 
earliest  specimens  of  a  kind  of  poetry 
not  uncommon  in  later  times,  wherein 


known,  where  he  most  unbosoms  himself,  will 
leave  no  doubt,  I  think,  that  his  passion  could  not 
have  been  gratified  consistently  with  honour.  At 
mulier  ista  Celebris,  quam  tibi  certissimam  ducem 
fingis,  ad  superos  cur  non  haesitantem  trepidumque 
direxerit,  et  quod  caecis  fieri  solet,  manu  apprehen- 
sum  non  tenuit,  quo  et  gradiendum  foret  admonu- 
it  ? — PETR.  Fecit  hoc  ilia  quantum  potuit.  Quid 
enim  aliud  egit,  cum  nullis  mota  precibus,  nullis 
victa  blanditiis,  muliebrem  tenuit  decorem,  et  ad- 
versus  suam  semel  et  meam  aetatem,  adversus 
multa  et  varia,  quae  flectere  adamantium  spiritum 
debuissent,  iriexpugnabilis  et  firma  permansit  ? 
Profecto  animus  iste  foemineus  quid  virum  decuit 
admonebat,  prsestabatque  ne  in  sectando  pudicitiae 
studio,  ut  verbis  utar  Senecae,  aut  exemplum  ant 
convitmm  deesset;  postremo  cum  lorifragum  ac 
praecipitem  videret,  deserere  maluit  potius  qu&m 
sequi. — AUGUST.  Turpe  igitur  aliquid  interdurn 
voluisti,  quod  supra  negaveras.  At  iste  vulgatus 
amantium,  vel,  ut  dicam  verius,  amentium  furor 
est,  ut  omnibus  merito  dici  possit :  volo  nolo,  nolo 
volo.  Vobis  ipsis  quid  velitis,  aut  nolitis,  ignotum 
est. — PET.  Invitusinlaqueum  offendi.  Si  quid  ta- 
men  olim  aliter  forte  voluissem,  amor  aetasque  co#- 
gerunt ;  mmc  qiiid  velim  et  cupiam  scio,  firmavique 
jam  tandem  animum  labentem ;  contra  autem  ilia 
propositi  tenax  et  semper  una  permansit,  quare 
constantiam  foemineam  quo  magis  intelligo,  magis 
admiror  :  idque  sibi  consilium  fuisse,  si  unquam 
debuit,  gaudeo  nunc  et  gratias  ago. — AUG.  Semel 
fallenti,  non  facile  rursus  fides  habenda  est :  tu 
prius  mores  atque  habitum,  vitamque  mutavisti, 
quam  animum  mutasse  persuadeas ;  mitigatur  forte 
si  tuus  leniturque  ignis,  extinctus  non  est.  Tu 
vero  qui  tantum  dilectioni  tribuis,  non animadvertis, 
illam  absolvendo,  quantum  te  ipse  condemnas ; 
illam  fateri  libet  fuisse  sanctissimam,  dum  te  insa- 
num  scelestumque  fateare. — De  Contemptu  Mundi, 
Dialog.  3,  p.  367,  edit.  1581. 


540 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


real  and  allegorical  personages  are  in- 
termingled in  a  masque  or  scenic  repre 
sentation. 

None  of  the  principal  modern  Ian 
English  guages  was  so  late  in  its  forma- 
language.  tion,  or  in  its  application  to  the 
purposes  of  literature,  as  the  English. 
This  arose,  as  is  well  known,  out  of  the 
Saxon  branch  of  the  great  Teutonic 
stock,  spoken  in  England  till  after  the 
conquest.  From  this  mother  dialect,  our 
English  differs  less  in  respect  of  etymolo- 
gy, than  of  syntax,  idiom,  and  flexion. 
In  so  gradual  a  transition  as  probably 
took  place,  and  one  so  sparingly  marked 
by  any  existing  evidence,  we  cannot  well 
assign  a  definite  origin  to  our  present 
language.  The  question  of  identity  is 
almost  as  perplexing  in  languages  as  in 
individuals.  But,  in  the  reign  of  Henry 
II.,  aversion  of  Wace's  poem  of  Brut, by 
one  Layamon,  a  priest  of  Ernly  upon 
Severn,  exhibits,  as  it  were,  the  chrysalis 
of  the  English  language,  in  which  he 
can  as  little  be  said  to  have  written,  as 
Early  in  Anglo-Saxon.*  Very  soon  af- 
writers.  terward,  the  new  formation  was 
better  developed;  and  some  metrical 
pieces,  referred  by  critics  to  the  earlier 
part  of  the  thirteenth  century,  differ  but 
little  from  our  legitimate  grammar.! 
About  the  beginning  of  Edward  I.'s 
reign,  Robert,  a  monk  of  Glocester,  com- 
posed a  metrical  chronicle  from  the  his- 
tory of  Geoffrey  of  Monmouth,  which  he 
continued  to  his  own  time.  This  work, 
with  a  similar  chronicle  of  Robert  Man- 
ning, a  monk  of  Brunne  (Bourne)  in  Lin- 
colnshire, nearly  thirty  years  later,  stand 
at  the  head  of  our  English  poetry.  The 
romance  of  Sir  Tristrem,  ascribed  to 
Thomas  of  Erceldoune,  surnamed  the 
Rhymer,  a  Scottish  minstrel,  has  recent- 
ly laid  claim  to  somewhat  higher  antiqui- 
ty. In  the  fourteenth  century,  a  great 
number  of  metrical  romances  were  trans- 
lated from  the  French.  It  requires  no 
small  portion  of  indulgence  to  speak  fa- 
vourably of  any  of  these  early  English 
productions.  A  poetical  line  may  no 
doubt  occasionally  be  found ;  but  in  gen- 
eral the  narration  is  as  heavy  and  pro- 
lix as  the  versification  is  unmusical. J 

*  A  sufficient  extract  from  this  work  of  Layamon 
has  been  published  by  Mr.  Ellis,  in  his  specimens 
of  early  English  poetry,  vol.  i.,  p.  61.  It  contains, 
he  observes,  no  word  which  we  are  under  the  ne- 
cessity of  ascribing  to  a  French  origin. 

f  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry.  Ellis's 
Specimens. 

t  Warton  printed  copious  extracts  from  some  of 
these.  Ritson  gave  several  of  them  entire  to  the 
press.  And  Mr.  Ellis  has  adopted  the  only  plan 
which  could  render  them  palatable,  by  intermin- 


The  first  English  writer  who  can  be  read 
with  approbation  is  William  Langland, 
the  author  of  Piers  Plowman's  Vision,  a 
severe  satire  upon  the  clergy.  Though 
his  measure  is  more  uncouth  than  that 
of  his  predecessors,  there  is  real  energy 
in  his  conceptions,  which  he  caught  not 
from  the  chimeras  of  knight-errantry, 
but  the  actual  manners  and  opinions  of 
his  time. 

The  very  slow  progress  of  the  Eng- 
lish language,  as  an  instrument  cause  of 
of  literature,  is  chiefly  to  be  its  slow 
ascribed  to  the  effects  of  the  Prosress- 
Norman  conquest,  in  degrading  the  na- 
tive inhabitants,  and  transferring  all 
power  and  riches  to  foreigners.  The 
barons,  without  perhaps  one  exception, 
and  a  large  proportion  of  the  gentry, 
were  of  French  descent,  and  preserved 
among  themselves  the  speech  of  their 
fathers.  This  continued  much  longer 
than  we  should  naturally  have  expected ; 
even  after  the  loss  of  Normandy  had 
snapped  the  thread  of  French  connex- 
ions, and  they  began  to  pride  themselves 
in  the  name  of  Englishmen,  and  in  the 
inheritance  of  traditionary  English  priv- 
ileges. Robert  of  Glocester  has  a  re- 
markable passage,  which  proves  that,  in 
his  time,  somewhere  about  1270,  the  su- 
perior ranks  continued  to  use  the  French 
language.*  Ralph  Higden,  about  the 
early  part  of  Edward  III.'s  reign,  though 
his  expressions  do  not  go  the  same 
length,  asserts,  that  "gentlemen's  chil- 
dren are  taught  to  speak  French  from 
the  time  they  are  rocked  in  their  cradle  ; 
and  uplandish  (country)  or  inferior  men 
will  liken  themselves  to  gentlemen,  and 
learn  with  great  business  for  to  speak 
French,  for  to  be  the  more  told  of." 
Notwithstanding,  however,  this  predom- 
inance of  French  among  the  higher 
class,  I  do  not  think  that  some  modern 
critics  are  warranted  in  concluding  that 
they  were  in  general  ignorant  of  the 
English  tongue.  Men  living  upon  their 
estates  among  their  tenantry,  whom  they 
welcomed  in  their  halls,  and  whose  as- 
sistance they  were  perpetually  needing 
in  war  and  civil  frays,  would  hardly  have 
permitted  such  a  barrier  to  obstruct 
their  intercourse.  For  we  cannot,  at 

gling  short  passages,  where  the  original  is  rather 
above  its  usual  mediocrity,  with  his  own  lively 
analysis. 

*  The  evidences  of  this  general  employment 
and  gradual  disuse  of  French  in  conversation  and 
writing  are  collected  by  Tyrwhitt,  in  a  dissertation 
on  the  ancient  English  language,  prefixed  to  the 
fourth  volume  of  his  edition  of  Chaucer's  Canter- 
y  Tales  ;  and  by  Ritson,  in  the  preface  to  his 
Metrical  Romances,  vol.  i.,  p.  70. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


641 


the  utmost,  presume  that  French  was  so 
well  known  to  the  English  commonalty 
in  the  thirteenth  century,  as  English  is 
at  present  to  the  same  class  in  Wales 
and  the  Scottish  Highlands.  It  may  be 
remarked,  also,  that  the  institution  of 
trial  by  jury  must  have  rendered  a 
knowledge  of  English  almost  indispen- 
sable to  those  who  administered  justice. 
There  is  a  proclamation  of  Edward  I. 
in  Rymer,  where  he  endeavours  to  ex- 
cite his  subjects  against  the  King  of 
France  by  imputing  to  him  the  intention 
of  conquering  the  country,  and  abolish- 
ing the  English  language  (linguam  de- 
lere  anglicanam),  and  this  is  frequently 
repeated  in  the  proclamations  of  Edward 
III.*  In  his  time,  or  perhaps  a  little  be- 
fore, the  native  language  had  become 
more  familiar  than  French  in  common 
use,  even  with  the  court  and  nobility. 
Hence  the  numerous  translations  of  met- 
rical romances,  which  are  chiefly  refer- 
red to  his  reign.  An  important  change 
was  effected  in  1362,  by  a  statute,  which 
enacts  that  all  pleas  in  courts  of  justice 
shall  be  pleaded,  debated,  and  judged  in 
English.  But  Latin  was,  by  this  act,  to 
be  employed  in  drawing  the  record  ;  for 
there  seems  to  have  still  continued  a 
sort  of  prejudice  against  the  use  of  Eng- 
lish as  a  written  language.  The  earliest 
English  instrument  known  to  exist  is 
said  to  bear  the  date  of  1343. f  And 
there  are  not  more  than  three  or  four 
entries  in  our  own  tongue  upon  the  rolls 
of  parliament  before  the  reign  of  Henry 
VI.,  after  whose  accession  its  use  be- 
comes very  common.  Sir  John  Mande- 
vile,  about  1350,  may  pass  for  the  father 
of  English  prose,  no  original  work  being 
so  ancient  as  his  travels.  But  the  trans- 
lation of  the  Bible  and  other  writings  by 
Wicliffe  nearly  thirty  years  afterward, 
taught  us  the  Copiousness  and  energy  of 
which  our  native  dialect  was  capable ; 
and  it  was  employed  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury by  two  writers  of  distinguished 
merit,  Bishop  Peacock  and  Sir  John 
Fortescue. 

But  the  principal  ornament  of  our  Eng- 
lish literature  was  Geoffrey  Chau- 
r<  cer,   who,   with   Dante  and   Pe- 
trarch, fills  up  the  triumvirate  of  great 
poets  in  the  middle  ages.     Chaucer  was 
born  in  1328,  and  his  life  extended  to  the 
last  year  of  the  fourteenth  century.  That 
rude    and   ignorant  generation  was  not 
likely  to  feel  the  admiration  of  native  ge- 
nius as  warmly  as  the  compatriots  of  Pe- 

*  T.  v.,  p.  490 ;  t.  vi.,  p.  642,  et  alibi. 
t  Ritson,  p.  80.    There  is  one  in  Rymer  of  the 
year  1385. 


trarch ;  but  he  enjoyed  the  favour  of  Ed- 
ward III.,  and,  still  more  conspicuously, 
of  John,  duke  of  Lancaster ;  his  fortunes 
were  far  more  prosperous  than  have 
usually  been  the  lot  of  poets  ;  and  a  rep- 
utation was  established  beyond  competi- 
tion in  his  lifetime,  from  which  no  suc- 
ceeding generation  has  withheld  its  sanc- 
tion. 1  cannot,  in  my  own  taste,  go 
completely  along  with  the  eulogies  that 
some  have  bestowed  upon  Chaucer,  who 
seems  to  me  to  have  wanted  grandeur, 
where  he  is  original,  both  in  conception 
and  in  language.  But  in  vivacity  of  im- 
agination and  ease  of  expression,  he  is 
above  all  poets  of  the  middle  time,  and 
comparable  perhaps  to  the  greatest  of 
those  who  have  followed.  He  invented, 
or  rather  introduced  from  France,  and 
employed  with  facility  the  regular  iambic 
couplet ;  and  though  it  was  not  to  be  ex- 
pected that  he  should  perceive  the  capa- 
cities latent  in  that  measure,  his  versifi- 
cation, to  which  he  accommodated  a  very 
licentious  and  arbitrary  pronunciation,  is 
uniform  and  harmonious.*  It  is  chiefly, 
indeed,  as  a  comic  poet,  and  a  minute 
observer  of  manners  and  circumstances, 
that  Chaucer  excels.  In  serious  and 
moral  poetry  he  is  frequently  languid  and 
diffuse ;  but  he  springs  like  Antaeus  from 
the  earth,  when  his  subject  changes  to 
coarse  satire  or  merry  narrative.  Among 
his  more  elevated  compositions,  the 
Knight's  Tale  is  abundantly  sufficient  to 
immortalize  Chaucer,  since  it  would  be 
difficult  to  find  anywhere  a  story  better 
conducted,  or  told  with  more  animation 
and  strength  of  fancy.  The  second  place 
may  be  given  to  his  Troilus  and  Cres- 
eide,  a  beautiful  and  interesting  poem, 
though  enfeebled  by  expansion.  But 
perhaps  the  most  eminent,  or  at  any  rate 
the  most  characteristic,  testimony  to  his 
genius  will  be  found  in  the  prologue  to 
his  Canterbury  Tales  ;  a  work  entirely 
and  exclusively  his  own,  which  can  sel- 
dom be  said  of  his  poetry,  and  the  vivid 
delineations  of  which  perhaps  very  few 
writers  but  Shakspeare  could  have  equal- 
led. As  the  first  original  English  poet, 
if  we  except  Langland,  as  the  inventor 
of  our  most  approved  measure,  as  an  im- 
prover, though  with  too  much  innovation, 
of  our  language,  and  as  a  faithful  witness 
to  the  manners  of  his  age,  Chaucer  would 
deserve  our  reverence,  if  he  had  not  also 

*  See  Tyrwhitt's  essay  on  the  language  and  ver- 
sification of  Chaucer,  in  the  fourth  volume  of  his 
edition  of  the  Canterbury  Tales.  The  opinion  of 
this  eminent  critic  has  lately  been  controverted  by 
Dr.  Nott,  who  maintains  the  versification  of  Chau- 
cer to  have  been  wholly  founded  on  accentual  and 
not  syllabic  regularity. 


542 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


intrinsic  claims  for  excellences  which 
do  not  depend  upon  any  collateral  con 
siderations. 

The  last  circumstance  which  I  shall 
Revival  of  mention  as  having  contributed  to 
ancient  restore  society  from  the  intellect- 
ual degradation  into  which  it  had 
fallen  during  the  dark  ages,  is  the  revival 
of  classical  learning.  The  Latin  languag 
indeed,  in  which  all  legal  instruments 
were  drawn  up,  and  of  which  all  ecclesi- 
astics availed  themselves  in  their  episto- 
lary intercourse,  as  well  as  in  their  more 
solemn  proceedings,  had  never  ceased  to 
be  familiar.  Though  many  solecisms 
and  barbarous  words  occur  in  the  wri- 
tings of  what  were  called  learned  men, 
they  possessed  a  fluency  of  expression 
in  Latin  which  does  not  often  occur  at 
present.  During  the  dark  ages,  howev- 
er, properly  so  called,  or  the  period  from 
the  sixth  to  the  eleventh  century,  it  is 
unusual  to  meet  with  quotations,  except 
from  the  Vulgate  or  from  theological 
writers.  The  study  of  Rome's  greatest 
authors,  especially  her  poets,  was  almost 
forbidden.  But  a  change  took  place  in 
in  the  the  course  of  the  twelfth  cen- 
tweifth  een-  tury.  The  polite  literature,  as 
well  as  the  abstruser  science  of 
antiquity,  became  the  subject  of  cultiva- 
tion. Several  writers  of  that  age,  in  dif- 
ferent parts  of  Europe,  are  distinguished 
more  or  less  for  elegance,  though  not  ab- 
solute purity,  of  Latin  style ;  and  for 
their  acquaintance  with  those  ancients 
who  are  its  principal  models.  Such 
were  John  of  Salisbury,  the  acute  and 
learned  author  of  the  Policraticus,  Will- 
iam of  Malmsbury,  Giraldus  Cambrensis, 
Roger  Hoveden,  in  England ;  and  in  for- 
eign countries,  Otho  of  Frisingen,  Saxo 
Grammaticus,  and  the  best  perhaps  of  all 
I  have  named  as  to  style,  Falcandus,  the 
historian  of  Sicily.  In  these  we  meet 
with  frequent  quotations  from  Livy,  Ci- 
cero, Pliny,  and  other  considerable  wri- 
ters of  antiquity.  The  poets  were  now 
admired,  and  even  imitated.  All  metri- 
cal Latin  before  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century,  so  far  as  I  have  seen,  is 
extremely  bad  ;  but  at  this  time,  and  ear- 
ly in  the  succeeding  age,  there  appeared 
several  versifiers,  who  aspired  to  the  re- 
nown of  following  the  steps  of  Virgil  and 
Statius  in  epic  poetry.  Joseph  Iscanus, 
an  Englishman,  seems  to  have  been  the 
earliest  of  these ;  his  poem  on  the  Tro- 
jan war,  containing  an  addres  to  Henry 
II.  He  wrote  another,  entitled  Antiochus, 
on  the  third  crusade,  most  of  which  has 
perished.  The  wars  of  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa  were  celebrated  by  Gunther  in  his 


Ligurinus ;  and  not  long  afterward,  Guil- 
lelmus  Brito  wrote  the  Philippis,  in  hon- 
our of  Philip  Augustus,  and  Walter  de 
Chatillon  the  Alexandreis,  taken  from 
the  popular  romance  of  Alexander.  None 
of  these  poems,  I  believe,  have  much  in- 
trinsic merit ;  but  their  existence  is  a 
proof  of  taste  that  could  relish,  though 
not  of  genius  that  could  emulate  antiqui- 
ty.* 

In  the  thirteenth  century  there  seems 
to  have  been  some  decline  of  classical 
literature,  in  consequence  prob-  miid,  more 
ably  of  the  scholastic  philoso-  intiiefour- 
phy,  which  was  then  in  its  great-  te 
est  vigour;  at  least  we  do  not  find  so 
many  good  writers  as  in  the  preceding 
age.  But  about  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth, or  perhaps  a  little  sooner,  an  ar- 
dent zeal  for  the  restoration  of  ancient 
learning  began  to  display  itself.  The 
copying  of  books,  for  some  ages  slowly 
and  sparingly  performed  in  monasteries, 
had  already  become  a  branch  of  trade  ;f 
and  their  price  was  consequently  invention 
reduced.  Tiraboschi  denies  that  of  linen 
the  invention  of  making  paper  paper> 
from  linen  rags  is  older  than  the  middle 

*  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  vol.  i.,  Dis 
sertation  II.  Roquefort,  Etat  de  la  Poesie  Fraii- 
caise  du  douzieme  Siecle,  p.  18.  The  following 
lines  from  the  beginning  of  the  eighth  book  of  the 
Philippis  seem  a  fair,  or  rather  a  favourable  speci- 
men of  these  epics.  But  I  am  very  superficially 
acquainted  with  any  of  them. 
Solverat  interea  zephyris  melioribus  annum 
Frigore  depulso  veris  tepor,  et  renovari 
Coeperat  et  viridi  gremio  juvenescere  tellus  ; 
Cum  Rea  laeta  Jovis  rideret  ad  oscula  mater 
Cum  jam  post  tergum  Phryxi  vectore  relicto 
Solis  Agenorei  premeret  rota  terga  juvenci. 
The  tragedy  of  Eccerinus  (Eccelin  da  Romano), 
by  Albertmus  Mussatus,  a  Paduan,  and  author  of 
a  respectable  history,  deserves  some  attention,  as 
the  first  attempt  to  revive  the  regular  tragedy.  It 
was  written  soon  after  1300.  The  language  by  no 
means  wants  animation,  notwithstanding  an  un- 
skilful conduct  of  the  fable.  The  Eccerinus  is 
printed  in  the  tenth  volume  of  Muratori's  collection, 
f  Booksellers  appear  in  the  latter  part  of  the 
twelfth  century.  Peter  of  Blois  mentions  a  law- 
book  which  he  had  procured  a  quodam-  publico 
mangone  librorum. — Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France, 
t.  ix.,  p.  84.  In  the  thirteenth  century  there  were 
many  copyists  by  occupation  in  the  Italian  univer- 
sities.— Tiraboschi,  t.  iv.,  p.  72.  The  number  of 
these  at  Milan  before  the  end  of  that  age  is  said  to 
have  been  fifty,  ibid.  But  a  very  small  proportion 
of  their  labour  could  have  been  devoted  to  purpo- 
ses merely  literary.  By  a  variety  of  ordinances, 
the  first  of  which  bears  date  in  1275,  the  booksel- 
lers of  Paris  were  subjected  to  the  control  of  the 
university. — Crevier,  t.  ii.,  p.  67,  286.  The  pretext 
of  this  was,  lest  erroneous  copies  should  obtain  cir- 
culation. And  this  appears  to  have  been  the  origi- 
nal of  those  restraints  upon  the  freedom  of  publi- 
cation, which,  since  the  invention  of  printing,  have 
so  much  retarded  the  diffusion  of  truth  by  means 
of  that  great  instrument. 


' 


PART  It.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


543 


of  that  century ;  and  although  doubts  may 
be  justly  entertained  as  to  the  accuracy 
of  this  position,  yet  the  confidence  with 
which  so  eminent  a  scholar  advances  it 
is  at  least  a  proof  that  paper  manuscripts 
of  an  earlier  date  are  very  rare.*  Prin- 
ces became  far  more  attentive  to  litera- 
ture when  it  was  no  longer  confined  to 
metaphysical  theology  and  canon  law. 
I  have  already  mentioned  the  translations 
from  classical  authors,  made  by  command 
of  John  and  Charles  V.  of  France.  These 
French  translations  diffused  some  ac- 
quaintance with  ancient  history  and  learn- 
ing among  our  own  countrymen. f  The 
public  libraries  assumed  a  more 
a'  respectable  appearance.  Louis 
IX.  had  formed  one  at  Paris,  in  which  it 
does  not  appear  that  any  work  of  elegant 
literature  was  found. J  At  the  beginning 
of  the  fourteenth  century,  only  four  clas- 
sical manuscripts  existed  in  this  collec- 
tion; of  Cicero,  Ovid,  Lucan,  and  Boe- 
thius.§  The  academical  library  of  Ox- 
ford, in  1300,  consisted  of  a  few  tracts 
kept  in  chests  under  St.  Mary's  church. 
That  of  Glastonbury  Abbey,  in  1240,  con- 


*  Tiraboschi,  t.  v.,  p.  85.  On  the  contrary  side 
are  Montfaucon,  Mabillon,  and  Muratori ;  the  lat- 
ter of  whom  carries  up  the  invention  of  our  ordi- 
nary paper  to  the  year  10QO.  But  Tiraboschi  con- 
tends that  the  paper  used  in  manuscripts  of  so 
early  an  age  was  made  from  cotton  rags,  and,  ap- 
parently, from  the  inferior  durability  of  that  mate- 
rial, not  frequently  employed.  The  editors  of  Nou- 
veau  Traite  de  Diplomatique  are  of  the  same  opin- 
ion, and  doubt  the  use  of  linen  paper  before  the 
year  1300,  t.  i.,  p.  517,  521.  Meerman,  well  known 
as  a  writer  upou  the  antiquities  of  printing,  offered 
a  reward  for  the  earliest  manuscript  upon  linen 
paper,  and,  in  a  treatise  upon  the  subject,  fixed 
the  date  of  its  invention  between  1270  and  1300. 
But  M.  Schwandner,  of  Vienna,  is  said  to  have 
found  in  the  imperial  library  a  small  charter  bear- 
ing the  date  of  1243  on  such  paper. — Macpherson's 
Annals  of  Commerce,  vol.  i.,  p.  394.  Tiraboschi, 
if  he  had  known  this,  would  probably  have  main- 
tained the  paper  to  be  made  of  cotton,  which  he 
says  it  is  difficult  to  distinguish.  He  assigns  the 
invention  of  linen  paper  to  Pace  da  Fabiano  of 
Treviso.  But  more  than  one  Arabian  writer  as- 
serts the  manufacture  of  linen  paper  to  have  been 
carried  on  at  Samarcand  early  in  the  eighth  cen- 
tury, having  been  brought  thither  from  China. 
And,  what  is  more  conclusive,  Casiri  positively  de- 
clares many  manuscripts  in  the  Escurial  of  the 
eleventh  and  twelfth  centuries  to  be  written  on 
that  substance.— Bibliotheca  Arabico-Hispanica,  t. 
ii.,  p.  9.  This  authority  appears  much  to  outweigh 
the  opinion  of  Tiraboschi  in  favour  of  Pace  da  Fa- 
biano, who  must  perhaps  take  his  place  at  the  ta- 
ble of  fabulous  heroes  with  Bartholomew  Schwartz 
and  Flavio  Gioja.  But  the  material  point,  that 
paper  was  very  little  known  in  Europe  till  the  lat- 
ter part  of  the  fourteenth  century,  remains  as  be- 
fore. 

t  Warton's  Hist,  of  English  Poetry,  vol.  ii., 
p.  122. 

|  Velly,  t.  v.,  p.  202.    Crevier,  t.  ii.,  p.  36. 

$  Warton,  vol.  i.,  Dissert.  II. 


tained  four  hundred  volumes,  among 
which  were  Livy,  Sallust,  Lucan,  Virgil, 
Claudian,  and  other  ancient  writers.* 
But  no  other,  probably,  of  that  age  was 
so  numerous  or  so  valuable.  Richard  of 
Bury,  the  chancellor  of  England,  and  Ed- 
ward III.,  spared  no  expense  in  collect- 
ing a  library,  the  first  perhaps  that  any 
private  man  had  formed.  But  the  scar- 
city of  valuable  books  w^as  still  so  great, 
that  he  gave  the  abbot  of  St.  Alban's  fifty 
pounds  weight  of  silver  for  between 
thirty  and  forty  volumes. f  Charles  V. 
increased  the  royal  library  at  Paris  to 
nine  hundred  volumes,  which  the  Duke 
of  Bedford  purchased  and  transported  to 
London.J  His  brother  Humphrey,  duke 
of  Glocester,  presented  the  university  of 
Oxford  with  six  hundred  books,  which 
seem  to  have  been  of  extraordinary  value, 
one  hundred  and  twenty  of  them  having 
been  estimated  at  one  thousand  pounds. 
This  indeed  was  in  1440,  at  which  time 
such  a  library  would  not  have  been 
thought  remarkably  numerous  beyond 
the  Alps,$  but  England  had  made  com- 
paratively little  progress  in  learning. 
Germany,  however,  was  probably  still 
less  advanced.  Louis,  Elector  Palatine, 
bequeathed  in  1421  his  library  to  the  uni- 
versity of  Heidelberg,  consisting  of  one 
hundred  and  fifty-two  volumes.  Eighty- 
nine  of  these  related  to  theology,  twelve 


*  Warton,  vol.  i..  Dissert.  II. 

t  Ibid.  Fifty-eight  books  were  transcribed  in 
this  abbey  under  one  abbot,  about  the  year  1300. 
Every  considerable  monastery  had  a  room,  called 
Scriptorium,  where  this  work  was  performed. 
More  than  eighty  were  transcribed  at  St.  Albans 
under  Whethamstede,  in  the  time  of  Henry  VI., 
ibid.  See  also  Du  Cange,  v.  Scriptores.  Never- 
theless we  must  remember,  first,  that  the  far 
greater  part  of  these  books  were  mere  monastic 
trash,  or  at  least  useless  in  our  modern  apprehen- 
sion ;  secondly,  that  it  depended  upon  the  charac- 
ter of  the  abbot  whether  the  scriptorium  should  be 
occupied  or  not.  Every  head  of  a  monastery  was 
not  a  Whethamstede.  Ignorance  and  jollity,  such 
as  we  find  in  Bolton  Abbey,  were  their  more  usual 
characteristics.  By  the  account-books  of  this 
rich  monastery,  about  the  beginning  of  the  four- 
teenth century, three  books  only  appear  to  have 
been  purchased  in  forty  years.  One  of  those  was 
the  Liber  Sententiarum  of  Peter  Lombard,  which 
cost  thirty  shillings,  equivalent  to  near  forty 
pounds  at  present.— Whitaker's  Hist,  of  Craven, 
p.  330. 

Ibid.  Villaret,  t.  xi.,p.  117. 
Niccolo  Niccoli,  a  private  scholar,  who  con- 
tributed essentially  to  the  restoration  of  ancient 
learning,  bequeathed  a  library  of  eight  hundred  vol- 
umes to  the  republic  of  Florence.  This  Niccoli 
hardly  published  any  thing  of  his  own  ;  but  earned 
a  well-merited  reputation  by  copying  and  correcting 
manuscripts. — Tiraboschi,  t.  vi.,  p.  114.  Shep- 
herd's Poggio,  p.  319.  In  the  preceding  centurv, 
Colluccio  Salutato  had  procured  as  many  as  eight 
hundred  volumes,  ibid.  p.  32.  Roscoe's  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  p.  55. 


544 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


to  canon  and  civil  law,  forty-five  to  med- 
icine, and  six  to  philosophy.* 

Those  who  first  undertook  to  lay  open 
Transcrip-  the  stores  of  ancient  learning 
tion  of  man-  found  incredible  difficulties  from 
the  scarcity  of  manuscripts.  So 
gross  and  supine  was  the  ignorance  of 
the  monks,  within  whose  walls  these 
treasures  were  concealed,  that  it  was 
impossible  to  ascertain,  except  by  inde- 
fatigable researches,  the  extent  of  what 
had  been  saved  out  of  the  great  ship- 
wreck of  antiquity.  To  this  inquiry  Pe- 
trarch devoted  continual  attention.  He 
spared  no  pains  to  preserve  the  remains 
of  authors,  who  were  perishing  from 
neglect  and  time.  This  danger  was  by 
no  means  past  in  the  fourteenth  centu- 
ry. A  treatise  of  Cicero  upon  Glory, 
which  had  been  in  his  possession,  was 
afterward  irretrievably  lost.f  He  de- 
clares that  he  had  seen  in  his  youth  the 
works  of  Varro ;  but  all  his  endeavours 
to  recover  these  and  the  second  Decad 
of  Livy  were  fruitless.  He  found,  how- 
ever, Quintilian,  in  1350,  of  which  there 
was  no  copy  in  Italy.!  Boccaccio,  and 
a  man  of  less  general  fame,  Colluccio 
Salutato,  were  distinguished  in  the  same 
honourable  task.  The  diligence  of  these 
scholars  was  not  confined  to  searching 
for  manuscripts.  Transcribed  by  slovenly 
monks,  or  by  ignorant  persons  who  made 
copies  for  sale,  they  required  the  con- 
tinual emendation  of  accurate  critics. § 
Though  much  certainly  was  left  for  the 
more  enlightened  sagacity  of  later  times, 
we  owe  the  first  intelligible  text  of  the 
Latin  classics  to  Petrarch,  Poggio,  and 
their  contemporary  labourers  in  this 
vineyard  for  a  hundred  years  before  the 
invention  of  printing. 

What  Petrarch  began  in  the  fourteenth 
industry  of  century  was  carried  on  by  a 
the  fifteenth  new  generation  with  unabating 
century.  industry.  The  whole  lives  of 
Italian  scholars  in  the  fifteenth  century 
were  devoted  to  the  recovery  of  manu- 
scripts and  the  revival  of  philology.  For 
this  they  sacrificed  their  native  language, 
which  had  made  such  surprising  shoots 
in  the  preceding  age,  and  were  content 
to  trace,  in  humble  reverence,  the  foot- 
steps of  antiquity.  For  this  too  they 
lost  the  hope  of  permanent  glory,  which 
can  never  remain  with  imitators,  or  such 
as  trim  the  lamp  of  ancient  sepulchres. 


*  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  v.,  p.  520. 

•f  He  had  lent  it  to  a  needy  man  of  letters,  who 
pawned  the  book,  which  was  never  recovered. — De 
Sade,  t.  i.,  p.  57. 

I  Tiraboschi,  p.  89. 

$  Idem,  t.  v.,  p.  83.    De  Sade,  t.  i.,  p.  88. 


No  writer  perhaps  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, except  Politian,  can  aspire  at  pres- 
ent even  to  the  second  class,  in  a  just 
marshalling  of  literary  reputation.     But 
we  owe  them  our  respect  and  gratitude 
for  their  taste  and  diligence.     The  dis- 
covery of  an  unknown  manuscript,  says 
Tiraboschi,  was  regarded  almost  as  the 
conquest  of  a  kingdom.      The  classical 
writers,  he  adds,  were  chiefly  either  found 
in  Italy,  or   at  least  by  Italians ;   they 
were  first  amended  and  first  printed  in 
Italy,  and  in  Italy  they  were  first  col- 
lected in  public  libraries.*    This  is  sub- 
ject to  some  exception  when  fairly  con- 
sidered ;   several   ancient   authors  were 
never  lost,  and  therefore  cannot  be  said 
to  have  been  discovered;  and  we  know 
that  Italy  did  not  always  anticipate  other 
countries  in  classical  printing.     But  her 
superior  merit  is  incontestable.     Poggio 
Bracciolini,  who  stands  perhaps  at  Poggio 
the  head  of  the  restorers  of  learn- 
ing in  the  earlier  part  of  the   fifteenth 
century,  discovered  in  the  monastery  of 
St.   Gall,   among  dirt  and  rubbish,  in  a 
dungeon  scarcely  fit  for  condemned  crim- 
inals, as  he  describes  it,  an  entire  copy 
of  Quintilian,  and  part  of  Valerius  Flac- 
cus.     This  was  in  1414 ;  and  soon  after- 
ward he  rescued  the  poem  of  Silius  Ital- 
icus,  and  twelve  comedies  of  Plautus,  in 
addition  to   eight    that  were  previously 
known;    besides   Lucretius,    Columella, 
Tertullian,  Ammianus   Marcellinus,  and 
other  writers  of  inferior  note.f    A  bishop 
of  Lodi  brought  to  light  the  rhetorical 
treatises  of  Cicero.     Not  that  we  must 
suppose  these  books  to  have  been  univer- 
sally   unknown    before;    Quintilian,    at 
least,  is  quoted  by  English  writers  much 
earlier.     But  so   little   intercourse   pre- 
vailed among  different  countries,  and  the 
monks  had  so  little  acquaintance  with 
the  riches  of  their  conventual  libraries, 
that  an  author  might  pass  for  lost  in  Italy, 
who  was  familiar  to  a  few  learned  men 
in  other  parts  of  Europe.     To  the  name 
of  Poggio  we  may  add  a  number  of  oth- 
ers, distinguished  in  this  memorable  res- 
urrection of  ancient  literature,  and  united, 
not  always  indeed  by  friendship,  for  their 
bitter  animosities  disgrace  their  profes- 
sion, but  by  a  sort  of  common  sympathy 
in  the  cause  of  learning ;  Filelfo,  Lauren- 
tius   Valla,   Niccolo    Niccoli,  Ambrogio 
Traversari,   more    commonly    called   II 
Camaldolense,  and  Leonardo  Aretino. 
From  the  subversion  of  the  Western 


"   *  Tiraboschi,  p.  101. 

t  Idem,  t.  vi.,  p,  104 ;  and  Shepherd's  Life  of 
Poggio,  p.  106,  110.  Roscoe's  Lorenzo  de'  Med- 
ici, p.  38. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


545 


Greek  lan-  Empire,  or  at  least  from  the 
guage  un-  time  when  Rome  ceased  to  pay 
known  in  obedience  to  the  exarchs  of  Ra- 
esu  venna,  the  Greek  language  and 
literature  had  been  almost  entirely  for- 
gotten within  the  pale  of  the  Latin  church. 
A  very  few  exceptions  might  be  found, 
especially  in  the  earlier  period  of  the 
middle  ages,  while  the  Eastern  emperors 
retained  their  dominion  over  part  of 
Italy.*  Thus  Charlemagne  is  said  to 
have  established  a  school  for  Greek  at 
Osnaburg.f  John  Scotus  seems  to  have 
been  well  acquainted  with  the  language. 
And  Greek  characters  may  occasionally, 
though  very  seldom,  be  found  in  the  wri- 
tings of  learned  men ;  such  as  Lanfranc 
or  William  of  Malmsbury.J  It  is  said 
that  Roger  Bacon  understood  Greek ;  and 
his  eminent  contemporary,  Robert  Gros- 
tete,  bishop  of  Lincoln,  had  a  sufficient 


*  Schmidt,  Hist,  des  Allemands,  t.  ii.,  p.  374. 
Tiraboschi,  t.  iii.,  p.  124,  et  alibi.  Bede  extols 
Theodore,  primate  of  Canterbury,  and  Tobias,  bish- 
op of  Rochester,  for  their  knowledge  of  Greek. — 
Hist.  Eccles.,  c.  9  and  24.  But  the  former  of  these 
prelates,  if  not  the  latter,  was  a  native  of  Greece. 

t  Hist.  Litteraire  de  la  France,  t.  iv.,  p.  12. 

j  Greek  characters  are  found  in  a  charter  of  943, 
published  in  Martenne,  Thesaurus  Anecdot.,  t.  i., 
p.  74.  The  title  of  a  treatise,  ircpt  ffiweuv  uepurpu, 
and  the  word  deoroKos,  occur  in  William  of  Malms- 
bury,  and  one  or  two  others  in  Lanfranc's  Constitu- 
tions. It  is  said  that  a  Greek  psalter  was  written 
in  an  abbey  at  Tournay  about  1105. — Hist.  Litt.  de 
la  France,  t.  ix.,  p.  102.  This  was,  I  should  think, 
a  very  rare  instance  of  a  Greek  manuscript,  sacred 
or  profane,  copied  in  the  western  parts  of  Europe 
before  the  fifteenth  century.  But  a  Greek  psalter, 
written  in  Latin  characters  at  Milan  in  the  ninth 
century,  was  sold  some  years  ago  in  London.  John 
of  Salisbury  is  said  by  Crevier  to  have  known  a  lit- 
tle Greek,  and  he  several  times  uses  technical 
words  in  that  language.  Yet  he  could  not  have 
been  much  more  learned  than  his  neighbours  ; 
since  having  found  the  word  atria  in  St.  Ambrose,  he 
was  forced  to  ask  the  meaning  of  one  John  Sara- 
sin,  an  Englishman,  because,  says  he,  none  of  our 
masters  here  (at  Paris)  understand  Greek.  Paris, 
indeed,  Crevier  thinks,  could  not  furnish  any  Greek 
scholar  in  that  age  except  Abelard  and  Heloise, 
and  probably  neither  of  them  knew  much. — Hist, 
de  1'Univers.  de  Paris,  t.  i.,  p.  259. 

The  ecclesiastical  language,  it  maybe  observed, 
was  full  of  Greek  words  Latinized.  But  this  pro- 
cess had  taken  place  before  the  fifth  century ;  and 
most  of  them  will  be  found  in  the  Latin  dictiona- 
ries. A  Greek  word  was  now  and  then  borrowed, 
as  more  imposing  than  the  correspondent  Latin. 
Thus  the  English  and  other  kings  sometimes  called 
themselves  Basileus  instead  of  Rex. 

It  will  not  be  supposed  that  I  have  professed  to 
enumerate  all  the  persons  of  whose  acquaintance 
with  the  Greek  tongue  some  evidence  may  be 
found ;  nor  have  I  ever  directed  my  attention  to  the 
subject  with  that  view.  Doubtless  the  list  might 
be  more  than  doubled.  But,  if  ten  times  the  num- 
ber could  be  found,  we  should  still  be  entitled  to  say 
that  the  language  was  almost  unknown,  and  that 
it  could  have  had  no  influence  on  the  condition  of 
literature. 

M  m 


intimacy  with  it  to  write  animadversions 
upon  Suidas.  Since  Greek  was  spoken 
with  considerable  purity  by  the  noble 
and  well  educated  natives  of  Constanti- 
nople, we  may  wonder  that,  even  as  a 
living  language,  it  was  not  better  known 
by  the  western  nations,  and  especially  in 
so  neighbouring  a  nation  as  Italy.  Yet 
here  the  ignorance  was  perhaps  even 
more  complete  than  in  France  or  Eng- 
land. In  some  parts  indeed  of  Calabria, 
which  had  been  subject  to  the  eastern 
empire  till  near  the  year  1100,  the  liturgy 
was  still  performed  in  Greek  ;  and  a  con- 
siderable acquaintance  with  the  language 
was  of  course  preserved.  But  for  the 
scholars  of  Italy,  Boccaccio  positively 
asserts,  that  no  one  understood  so  much 
as  the  Greek  characters.*  Nor  is  there 
probably  a  single  line  quoted  from  any 
poet  in  that  language  from  the  sixth  to 
the  fourteenth  century. 

The  first  to  lead  the  way  in  restoring 
Grecian  learning  in  Europe  Itg  study  rc. 
were  the  same  men  who  had  vives  in  the 
revived  the  kindred  muses  of  f°urteenth 
Latium,  Petrarca  and  Boccac- 
cio. Barlaam,  a  Calabrian  by  birth,  during 
an  embassy  from  the  court  of  Constantino- 
ple in  1335,  was  persuaded  to  become  the 
preceptor  of  the  former,  with  whom  he 
read  the  works  of  Plato. f  Leontius  Pi- 
latus,  a  native  of  Thessalonica,  was  en- 
couraged some  years  afterward  by  Boc- 
caccio to  give  public  lectures  upon 
Homer  at  Florence. J  Whatever  might 
be  the  share  of  general  attention  that  he 
excited,  he  had  the  honour  of  instructing 
both  these  great  Italians  in  his  native 
language.  Neither  of  them  perhaps 
reached  an  advanced  degree  of  profi- 
ciency ;  but  they  bathed  their  lips  in  the 
fountain,  and  enjoyed  the  pride  of  being 
the  first  who  paid  the  homage  of  a  new 
posterity  to  the  father  of  poetry.  For 
some  time  little  fruit  apparently  resulted 
from  their  example ;  but  Italy  had  im- 
bibed the  desire  of  acquisitions  in  a 
new  sphere  of  knowledge,  which,  after 
some  interval,  she  was  abundantly  en- 
abled to  realize.  A  few  years  before 
the  termination  of  the  fourteenth  century, 

*  Nemo  est  qui  Grsecas  literas  norit ;  at  ego  in 
hoc  Latinitati  compatior,  quae  sic  omnino  Graeca  ab- 
jecit  studia,  ut  etiam  non  noscamus  characteres 
literaruin. — Genealogiae  Deorum,  apud  Hodium  de 
Graecis  Illustribus,  p.  3. 

t  M6m.  de  Pe"trarque,  t.  i.,  p.  407. 

i  Idem,  t.  i.,  p.  447 ;  t.  iii.,  p.  634.  Hody,  de 
Graecis  Illust,  p.  2.  Bpccace  speaks  modestly 
of  his  own  attainments  in  Greek ;  etsi  non  satis 
plene  perceperim,  percepi  tamen  quantum  potui ; 
nee  dubium,  si  permansisset  homo  ille  vagus  diu- 
tius  penes  nos,  quin  plenius  percepisBem,  id.,  p.  4. 


546 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


Emanuel  Chrysoloras,  whom  the  Empe- 
ror John  Palaeologus  had  previously  sent 
into  Italy,  and  even  as  far  as  England, 
upon  one  of  those  unavailing  embassies 
by  which  the  Byzantine  court  strove  to 
obtain  sympathy  and  succour  from  Eu- 
rope, returned  to  Florence  as  a  public 
teacher  of  Grecian  literature.*  His  school 
was  afterward  removed  successively  to 
Pavia,  Venice,  and  Rome;  and  during 
nearly  twenty  years  that  he  taught  in 
Italy,  most  of  those  eminent  scholars 
whom  I  have  already  named,  and  who 
distinguish  the  first  half  of  that  century, 
derived  from  his  instruction  their  knowl- 
edge of  the  Greek  tongue.  Some,  not 
content  with  being  the  disciples  of  Chry- 
soloras, betook  themselves  to  the  source 
of  that  literature  at  Constantinople  ;  and 
returned  to  Italy  not  only  with  a  more 
accurate  insight  into  the  Greek  idiom 
than  they  could  have  attained  at  home, 
but  with  copious  treasures  of  manuscripts, 
few,  if  any,  of  which  probably  existed 
previously  in  Italy,  where  none  had  abil- 
ity to  read  or  value  them;  so  that  the 
principal  authors  of  Grecian  antiquity 
may  be  considered  as  brought  to  light  by 
these  inquiries,  the  most  celebrated  of 
whom  are  Guarino  of  Verona,  Aurispa, 
and  Filelfo.  The  second  of  these  brought 
home  to  Venice  in  1423  not  less  than  two 
hundred  and  thirty-eight  volumes. f 

•  The  fall  of  that  eastern  empire,  which 
state  of  had  so  long  outlived  all  other 
learning  in  pretensions  to  respect  that  it 
ece>  scarcely  retained  that  founded 
upon  its  antiquity,  seems  to  have  been 
providentially  delayed  till  Italy  was  ripe 
to  nourish  the  scattered  seeds  of  litera- 
ture that  would  have  perished  a  few  ages 
earlier  in  the  common  catastrophe.  From 
the  commencement  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, even  the  national  pride  of  Greece 
could  not  blind  her  to  the  signs  of  ap- 
proaching ruin.  It  was  no  longer  possi- 
ble to  inspire  the  European  republic,  dis- 
tracted by  wars  and  restrained  by  calcu- 
lating policy,  with  the  generous  fanati- 
cism of  the  crusades ;  and  at  the  council 
of  Florence,  in  1439,  the  court  and  church 
of  Constantinople  had  the  mortification 
of  sacrificing  their  long-cherished  faith, 
without  experiencing  any  sensible  return 
of  protection  or  security.  The  learned 
Greeks  were  perhaps  the  first  to  antici- 
pate, and  certainly  not  the  last  to  avoid, 


*  Hody  places  the  commencement  of  Chrysolo- 
ras's  teaching  as  early  as  1391,  p.  3.  But  Tirabos- 
chi,  whose  research  was  more  precise,  fixes  it  at 
the  end  of  1396  or  beginning  of  1397,  t.  vii.,  p.  126. 

t  Tiraboschi,  t.  vi,  p.  102.  Roscoe's  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  vol.  i.,  p.  43. 


their  country's  destruction.  The  council 
of  Florence  brought  many  of  them  into 
Italian  connexions,  and  held  out  at  least 
a  temporary  accommodation  of  their  con- 
flicting opinions.  Though  the  Roman 
pontiffs  did  nothing,  and  probably  could 
have  done  nothing  effectual,  for  the  em- 
pire of  Constantinople,  they  were  very 
ready  to  protect  and  reward  the  learning 
of  individuals.  To  Eugenius  IV.,  to 
Nicolas  V.,  to  Pius  II.,  and  some  other 
popes  of  this  age,  the  Greek  exiles  were 
indebted  for  a  patronage  which  they  re- 
paid by  splendid  services  in  the  restora- 
tion of  their  native  literature  throughout 
Italy.  Bessarion,  a  disputant  on  the 
Greek  side  in  the  council  of  Florence, 
was  well  content  to  renounce  the  doc- 
trine of  single  procession  for  a  cardinal's 
hat ;  a  dignity  which  he  deserved  for  his 
learning,  if  not  for  his  pliancy.  Theo- 
dore Gaza,  George  of  Trebizond,  and  Ge- 
mistus  Pletho,  might  equal  Bessarion  in 
merit,  though  not  in  honours.  They  all, 
however,  experienced  the  patronage  of 
those  admirable  protectors  of  letters,  Nic- 
olas V.,  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  or  Alfonso, 
king  of  Naples.  These  men  emigrated 
before  the  final  destruction  of  the  Greek 
empire  ;  Lascaris  and  Musurus,  whose 
arrival  in  Italy  was  posterior  to  that 
event,  may  be  deemed  perhaps  still  more 
conspicuous ;  but  as  the  study  of  the 
Greek  language  was  already  restored,  it 
is  unnecessary  to  pursue  the  subject  any 
farther. 

The  Greeks  had  preserved,  through 
the  course  of  the  middle  ages,  their  share 
of  ancient  learning  with  more  fidelity 
and  attention  than  was  shown  in  the 
west  of  Europe.  Genius  indeed,  or  any 
original  excellence,  could  not  well  exist 
along  with  their  cowardly  despotism  and 
their  contemptible  theology,  more  cor- 
rupted by  frivolous  subtleties  than  that 
of  the  Latin  church.  The  spirit  of  per- 
secution, naturally  allied  to  despotism 
and  bigotry,  had  nearly,  during  one  period, 
extinguished  the  lamp,  or  at  least  reduced 
the  Greeks  to  a  level  with  the  most  igno- 
rant nations  of  the  west.  In  the  age  of 
Justinian,  who  expelled  the  last  Platonic 
philosophers,  learning  began  rapidly  to 
decline ;  in  that  of  Heraclius,  it  had 
reached  a  much  lower  point  of  degrada- 
tion; and  for  two  centuries,  especially 
while  the  worshippers  of  images  were 
persecuted  with  unrelenting  intolerance, 
there  is  almost  a  blank  in  the  annals  of 
Grecian  literature.*  But  about  the  mid- 


*  The  authors  most  conversant  with  Byzantine 
learning  agree  in  this.  Nevertheless,  there  is  one 
manifest  difference  between  the  Greek  writers  of 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


die  of  the  ninth  century  it  revived  pretty 
suddenly,  and  with  considerable  success.* 
Though,  as  I  have  observed,  we  find  in 
very  few  instances  any  original  talent, 
yet  it  was  hardly  less  important  to  have 
had  compilers  of  such  erudition  as  Pho- 
tius,  Suidas,  Eustathius,  and  Tzetzes. 
With  these  certainly  the  Latins  of  the 
middle  ages  could  not  place  any  names 
in  comparison.  They  possessed,  to  an 
extent  which  we  cannot  precisely  appre- 
ciate, many  of  those  poets,  historians, 
and  orators  of  ancient  Greece,  whose 
loss  we  have  long  regretted,  and  must 
continue  to  deem  irretrievable.  Great 
havoc,  however,  was  made  in  the  libraries 
of  Constantinople  at  its  capture  by  the 
Latins ;  an  epoch  from  which  a  rapid  de- 
cline is  to  be  traced  in  the  literature  of 
the  eastern  empire.  Solecisms  and  bar- 
barous terms,  which  sometimes  occur  in 
the  old  Byzantine  writers,  are  said  to  de- 
form the  style  of  the  fourteenth  and  fif- 
teenth centuries.f  The  Turkish  ravages 


547 


the  worst  period,  such  as  the  eighth  century,  and 
those  who  correspond  to  them  in  the  west.  Syn- 
cellus,  for  example,  is  of  great  use  in  chronology, 
because  he  was  acquainted  with  many  ancient  his- 
tories now  no  more.  But  Bede  possessed  nothing 
which  we  have  lost  ;  and  his  compilations  are  con- 
sequently altogether  unprofitable.  The  eighth  cen- 
tury, the  saeculum  iconoclasticum  of  Cave,  low  as 

I    it  was  in  all  polite  literature,  produced  one  man, 
St.  John  Damascenus,  who  has  been  deemed  the 
founder  of  scholastic  theology,  and  who  at  least  set 
i    the  example  of  that  style  of  reasoning  in  the  East. 
This  person,  and  Michael  Psellus,  a  philosopher 
I     of  the  eleventh  century,  are  the  only  considerable 
I     men  as  original  writers  in  the  annals  of  Byzantine 
literature. 

*  The  honour  of  restoring  ancient  or  heathen  lit- 
erature is  due  to  the  Cesar  Bardas,  uncle  and  min- 
ister of  Michael  II.  Cedrenus  speaks  of  it  in  the 

following  terms  :  ETTeneXrj&r]  6e  xai  rrjg  c|w  ao<pias  (f/v 
yap  £K  troAAou  ^povov  irapappvEiaa,  teat  irpos  TO  firj^Ev 
6Xwj  ^wpjycraffu  r»j  rwv  Kparovvrbtv  apyta  Kai  a/jiaOia), 
itarpiBas  f'/caarjj  rwv  tiriarfipuv  a0opi<raff,  rwv  I*EV  aXXoov 


aura  TO  I3aai\£ia  EV  TTJ  Mayvaupa"  *cai  oiiru  si-  EKEIVOV 
avijdaaKEiv  at  STrtor^ai  rjp^avTO,  K.  r.  X.  —  Hist.  By- 

zant.  Script.  (Lutet.),  t.  x.,  p.  547.  Bardas  found 
out  and  promoted  Photius,  afterward  patriarch  of 
Constantinople,  and  equally  famous  in  the  annals 
of  the  church  and  of  learning.  Gibbon  passes  per- 
haps too  rapidly  over  the  Byzantine  literature, 
chap.  53.  In  this,  as  in  many  other  places,  the 
masterly  boldness  and  precision  of  his  outline, 
which  astonish  those  who  have  trodden  parts  of 
the  same  field,  are  apt  to  escape  an  uninformed 
reader. 

t  Du  Cange,  Prsefatio  ad  Glossar.  Graecitatis 
Medii  JEvi.  Anna  Comnena  quotes  some  popular 
lines,  which  seem  to  be  the  earliest  specimen  ex- 
tant of  the  Romaic  dialect,  or  something  approach- 
ing it,  as  they  observe  no  grammatical  inflection, 
and  bear  about  the  same  resemblance  to  ancient 
Greek  that  the  worst  law  charters  of  the  ninth  and 
tenth  centuries  do  to  pure  Latin.  In  fact,  the 
Greek  language  seems  to  have  declined  much  in 
the  same  manner  as  the  Latin  did,  and  almost  at 
a*  early  a  period.  In  the  sixth  century,  Damas- 
Mm  2 


and  destruction  of  monasteries  ensued; 
and  in  the  cheerless  intervals  of  immedi- 
ate terror,  there  was  no  longer  any  en- 
couragement to  preserve  the  monuments 
of  an  expiring  language,  and  of  a  name 
that  was  to  lose  its  place  among  nations.* 
That  ardour  for  the  restoration  of  clas- 
sical literature  which  animated  Italy  in 


cius,  a  Platonic  philosopher,  mentions  the  old  lan- 
guage as  distinct  from  that  which  was  vernacular, 
Trjv  ap%aiav  yXwrrav  vitEp  rrjv  iSidiTTjv  n£\ETovffi. — Du 
Cange,  ibid.,  p.  11.  It  is  well  known  that  the  pop- 
ular, or  political  verses  of  Tzetzes,  a  writer  of  the 
twelfth  century,  are  accentual ;  that  is,  are  to  be 
read,  as  the  modern  Greeks  do,  by  treating  every 
acute  or  circumflex  syllable  as  long,  without  re- 
gard to  its  original  quantity.  This  innovation, 
which  must  have  produced  still  greater  confusion 
of  metrical  rules  than  it  did  in  Latin,  is  much  older 
than  the  age  of  Tzetzes  ;  if,  at  least,  the  editor  of 
some  notes  subjoined  to  Meursius's  edition  of  the 
Themata  of  Constantino  Pprphyrog'enitus  (Lug- 
duni,  1617)  is  right  in  ascribing  certain  political 
verses  to  that  emperor,  who  died  in  959.  These 
verses  are  regular  accentual  trochaics.  But  I  be- 
lieve they  have  since  been  given  to  Constantine 
Manasses,  a  writer  of  the  eleventh  century. 

According  to  the  opinion  of  a  modern  traveller 
(Hobhouse's  Travels  in  Albania,  letter  33),  the 
chief  corruptions  which  distinguish  the  Romaic 
from  its  parent  stock,  especially  the  auxiliary  verbs, 
are  not  older  than  the  capture  of  Constantinople  by 
Mahomet  II.  But  it  seems  difficult  to  obtain  any 
satisfactory  proof  of  this  ;  and  the  auxiliary  verb  is 
so  natural  and  convenient,  that  the  ancient  Greeks 
may  probably,  in  some  of  their  local  idioms,  have 
fallen  into  the  use  of  it;  as  Mr.  H.  admits  they  did 
with  respect  to  the  future  auxiliary  SeAu.  See 
some  instances  of  this  in  Lesbonax  rcpi  a^/xarwv, 
ad  finern  Ammonii,  cura  Valckenaer. 

*  Photius  (I  write  on  the  authority  of  M.  Heeren) 
quotes  Theopompus,  Arrian's  history  of  Alexan- 
der's Successors,  and  of  Parthia,  Ctesias,  Agathar- 
cides,  the  whole  of  Diodorus  Siculus,  Polybius, 
and  Dionysius  of  Halicarnassus,  twenty  lost  ora- 
tions of  Demosthenes,  almost  two  hundred  of  Lys- 
ias,  sixty-four  of  Isaeus,  about  fifty  of  Hyperides. 
Heeren  ascribes  the  loss  of  these  works  altogether 
to  the  Latin  capture  of  Constantinople,  no  writer 
subsequent  to  that  time  having  quoted  them. — 
Essai  sur  les  Croisades,  p.  413.  It  is  difficult,  how- 
ever, not  to  suppose  that  some  part  of  the  destruc» 
tion  was  left  for  the  Ottomans  to  perform.  ^Eneas 
Sylvius  bemoans,  in  his  speech  before  the  diet  of 
Frankfort,  the  vast  looses  of  literature  by  the  re- 
cent subversion  of  the  Greek  empire.  Quid  de  li- 
bris  dicam,  qui  illic  erant  innumerabiles,  nondum 
Latinis  cogniti !.....  Nunc  ergo,  et  Homero  et 
Pindaro  et  Menandro  et  omnibus  illustrioribus  poe- 
tis,  secunda  mors  erit.  But  nothing  can  be  infer- 
red from  this  declamation,  except,  perhaps,  that  he 
did  not  know  whether  Menander  still  existed  or 
not. — JEn.  Syl.,  Opera,  p.  715;  also  p.  881.  Har- 
ris's Philological  Inquiries,  part  iii.,  c.  4.  It  is  a 
remarkable  proof,  however,  of  the  turn  which  Eu- 
rope, and  especially  Italy,  was  taking,  that  a  pope's 
legate  should,  on  a  solemn  occasion,  descant  so  se- 
riously on  the  injury  sustained  by  profane  literature. 
A  useful  summary  of  the  lower  Greek  literature, 
taken  chiefly  from  the  Bibliotheca  Gr»?ca  of  Fabri- 
cius,  will  be  found  in  Berington's  Literary  History 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  Appendix  I. ;  and  one  rather 
more  copious  in  Schoell,  Abreg£  de  la  Literature 
Grecque  (Paris,  1812). 


548 


EUROPE  DURING  THE  MIDDLE  AGES. 


[CHAP.  IX. 


Literature  the  first  part  of  the  fifteenth 
fmproved  century,  was  by  no  means  corn- 
beyond  rnon  to  the  rest  of  Europe.  Nei- 
Itlay-  ther  England,  nor  France,  nor 
Germany  seemed  aware  of  the  approach 
ing  change.  We  are  told  that  learn- 
ing, by  which  I  believe  is  only  meant 
the  scholastic  ontology,  had  begun  to 
decline  at  Oxford  from  the  time  of 
Edward  III.*  And  the  fifteenth  centu- 
ry, from  whatever  cause,  is  particularly 
barren  of  writers  in  the  Latin  language. 
The  study  of  Greek  was  only  introduced 
by  Grocyn  and  Linacer  under  Henry  VII., 
and  met  with  violent  opposition  in  the 
university  of  Oxford,  where  the  unlearned 
party  styled  themselves  Trojans,  as  a 
pretext  for  abusing  and  insulting  the 
scholars. f  Nor  did  any  classical  work 
proceed  from  the  respectable  press  of 
Caxton.  France,  at  the  beginning  of  the 
fifteenth  age,  had  several  eminent  theo- 
logians; but  the  reigns  of  Charles  VII. 
and  Louis  XI.  contributed  far  more  to 
her  political  than  her  literary  renown. 
A  Greek  professor  was  first  appointed  at 
Paris  in  1458,  before  which  time  the  lan- 
guage had  not  been  publicly  taught,  and 
was  little  understood. J  Much  less  had 
Germany  thrown  off  her  ancient  rude- 
ness. JEneas  Sylvius  indeed,  a  deliber- 
ate flatterer,  extols  every  circumstance 
in  the  social  state  of  that  country ;  but 
Campano,  the  papal  legate  at  Ratisbon  in 
1471,  exclaims  against  the  barbarism  of 
a  nation  where  very  few  possessed  any 
learning,  none  any  elegance.^  Yet  the 
progress  of  intellectual  cultivation,  at 
least  in  the  two  former  countries,  was 
uniform,  though  silent ;  libraries  became 
more  numerous,  and  books,  after  the 
happy  invention  of  paper,  though  still 
very  scarce,  might  be  copied  at  less  ex- 
pense. Many  colleges-  were  founded  in 
the  English  as  well  as  foreign  universi- 
ties during  the  fourteenth  and  fifteenth 
centuries.  Nor  can  I  pass  over  institu- 

*  Wood's  Antiquities  of  Oxford,  vol.  i.,  p.  537. 

t  Roper's  Vita  Mori,  ed.  Hearne,  p.  75. 

J  Crevier,  t.  iv.,  p.  243  ;  see  too  p.  46. 

$  Incredibilis  ingeniorum  barbaries  est ;  rarissimi 
literas  norunt,  nulli  elegantiam.— Papiensis  Epis- 
tolae.  p.  377.  Campano's  notion  of  elegance  was 
ridiculous  enough.  Nobody  ever  carried  farther 
the  pedantic  affectation  of  avoiding  modern  terms 
in  his  latinity.  Thus,  in  the  life  of  Braccio  da  Mon- 
tone,  he  renders  his  meaning  almost  unintelligible 
by  excess  of  classical  purity.  Braccio  boasts  se 
nunquam  deorum  immortalium  templa  violasse. 
Troops  committing  outrages  in  a  city  are  accused 
virgines  vestales  incestasse.  In  the  terms  of 
treaties,  he  employs  the  old  Roman  forms ;  exerci- 
tum  trajicito— oppida  pontificis  sunto,  &c.  And 
with  a  most  absurd  pedantry,  the  ecclesiastical 
state  is  called  Romanum  imperium. — Campani 
Vita  Braccii,  in  Muratori,  Script.  Rer.  Ital.,  t.  xix. 


tions  that  have  so  eminently  contributed 
to  the  literary  reputation  of  this  country, 
and  that  still  continue  to  exercise  so  con- 
spicuous an  influence  over  her  taste  and 
knowledge,  as  the  two  great  schools  of 
grammatical  learning,  Winchester  and 
Eton;  the  one  founded  by  William  of 
Wykeham,  bishop  of  Winchester,  in  1373 ; 
the  other,  in  1432,  by  King  Henry  the 
Sixth.* 

But  while  the  learned  of  Italy  were  ea- 
gerly exploring  their  recent  ac-  invention 
quisitions  of  manuscripts,  deci-  of  printing 
phered  with  difficulty,  and  slowly  circula- 
ted from  hand  to  hand,  a  few  obscure  Ger- 
mans had  gradually  perfected  the  most  im- 
portant discovery  recorded  in  the  annals 
of  mankind.  The  invention  of  printing,  so 
far  from  being  the  result  of  philosophical 
sagacity,  does  not  appear  to  have  been 
suggested  by  any  regard  to  the  higher 
branches  of  literature,  or  to  bear  any 
other  relation  than  that  of  coincidence  to 
their  revival  in  Italy.  The  question,  why 
it  was  struck  out  at  that  particular  time, 
must  be  referred  to  that  disposition  of 
unknown  causes  which  we  call  accident. 
Two  or  three  centuries  earlier,  we  cannot 
but  acknowledge  the  discovery  would 
have  been  almost  equally  acceptable. 
But  the  invention  of  paper  seems  to  have 
naturally  preceded  those  of  engraving 
and  printing.  It  is  generally  agreed, 
that  plavina^trarHs^  which  have  been 
traCea  far  back  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
gave  the  first  notion  of  taking  off  impres- 
sions from  engraved  figures  upon  wood. 
The  second  stage,  or  rather  second  appli- 
cation of  this  art,  was  the  representation 
of  saints  and  other  religious  devices,  sev- 
eral instances  of  which  are  still  extant. 
Some  of  these  are  accompanied  with  an 
entire  page  of  illustrative  text,  cut  into 
the  same  wooden  block.  This  process 
is  indeed  far  removed  from  the  invention 
that  has  given  immortality  to  the  names 
of  Fust,  Schoeffer,  and  Guttenburg,  yet  it 
probably  led  to  the  consideration  of 
means  whereby  it  might  be  rendered  less 
operose  and  inconvenient.  Whether 
moveable  wooden  characters  were  ever 
employed  in  any  entire  work  is  very  ques- 
tionable ;  the  opinion  that  referred  their 
use  to  Laurence  Coster  of  Haarlem  not 


«•  A  letter  from  Master  William  Paston  at  Eton 
(Paston  Letters,  vol.  i.,  p.  299)  proves  that  Latin 
versification  was  taught  there  as  early  as  the  be- 
ginning of  Edward  I  V.'s  reign.  It  is  true  that  the 
specimen  he  rather  proudly  exhibits  does  not  much 
differ  from  what  we  denominate  nonsense  verses. 
But  a  more  material  observation  is,  that  the  sons 
of  country  gentlemen  living  at  a  considerable  dis- 
tance were  already  sent  to  public  schools  for  gram* 
matical  education. 


PART  II.] 


STATE  OF  SOCIETY. 


549 


having  stood  the  test  of  more  accurate 
investigation.  They  appear,  however, 
in  the  capital  letters  of  some  early  print 
ed  books.  But  no  expedient  of  this  kind 
could  have  fulfilled  the  great  purposes 
of  this  invention,  until  it  was  perfected 
by  founding  metal  types  in  a  matrix  or 
mould,  the  essential  characteristic  of 
printing,  as  distinguished  from  other  arts 
that  bear  some  analogy  to  it. 

The  first  book  that  issued  from  the 
presses  of  Fust  and  his  associates  at 
Mentz  was  an  edition  of  the  Vulgate, 
commonly  called  the  Mazarine  Bible,  a 
copy  having  been  discovered  in  the  li- 
brary that  owes  its  name  to  Cardinal 
Mazarin  at  Paris.  This  is  supposed  to 
have  been  printed  between  the  years 
1450  and  1455.*  In  1457  an  edition  of 
the  Psalter  appeared,  and  in  T;his  the  in- 
vention was  announced  to  the  world  in  a 
boasting  colophon,  though  certainly  not 
unreasonably  bold.f  Another  edition  of 
the  Psalter,  one  of  an  ecclesiastical  book, 
Durand's  account  of  liturgical  offices,  one 
of  the  Constitutions  of  Pope  Clement  V., 
and  one  of  a  popular  treatise  on  general 
science,  called  the  Catholicon,  fill  up  the 
interval  till  1462,  when  the  second  Mentz 
Bible  proceeded  from  the  same  printers.  J 
This,  in  the  opinion  of  some,  is  the  ear- 
liest book  in  which  cast  types  were  em- 
ployed ;  those  of  the  Mazarine  Bible  hav- 
ing been  cut  with  the  hand.  But  this  is 
a  controverted  point.  In  1465,  Fust  and 
Scho2ffer  published  an  edition  of  Cicero's 
Offices,  the  first  tribute  of  the  new  art  to 
polite  literature.  Two  pupils  of  their 
school,  Sweynheim  and  Pannartz,  mi- 
grated the  same  year  into  Italy,  and 
printed  Donatus's  grammar,  and  the  works 
of  Lactantius,  at  the  monastery  of  Subi- 
aco  in  the  neighbourhood  of  Rome.§ 


*  De  Bure,  t.  i.,  p.  30.  Several  copies  of  this 
book  have  come  to  light  since  its  discovery. 

t  Idem,  t.  i.,  p.  71. 

i  M6m.  de  1'Acad.  des  Inscriptions,  t.  xiv.,  p. 
265.  Another  edition  of  the  Bible  is  supposed  to 
have  been  printed  by  Pfister  at  Bamberg  in  1459. 

$  Tiraboschi,  t.  vi.,  p.  140. 


Venice  had  the  honour  of  extending  her 
patronage  to  John  of  Spira,  the  first  who 
applied  the  art  on  an  extensive  scale  to 
the  publication  of  classical  writers.* 
Several  Latin  authors  came  forth  from 
his  press  in  1470;  and  during  the  next 
ten  years,  a  multitude  of  editions  were 
published  in  various  parts  of  Italy. 
Though,  as  we  may  judge  from  their 
present  scarcity,  these  editions  were  by 
no  means  numerous  in  respect  of  impres- 
sions, yet,  contrasted  with  the  dilatory 
process  of  copying  manuscripts,  they 
were  like  a  new  mechanical  power  in 
machinery,  and  gave  a  wonderfully  ac- 
ce^erated  impulse  to  the  intellectual  cul- 
tivation of  mankind.  From  the  era  of 
these  first  editions  proceeding  from  the 
Spiras,  Zarot,  Janson,  or  Sweynheim, 
and  Pannartz,  literature  must  be  deemed 
to  have  altogether  revived  in  Italy.  The 
sun  was  now  fully  above  the  horizon, 
though  countries  less  fortunately  circum- 
stanced did  not  immediately  catch  his 
beams ;  and  the  restoration  of  ancient 
learning  in  France  and  England  cannot 
be  considered  as  by  any  means  effectual 
even  at  the  expiration  of  the  fifteenth 
century.  At  this  point,  however,  I  close 
the  present  chapter.  The  last  twenty 
years  of  the  middle  ages,  according  to 
the  date  which  I  have  fixed  for  their  ter- 
mination in  treating  of  political  history, 
might  well  invite  me  by  their  brilliancy 
to  dwell  upon  that  golden  morning  of 
Italian  literature.  But,  in  the  history  of 
letters,  they  rather  appertain  to  the  mod- 
ern than  the  middle  period ;  nor  would  it 
become  me  to  trespass  upon  the  ex- 
hausted patience  of  my  readers  by  re- 
peating what  has  been  so  often  and  so  re- 
cently told,  the  story  of  art  and  learning 
that  has  employed  the  comprehensive  re- 
search of  a  Tiraboschi,  a  Ginguene,  and 
a  Roscoe. 


*  Sanuto  mentions  an  order  ,of  the  senate  in 
1469,  that  John  of  Spira  should  p*mt  the  epistles 
of  Tully  and  Pliny  for  five  years,  arM  that  no  one 
else  should  do  so. — Script.  Rerum  Italic.,  t.  xxii., 
p.  1189. 


INDEX. 


A. 

ABBASSIDKS,  khaliffs  of  the  dynasty  of,  253;  de- 
cline of  their  power,  ib. 

Abelard  (Peter),  biographical  notice  of,  523. 

Acre,  commercial  prosperity  of,  479,  and  note. 

Acts  of  parliament,  an  ill-digested  mass  of  legisla- 
tive enactments,  348,  349  ;  consent  of  both  houses 
of  parliament  necessary  to  pass  them,  376. 

Adrian  IV.  (pope),  insolent  conduct  of,  286;  the 
only  Englishman  that  ever  sat  in  the  papal  chair, 
ib. 

Adventurers  (military),  companies  of,  formed,  180; 
and  organized  by  Guarnieri,  ib. ;  ravages  of  the 
great  company,  ib. ;  account  of  the  company  of 
St.  George,  182. 

Advocates  of  the  church,  their  office,  88 ;  to  con- 
vents, their  powers  and  functions,  ib. 

Agnes  Sorel  (mistress  of  Charles  VII.),  not  such 
probably  at  the  siege  of  Orleans,  54,  note. 

Agriculture,  wretched  state  of,  in  the  dark  ages, 
471  ;  particularly  in  England,  495,  496  ;  in  some 
degree,  however,  progressive,  494,  495  ;  its  con- 
dition in  France  and  Italy,  496,  497. 

Aids  (feudal),  in  what  cases  due,  80;  when  due 
and  how  levied  in  England,  under  the  Norman 
kings,  338,  339 ;  not  to  be  imposed  without  the 
consent  of  parliament,  342. 

Albans  (St.),  when  first  represented  in  parliament, 
367,  368. 

Albert,  archduke  of  Austria,  oppresses  the  Swiss, 
246 ;  his  death,  ib. 

Albert  II.  (emperor  of  Germany),  reign  of,  237. 

Albigeois,  crusade  against,  29  ;  their  tenets,  504, 
505,  and  notes. 

Alfonso  of  Aragon,  adopted  by  Joanna  II.,  queen  of 
Naples,  189  ;  ascends  the  throne,  190;  forms  an 
alliance  with  Milan,  ib. ;  joins  the  quadruple 
league  of  1455,  191  ;  his  death  and  character,  ib. 

Alfred  the  Great,  extent  of  his  dominions,  319 ; 
was  not  the  inventor  of  trial  by  jury,  325—327  ; 
nor  of  the  law  of  frankpledge,  327,  328. 

Alice  Ferrers  (mistress  of  Edward  III.),  parliament- 
ary proceedings  against,  380 ;  repealed,  ib. ;  again 
impeached,  381. 

Alienation  of  lands,  fines  on,  78,  79. 

Alienations  in  mortmain,  restrained  in  various  parts 
of  Europe,  301. 

Aliens,  liable  for  each  other's  debts,  483. 

Allodial  lands,  nature  of,  65 ;  when  changed  into 
feudal  tenures,  72. 

Alvaro  de  Luna,  power  and  fall  of,  205. 

Amalfi  (republic  of),  notice  of,  479;  the  mariner's 
compass  not  invented  there,  481  ;  the  Pandects, 
whether  discovered  there,  520. 

Anglo-Norman  government  of  England,  tyranny  of, 
337 ;  its  exactions,  338  ;  general  taxes,  ib. ;  rights 
of  legislation,  339  ;  laws  and  charters  of  the  An- 
glo-Norman kings,  340;  state  of  the  constitution 
under  Henry  III.,  342;  courts  of  justice,  315 — 
347. 

Anglo-Saxons,  historical  sketch  of,  319,  320  ;  influ- 
ence of  provincial  governors,  321 ;  distribution 


of  the  people  into  thanes  and  ceorls,  ib. ;  their 
wittenagemot,  322,  323  ;  judicial  power,  323 ;  di- 
vision into  counties,  hundreds,  and  tithings,  ib. ; 
their  county  court,  and  suits  therein,  324,  325  ; 
trial  by  jury,  325 ;  law  of  frankpledge,  327  ; 
whether  the  system  of  feudal  tenures  was  known 
to  the  Anglo-Saxons,  329—332. 

Andrew  (king  of  Naples),  murder  of,  187. 

Anjou.  See  Charles  (count  of  Anjou).  Anne 
(dutchess  of  Bntany)  married  by  Charles  VIII. 
of  France,  63. 

Antrustions,  leudes,  or  fideles,  of  the  Frank  empire, 
rank  and  dignity  of,  68  ;  were  considered  as  no- 
ble, 70. 

Appanages,  nature  of,  57. 

Appeals  for  denial  of  justice  in  France,  account  of, 
110 ;  the  true  date  of,  ib.,  note. 

Appeals  to  the  Roman  see,  when  established,  271, 
272. 

Arabia,  state  of,  at  the  appearance  of  Mahomet,  249. 

Aragon  (kingdom  of),  when  founded,  198  ;  its  pop- 
ulation, 219,  note;  its  constitution,  218;  origi- 
nally a  sort  of  regal  aristocracy,  ib. ;  privileges 
of  the  ricos  hombres  or  barons,  ib. ;  of  the  lower 
nobility,  ib. ;  of  the  burgesses  and  peasantry,  ib. ; 
liberties  of  the  Aragonese  kingdom,  ib. ;  general 
privilege  of  1283,  219;  privilege  of  union,  ib. ; 
when  abolished,  229  ;  office  of  justiciary,  when 
established,  ib. ;  office  and  power  of  the  justicia- 
ry, 220,  221,  223;  rights  of  legislation  and  taxa- 
tion, ib. ;  cortes  of  Aragon,  224;  popular  repre- 
sentation more  ancient  in  Aragon  than  in  any 
other  monarchy,  ib.,  note;  police,  225;  union  of 
this  kingdom  with  Castile,  ib. 

Arbitration,  determination  of  suits  by,  prevalent  in 
the  church,  265,  266. 

Archenfeld  (manor  of),  private  feuds,  allowed  in  by 
custom,  352,  note. 

Archers  (English),  superiority  of,  41,  42  ;  their  pay, 
52 ;  were  employed  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
183. 

Architecture  (civil),  state  of,  in  England,  488 — 490 ; 
in  France,  490  ;  in  Italy,  ib. 

Architecture  (ecclesiastical),  state  of,  492—494. 

Ardoin,  marquis  of  Ivrea,  elected  king  of  Italy,  127. 

Aristotle,  writings  of,  first  known  in  Europe 
through  the  Spanish  Arabs,  526,  note ;  his  wri- 
tings ill  understood  and  worse  translated  by  the 
schoolmen,  527 ;  irreligion  the  consequence  of 
the  unbounded  admiration  of  his  writings,  528, 
and  note. 

Armagnacs,  faction  of,  49 ;  their  proceedings,  49,  50. 

Armorial  bearings,  origin  of,  85,  86. 

Armorican  republic,  existence  of,  questionable,  17, 
and  notes. 

Arms  (defensive),  of  the  fifteenth  century,  182, 183. 

Army  (English),  pay  of,  in  the  fourteenth  century, 
52,  122,  note, 

Army  (French). — A  standing  army  first  established 
by  Charles  VII.,  122,  123. 

Asia,  invasion  of,  by  the  Karismians  and  Moguls, 

Assemblies.     See  Legislative  Assemblies. 


552 


INDEX. 


Assize,  justices  of,  when  instituted,  346;  their 

functions  and  powers,  346,  347. 
Augustine  (St.),  specimen  of  the  barbarous  poetry 

of,  457,  note. 

Aulic  council,  powers  and  jurisdiction  of.  242. 
Auspicius  (bi.shop  of  Toul),  specimen  of  the  Latin 

poetry  of,  458,  note. 

Auxiliary  verb  (active),  probable  cause  of,  456, 457. 
Avignon,  Roman  see  removed  to,  304 ;  rapacity  of 

the  Avignon  popes,  306,  307. 
Azincourt,  battle  of,  51,  and  note. 

B. 

Bacon  (Roger),  singular  resemblance  between  him 
and  Lord  Bacon,  529,  note  ;  specimen  of  his  phi- 
losophical spirit,  ib. 

Baltic  trade,  state  of,  477 ;  origin  and  progress  of 
the  Hanseatic  league,  477,  478. 

Banking,  origin  of,  484 ;  account  of  various  Italian 
banks,  485. 

Bagdad,  khalifs  of,  account  of,  252,  253. 

Barbarians,  inroads  of,  one  cause  of  the  decline  of 
literature  in  the  latter  periods  of  the  Roman  em- 
pire, 453,  454. 

Bardas  (Cesar),  efforts  of,  to  revive  classical  liter- 
ature in  Greece  547,  note. 

Barnstaple  (borough  of),  when  first  represented  in 
parliament,  368,  369. 

Baronies  (English),  inquiry  into  the  nature  of,  357 ; 
theory  of  Selden,  that  tenants  in  chief  by  knight- 
service  were  parliamentary  barons  by  reason  of 
their  tenure,  ib. ;  theory  of  Madox,  that  they  were 
distinct,  ib. ;  observations  on  both,  357,  358 ; 
whether  mere  tenants  in  chief  attended  parlia- 
ment under  Henry  III.,  358,  359. 

Barons  (Aragonese),  privileges  of,  218. 

Barons  of  France,  right  of  private  war  exercised 
by  them,  94 ;  legislative  assemblies  occasionally 
held  by  them,  99 ;  account  of  their  courts  of 
justice,  108, 109 ;  trial  by  combat  allowed  in  cer- 
tain cases,  109,  110. 

Barrister,  moderate  fees  of,  in  the  fifteenth  centu- 
ry, 500. 

Basle,  proceedings  of  the  council  of,  311. 

Bedford  (duke  of),  regent  of  France  during  the  mi- 
nority of  Henry  VI.,  52 ;  his  character,  ib. ;  causes 
of  his  success,  ib. ;  his  progress  arrested  by  the 
siege  of  Orleans,  53. 

Belgrade,  siege  of,  245. 

Benedict  XIII.  (pope),  contested  election  of,  308, 
309 ;  deposed  at  the  council  of  Pisa,  309. 

Benefices,  grants  of  land  so  called,  70 ;  their  ex- 
tent, 70—72. 

Benefices  (ecclesiastical),  gross  sale  of  in  the  elev- 
enth century,  279 ;  Boniface,  marquis  of  Tusca- 
ny, flogged  by  an  abbot  for  selling  benefices,  280, 
note ;  presentation  to  them  in  all  cases  claimed 
by  the  popes,  295. 

Benevolences,  when  first  taken  in  England,  449. 

Bernard,  king  of  Italy,  put  to  death  by  Louis  the 
Debonair,  23. 

Bianchi,  a  set  of  enthusiasts,  notice  of,  464. 

Bills  in  parliament,  power  of  originating  claimed  by 
the  house  of  commons,  402 — 404. 

Bishops,  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  of,  265;  their 
political  power,  266 ;  their  pretensions  in  the 
ninth  century,  268,  269  ;  remarks  on  the  suppo- 
sed concession  of  the  title  of  universal  bishop  to 
the  bishops  of  Rome,  271,  272,  notes ;  encroach- 
ments of  the  popes  on  the  bishops,  274 ;  how 
elected  in  the  early  ages,  279 ;  were  nominated 
by  the  Merovingian  French  kings,  and  by  the 
emperors  of  Germany  of  ths  house  of  Saxony,  ib., 
and  note ;  in  England  were  appointed  in  the  wit- 
tenagemot  before  the  conquest,  and  afterward  by 
consent  of  parliament,  ib;  in  France  received 


investiture  from  the  Emperor  Charlemagne,  280 ; 
bishops  of  Rome  elected  by  the  citizens  and  con- 
firmed by  the  emperors,  ib. ;  not  allowed  to  ex- 
ercise their  functions  until  confirmed  by  the 
popes,  285  ;  papal  encroachments  on  the  freedom 
of  episcopal  elections,  294 ;  right  of  to  a  seat  in 
parliament  considered,  355 ;  have  a  right  to  be 
tried  by  the  peers,  ib.,  note;  had  a  right  to  vote 
in  capital  cases,  though  that  right  is  now  abro- 
gated by  non-claim  and  contrary  precedents,  356, 
note. 

Boccanegra  (Simon),  elected  the  first  doge  of  Ge- 
noa, 171. 

Bocland,  nature  of,  329 ;  analogy  between  it  and 
freehold  land,  ib. ;  to  what  burdens  subject,  330. 

Bohemia,  account  of  the  constitution  of,  243 ;  no- 
tice of  the  kings  of  the  house  of  Luxembourg, 
ib. ;  war  with  the  Hussites  in  that  country,  244. 

Bologna  university,  account  of,  524. 

Bond  of  fellowship,  abstract  of  a  curious  one,  363, 
note. 

Boniface  (St.),  the  apostle  of  Germany,  devotion  of 
to  the  see  of  Rome,  272. 

Boniface  VIII.  (pope),  character  of,  301 ;  his  dis- 
putes with  Edward  I.,  king  of  England,  302 ;  and 
with  Philip  the  Fair,  king  of  France,  ib. ;  is  ar- 
rested by  him,  304 ;  his  death,  ib. ;  the  papal 
power  declines  after  his  decease,  ib. 

Books,  scarcity  of,  in  the  dark  ages,  460 ;  account 
of  the  principal  collections  of,  543 ;  notices  of 
early  printed  books,  549. 

Booksellers,  condition  of,  during  the  middle  ages, 
542,  note. 

Boroughs,  cause  of  summoning  deputies  from,  370 ; 
nature  of  prescriptive  boroughs,  406,  407 ;  power 
of  the  sheriff  to  omit  boroughs,  407,  408 ;  reluc- 
tance of  boroughs  to  send  members,  408 ;  who 
the  electors  in  boroughs  were,  409. 

Bourgeoisies,  how  distinguished  from  communities, 
117,  note. 

Braccio  di  Montone,  rivalry  of,  with  Sforza,  185. 

Brethren  of  the  White  Caps,  insurrection  of,  464. 

Bretigni,  peace  of,  43 ;  rupture  of  it,  45. 

Britany  (dutchy  of),  state  of,  at  the  accession  of 
Charles  VIII.  to  the  throne  of  France,  62  ;  Anne, 
dutchess  of  Britany,  married  by  Charles  VIII.  of 
France,  63. 

Britons  (native),  reduced  to  slavery  by  the  Saxoni, 
322. 

Bruges,  state  of,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  475. 

Burgesses,  state  of,  in  Aragon,  218;  in  England, 
363  ;  charters  of  incorporation  granted  to  them, 
364,  365  ;  were  first  summoned  to  parliament  in 
the  49th  of  Henry  III.,  366;  whether  St.  Albans 
sent  representatives  before  that  time,  367 ;  or 
Barnstaple,  368 ;  causes  of  summoning  burgess- 
es, 370 ;  rates  of  their  wages,  and  how  paid,  408. 

Burgesses,  why  and  when  chosen  to  serve  in  par- 
liament, 406,  407. 

Burgundy  and  Orleans,  factions  of,  49;  the 'Duke 
of  Orleans  murdered  by  the  faction  of  Burgun- 
dy, ib. ;  civil  wars  between  the  parties,  ib. ;  as- 
sassination of  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  50. 

Burgundy  (house  of),  its  vast  acquisitions,  58 ; 
character  and  designs  of  Charles,  duke  of  Bur- 
gundy, 59 ;  insubordination  of  the  Flemish  cities, 
part  of  his  territory,  ib. 

C. 

Calais  (citizens  of),  their  wretchedness,  43,  note; 
treaty  of,  ib. 

Calixtines,  account  of,  and  of  their  tenets,  244. 

Calixtus  II.  (pope),  concordat  of,  respecting  inves- 
titures, 283. 

Canon  law,  origin  and  progress  of,  290. 

Capet  (Hugh),  ascends  the  throne  of  France,  2-1 ; 


INDEX. 


553 


antiquity  of  this  family,  ib.,  note ;  state  of  the 
country  at  that  time,  ib. ;  extent  of  his  dominion 
and  power,  26,  27. 

Capitular  elections,  when  introduced,  284. 

Caraccioli,  the  favourite  of  Joanna,  queen  of  Na- 
ples, 189;  assassinated,  190,  note. 

Carlovingian  dynasty,  accession  of,  to  the  throne 
of  France,  17  ;  decline  of  this  family,  24. 

Castile  (kingdom  of),  when  founded,  199 ;  finally 
united  with  the  kingdom  of  Leon,  201 ;  civil  dis- 
turbances of  Castile,  203;  reign  of  Peter  the 
Cruel,  203,  204;  of  the  house  of  Trastamare, 
204;  reign  of  John  II.,  ib. ;  of  Henry  IV.,  205  ; 
constitution  of  Castile,  206 ;  succession  to  the 
crown,  ib. ;  national  councils,  ib. ;  admission  of 
deputies  from  towns,  ib. ;  spiritual  and  temporal 
nobility  in  cortes,  207 ;  right  of  taxation,  208  ; 
control  of  the  cortes  over  the  expenditure,  210  ; 
forms  of  the  cortes,  211  ;  their  rights  in  legisla- 
tion, ib. ;  other  rights  of  the  cortes,  212 ;  council 
of  Castile,  213  ;  administration  of  justice,  ib. ; 
violent  actions  of  some  of  the  kings  of  Castile, 
214;  confederacies  of  the  nobility,  215;  union 
of  Castile  with  Aragon,  225;  papal  encroach- 
ments restrained  in  that  kingdom,  314. 

Castles,  Roman,  traces  of  in  Britain,  488 ;  descrip- 
tion of  the  baronial  castles,  ib. ;  successive  im- 
provements in  them,  ib. ;  account  of  castellated 
mansions,  489. 

Castruccio  Castracani,  notice  of,  151. 

Catalonia  (principality),  government  of,  224,  225 ; 
state  of  its  commerce  and  manufactures,  480. 

Catharists,  tenets  and  practices  of,  506. 

Caursini,  a  tribe  of  money  dealers,  notice  of,  484, 
note. 

Cavalry,  practice  of,  to  dismount  in  action,  183. 

Centenanus,  or  hundredary,  functions  of,  107. 

Ceorls,  condition  of,  under  the  Anglo-Saxons,  321 ; 
identity  of  them  with  the  villani  and  bordarii  of 
Domesday  Book,  322. 

Cerda  (Dominic  de),  justiciary  of  Aragon,  intrepid 
conduct  of,  222 ;  and  of  Juan  de  Cerda,  222,  223. 

Charlemagne  (king  of  France),  conquers  Lombar- 
dy,  20;  part  of  Spain,  ib. ;  and  Saxony,  21  ;  ex- 
tent of  his  dominion's,  ib. ;  his  coronation*^  em- 
peror, ib: ;  character,  22 ;  legislative  assemblies 
held  by  him,'  97 ;  account  of  the  scheme  of  juris- 
diction established  by  him,,107 ;  established  pay- 
ment of  tithes  in  France,  263 ;  vigorously  main- 
tainecTthe  supremacy  of  the  state  over  the  church, 
267  ;  couhT  not  write,  459,  and  note  ;  established 
public  schools,  523. 

Charles  IV.  (king  of  France),  39. 

Charles  the  Fat  (king  of  France),  insolent  treat- 
ment of,  by  Pope  John  VIII.,  277. 

Charles  V.  (king  of  France),  restores  that  country 
from  her  losses,  46 ;  expels  the  English  thence, 
ib. 

Charles  VI.,  accession  of,  to  the  throne  of  France, 
46 ;  state  of  the  country  during  his  minority,  47 ; 
gross  misapplication  of  the  revenue,  48 ;  reme- 
dial ordinance  of,  105  ;  assumes  the  full  power, 

•  48 ;  his  derangement,  ib. ;  factions  and  civil  wars, 
49;  calamitous  state  of  France  during  the  re- 
mainder of  his  reign,  50,  51  ;  his  death,  52. 

Charles  VII.,  accession  of,  to  the  throne  of  France, 
52 ;  character  of,  53  ;  engages  Scottish  auxilia- 
ries at  a  high  rate,  52,  53  ;  retrieves  his  affairs, 
54  ;  is  reconciled  to  the  Duke  of  Burgundy,  ib. ; 
state  of  France  during  the  latter  part  of  his  reign, 
55 ;  subsequent  events  of  his  reign,  55, 56  ;  states- 
general  convoked  by  him,  105 ;  his  pretensions 
upon  Italy,  196. 

Charles  VIII.  ascends  the  throne  of  France,  62  ; 
marries  the  Dutchess  of  Britany,  63;  and  con- 
solidates France  into  one  great  kingdom,  ib. ;  his 
pretensions  to  the  kingdom  of  Naples,  196, 197. 


Charles  the  Bad  (king  of  Navarre),  unprincipled 
character  and  conduct  of,  42. 

Charles  (count  of  Anjou),  conquers  Naples  and 
Sicily,  149 ;  aspires  to  the  kingdom  of  Italy,  ib. ; 
rebellion  of  Sicily  against  him,  186 ;  war  in  con- 
sequence, 187. 

Charles  IV.  (emperor  of  Germany},  reign  of,  236 ; 
account  of  the  golden  bull  issued  by  him,  ib. 

Charles  (duke  of  Burgundy),  character  of,  59 ;  in- 
subordination of  his  Flemish  subjects,  ib. ;  his 
ambitious  projects,  60 ;  invades  Swisserland,  and 
is  twice  defeated,  ib. ;  his  death,  ib. ;  his  dutchy 
of  Burgundy  claimed  by  Louis  XI.,  ib. 

Chartered  towns,  when  first  incorporated  in  France, 
116;  their  privileges,  116,  117,  notes;  causes  of 
their  incorporation,  117;  circumstances  attend- 
ing the  charter  of  Laon,  ib. ;  extent  of  their  priv- 
ileges, 118;  their  connexion  with  the  King  of 
France,  ib. ;  independence  of  the  maritime  towns, 
119 ;  account  of  the  chartered  towns  or  commu- 
nities in  Spain,  200  ;  progress  of  them  in  Eng- 
land, 362—365  ;  particularly  London,  365,  366. 

Charters  of  the  Norman  kings,  account  of,  340 ; 
abstract  of  Magna  Charta,  341,  342;  confirma- 
tion of  charters  by  Edward  I.,  354. 

Chatelains,  rank  of,  87. 

Chaucer,  account  of,  541 ;  character  of  his  poetry, 
ib. 

Chief  justiciary  of  England,  power  and  functions 
of,  345,  note. 

Children,  crusade  of,  463,  note. 

Childeric  III.,  king  of  France,  deposed  by  Pepin, 
and  confined  in  a  convent,  20. 

Chimneys,  when  invented,  491. 

Chilperic  (king  of  the  Franks),  literature  of,  458. 

Chivalry,  origin  of,  509 ;  its  connexion  with  feudal 

I  services,  511 ;  that  connexion  broken,  ib. ;  effects 
//of  the  crusades  on  chivalry,  ib. ;  connexion  of 
Y  chivalry  with  religion,  ib. ;  and  with  gallantry,  V 
512;  the  morals  of  chivalry  not  always  the  most 
pure,  513  ;  virtues  deemed  essential  to  chivalry, 
514 ;  resemblance  between  chivalrous  and  east- 
ern manners,  515 ;  evils  produced  by  the  spirit 
of  chivalry,  ib. ;  circumstances  tending  to  pro- 
mote it,  516  ;  regular  education,  ib. ;  encourage- 
ment of  princes,  ib. ;  tournaments,  516,  517 ; 
privileges  of  knighthood,  517 ;  connexion  of 
chivalry  with  military  services,  518 ;  decline  of 
chivalry,  519. 

Christianity,  embraced  by  the  Saxons,  21. 

Chroniclers  (old  English),  notice  of,  540. 

Church,  wealth  of,  under  the  Roman  empire,  261 ; 
increased  after  its  subversion,  261,  262;  some- 
times improperly  acquired,  262 ;  when  endowed 
with  tithes,  263,  264  ;  spoliation  of  church  prop- 
erty, 264 ;  pretensions  of  the  hierarchy  in  the 
ninth  century,  268. 

Church  lands,  exempted  from  ordinary  jurisdic- 
tion, 108. 

Cinque  Ports,  represented  in  parliament  in  1246, 
367,  note. 

Circles  instituted  in  Germany,  and  why,  242. 

Civil  law,  revival  of,  520;  cultivated  throughout 
Europe,  521 ;  its  influence  on  the  laws  of  France 
and  Germany,  ib. ;  its  introduction  into  England, 
522 ;  the  elder  civilians  little  regarded,  ib. ;  the 
science  itself  on  the  decline,  ib. 

Civil  wars  of  the  Lancastrians  and  Yorkists,  447  ; 
did  not  materially  affect  national  prosperity,  478. 

Classic  authors  neglected  by  the  church  during  the 
dark  ages,  453,  542 ;  account  of  the  revival  of 
classical  literature,  542 ;  causes  that  contributed 
to  its  diffusion,  542—544 ;  efforts  of  Cesar  Bar- 
das  in  reviving  classical  literature  in  Greece,  547, 
note. 

Clement  V.  (pope),  removes  the  papal  court  to 
Avignon,  304. 


554 


INDEX. 


Clement  VII.  (pope),  contested  election  of,  308. 

CJergy,  state  of,  under  the  feudal  system,  68  ;  their 
wealth  under  the  Roman  empire,  261 ;  increased 
after  its  subversion,  261,  262 ;  sometimes  improp- 
erly acquired,  262 ;  sources  of  their  wealth,  263  ; 
spoliation  of  church  property,  264 ;  extent  of 
their  jurisdiction,  265 ;  their  political  power,  266 ; 
were  subject  to  the  supremacy  of  the  state,  espe- 
cially of  Charlemagne,  267 ;  pretensions  of  the 
hierarchy  in  the  ninth  century,  268 ;  corruption 
of  their  morals  in  the  tenth  century,  277 ;  neglect 
of  celibacy,  278 ;  their  simony  in  the  eleventh 
century,  282 ;  taxation  of  them  by  the  popes,  296 ; 
state  of  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  in  the  twelfth 
century,  297 ;  immunities  claimed  by  the  clergy, 
298  ;  endeavours  made  to  repress  ecclesiastical 
tyranny  in  England,  299 ;  were  less  vigorous  in 
France,  300 ;  restraints  on  alienations  in  mort- 
main, 301  ;  ecclesiastical  jurisdiction  restrained, 
316  ;  originally  had  a  right  to  sit  in  the  house  of 
commons,  389,  note ;  ignorance  of  the  clergy  du- 
ring the  dark  ages,  460  ;  their  vices,  467,  468. 
See  also  Bishops,  Popes. 

Clovis,  king  of  the  Franks,  invades  and  conquers 
Gaul,  17  ;  embraces  Christianity,  18  ;  his  victo- 
ries, ib. ;  his  descendants,  ib. ;  their  degeneracy, 
19 ;  they  are  deposed  by  Pepin,  20  ;  provincial 
government  of  the  French  empire  during  the 
reign  of  Clovis,  67  ;  his  limited  authority,  68. 

Coin,  changes  in  the  value  of,  497—500. 

Coining  of  money,  a  privilege  of  the  vassals  of 
France,  93 ;  regulations  of  various  sovereigns 
concerning  this  right,  ib. 

Combat  (trial  by),  in  what  cases  allowed,  109  ;  how 
fought,  110  ;  decline  of  this  practice,  111,  112. 

Comines  ^Philip  de),  his  character  of  Louis  XI.,  62. 

Commendation  (personal),  origin  and  nature  of,  74  ; 
distinguished  from  feudal  tenure,  ib. 

Commerce,  progress  of,  in  Germany,  474  ;  of  Flan- 
ders, ib.  ;  of  England,  475,  476-478  ;  the  Baltic 
trade,  477  ;  commerce  of  the  Mediterranean  Sea, 
479. 

Commerce  (foreign),  state  of,  in  the  dark  ages,  473. 

Commission  of  reform,  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II., 
proceedings  of,  385—387. 

Commodian,  a  Christian  writer  of  the  third  centu- 
ry, specimens  of  the  versification  of,  457,  note. 

Common  law  (English),  origin  of,  347,  348. 

Common  Pleas,  court  of,  when  instituted,  347. 

Commons.     See  House  of  Commons. 

Communities,  when  first  incorporated  in  France, 
116;  their  progress,  116, 117;  in  Spain,  116, 117, 
note,  200  ;  in  England,  364,  365,  and  notes. 

Commutation  of  penances,  468,  469. 

Companies  of  ordonnance,  instituted  by  Charles 
VII.,  56,  122,  123  ;  their  design,  56. 

Compass.     See  Mariner's  Compass. 

Compositions  for  murder,  antiquity  of,  94,  note  • 
prevailed  under  the  feudal  system,  66. 

Concordats  of  Aschaffenburg,  account  of,  313,  314. 

Condemnation  (illegal),  instances  of,  rare  in  Eng- 
land, 428,  429. 

Condottieri  or  military  adventurers  in  Italy,  notice 
of,  181,  182. 

Conrad  I.,  emperor  of  Germany,  227. 

Conrad  II.,  surnamed  the  Salic,  elected  emperor, 
128,  228  ;  edict  of,  74. 

Conrad  III.  elected  emperor,  230. 

Conrad  I.V.,  accession  of,  to  the  imperial  throne, 

143  ;  his  death,  ib. 

Conradin  (son  of  Conrad  IV.,  king  of  Naples),  cru- 
elly put  to  death  by  Charles,  count  of  Anjou,  149. 
Conscription  (military),  oppressive  under  Charle- 
magne, 24. 
Consolato  del  Mare,  a  code  of  maritime  laws,  ori- 

gtn  and  date  of,  481,  482,  note. 
Constable  of  England,  jurisdiction  of,  225,  226. 


Constance  (council  at),  proceedings  of,  309—311. 

Constantinople,  situation  and  state  of,  in  the  sev- 
enth century,  254  ;  captured  by  the  Latins,  256 ; 
recovered  by  the  Greeks,  257 ;  its  danger  from 
the  Turks,  259 ;  its  fall,  ib. ;  alarm  excited  by  it 
in  Europe,  259,  260. 

Constitution  of  France,  97,  114;  of  Castile,  206, 
215 ;  of  Aragon,  218,  219  ;  of  Germany,  235,  236, 
240,  243  ;  of  Bohemia,  243 ;  of  Hungary,  245  ; 
of  Switzerland,  247—249 ;  of  England,  during  the 
Anglo  Saxon  government,  318 — 332;  Anglo-Nor- 
man constitution  of  England,  332—346;  on  the 
present  constitution  of  England,  354—450. 
ontinental  wars  of  English  sovereigns,  effects  of, 
on  the  English  constitution,  429,  430. 
opyholders,  origin  of,  437. 

orruption  of  morals  in  the  clergy  in  the  tenth  cen- 
tury, 277. 

Corruption  of  the  Latin  language,  observations  on, 
454,  455. 

Cortes  of  Aragon,  powers  of,  224. 

Cortes  of  Castile,  constitution  of,  206 ;  deputies 
when  admitted  from  towns,  ib. ;  spiritual  and 
temporal  nobility  in  cortes,  207;  their  control 
over  expenditure,  210 ;  forms  of  the  Castilian 
cortes,  211 ;  their  rights  in  legislation,  ib. ;  other 
rights  of  the  cortes,  212. 

Corvinus.     See  Mathias  Corvinus. 

Councils  (ecclesiastical),  of  Lyons,  142,  231 ;  of 
Frankfort,  272  ;  of  Pisa,  309  ;  of  Constance,  309 
— 311 ;  of  Basle,  311,  312 ;  considerations  on  the 
probable  effects  of  holding  periodical  ecclesiasti- 
cal councils,  312. 

Councils  (national  and  political) :— powers  of  the 
royal  council  of  the  third  race  of  French  kings, 
98, 112 ;  of  Castile,  207— 213  ;  jurisdiction  of  the 
ordinary  council  of  the  kings  of  England,  419 — 
422. 

Counsellors  of  parliament,  how  appointed  in  France, 
114. 

Counts  Palatine,  jurisdiction  of,  108 ;  their  juris 
diction  in  England,  352,  353,  note. 

Counts  of  Paris,  power  of,  24  ;  rank  and  power  of 
the  provincial  counts,  67 ;  this  office  originally 
temnorary,  ib.,  note ;  their  usurpations,  72. 

Coumrcs,  division  of  (in  England),  its  antiqui'.y, 
323 ;  jurisdiction  of  county  courts,  324  ;  process 
of  a  suit  in  a  county  court,  ib. ;  importance  of 
these  co'urts,  325  ;  representatives  of  counties,  by 
whom  chosen,  406;  county  elections  badly  at- 
tended, 410 ;  the  influence  of  the  crown  upon 
them,  410,  411. 

Cours  plenieres,  or  parliaments,  when  held  in 
France,  99 ;  business  transacted  in  them,  ib. 

Court-baron,  jurisdiction  of,  352,  note. 

Court  of  peers,  when  established  in  France,  112. 

Courts  of  justice  in  England,  under  the  Norman 
kings  : — the  king's  court,  345 ;  the  exchequer, 
346 ;  of  justices  of  assize,  ib. ;  the  court  of  com- 
mon pleas,  347. 

Cross-bow,  when  introduced,  183. 

Crown,  succession  to,  in  Castile,  206 ;  of  Aragon, 
218 ;  among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  320 ;  hereditary 
right  to,  when  established  in  England,  349  ;  cases 
of  dispensing  power,  claimed  and  executed  by 
the  English  kings,  395  ;  influence  of,  on  county 
elections,  410,  411. 

Crusade  against  the  Albigeois,  29  ;  the  first  crusade 
against  the  Saracens,  or  Turks,  31,  255 ;  means 
resorted  to  to  promote  it,  32 ;  its  result,  33  ;  the 
second  crusade,  34  ;  the  third  cfusade,  35 ;  the 
two  crusades  of  St.  Louis,  ib.  ;  another  attempt- 
ed by  Pope  Pius,  260 ;  crusade  of  children  in 
1211,  463,  note  ;  immorality  of  the  crusaders,  460  i 
their  effects  on  chivalry,  511. 
Curia  Regis  and  Curia  Parium,  not  different  from 
the  Concilium  Regium,  98,  note. 


INDEX. 


555 


D. 


Damascus,  account  of  the  khalifs  of,  252. 

Dante,  sketch  of  the  life  of,  535  ;  review  of  his  po- 
etical character,  535,  536 ;  popularity  of  his  Di- 
vine Comedy,  537  ;  its  probable  source,  ib.,  note. 

Dauphine  (province  of),  historical  notice  of,  63,  note. 

Decanus,  functions  of,  107. 

Decretals  forged  in  the  name  of  Isidore,  273,  274, 
and  note. 

Decretum  of  Gratian,  notice  of,  290. 

Degeneracy  of  the  popes  in  the  ninth  century,  277. 

Degradation  of  morals  in  the  dark  ages,  502,  503. 

Denina's  Rivoluzioni  d'ltalia,  observations  on,  125, 
note. 

Depopulation  of  England  by  William  the  Con- 
queror, 354. 

Diet  of  Roncaglia,  133 ;  proceedings  of  the  diet  of 
Worms,  240,  241 ;  remarks  thereon,  283  ;  diet  of 
Frankfort,  established  the  independence  of  the 
German  empire,  305. 

Dispensations  of  marriage,  a  source  of  papal  power, 
292,  293 ;  dispensations  granted  by  the  popes  from 
the  observance  of  promissory  oaths,  293,  294. 

Dispensing  power  of  the  crown,  instances  of,  395. 

Disseisin,  forcible  remedy  for,  432,  note. 

Dissensions,  sanguinary,  in  the  cities  of  Lombardy, 
146,  147. 

Divorce  practised  in  France  at  pleasure,  292. 

Domain,  the  term  explained,  115,  note. 

Dominican  order,  origin  and  progress  of,  291,  292. 

Duelling,  origin  of,  462,  463,  note. 

Dukes  of  provinces  in  France,  their  rank  and  power, 
67;  their  office  originally  temporary,  ib.,  note; 
their  usurpations,  72 ;  their  progress  slower  in 
Germany  than  in  France  228 ;  partitioned  their 
dutchies  in  Germany,  ib. 

E. 

Earl,  original  meaning  of,  321,  note. 

Earl  marshal  of  England,  jurisdiction  of,  425. 

Eccelin  da  Romano,  tyranny  and  cruelty  of,  141, 
note. 

Ecclesiastical  power,  history  of,  during  ttyj  middle 
ages.  See  Clergy,  Popes. 

Edessa,  principality  of,  its  extent,  33,  note. 

Edicts  (royal),  when  registered  in  the  parliament 
of  Paris,  113. 

Edward  the  Confessor,  laws  of,  340. 

Edward  I.  (king  of  England),  accession  of,  353  ; 
disputes  of,  with  Pope  Boniface  VIII.,  301 ;  con- 
firms the  charters,  354. 

Edward  III.  (king  of  England),  unjust  claim  of,  to 
the  crown  of  France,  39 ;  prosecutes  his  claim 
by  arms,  40  ;  causes  of  his  success,  ib.  ;  charac- 
ter of  him,  and  of  his  son,  ib. ;  his  resources,  41  ; 
and  victories,  41,  42 ;  concludes  the  peace  of 
Bretigni,  43  ;  and  the  treaty  of  Calais,  44 ;  re- 
marks on  his  conduct,  44,  45 ;  renews  the  wars 
with  France,  46 ;  his  death,  ib. ;  dissuaded  by 
Pope  Benedict  XII.  from  taking  the  title  and 
arms  of  France,  40,  note ;  memorable  proceedings 
of  parliament  in  the  50th  year  of  his  reign,  379, 
380;  by  his  wise  measures  promoted  the  com- 
merce and  manufactures  of  England,  476,  477. 

Edward  IV.  invades  France,  58  ;  but  is  persuaded 
to  return,  ib.  ;  character  of  his  reign,  448,  449  ; 
the  first  monarch  who  levied  benevolences,  449. 

Elections  (episcopal),  freedom  of,  papal  encroach- 
ments on,  294. 

Elections  of  members  of  parliament,  contested, 
how  determined,  405  ;  right  of  electing  knights, 
in  whom  vested,  406 ;  elections  of  burgesses, 
how  anciently  conducted,  ib. ;  irregularity  of 
county  elections,  410  ;  influence  of  the  crown 
upon  them,  410,  411. 


Electors  (seven)  of  the  German  empire,  their  priv- 
ileges, 232,  233 ;  their  privileges  augmented  by 
the  Golden  Bull,  236. 

Elgiva,  queen  or  mistress  of  King  Edwy,  case  of, 
considered,  269,  note. 

Emanation,  system  of,  528,  note. 

Emperors  of  Germany.     See  Germany. 

Enfranchisement.     See  Manumission. 

England,  effects  of  the  feudal  system  in,  123 ;  arro- 
gant tyranny  of  the  hierarchy  there,  in-the  ninth 
century,  269 ;  attempts  made  to  deprefs  it,  299, 
300. 

constitution  of,  during  the  Anglo-Saxon 

government,  318 ;  sketch  of  the  Anglo-Saxon 
history  of  England,  318—320;  influence  of  pro- 
vincial governors,  321  ;  distribution  into  thanes 
and  ceorls,  32 1,322;  British  natives,  322 ;  slaves, 
ib. ;  the  wittenagemot,  322,  323 ;  judicial  power, 
323 ;  division  into  counties,  hundreds,  and  tith- 
ings,  ib. ;  county  court,  and  suits  therein,  324  ; 
trial  by  jury,  325  ;  law  of  frankpledge,  327  ;  feu- 
dal tenures,  whether  known  in  England  before 
the  conquest,  329—332. 

constitution  of,  during  the  Anglo-Norman 


government,  332  ;  conquest  of  England  by  Will- 
iam, duke  of  Normandy,  ib. ;  his  conduct  at  first 
moderate,  333  ;  afterward  more  tyrannical,  ib.  ; 
degraded  condition  of  the  English,  ib. ;  confisca- 
tion of  their  property,  334 ;  devastation  and  de- 
population of  their  country,  334,  335  ;  riches  of 
the  conqueror,  335 ;  his  mercenary  troops,  ib. ; 
feudal  system  established  in  England,  ib. ;  differ- 
ence between  it  and  the  feudal  policy  in  France, 
336  ;  hatred  of  the  Normans  by  the  English,  337 ; 
tyranny  of  the  Norman  government,  ib. ;  exac- 
tions, 338  ;  general  taxes,  ib. ;  right  of  legislation, 
339 ;  laws  and  charters  of  Norman  kings,  340 ; 
Magna  Charta,  341 ;  state  of  the  constitution  un- 
der Henry  III.,  342  ;  the  king's  court,  345  ;  the 
court  of  exchequer,  346 ;  institution  of  justices 
of  assize,  ib. ;  the  court  of  common  pleas,  347 ; 
origin  of  the  common  law,  ib. ;  character  and 
defects  of  the  English  law,  348  ;  hereditary  right 
of  the  crown  established,  349;  English  gentry 
destitute  of  exclusive  privileges,  350  ;  causes  of 
the  equality  among  freemen  in  England,  351. 

on  the  present  constitution  of  England, 

353 ;  accession  of  Edward  I.,  ib. ;  confirmation 
of  the  charters,  354 ;  the  constitution  of  parlia 
ment,  355 ;  the  spiritual  peers,  ib. ;  the  lay  peers, 
earls,  and  barons,  356  ;  whether  tenants  in  chief 
attended  parliament  under  Henry  III.,  358 ;  ori- 
gin and  progress  of  parliamentary  representation, 
359 ;  whether  the  knights  were  elected  by  free 
holders  in  general,  360  ;  progress  of  towns,  362 , 
towns  let  in  fee-farm,  363  ;  charters  of  incorpo 
ration,  364  ;  prosperity  of  English  towns,  partic- 
ularly London,  365  ;  towns,  when  first  summon- 
ed to  parliament,  366 ;  cause  of  summoning  dep- 
uties from  boroughs,  370 ;  parliament,  when  di- 
vided into  two  houses,  371  ;  petitions  of  parlia- 
ment during  the  reign  of  Edward  II.,  372;  sev- 
eral rights  established  by  the  commons  in  the 
reign  of  Edward  III.,  373  ;  remonstrances  against 
levying  money  without  consent,  373,  374 ;  the 
concurrence  of  both  houses  in  legislation  neces- 
sary, 376 ;  statutes  distinguished  from  ordinances, 
ib. ;  advice  of  parliament  required  on  matters  of 
war  and  peace,  378 ;  right  of  the  commons  to 
inquire  into  public  abuses,  379 ;  proceedings  of 
the  parliament  in  the  50th  year  of  Edward  III., 
379,  380 ;  great  increase  of  the  power  of  the 
commons  in  the  reign  of  Richard  II.,  381 ;  his 
character,  384  ;  proceedings  of  parliament  in  the 
10th  year  of  Richard  It.,  385 ;  commission  of  re- 
form, 385,  386 ;  answers  of  the  judges  to  Rich- 
ard's question's,  387 ;  subsequent  revolution,  ib. ; 


556 


INDEX. 


greater  harmony  between  the  king  and  parlia- 
ment, 388 ;  disunion  among  some  leading  peers, 
ib. ;  arbitrary  measures  of  the  king,  389,  390 ; 
tyranny  of  Richard,  391 ;  he  is  deposed  and  suc- 
ceeded by  Henry-  IV.,  ib. ;  retrospect  of  the  pro- 
gress of  the  constitution  under  Richard  II.,  393  ; 
its  advances  under  the  house  of  Lancaster,  ib. ; 
appropriation  of  supplies,  394  ;  attempt  to  make 
supply  depend  on  redress  of  grievances,  ib. ;  le- 
gislative rights  of  the  commons  established,  395  ; 
dispensing  power  of  the  crown,  ib. ;  interference 
of  parliament  with  the  royal  expenditure,  397  ; 
parliament  consulted  on  all  public  affairs  by  the 
kings  of  England,  399 ;  impeachment  of  minis- 
ters, 400  ;  privilege  of  parliament,  400,  401 ;  con- 
tested elections  how  determined,  405  ;  in  whom 
the  right  of  voting  for  knights  vested,  406 ;  elec- 
tion of  burgesses,  ib. ;  power  of  the  sheriff  to 
omit  boroughs,  407;  reluctance  of  boroughs  to 
send  members,  408  ;  who  the  electors  in  bor- 
oughs were,  409  ;  number  of  members  fluctua- 
ting, ib. ;  irregularity  of  elections,  410  ;  influence 
of  the  crown  upon  them,  410,  411 ;  constitution 
of  the  house  of  lords,  411 ;  baronial  tenure  re- 
quired for  lords  spiritual,  411,412  ;  barons  called 
by  writ,  412 ;  bannerets  summoned  to  the  house 
of  lords,  413 ;  creation  of  peers  by  statute,  415  ; 
and  by  patent,  ib. ;  clergy  summoned  to  parlia- 
ment, 416 ;  jurisdiction  of  the  king's  ordinary 
council,  419  ;  character  of  the  Plantagenet  gov- 
ernment, 423  ;  prerogative,  423, 424  ;  its  excesses, 
424,  425 ;  Sir  John  Fortescue's  doctrine  as  to  the 
English  constitution,  426,  427  ;  erroneous  views 
of  Hums  respecting  the  English  constitution, 
427 ;  instances  of  illegal  condemnation  rare,  428 ; 
causes  tending  to  form  the  constitution,  429  ;  its 
state  about  the  time  of  Henry  VI.'s  reign,  441 ; 
historical  instances  of  regencies,  441 — 444 ;  men- 
tal derangement  of  Henry  II .,  444 ;  Duke  of  York 
made  protector,  ib. ;  his  claim  to  the  crown,  146 ; 
war  of  the  Ljyacastrians  and  Yorkists,  447 ;  reign 
of  Edward  IV.,  448 ;  general  review  of  the  Eng- 
lish constitution,  450. 

England. — State  of  the  commerce  and  manufac- 
tures of  England,  475,  476 ;  singularly  flourishing 
state  of  its  commerce  in  the  reiens  of  Edward  II., 
Richard  II.,  Henry  IV.  and  VI.; and  Edward  IV., 
478. 

,  increase  of  domestic  expenditure  in,  du- 
ring the  fourteenth  century,  486  ;  inefficacy  of 
sumptuary  laws,  486,  487;  state  of  civil  architec- 
ture from  the  time  of  the  Saxons,  488,  491,  492  ; 
furniture  of  houses,  491,  492  ;  state  of  ecclesias- 
tical architecture,  492 — 494 ;  wretched  state  of 
agriculture,  495—497 ;  civil  law,  when  introdu- 
ced into  England,  522 ;  state  of  literature,  540, 
541. 

English  language,  slow  progress  of,  accounted  for, 
540. 

Enthusiasts,  risings  of,  in  various  parts  of  Europe, 
during  the  dark  ages,  463,  464. 

Equality  of  civil  rights  in  England,  causes  of,  351, 
352. 

Erigena,  a  celebrated  schoolman,  no  pantheist,  528, 
note. 

Escheats,  nature  of,  in  the  feudal  system,  80. 

Escuage,  nature  of,  and  when  introduced,  120 ;  not 
to  be  levied  without  the  consent  of  parliament, 
342 ;  when  it  became  a  parliamentary  assessment 
in  England,  338,  339. 

Esquires,  education  of,  516. 

Establishments  of  St.  Louis,  account  of,  110,  111. 

Estates  of  the  realm,  number  of,  determined,  403, 
404,  note. 

Ethelwolf  established  payment  of  tithes  in  Eng- 
land, 264,  note. 

Europe,  state  of  society  in,  during  the  middle  ages, 
450,  et  se<j. 


Exactions  of  the  Norman  king*  of  England,  338. 
339. 

Exchequer,  court  of,  when  instituted,  346 ;  its  pow- 
ers and  jurisdiction,  ib. 

Excommunication,  original  nature  of,  275 ;  punish- 
ments and  disabilities  of  excommunicated  per- 
sons, ib.,  and  note,  276,  note;  greater  and  lesser 
excommunications,  276 ;  burial  denied  to  the  ex- 
communicated, ib. 

Expenditure  (royal)  controlled  by  the  English  par- 
liament, 397. 

Expenditure  (domestic),  increase  of,  in  Italy,  du- 
ring the  fourteenth  century,  485,  486;  and  in 
England,  486. 

F. 

Falconry,  prevalence  of,  470. 

False  decretals  of  Isidore,  273,  274. 

Fealty,  nature  of,  in  conferring  fiefs,  76. 

Ferdinand  (king  of  Naples),  turbulent  reign  of,  191. 

Ferdinand  (king  of  Aragon)  marries  Isabella  of 
Castile,  and  unites  the  two  kingdoms,  225 ;  con- 
quers Granada,  225,  226 ;  subsequent  events  of 
his  reign,  226. 

Feuds,  divided  into  proper  and  improper,  81,  82. 

Feudal  system,  history  of,  especially  in  France,  64  -r 
gradual  establishment  of  feudal  tenures,  70 — 72 ; 
change  of  allodial  into  feudal  tenures,  73 ;  cus- 
tom of  personal  commendation,  73,  74 ;  the  prin- 
ciples of  a  feudal  relation  investigated,  75 ;  cere- 
monies of  homage,  fealty,  and  investiture,  76 ; 
account  of  feudal  incidents,  viz.  : — reliefs,  77 ; 
fines  on  the  alienation  of  lands,  78 ;  escheats  and 
forfeiture,  80 ;  aids.ib. ;  wardship,  ib. ;  marriage, 
81 ;  analogies  to  the  feudal  system,  83,  84 ;  its 
local  extent,  84  ;  view  of  the  different  orders  of 
society  during  the  feudal  ages,  85—92 ;  privileges 
of  the  French  vassals,  93 ;  suspension  of  legis- 
lative authority  during  the  prevalence  of  the  feu- 
dal system,  96;  feudal  courts  of  justice,  109; 
trial  by  combat,  ib. ;  causes  of  the  decline  of  the 
feudal  system,  113;  especially  in  France,  115; 
the  acquisition  of  power  by  the  crown,  ib. ,  aug- 
mentation of  the  royal  domain,  ib. ;  the  institu- 
tion of  free  and  chartered  towns,  116;  the  con- 
nexion of  free  towns  with  the  king,  118 ;  the  in- 
dependence of  maritime  towns,  ib. ;  the  commu- 
tation of  military  feudal  service  for  money,  120  ; 
the  employment  of  mercenary  troops,  121 ;  and 
the  establishment  of  a  regular  standing  army, 
122 ;  general  view  of  the  advantages  and  disad- 
vantages of  the  feudal  cystem,  123,  124  ;  inquiry 
whether  feudal  tenures  were  known  in  England 
before  the  conquest,  329 — 332;  this  system  es- 
tablished in  England  by  the  Anglo-Norman  kings, 
335 ;  difference  between  the  feudal  policy  in  Eng- 
land and  in  France,  336,  337 ;  influence  of  the 
manner  in  which  feudal  principles  of  insubordi- 
nation and  resistance  were  modified  by  the  pre- 
rogatives of  the  early  Norman  kings  on  the  Eng- 
lish constitution,  430—432 ;  instances  of  the  abu- 
ses of  feudal  rights  in  England,  424,  425 ;  con- 
nexion of  the  feudal  services  with  chivalry,  511 ; 
that  connexion  broken,  ib. 

Fief,  essential  principles  of,  75 ;  ceremonies  used 
in  conferring  a  fief,  76 ;  nature  of  fiefs  of  office,  82. 

Field-sports,  passion  for,  in  the  dark  ages,  470, 471. 

Fines  payable  on  the  alienation  of  lands  under  the 
feudal  system,  78,  79. 

Firearms,  when  invented,  184 ;  improvements  in, 
185. 

Firma  del  derecho,  nature  of  the  process  of,  in  the 
law  of  Aragon,  221,  and  note. 

Fiscal  lands,  nature  of,  70. 

Flagellants,  superstitious  practices  of,  464. 

Flemings,  rebellion  of,  against  their  sovereign,  47 ; 
its  causes,  ib.,  note ;  their  insubordination  to  the 


INDEX. 


house  of  Burgundy,  59 ;  paid  no  taxes  without 
the  consent  of  the  three  estates,  ib. ;  their  inde- 
pendent spirit,  ib.,  note ;  flourishing  state  of  their 
commerce  and  manufactures,  474 ;  especially  at 
Bruges  and  Ghent,  475 ;  inducements  held  out 
to  them  to  settle  in  England,  476,  note. 

Florence  (republic  of),  reluctantly  acknowledges 
the  sovereignty  of  the  emperors  of  Germany,  153, 
note;  revolution  there  in  the  twelfth  and  thir- 
teenth centuries,  156  ;  its  government,  ib. ;  the 
commercial  citizens  divided  into  companies,  or 
arts,  ib. ;  civil  and  criminal  justice,  how  admin- 
istered in  the  thirteenth  century,  ib. ;  change  in 
its  constitution  in  the  fourteenth  century,  157 , 
the  gonfaloniers  of  justice  when  introduced,  158 ; 
rise  of  the  plebeian  nobles,  159  ;  Walter  de  Bri- 
enne,  duke  of  Athens,  appointed  signior  of  Flor- 
ence, ib. ;  his  tyranny,  160 ;  he  abdicates  his 
signiory,  ib. ;  subsequent  revolution  in  that  city, 
160,  161 ;  feuds  of  the  Guelfsand  Ghibelins,  161, 
162;  the  tyranny  of  the  Guelfs  subverted  by  a 
sedition  of  the  ciompi  or  populace,  162, 163;  Mi- 
chel de  Lando  elected  signior,  16J  ;  his  wise 
government,  ib. ;  revolution  affected  by  Alberti 
Stvozzi  and  Scala,  164;  acquisitions  of  territory 
by  Florence,  165  ;  revenues  of  the  republic,  ib. ; 
population,  166,  note;  conquers  Pisa,  ib. ;  state 
of  Florence  in  the  fifteenth  century,  192,  193 ; 
rise  of  the  family  of  Medici,  193. 

Folkland,  nature  of,  329. 

Forest  laws,  sanguinary,  of  William  the  Conqueror, 
334,  335 ;  jurisdiction  of,  425. 

Fortescue  (Sir  John),  doctrine  of,  concerning  the 
constitution  of  England,  426,  427. 

France,  invaded  by  Clovis,  17  ;  his  victories,  18  ; 
partitions  his  dominions,  ib. ;  sketch  of  the  reigns 
of  his  descendants,  18,  19;  their  degeneracy,  19 ; 
are  held  in  subjection  by  the  mayors  of  the  pal- 
ace, 19,  69 ;  change  in  the  Merovingian  dynasty, 
20 ;  accession  of  Pepin,  ib. ;  his  victories,  ib.  ; 
reign  and  exploits  of  Charlemagne,  20,  21 ;  ex- 
tent of  his  dominions,  21 ;  his  coronation  as  em- 
peror, ib. ;  his  character,  22 ;  reign  and  misfor- 
tunes of  Louis  the  Debonair,  23,  24 ;  decline  of 
the  Carlovingian  family,  24  ;  dismemberment  of 
the  empire,  and  accession  of  Hugh  Capet,  ib. ; 
state  of  the  people  at.  that  time,  24,  25 ;  his  im- 
mediate successors,  27 ;  reisns  of  Louis  VI.,  ib. ; 
of  Louis  VII.,  28 ;  of  Philip  Augustus,  28,  29  ; 
of  Louis  VIII.,  29,  30;  of  Louis  IX.,  30,  31,  35. 
36 ;  of  Philip  the  Bold,  36 ;  of  Philip  the  Fair, 
ib. ;  aggrandizement  of  the  French  monarchy 
under  his  reign,  36,  37;  of  Louis  X.,  37;  and 
Philip  V.,  ib. ;  of  Charles  IV.  and  Philip  of  Va- 
lois,  39;  unjust  pretensions  of  Edward  III.  to 
the  throne  of  France,  ib. ;  causes  of  his  success 
in  war  against  France,  40;  characters  of  the 
kings  Philip  VI.  and  John,  40,  41 ;  wretched 
condition  of  France  after  the  battle  of  Poitiers, 
42,  43  ;  the  English  lose  all  their  conquests,  46 ; 
state  of  France  during  the  minority  of  Charles 
VI.,  47  ;  his  assumption  of  full  regal  power,  48 ; 
factions  and  civil  wars,  48 — 50;  calamitous  state 
of  France  during  the  remainder  of  his  reign,  50, 
51 ;  invaded  by  Henry  V.,  51 ;  reign  of  Charles 
VII.,  52— 54;  the  English  lose  all  their  conquests, 
55 ;  state  of  France  during  the  second  English 
wars,  55,  56 ;  reign  of  Louis  XL,  56—62 ;  of 
Charles  VIII.,  62—64. 

,  constitution  of  the  ancient  Frank  mon- 
archy, 67 ;  limited  power  of  the  king,  68  ;  grad- 
ual increase  of  the  regal  power,  ib. ;  different 
classes  of  subjects,  ib. ;  degeneracy  of  the  royal 
family,  69  ;  power  of  the  mayors  of  the  palace, 
19,  69 ;  origin  of  nobility  in  France,  69 ;  and  of 
sub-infeudation,  72 ;  usurpation  of  the  provincial 
governors,  ib. ;  comparative  state  of  France  and 


Germany  at  the  division  of  Charlemagne's  em- 
pire, 92 ;  privileges  of  the  French  vassals,  93,  et 
seq. ;  legislative  assemblies,  96 ;  privileges  of  the 
subjects,  98 ;  royal  council  of  the  third  race,  ib. ; 
occasional  assemblies  of  barons,  99 ;  cours  pleni- 
eres,  ib. ;  limitations  of  the  royal  power  in  legis- 
lation, ib. ;  first  measures  of  general  legislation, 
100;  legislative  power  of  the  crown  increases, 
ib. ;  convocation  of  the  states-general  by  Philip 
the  Fair,  101 ;  theuvrights,  102 ;  states-general 
of  1355  and  1356,  103 ;  states-general  under 
Charles  VII.,  105;  provincial  states,  106,  107; 
successive  changes  in  the  judicial  polity  of 
France,  107 — 114;  papal  authority  restrained  in 
that  country,  314,  315 ;  liberties  of  the  French 
church,  315. 

France,  state  of  civil  architecture  there  during  the 
middle  ages,  490 ;  account  of  the  literature  of 
France,  531—534 ;  French  language  why  prefer- 
red by  the  early  Italian  historians,  535,  note. 

Francibcan  order,  origin  and  progress  of,  291 ; 
schism  in,  306,  and  note. 

Franconia,  emperors  of  the  house  of,  viz.,  Conrad 
II,  127,  228;  Henry  III.,  228;  Henry  IV.,  ib. ; 
Henry  V.,  229 ;  extinction  of  the  house  of  Fran- 
conia, ib. 

Frankleyn,  condition  of,  in  England,  429,  and  note. 

Frankfort,  council  of,  272 ;  remarks  on  its  proceed- 
ings, 273. 

Franks  invade  Gaul,  17;  effects  of  this  invasion, 
65 ;  succession  of  the  Frank  monarchy,  67. 

Frank-pledge  (law  of)  not  invented  by  Alfred  the 
Great,  327 ;  origin  and  progress  of,  328,  329. 

Frederick  Barbarossa  ascends  the  throne  of  Ger- 
many, 132,  230  ;  ruins  Henry  the  Lion,  duke  of 
Saxony,  230;  invades  Lombardy,  132,  133;  con- 
quers Milan,  133;  violates  the  capitulation  he 
had  granted  the  Milanese,  ib. ;  defeats  them  again, 
and  destroys  their  city,  134  ;  the  league  of  Lom- 
bardy formed  against  him,  ib. ;  is  himself  defeat- 
ed at  the  battle  of  Legnano,  135  ;  and  compelled 
to  acknowledge  the  independence  of  the  Lom- 
bard republics,  ib. 

Frederick  IK  (emperor),  turbulent  reign  of,  139 — 
142;  he  is  formally  deposed  at  the  council  of 
Lyons,  143,  231]  consequences  of  that  council, 
231. 

Frederick  III.  (emperor),  reign  of,  237  ;  his  singular 
device,  ib.,  note. 

Free  cities  of  Germany,  origin  and  progress  of,  238^ 
their  leagues,  239. 

Freeholders,  different  classes  of,  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  321,322;  whether  the  English  freehold- 
ers in  general  elected  knights  to  serve  in  parlia- 
ment, 360—362  ;  the  elective  franchise  when  re- 
stricted to  freeholders  of  forty  shillings  per  an- 
num, 406 ;  freeholders  in  soccage,  whether  liable 
to  contribute  towards  the  wages  of  knights  of 
counties,  408,  note. 

Freemen,  rank  and  privileges  of,  in  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, 88;  more  numerous  in  Provence  than  in 
any  other  part  of  France,  116,  note  ;  their  privi- 
leges in  England  under  Magna  Charta,  342; 
causes  of  the  equality  among  freemen  in  Eng- 
land, 351. 

Free  towns,  institution  of,  in  France,  116;  origin 
of  them,  117 ;  circumstances  attending  the  char- 
ter of  Laon,  ib. ;  extent  of  their  privileges,  118; 
their  connexion  with  the  king,  ib. ;  the  maritime 
towns  particularly  independent,  119  ;  could  con- 
fer freedom  on  runaway  serfs,  ib.,  note. 

French  language,  long  prevalence  of,  in  England, 
540,  541 ;  why  preferred  by  the  early  Italian  his- 
torians, 535,  note. 

Frerage,  nature  of,  79,  80. 

Friendly  society,  account  of  one  at  Ex»ter,  364, 
note. 


558 


INDEX. 


Fulk,  count  of  Anjou,  saucy  reproof  of  his  sover- 
eign by,  459,  note. 

Furniture  of  houses  in  the  fifteenth  century,  curi- 
ous inventories  of  491,  492,  and  notes. 

G. 

Gallican  church,  liberties  of,  315. 

Gardening,  state  of,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  497. 

Gamier  (the  historian  of  France),  character  of,  63, 
64,  note. 

Gaul  invaded  by  Clovis,  17;  effects  of  its  conquest 
by  the  Franks,  65;  condition  of  the  Roman  na- 
tives of  Gaul,  65,  66. 

Genoa  (republic),  commercial  prosperity  of,  167, 
479 ;  war  with  Venice,  167,  168  ;  decline  of  her 
power,  169  ;  government  of  Genoa,  170;  election 
of  the  first  doge,  ib. ;  subsequent  revolutions, 
171 ;  state  of,  in  the  fifteenth  century,  192;  ac- 
count of  the  bank  of  St.  George  there,  485. 

Gentlemen,  rank  of,  in  the  feudal  system,  85  ;  gen- 
tility of  blood,  how  ascertained,  ib. ;  character 
of,  succeeded  that  of  knights,  519,  520. 

Gentry  (English)  destitute  of  exclusive  privileges 
under  the  Anglo-Norman  kings,  350,  351. 

Germany  (ancient),  political  state  of,  64;  lands 
how  partitioned  by  the  Germans  in  conquered 
provinces,  ib. ;  fiefs  not  inheritable  by  women, 
82,  note ;  comparative  state  of  France  and  Ger- 
many at  the  division  of  Charlemagne's  empire,  92. 

Germany,  when  separated  from  France,  227 ;  the 
sovereignty  of  its  emperors  recognised  by  the 
cities  of  Lombardy,  132;  election  of  Conrad  I., 
227 ;  election  of  the  house  of  Saxony,  ib. ;  of 
Otho  I.,  or  the  Great,  126,  227;  of  Henry  II., 
127,  228 ;  the  house  of  Franconia  : — election  of 
Conrad  II.,  128,  228;  power  of  Henry  III.,  228  ; 
unfortunate  reign  of  Henry  IV.,  228,  229;  he  is 
excommunicated  by  Pope  Gregory  VII.,  229  ;  and 
deposed,  ib. ;  reign  of  Henry  VI.,  231 ;  extinction 
of  the  house  of  Franconia,  and  election  of  Lo- 
thaire,  229  ;  house  of  Swabia  :— election  of  Con- 
rad III.,  230;  and  of  Frederick  Bajjbarossa,  ib. ; 
he  ruins  Henry  the  Lion,  duke  of^Saxony,  ib. ; 
defeats  the  Milanese,  132,  133 ;  violates  the  ca- 
pitulation, 133 ;  is  defeated  by  the  confederated 
cities  of  Lombardy,  135 ;  reign  of  Philip,  231 ; 
and  of  Otho  IV.,  139,  231  ;  turbulent  reign  of 
Frederick  II.,  139—142;  he  is  formally  deposed 

•  at  the  council  of  Lyons,  142,231  ;  consequences 
of  that  council,  231  ;  accession  and  death  of 
Conrad  IV.,  143  ;  relation  of  the  emperors  with 
Italy,  172,  173;  grand  interregnum,  232 ;  Rich- 
ard, earl  of  Cornwall,  chosen  emperor,  ib. ;  his 
character,  ib. ;  state  of  the  Germanic  constitution 
at  this  time,  232—234;  election  of  Rodolph, 
count  of  Hapsburg,  234  ;  his  character,  ib. ;  he 
invests  his  son  Albert  with  the  dutchy  of  Austria, 
ib. ;  state  of  the  empire  after  the  death  of  Ro- 
dolph, 235 ;  reigns  of  the  emperors  of  the  house 
of  Luxembourg,  Henry  VII.  and  Charles  IV., 
236;  golden  bull  of  Charles  IV.,  ib. ;  deposition 
of  Wenceslaus,  236,  237  ;  accession  of  the  house 
of  Austria,  237  ;  reign  of  Albert  II.,  ib.  ;  of  Fred- 
erick III.,  ib. ;  progress  of  free  imperial  cities, 
238  ;  their  leagues,  239  ;  provincial  states  of  the 
empire,  ib.  ;  alienation  of  the  imperial  domain, 
239,  240  ;  accession  of  Maximilian,  and  the  diet 
of  Worms,  240 ;  establishment  of  public  peace, 
ib. ;  institution  and  functions  of  the  imperial 
chamber,  241, 242  ;  establishment  of  circles,  242 ; 
of  the  aulic  council,  ib. ;  limits  of  the  empire, 
243 ;  account  of  the  constitution  of  Bohemia, 
ib. ;  of  the  kingdom  of  Hungary,  244,  245 ;  of 
Svfcsserland  and  its  confederacy,  246—249 ;  em- 
perors of  Germany  anciently  confirmed  the  elec- 
tion of  popes,  280 ;  their  election  afterward  claim- 


ed to  be  confirmed  by  the  popes,  286,  289 ;  inde- 
pendence of  the  empire  established  at  the  diet  of 
Frankfort,  305. 

Ghent,  state  of,  in  the  fourteenth  century,  475 ;  its 
population,  ib.,  note. 

Ghibelins  (faction  of),  origin  of,  230  ;  formed  to 
support  the  imperial  claims  against  the  popes, 
138, 139 ;  duration  of  this  faction,  139,  note ;  their 
decline,  149,  150;  and  temporary  revival,  151. 

Giano  della  Bella,  change  effected  by,  in  the  gov- 
ernment of  Florence,  158. 

Giovanni  di  Vicenza,  character  and  fate  of,  148. 

Glass  windows,  when  first  used,  491. 

Godfrey  of  Boulogne,  king  of  Jerusalem,  notice  of, 
33,  34,  and  note. 

Gold  passed  chiefly  by  weight  in  the  first  ages  of 
the  French  monarchy,  93. 

Golden  Bull,  account  of  the  enactments  of,  236. 

Gothic  architecture,  origin  of,  493,  494,  and  notes. 

Grand  sergeantry,  tenure  by,  explained,  82,  note. 

Gratian's  Decretum,  account  of,  290. 

Greece,  state  of  literature  in,  during  the  fifteenth 
century,  546,  547. 

Greek  language  unknown  in  the  west  of  Europe 
during  the  dark  ages,  with  a  few  exceptions,  545 ; 
its  study  revived  in  the  fourteenth  century,  545, 
546. 

Greek  provinces  of  southern  Italy,  state  of,  in  the1 
ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  128. 

Greek  empire,  state  of,  at  the  rise  of  Mahometan- 
ism,  251,  252 ;  its  revival  in  the  seventh  century, 
254;  crusades  in  its  behalf  against  the  Turks, 
255 ;  progress  of  the  Greeks,  256 ;  conquest  of 
Constantinople  by  the  Latins,  ib. ;  partition  of 
the  Greek  empire,  257 ;  the  Greeks  recover  Con- 
stantinople, ib.  ;  declining  state  of  the  Greek 
empire,  257,  258  ;  danger  of  Constantinople  from 
the  Turks,  259 ;  its  fall,  ib. ;  alarm  excited  by  it 
in  Europe,  259,  260. 

Gregory  of  Tours  (St.),  pious  falsehoods  of,  468, 
and  note. 

Gregory  I.  (pope),  manoeuvres  of,  to  gain  power, 
271 ;  established  the  appellant  jurisdiction  of  the 
see  of  Rome,  ib.,  and  note. 

Gregory  VII.  (Hiklebrand),  pope,  differences  of, 
witli  the  emperor,  Henry  IV.,  281 ;  excommuni- 
cates and  deposes  him,  229,  282  ;  his  humiliating 
treatment  of  the  emperor,  282  ;  driven  from  Rome 
by  Henry  IV.,  283 ;  and  dies  in  exile,  ib. ;  his 
general  conduct  considered,  285,  286. 

Gregory  XII.  (pope),  contested  election  of,  308, 
309  ;  deposed  at  the  council  of  Pisa,  309. 

Guardianship  in  chivalry,  nature  of,  80. 

Guelfs,  faction  of,  origin  of  the  name,  230 ;  support 
of  the  claims  of  the  papal  see,  138,  139  See 
Ghibelins. 

Guesclin  (Bernard  du),  character  of,  46. 

Guiennc,  insurrection  in,  56 ;  its  cause,  ib.,  note. 

Guilds  or  fraternities,  under  the  Anglo-Norman 
government,  account  of,  364,  and  note. 

Guiscard  (Robert),  conquests  of,  in  Italy.  129. 

Guiscard  (Roger)  conquers  Sicily,  129 ;  is  created 
by  Pope  Innocent  II.  king  of  Sicily,  ib. 

Gunpowder,  when  and  by  whom  invented,  184,  and 


H. 

Hanseatic  union,  origin  of,  239,  4Jl4-ks  progress, 
478. 

Hapsburg,  emperors  of  the  house  of: — Rodolph, 
234;  his  successors,  235;  Albert  II.,  237;  Fred- 
erick III.,  ib. 

Hastings  (lord),  a  pensioner  of  France,  58. 

Hawkwood  (Sir  John),  an  English  military  adven- 
turer, account  of,  181 ;  military  tactics  improved 
by  him,  ib. 


INDEX. 


Haxey  (Thomas),  prosecuted  by  Richard  II.  for 
proposing  an  obnoxious  bill  in  parliament,  389  ; 
and  condemned  for  high  treason,  ib. ;  his  life  why 
spared,  ib.,  and  note  ;  his  judgment  afterward  re- 
versed, ib.,  note. 

Henry  II.  elected  emperor  of  Germany,  127,  228. 

Henry  III.  (emperor  of  Germany),  power  of,  228. 

Henry  I V.  (emperor  of  Germany),  unfortunate  reign 
of,  228,  229 ;  differences  of,  with  Pope  Gregory 
VII.,  281  ;  he  is  excommunicated  and  deposed, 
229,  282;  his  deep  humiliation,  282;  drives  the 
pope  into  exile,  283. 

Henry  V.  (emperor  of  Germany),  reign  of,  229 ; 
compromises  the  question  of  ecclesiastical  inves- 
titures with  Calixtus,  283. 

Henry  VII.  (emperor  of  Germany),  reign  of,  236. 

Henry  I.  (king  of  England),  laws  of,  not  compiled 
till  the  reign  of  Stephen,  348. 

Henry  III.  (king  of  England),  state  of  the  constitu- 
tion during  his  reign,  342—344  ;  imprudently  ac- 
cepts the  throne  of  Sicily  for  his  son  Edmund, 
344  ;  subsequent  misery  of  his  kingdom,  ib. ;  the 
royal  prerogative  limited  during  his  reign,  345  ; 
the  commons  first  summoned  to  parliament  in  his 
reign,  366—369. 

Henry  (duke  of  Hereford),  quarrel  of,  with  the 
Duke  of  Norfolk,  391 ;  banished  for  ten  years,  ib. ; 
deposes  Richard  II.,  ib. ;  and  ascends  the  throne 
of  England  by  the  title  of 

Henry  IV.,  392;  claims  the  throne  by  right  of  con- 
quest, ib. ;  reflections  on  his  conduct,  392,  393  ; 
memorable  petition  of  the  house  of  commons  to  j 
him,  396 ;  his  reply,  ib. ;  his  expenditure  con- 
trolled by  the  house  of  commons,  397,  398. 

Henry  V.,  character  of,  at  his  accession  to  the  Eng- 
lish throne,  399 ;  invades  France,  51 ;  gains  the 
battle  of  Azincourt,  ib.,  and  notes;  his  further 
progress,  ib. ;  treaty  of  Troyes,  ib. 

Henry  VI.,  accession  of,  to  the  English  throne,  52 ; 
causes  of  the  success  of  the  English,  ib. ;  disas- 
trous events  of  his  reign,  441 ;  his  mental  de- 
rangement, 444  ;  Duke  of  York  made  protector, 
ih. ;  deposed,  447. 

Henry  the  Lion  (duke  of  Saxony),  fall  of,  230. 

Henry,  count  of  Trastamare  (king  of  Castile),  reign 
of,  204. 

Henry  IV.  (king  of  Castile),  reign  of,  205. 

Heptarchy  (Saxon),  notice  of,  319. 

Heraldic  devices,  origin  of,  85,  86,  and  note. 

Heresy,  statute  against,  in  the  fifth  of  Richard  II., 
not  passed  by  the  house  of  commons,  395. 

Heriots  of  the  Anglo-Saxons,  equivalent  with  the 
feudal  reliefs,  331. 

Hierarchy,  papal  encroachments  on,  274. 

Hilary  (bishop  of  Aries)  deposed  by  Pope  Leo,  271, 
note. 

Hildebrand,  archdeacon  of  Rome,  character  of,  281 ; 
elected  pope,  ib.  See  Gregory  VII. 

Homage,  ceremony  of,  76 ;  difference  between 
homage  per  peragium  and  liege  homage,  ib.  note ; 
and  between  liege  homage  and  simple  homage,  ib. 

Homme  de  pooste,  synonymous  to  villein,  88,  89, 
and  note. 

House  of  Commons,  when  constituted  a  separate 
house,  371 ;  knights  of  the  shire,  when  first  cho- 
sen for,  358—360 ;  and  by  whom,  360—362  ;  bur- 
gesses, when  summoned,  366—369  ;  how  elect- 
ed, 406  ;  causes  of  their  being  summoned,  370, 
371 ;  proper  business  of  the  house,  371,  372  ;  pe- 
tition for  redress  of  grievances  in  the  reign  of 
Edward  II.,  372 ;  their  assent  pretended  to  the 
deposition  of  Edward  II.,  373 ;  establish  several 
rights  during  the  reign  of  Edward  III.,  ib. ;  re- 
monstrate against  levying  money  without  con- 
sent, 373,  376 ;  their  consent  necessary  in  legis- 
lation, 376 ;  their  advice  required  in  matters  of 
war  and  peace,  378,  379 ;  their  right  to  inquire 


into  public  abuses,  379 ;  great  increase  of  their 
power  during  the  minority  of  Richard  II.,  381 ; 
account  of  their  remonstrances,  381—383;  re- 
flections on  their  assumption  of  power  during  his 
reign,  384 ;  request  the  king  to  appoint  a  com- 
mission of  reform,  385,  386  ;  remarks  on  this  pro- 
ceeding, 386,  387;  claim  the  right  of  granting 
and  appropriating  supplies,  394  ;  attempt  to  make 
supply  depend  on  redress  of  grievances,  ib. ;  le- 
gislative rights  of  this  house  established,  395  ; 
resist  infringements  of  that  right,  395,  396  ;  be- 
gan to  concern  themselves  with  petitions  to  the 
lords  or  to  the  council  in  the  reign  of  Henry  V., 
397;  interfere  with  the  royal  expenditure,  ib.  ; 
consulted  on  all  public  affairs,  399  ;  impeach  the 
king's  ministers  for  malfeasance,  400  ;  establish 
the  privilege  of  parliament,  400,  401  ;  and  the 
right  of  determining  contested  elections,  405, 406 ; 
fluctuations  in  the  number  of  its  members,  409. 

House  of  Lords,  constituent  members  of :— spirit- 
ual peers,  355  ;  lay  peers,  earls,  and  barons,  356, 
357 ;  when  formed  into  a  separate  house,  371 ; 
their  consent  necessary  in  legislation,  37S  ;  their 
advice  required  in  questions  of  war  and  peace, 
378,  379 ;  claimed  a  negative  voice  in  questions 
of  peace,  379 ;  declared  that  no  money  can  be 
levied  without  the  consent  of  parliament,  393. 

Houses  (English)  chiefly  built  with  timber,  489; 
when  built  with  bricks,  ib. ;  meanness  of  the  or- 
dinary mansion-houses,  489,  490;  how  built  in 
France  and  Italy,  490. 

Hume  (Mr.),  mistakes  of,  concerning  the  English 
constitution,  corrected,  427,  428,  and  note,  429. 

Hundreds,  division  of,  323,  324 ;  whether  they  com- 
prised free  families  rather  than  free  proprietors, 
324. 

Hungarians,  ravages  of,  in  France  and  Germany,  25. 

Hungary,  sketch  of  the  history  of,  244,  245  ;  reigns 
of  Sigismund  and  Uladislaus,  245  ;  of  Ladislaus 
and  the  regency  of  Hunniades,  ib. ;  of  Matthias 
Corvinus,  246. 

Hungerford  (Sir  Thomas),  speaker  of  the  house  of 
commons-,  381. 

Hunniades  (John),  regent  of  Hungary,  account  of, 
245,  note ;  and  of  his  administration,  ib. ;  his 
death,  ib. 

Huss  (John),  remarks  on  the  violation  of  his  safe 
conduct,  312,  note. 

Hussite  war  in  Bohemia,  account  of,  244. 

Hussites  of  Bohemia,  tenets  of,  508,  509. 


Ignorance  prevalent  in  Europe  in  consequence  of 
the  disuse  of  Latin,  459,  460. 

Imilda  de'  Lambertazzi,  melancholy  fate  of,  147. 

Immunities  claimed  by  the  clergy,  298 ;  attempts 
to  repress  them  in  England,  299,  300  ;  less  vig- 
orous in  France,  300,  301. 

Imperial  chamber,  origin,  powers,  and  jurisdiction 
of,  241,  242. 

Impeachment  (parliamentary),  first  instance  of,  in 
Lord  Latimer,  385 ;  of  the  Earl  of  Suffolk,  ib. ; 
of  ministers,  when  fully  established,  400. 

Imperial  cities  of  Germany,  origin  and  progress  of, 
238, 239  ;  account  of  the  leagues  formed  by  them, 
239. 

Imperial  domains,  alienation  of,  239,  240. 

Incidents  (feudal).  See  Aids,  Escheats,  Fines, 
Marriages,  Reliefs,  Wardships. 

Innocent  III.  (pope),  character  of,  137;  conquers 
the  ecclesiastical  state,  138 ;  the  league  of  Tus- 
cany formed  to  support  the  claims  of  the  see  of 
Rome,  ib. ;  success  of,  287 ;  his  extraordinary 
pretensions,  ib. ;  sometimes  exerted  his  influence 
beneficially,  2S8  instances  of  his  tyranny,  288. 
289. 


560 


INDEX. 


Insurance  (marine),  why  permitted,  485,  note. 

Interdicts  (papal),  origin  and  effects  of,  276. 

Interest  of  money,  high  rates  of,  483,  484. 

Investitures,  different  kinds  of,  76 ;  nature  of  eccle- 
siastical investitures,  280 ;  contests  respecting 
such  investitures  between  the  popes  and  empe- 
rors of  Germany,  281,  282;  these  disputes  com- 
promised by  the  concordat  of  Calixtus,  283  ;  simi- 
lar termination  of  these  disputes  in  England,  284. 

Isidore,  false  decretals  of,  273,  274,  and  notes. 

Italy,  northern  part  of,  invaded  by  the  Lombards, 
20 ;  history  of  Italy  from  the  extinction  of  the 
Carlovingian  emperors  to  the  invasion  of  Naples 
by  Charles  VIII.,  125 ;  state  of  that  country  after 
the  death  of  Charles  the  Fat,  at  the  close  of  the 
ninth  century  and  the  former  part  of  the  tenth, 
125,  126 ;  coronation  of  Otho  the  Great,  126 ;  in- 
ternal state  of  Rome,  ib. ;  Henry  II.  and  Ardoin, 
127 ;  election  of  Conrad  II.,  128  ;  Greek  provin- 
ces of  Southern  Italy,  ib. ;  settlement  of  the  Nor- 
mans at  Aversa,  ib. ;  conquests  of  Robert  Guis- 
card,  129  ;  papal  investitures  of  Naples,  ib. ;  prog- 
ress of  the  Lombard  cities,  ib. ;  their  acquisi- 
tions of  territory,  131  ;  their  mutual  animosities, 
132;  sovereignty  of  the  emperors,  ib. ;  Frederick 
Barbarossa,  ib. ;  diet  of  Roncaglia,  133  ;  capture 
and  destruction  of  Milan,  134 ;  league  of  Lom- 
bardy  against  Frederick,  ib. ;  battle  of  Legnano, 
135 ;  peace  of  Constance,  ib. ;  affairs  of  Sicily, 
136  ;  Innocent  III.,  137 ;  bequest  of  the  Countess 
Matilda,  ib. ;  ecclesiastical  state  reduced  by  In- 
nocent III.,  137,  138;  league  of  Tuscany,  138; 
factions  of  the  Guelfs  and  Ghibelins,  ib. ;  reign 
of  Otho  IV.,  139;  of  Frederick  II.,  ib. ;  his  wars 
with  the  Lombards,  140,  141  ;  arrangement  of 
the  Lombard  cities,  141 ;  council  of  Lyons,  142  ; 
accession  of  Conrad  IV.,  143 ;  causes  of  the  suc- 
cess of  the  Lombard  cities,  ib. ;  their  internal 
governments,  144;  and  dissensions,  146;  notice 
of  Giovanni  di  Vicenza,  148 ;  state  of  Italy  after 
the  extinction  of  the  house  of  Swabia,  149 ;  con- 

3uest  of  Naples  by  Charles,  count  of  Anjou,  ib. ; 
ecline  of  the  Ghibelin  party,  149,  150  ;  the  Lom- 
bard cities  become  severally  subject  to  princes  or 
usurpers,  150,  151 ;  the  kings  of  Naples  aim  at 
the  command  of  Italy,  151  ;  relations  of  the  em- 
pire with  Italy,  152;  cession  of  Romagna  to  the 
popes,  153;  internal  state  of  Rome,  153 — 155; 
state  of  the  cities  of  Tuscany,  especially  of  Flor- 
^nce,  156—166;  and  of  Pisa,  166;  state  of  Ge- 
noa, 167;  and  of  Venice,  167 — 177;  state  of 
Lombardy  at  the  beginning  of  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 177,  178 ;  wars  of  Milan  and  Venice,  178  ; 
change  in  the  military  system  of  Italy,  ib. ;  mer- 
cenary soldiers  and  military  adventurers  employ- 
ed, 178—181 ;  school  of  Italian  generals,  181, 182 ; 
defensive  arms  of  the  Italian  armies  in  the  fif- 
teenth century,  182 — 184;  change  in  the  mili- 
tary system  of  Europe  by  the  invention  of  gun- 
powder, 184;  rivalry  of  Sforza  and  Braccio,  185, 
186 ;  affairs  of  Naples,  186 ;  rebellion  of  Sicily 
against  Charles  of  Anjou,  ib. ;  Robert,  king  of 
Naples,  187  ;  disputed  succession  to  the  throne, 
and  the  civil  wars  in  consequence,  187, 188 ;  state 
of  Italy  in  the  latter  part  of  the  fifteenth  century, 
192 ;  rise  of  the  family  of  Medici,  193  ;  Lorenzo 
de'  Medici,  194 ;  pretensions  of  France  upon  Na- 
ples, 196 ;  decline  of  the  papal  influence  in  Italy, 
317,  318 ;  increase  of  domestic  expenditure  du- 
ring the  fourteenth  century,  485,  486 ;  state  of 
domestic  manners  during  the  same  period,  487 ; 
state  of  agriculture,  496,  497 ;  and  gardening, 
497 ;  state  of  Italian  literature,  534—539. 

J. 

Jacquerie  (or  peasantry),  insurrection  of,  43. 


Janizaries,  account  of  the  institution  of,  260. 

Jerusalem,  kingdom  of,  military  force  of,  34 ;  sub- 
verted by  Saladin,  34,  35 ;  singular  custom  there 
relative  to  the  marriage  of  vassals,  81. 

Jews,  exactions  from,  by  the  kings  of  France,  95  ; 
their  usury,  ib.  ;  ordinance  against  them,  100 ; 
expelled  from  France,  95 ;  persecutions  of  them 
in  the  dark  ages,  468, 484 ;  account  of  their  money 
dealings,  484,  485 ;  causes  of  their  decline,  484. 

Joanna  (queen  of  Naples)  suspected  of  murdering 
her  husband  Andrew,  187;  her  unhappy  reign, 
188  ;  deposed  and  put  to  death,  ib. 

Joanna  II.  (queen  of  Naples),  189 ;  adopts  Alfonso 
of  Aragon  for  her  successor,  ib. ;  revokes  the 
adoption  in  favour  of  Louis  of  Anjou,  190 ;  her 
death,  ib. 

John  (king  of  England)  loses  Normandy,  28,  29  ; 
his  exactions  and  tyranny,  341,  and  note;  the 
great  charter  of  liberties  extorted  from  him,  ib. ; 
abstract  of  its  provisions,  341,  342. 

John  (king  of  France),  character  of,  40,  41 ;  con- 
cludes the  treaty  of  Calais,  43,  44. 

John  II.  (king  of  Castile),  reign  of,  204. 

John  of  Luxembourg,  cruelty  of,  55. 

John  of  Procida  successfully  plots  the  rebellion  of 
Sicily  from  Charles  of  Anjou,  186. 

John  VIII.  (pope),  insolent  conduct  of,  to  Charles 
the  Fat,  king  of  France,  277 ;  pretends  a  right 
of  choosing  the  emperor,  ib. 

Jubilee,  when  first  celebrated  at  Rome,  302  ;  its 
origin  and  nature,  ib.,  note. 

Judges,  answers  of,  to  certain  questions  proposed 
by  Richard  II.,  387;  punished  for  the  same  by 
parliament,  ib. ;  their  answers  pronounced  to  be 
just  and  legal  by  a  subsequent  parliament,  390. 

Judicial  polity  of  France,  successive  changes  of, 
107  ;  original  scheme  of  jurisdiction  in  the  time 
of  Charlemagne,  ib. ;  this  supplanted  by  the  feu- 
dal territorial  jurisdiction,  108  ;  its  divisions  and 
administration,  109  ;  trial  by  combat,  ib. ;  estab- 
lishments of  St.  Louis,  110;  royal  tribunals,  and 
progress  of  their  jurisdiction,  111 ;  royal  council 
or  court  of  peers,  112 ;  parliament  of  Paris,  112 — 
114. 

Jurisdiction  (ecclesiastical),  progress  of,  265  ;  arbi- 
trative,  ib. ;  coercive  over  the  clergy  in  civil  mat- 
ters, ib. ;  and  also  in  criminal  suits,  266  ;  its  rapid 
progress  in  the  twelfth  century,  297,  298;  re- 
strained in  the  fourteenth  century,  316 ;  account 
of  some  particular  territorial  jurisdictions  in 
England,  352,  353,  note. 

Jury,  origin  and  progress  of  trial  by,  among  the 
Anglo-Saxons,  325—327. 

Jurisfirma.     See  Firma  de  derecho. 

Justice  (administration  of)  in  Castile,  213, 214  ;  fre- 
quently violated  by  some  of  the  kings,  214. 

(in  England),  venal,  under  the  Norman 

kings,  337 — 339  ;  prohibited  to  be  sold  by  Magna 
Charta,  342. 

Justices  of  assize,  when  instituted,  346 ;  their  func- 
tions, ib. 

Justiciary  of  Aragon,  office  of,  when  instituted, 
220 ;  his  power,  220—223  ;  duration  of  his  office, 
223 ;  responsibility  of  this  magistrate,  ib. 

Justinian's  institutes  and  pandects  universally  stud- 
ied, 521,  522. 

K. 

Karismians  invade  Asia,  257. 

Khalifs  of  Damascus,  account  of,  252 ;  of  Bagdad, 

252,  253. 

Kings  of  Aragon,  power  of,  limited,  218,  219. 
King's  court  in  England,  jurisdiction  and  powers 

of,  345, 346 ;  what  offences  cognizable  there,  352, 

353,  note. 
Kings  of  France,  anciently  elected,  97 ;  their  reve- 


nues,  94—96 ;  their  limited  power,  68 ;  especially 
in  legislation,  99  ;  gradual  increase  of  their  pow- 
er, 68  ;  legislative  assemblies  held  by  them,  96  ; 
royal  council  of  the  kings  of  the  third  race,  98 ; 
cours  plenieres  held  by  them,  99  ;  subsequent  in- 
crease of  the  legislative  power  of  the  crown,  100 ; 
states-general  convoked  by  various  kings,  101 — 
107;  royal  tribunals  established  by  them,  111 ; 
progress  of  them,  112 ;  augmentation  of  their  do- 
mains, 115. 

Knighthood,  privileges  of,  517. 

Knights  banneret,  and  knights  bachelors,  518,  519. 

Knights,  when  summoned  to  parliament,  359,  360  ; 
whether  elected  by  freeholders  in  general  360, 
361. 

Knights  of  shires,  by  whom  chosen  for  parliament, 
406 ;  amount  of  their  wages,  and  how  paid,  407, 
408. 

Knights'  fees,  divisions  of  lands  into,  invented  by 
William  the  Conqueror,  77,  note;  their  value,  ib. 

Knights-templars,  institution  of  the  order  of,  35  ; 
their  pride  and  avarice,  ib. ;  the  kingdom  of  Ara- 
gon  bequeathed  to  them,  201. 

L. 

Labourers,  hired,  when  first  mentioned  in  the  Eng- 
lish statute-book,  438  ;  their  wages  regulated, 
ib. ;  were  sometimes  impressed  into  the  royal 
service,  424 ;  better  paid  in  England  in  the  four- 
teenth century  than  now,  500,  501. 

Lancaster  (house  of),  progress  of  the  English  con- 
stitution under,  393—410. 

Lancastrians,  civil  wars  of,  with  the  Yorkists,  447. 

Lances,  mode  of  reckoning  cavalry  by,  179. 

Lands,  possession  of,  constituted  nobility  in  the 
empire  of  the  Franks,  69,  70  ;  inalienable  under 
the  feudal  system,  without  the  lord's  consent,  78  ; 
partition  of,  in  Gaul,  &c.,  64  ;  in  Germany,  235 ; 
descent  of  lands  in  England  during  the  Anglo- 
Saxon  and  Anglo-Norman  kings,  347. 

Lands.  See  Allodial,  Salic,  and  Fiscal,  Benefices, 
Alienation. 

Landwehr,  or  insurrectional  militia,  antiquity  of, 
120,  note. 

Languedoc,  affairs  of,  in  the  twelfth  century,  29 ;  de- 
vastated by  the  crusade  against  the  Albigeois,  ib. 

Laon,  circumstances  attending  the  charter  of.  117, 
118. 

Latimer  (lord),  the  first  person  impeached  by  par- 
liament, 385,  386. 

Latin  language,  the  parent  of  French,  Spanish,  and 
Italian,  454  ;  its  extent,  ib.,  note ;  its  ancient  pro- 
nunciation, 454,  455;  corrupted  by  the  populace, 
455 ;  and  the  provincials,  ib. ;  its  pronunciation 
no  longer  regulated  by  quantity,  457 ;  change  of 
Latin  into  Romance,  458 ;  its  corruption  in  Italy, 
459  ;  ignorance  consequent  on  its  disuse,  459, 460. 

Latins,  conquests  of,  in  Syria,  33 ;  decline  of  the 
Latin  principalities  in  the  east,  34. 

Laura,  the  mistress  of  Petrarch,  account  of,  538, 
539,  and  notes. 

Law-books  (feudal),  account  of,  82,  83. 

Laws,  distinctions  of,  in  France  and  Italy,  66,  67  ; 
of  the  Anglo-Norman  kings,  340  ;  character  and 
defects  of  the  English  laws,  348,  349.  See  Feu- 
dal, Ripuarian,  and  Salique  Law. 

League  of  the  public  weal  formed  in  France,  57  ; 
of  Lombardy,  134 ;  of  Tuscany,  138 ;  quadruple 
league  of  1455, 191 ;  of  the  free  imperial  cities  of 
Germany,  239. 

Learning.     See  Literature. 

Legates  (papal),  authority  of,  286 ;  insolence  of,  ib. 

Legislation  (general),  first  measures  of,  in  France, 
100. 

Legislation,  right  of,  in  the  Norman  kings  of  Eng- 
land, 339. 
Nn 


INDEX.  561 

Legislative  assemblies^  original,  in  France,  96 ; 
held  by  Charlemagne,  97 ;  mode  of  proceeding 
at  them,  ib. ;  royal  council  of  the  kings  of  the 
third  race,  98  ;  occasional  assemblies  held  by  the 
barons,  99;  states-general  convoked  by  Philip 
the  Fair,  101  ;  states-general  of  1355  and  1356, 
103  ;  states-general  under  Charles  VII.,  105 ;  pro- 
vincial states^  106 ;  states-general  of  Tours,  106, 
107. 

Legislative  authority  in  France,  substitutes  for,  99 j 
of  the  crown,  increase  of,  100. 

Leon  (kingdom  of),  when  founded,  198 ;  finally  uni- 
ted with  that  of  Castile,  201. 

Liberi  homines,  whether  different  from  thaini,  321, 
note. 

Liberties  of  England  purchased  by  money  rather 
than  with  the  blood  of  our  forefathers,  430. 

Liberty  of  speech  claimed  by  the  house  of  com- 
mons, 402. 

Libraries,  account  of  the  principal,  in  the  four- 
teenth and  fifteenth  centuries,  543,  and  notes. 

Linen  paper,  when  and  where  invented,  542,  543, 
and  note, 

Literature,  causes  of  the  decline  of,  in  the  latter 
period  of  the  Roman  empire,  451 ;  neglect  of 
heathen  literature  by  the  Christian  church,  453  ; 
the  spread  of  superstition,  ib. ;  inroads  of  the  bar- 
barous nations,  453,  454 ;  corruption  of  the  Latin 
language,  454  ;  ignorance  consequent  on  the  dis- 
use of  Latin,  459  ;  want  of  eminent  literary  men, 
461 ;  literature  preserved  by  religion,  ib. ;  influ- 
ence of  literature  in  the  improvement  of  society 
considered,  520;  civil  law,  ib. ;  public  schools 
and  universities,  523  ;  scholastic  philosophy,  526  ; 
cultivation  of  the  new  languages,  529,  530 ;  po- 
etical character  of  the  troubadours,  530  ;  north- 
era  French  poetry  and  prose,  531 ;  Norman  ro* 
mances  and  tales,  532  ;  Spanish  language  and 
literature,  534  ;  Italian  literature,  ib. ;  English 
literature,  540 ;  revival  of  ancient  learning,  542  ; 
state  of  learning  in  Greece,  546  ;  literature  not 
much  improved  beyond  Italy,  548 ;  promoted  by 
the  invention  of  printing,  548,  549. 

Liveries  anciently  given  to  the  retainers  of  noble 
families,  432,  433,  note. 

Lollards,  tenets  and  practices  of,  508. 

Lombards,  invade  Italy,  20  ;  reduce  the  exarchate 
of  Ravenna,  ib. ;  are  defeated  by  Pepin,  king  of 
France,  ib. ;  their  kingdom  conquered  by  Charle- 
magne, ib.  ft 

Lombard  bankers,  account  of,  484,  485. 

Lombard  cities,  progress  of,  towards  republics,  129 
— 131 ;  their  acquisitions  of  territory,  131 ;  their 
mutual  animosities,  132 ;  recognised  the  nominal 
sovereignty  of  the  emperors  of  Germany,  ib. ;  the 
league  of  Lombardy  formed,  134;  the  confedera- 
ted cities  defeat  the  Emperor  Frederick  Barba- 
rossa,  135 ;  secure  their  liberties  by  the  peace  of 
Constance,  ib. ;  arrangement  of  the  Lombard 
cities  according  to  the  factions  they  supported, 
141,  142  ;  causes  of  their  success,  143  ;  their 
population,  ib. ;  mode  of  warfare  which  then  ob* 
tained,  144 ;  their  internal  government,  144 — 146 ; 
and  dissensions,  146 — 148;  Lombard  cities  be- 
come severally  subject  to  princes  or  usurpers, 
150 ;  state  of  Lombardy  in  the  middle  of  the  four- 
teenth century,  151,  152 ;  and  at  the  beginning 
of  the  fifteenth  century,  177, 

Longchamp  (William),  bishop  of  Ely,  banished 
from  England  by  the  barons,  341. 

London,  state  of,  before  the  Norman  conquest,  365 ; 
power  and  opulence  of  its  citizens  subsequent  to 
that  event,  365,  366 ;  conjectures  respecting  its 
population  in  the  fourteenth  century,  366,  note. 

Lord  and  vassal,  mutual  duties  of,  75  ;  consent  of 
the  lord  necessary  to  enable  a  vassal  to  alienate 
lands,  78. 


562 


INDEX. 


Lords.    See  House  of  Lords. 

Lothaire,  elected  emperor  of  Germany,  229,  230  ; 
excommunicated  by  Pope  Gregory  IV.,  275;  ab- 
solved by  Adrian  II.,  ib. 

Louis  of  Bavaria  (emperor  of  Germany),  contests 
of,  with  the  popes,  304,  305. 

Louis  the  Debonair,  ascends  the  throne  of  France, 
23  ;  his  misfortunes  and  errors,  23, 24 ;  partitions 
the  empire  among  his  sons,  24. 

Louis  IV.  (king  of  France)  reproved  for  his  igno- 
rance, 459,  note. 

Louis  VI.,  reign  of,  27. 

Louis  VII.,  reign  of,  28. 

Louis  VIII.,  conquers  Poitou,  29;  takes  the  cross 
against  the  Albigeois,  ib. ;  ordinance  of,  against 
the  Jews,  100. 

Louis  IX.  (St.),  reign  of,  30 ;  review  of  his  charac- 
ter—its excellences,  ib. ;  defects,  31;  supersti- 
tion and  intolerance,  ib. ;  his  crusades  against  the 
Turks,  35  ;  his  death,  ib. ;  account  of  his  estab- 
lishments, 110,  111  ;  provisions  of  his  pragmatic 
sanction,  295. 

Louis  X.,  short  reign  of,  37 ;  state  of  France  at  his 
death, ib. 

Louis  XL,  character  of,  56,  57;  crushes  the  less 
powerful  vassals,  57,  58  ;  avoids  a  war  with  Eng- 
land, 58 ;  claims  the  succession  of  Burgundy,  60 ; 
his  conduct  on  this  occasion,  60,  61 ;  sickness 
and  wretched  death,  61 ;  instances  of  his  super- 
stition, 61,  note,  and  62. 

Louis  (duke  of  Anjou)  invades  Naples,  188. 

Lower  classes,  improvements  in  the  condition  of, 
502. 

Luxembourg,  emperors  of  the  house  of,  Henry  VII., 
236;  Charles  IV.,  ib.;  Wenceslaus,  236,  237. 

Lyons,  council  of,  depose  the  emperor  Frederick  II., 
142,  143  ;  consequences  of  that  council,  231,232. 

M. 

Madox  (Mr.),  theory  of,  on  the  nature  of  baronies, 
357 ;  observations  thereon,  357,  358. 

Magna  Charta,  notice  of  the  provisions  of,  341,  342 ; 
confirmed  by  various  sovereigns,  343. 

Mahomet  II.  captures  Constantinople,  259. 

Maintenance  of  suits,  432. 

Mandats  (papal),  nature  of,  294,  295. 

Manorial  jurisdiction,  extent  and  powers  of,  352, 
353,  note. 

Mbnichees,  tenets  of,  503  ;  their  tenets  held  by  the 
Albigenses,  504,  505,  and  notes. 

Manifestation,  nature  of  the  process  of,  in  the  law 
of  Aragon,  221,  222,  and  notes. 

Manners  (domestic)  of  Italy  in  the  fourteenth  cen- 
tury, 486,  487;  France  and  Germany,  487;  re- 
semblance between  chivalrous  and  oriental  man- 
ners, 515. 

Manufactures,  state  of,  in  the  middle  ages,  472 ;  of 
Flanders,  474  ;  of  England,  476 ;  of  the  northern 
provinces  of  France,  477 ;  of  Germany,  ib. ;  of 
Italy,  479,  480. 

Manumission  of  serfs  or  slaves,  progress  of,  90,  91 ; 
and  of  villeins  in  England,  440. 

Manuscripts,  transcription  of,  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury promoted  the  revival  of  literature,  544 ;  in- 
dustry of  Petrarch,  Poggio,  and  others  in  finding 
and  copying  them,  ib. 

Marc  (St.),  observations  on  the  Italian  history  of, 
125,  note. 

Margaret  (queen  of  Henry  VI.),  violent  conduct  of, 
446. 

Mariner's  compass,  when  and  by  whom  invented, 
481,  and  notes. 

Maritime  laws  during  the  middle  ages,  account  of, 
481—483. 

Marriage,  custom  relative  to,  in  the  feudal  system, 
81 ;  prohibited  to  the  clergy,  278 ;  but  continued, 


especially  in  England,  in  defiance  of  the  papal 
prohibitions,  ib. ;  account  of  the  papal  dispensa- 
tion of  marriage,  292 ;  within  what  degrees  pro- 
hibited, ib. 

Marshal.     See  Earl  Marshal. 

Martel  (Charles),  king  of  France,  defeats  the  Sara- 
cens, 19. 

Martin  V.  (pope)  dissolves  the  council  of  Con- 
stance, 310. 

Mary  (the  Virgin),  superstitious  devotion  to,  465, 
466,  and  notes. 

Mary  of  Burgundy,  territories  of,  claimed  by  Louis 
XL,  60;  his  conduct  towards  her,  60,  61 ;  mar- 
ries Maximilian  of  Austria,  61. 

Matthias  Corvinus  (king  of  Hungary),  reign  of,  246. 

Matilda  (countess),  bequest  of,  to  the  see  of  Rome, 
137. 

Maximilian  (emperor  of  Germany),  reign  of,  240 — 
242. 

Mayors  of  the  palace  of  the  French  kings,  their 
power,  19,  69. 

Medici  family,  rise  of,  193  ;  Cosmo  de'  Medici,  the 
first  citizen  of  Florence,  ib. ;  his  administration, 
194;  government  of  Lorenzo  de'  Medici,  ib. ;  his 
character,  195;  and  government,  195,  196. 

Mediterranean,  origin  of  English  trade  with,  478, 
and  note;  nature  of  the  intercourse  between  the 
Mediterranean  traders  and  England,  479  ;  ac- 
count of  the  principal  trading  towns  on  the  Med- 
iterranean, ib. 

Members  of  parliament,  wages  of,  and  how  paid, 
407,  408 ;  numbers  of,  irregular,  409,  410.  See 
also  Election,  Privilege  of  Parliament. 

Mendicant  orders,  origin  and  progress  of,  291  ;  a 
chief  support  of  the  papal  supremacy,  291,  292. 

Mercenary  troops,  when  first  employed,  121  ;  em- 
ployed both  in  the  French  and  English  armies, 
122  ;  their  wages,  ib.,  note ;  employed  by  the  Ve- 
netians, 178  ;  and  other  states  of  Italy,  178,  179  ; 
account  of  the  "companies  of  adventure"  formed 
by  them,  180 ;  Italian  mercenary  troops  formed 
in  the  fourteenth  century,  182;  employed  by  the 
republics  of  Florence  and  Venice,  ib. 

Merchants,  encouragements  given  to,  by  Edward 
III.,  476;  instances  of  their  opulence,  478. 

Merovingian  dynasty,  successions  of,  18;  their  de- 
generacy, 19 ;  deposed  by  the  mayors  of  the  pal- 
ace, ib. 

Middle  ages,  the  term  defined,  451. 

Milan,  civil  feuds  in,  151 ;  finally  subdued  by  the 
Visconti,  ib. ;  erected  into  a  dutchy,  152;  wars 
of  the  dukes  of  Milan  with  the  republic  of  Ven- 
ice, 178  ;  is  conquered  by  Francisco  Sforza,  185. 

Milanese,  refused  to  acknowledge  bishops  whom 
they  disliked,  130,  and  note ;  their  city  besieged 
and  captured  by  Frederick  Barbarossa,  133 ;  who 
violates  the  capitulation  he  had  given  them,  ib. ; 
they  renew  the  war,  are  defeated,  and  their  city 
destroyed,  133,  134. 

Military  orders,  when  instituted,  201 ;  account  of 
those  instituted  in  Spam,  ib. 

Military  service,  limitations  of,  under  the  feudal 
system,  77 ;  who  were  excused  from  it,  ib. ;  rates 
of  pecuniary  compensation  established  for  default 
of  attendance,  ib. ;  military  service  of  feudal  ten- 
ants commuted  for  money,  120 ;  connexion  of 
military  services  with  knighthood,  518. 

Ministers  of  the  kings  of  England  impeached  by 
parliament,  400. 

Miracles  (pretended)  of  the  church  of  Rome,  465 ; 
mischiefs  arising  from,  ib. 

Missi  regii,  functions  of,  108,  and  note. 

Mocenigo  (doge  of  Venice),  dying  advice  of,  to  hi» 
countrymen,  177. 

Moguls  of  Timur,  incursions  of,  258. 

Mahomet,  first  appearance  of,  249 ;  causes  of  hw 
success,  249, 250 ;  principles  of  the  religion  taught 


INDEX, 


563 


by  him,  219 — 251 ;  conquests  of  his  followers. 
251. 

Monarchy  (French),  how  far  anciently  elective. 
97,  98. 

Monasteries,  mischiefs  of,  466,  467 ;  ignorance  and 
jollity  their  usual  characteristics,  543,  note. 

Money,  privilege  of  coining,  enjoyed  by  the  French 
vassals,  93  ;  little  money  coined  except  for  small 
payments,  ib.,  note  ;  regulations  of  various  kings 
concerning  the  exercise  of  this  privilege,  ib. ;  the 
right  of  debasing  money  claimed  by  Philip  the 
Fair,  ib.,  and  note  ;  debasing  money  a  source  of 
the  revenue  of  the  kings  of  France,  95,  96. 

Money,  levying  of,  in  England,  prohibited  without 
the  consent  of  parliament,  393,  394 ;  changes  in 
the  value  of,  497—500. 

Money-bills,  power  of  originating,  vested  in  the 
house  of  commons,  402,  404. 

Monks,  not  distinguished  for  their  charity  in  the 
dark  ages,  466,  note ;  their  vices,  467,  468 ;  im- 
morality of  the  monkish  historians,  468,  note. 

Montfort  (Simon  de),  character  of,  29. 

Moors  of  Spain,  gradually  lose  their  conquests  in 
that  country,  198—201;  their  expulsion,  why 
long  delayed,  202. 

Morals,  degraded  state  of,  in  the  dark  ages,  469, 
470 ;  improved  state  of  the  moral  character  of 
Europe  towards  the  close  of  that  period,  501 ;  the 
morals  of  chivalry  not  always  the  most  pure,  513. 

Mortmain,  alienations  of  land  in,  restrained,  301. 

Muratori,  observations  on  the  historical  works  of, 
125,  126,  notes. 

Murder,  commuted  for  pecuniary  consideration  in 
the  feudal  system,  66;  when  made  capital,  ib., 
note;  antiquity  of  compositions  for  murder,  94, 
note. 

N. 

Naples,  investiture  of  the  kingdom  of,  conferred  by 
the  popes,  129;  conquered  by  Charles  of  Anjou, 
149 ;  disputed  succession  to  the  throne  on  the 
death  of  Charles  II.,  187 ;  murder  of  Andrew, 
king  of  Naples,  ib. ;  reign  of  Joanna,  187,  188  ; 
Naples  invaded  by  Louis,  duke  of  Anjou,  188 ; 
reign  of  Ladislaus,  189 ;  of  Joanna  II.,  ib. ;  she 
adopts  Alfonso  of  Aragon  for  her  heir,  ib. ;  re- 
vokes the  appointment,  and  adopts  Louis  of  An- 
jou, 190  ;  Alfonso  of  Aragon,  king  of  Naples,  ib. ; 
he  is  succeeded  by  his  son  Ferdinand,  191 ;  pre- 
tensions of  Charles  VIII.  upon  the  kingdom  of 
Naples,  196,  197. 

Navarre  (kingdom  of)»  when  founded,  198. 

New  Forest,  devastated  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
334. 

Nicolas  II.  (pope),  decree  of,  respecting  the  elec- 
tion of  pontiffs,  281. 

Nobility  (Aragonese),  privileges  of,  218. 

Nobility,  origin  of,  in  France,  69  ;  was  founded  on 
the  possession  of  land  or  civil  employment,  69, 
70 ;  different  classes  of,  85,  86  ;  their  privileges, 
86,  93,  et  neq. ;  how  communicated,  85 ;  letters 
of  nobility  when  first  granted,  87  ;  different  orders 
of,  ib. ;  pride  and  luxury  of  the  French  nobility, 
43,  note. 

—  (Castilian),  confederacies  of,  for  obtaining 
redress  of  grievances,  215. 

(English),  influence  of,  from  the  state  of 

manners,  432 ;  patronised  robbers,  433,  434. 

(German),  state  of,  in  the  thirteenth  cen- 
tury, 231. 

Norfolk  (Mowbray,  duke  of),  quarrel  of,  with  the 
Duke  of  Hereford,  391  ;  banished  for  life,  ib. 

Normans,  ravages  of,  in  England  and  France,  25, 

26  ;  finally  settled  in  the  province  of  Normandy, 

26;  settlement  of  at  Aversa,  in  Italy,  128  ;  they 

conquer  Apulia  and  Sicily,  129 ;  account  of  the 

N  n2 


Norman  romances  and  tales,  532  ;  effects  of  the 
Norman  conquest  on  the  English  language,  540. 
Normandy  (dukes  of),  their  pnde  and  power,  28  ; 
this  province  conquered  by  Philip  Augustus, 
king  of  France,  ib. 

O. 

Oleron,  laws  of,  482. 

Ordeal,  trial  by,  in  use  in  the  time  of  Henry  I.,  king 
of  England,  347,  and  note. 

Ordinances,  in  what  respects  different  from  stat- 
utes, 376,  377. 

Orleans,  siege  of,  by  the  English,  53  ;  raised  by 
Joan  of  Arc,  ib. ;  her  cruel  death,  ib. 

,  duke  of,  murdered  by  the  Duke  of  Burgun- 
dy, 49 ;  civil  wars  between  the  two  factions,  49, 
50. 

Otho  the  Great  elected  emperor,  126,  227. 

IV.,  reign  of,  139,231. 

Ottoman  dynasty,  account  of,  258. 

Oxford  University,  account  of,  524. 

P. 

Palestine,  accounts  of  the  crusades  against,  31 — 36. 

Pandects,  whether  discovered  at  Amain",  520. 

Papal  power.     See  Popes. 

Paper  from  linen,  when  and  where  invented,  542, 
543,  and  note. 

Paper  credit,  different  species  of,  484,  note. 

Papyrus,  manuscripts  written  on,  460,  461,  and 
note. 

Parchment,  scarcity  of,  460,  461. 

Pardons,  anciently  sold  by  the  English  kings,  433, 
434,  and  note. 

Paris  (counts  of),  their  power,  24. 

(city),  seditions  at,  47,  104;  subdued  by 

Charles  VI.,  47. 

(university  of),  account  of,  523. 

Parliaments,  or  general  meetings  of  the  barons,  in 
England  and  France,  account  of,  99. 

Parliament  (English),  constitution  of,  355 ;  spirit- 
ual peers,  ib. ;  lay  peers,  356 ;  origin  and  prog- 
ress of  parliamentary  representation,  359,  360  ; 
parliament,  when  divided  into  two  houses,  371 ; 
petitions  of  parliament  in  the  reign  of  Edward  II., 
372,  373  ;  the  concurrence  of  both  houses  of  par- 
liament necessary  in  legislation,  376 ;  proceed- 
ings of  the  English  parliament  in  the  tenth  year 
of  Richard  II.,  385;  interference  of  parliament 
with  the  royal  expenditure,  397;  consulted  by 
the  kings  of  England  on  all  public  affairs,  399  ; 
privilege  of  parliament,  400, 401.  See  House  of 
Commons  and  House  of  Lords. 

Parliament  of  Paris,  when  instituted,  112;  prog- 
ress of  its  jurisdiction,  113;  royal  edicts  when 
enregistered  in  it,  ib. ;  counsellors  of  parliament, 
how  appointed,  114;  notice  of  some  provincial 
parliaments,  114,  115,  note. 

Parliament  Rolls  of  Henry  VII.,  inaccuracy  of,  con- 
sidered, 449,  note. 

Partition  of  lands  in  Gaul,  &c.,  how  made,  64,  65 ; 
effects  of,  in  Germany,  235. 

Pastoureaux  (a  sect  of  enthusiasts),  insurrection 
of,  464. 

Patriarchate  of  Rome,  extent  of,  270. 

Patrician,  rank  and  office  of,  in  France,  67,  note. 

Patronage,  encroachments  of  the  popes  on  the  right 
of,  294. 

Paulicians,  tenets  and  practices  of,  503,  504,  and 
notes. 

Peace,  conservators  of,  their  office,  434. 

Peasantry  (Aragonese),  state  of,  218. 

Peasantry  (English),  nature  of  their  villanage,  and 
its  gradual  abolition,  435—441. 

Peers  of  England  (spiritual),  right  of,  to  a  seat  in 


564 


INDEX. 


parliament  considered,  355, 356,  and  notes ;  nom- 
inate a  protector  during  the  mental  derangement 
of  Henry  VI.,  444,  445. 

Peers  (lay),  how  created,  415 ;  their  right  to  a  seat 
in  parliament,  355—358. 

Peers  of  France,  the  twelve,  when  established,  1 13. 

Pembroke  (William,  earl  of),  his  reason  for  making 
an  inroad  on  the  royal  domains,  431. 

Penances,  commutations  of,  468,  469. 

Pepin,  raised  to  the  French  throne,  20 ;  conquers 
the  exarchate  of  Ravenna,  which  he  bestows  on 
the  pope,  ib. 

Pestilence,  ravages  of,  in  1348,  42  ;  its  progress  in 
other  countries,  42,  43,  note. 

Peter  the  Cruel,  king  of  Castile,  reign  of,  203,  204. 

Peter  the  Hermit,  preaching  of,  32. 

Peter  de  la  Mare,  speaker  of  the  house  of  commons, 
381. 

Petition,  memorable,  of  the  house  of  commons  to 
King  Henry  IV.,  398. 

Petrarch,  mistake  of,  corrected,  155,  note ;  caressed 
by  the  great,  537,  538  ;  review  of  his  moral  char- 
acter, 538 ;  his  passion  for  Laura  considered, 
538,  539,  and  note ;  character  of  his  poetry,  539. 

P  fan]  burger,  or  burgesses  of  the  palisades,  who 
they  were,  239. 

Philip  Augustus  (king  of  France),  character  of,  28 ; 
conquers  Normandy,  ib. ;  royal  courts  of  justice 
first  established  by  him,  111. 

Philip  III.  (king  of  "France),  reign  of,  36  ;  war  of, 
with  the  King  of  Aragon  on  the  succession  to  Si- 
cily, 187. 

Philip  the  Fair,  or  JV.  (king  of  France),  36 ;  ag- 
grandizement of  the  French  monarchy  during  his 
reign,  36,  37 ;  is  defeated  by  the  Flemings  at  the 
battle  of  Courtray,  37 ;  regulations  of,  concern- 
ing the  coining  of  money  by  the  vassals  of  France, 
93,  and  note ;  debased  the  coin  of  his  realm,  95; 
states-general  convoked  by  him,  101 ;  represen- 
tations of  the  towns  first  introduced  by  him,  101, 
102,  and  note  ;  his  probable  motives  in  taking  this 
step,  102 ;  his  disputes  with  Pope  Boniface  VIII., 
302,  303 ;  causes  him  to  be  arrested,  304. 

VI.  (king  of  France),  character  of,  40,  41  ; 

his  title  disallowed  by  Edward  III.,  41,  and  note. 

Pickering  (Sir  James),  speaker  of  the  house  of 
commons,  protest  of,  in  the  name  of  the  house, 
381. 

Piers  Plowman's  vision,  character  of,  501. 

Pilgrimages,  mischiefs  of,  469. 

Piracy,  frequency  of,  482. 

Pisa  (republic),  naval  power  of,  166 ;  conquers  Sar- 
dinia, ib. ;  defeated  by  the  Genoese,  167 ;  falls 
under  the  dominion  of  Florence,  ib. ;  account  of 
her  commercial  prosperity,  479,  480. 

(council  at),  proceedings  of,  309. 

Pius  II.  (pope),  character  of,  260,  note ;  endeavours 
to  raise  a  crusade  against  the  Turks,  ib. 

Podesta,  power  of,  in  the  free  Lombard  cities,  145  ; 
how  appointed,  145,  146. 

Poetry  of  the  troubadours,  account  of,  530;  of 
Northern  France,  531 ;  of  the  Normans,  532, 
533;  of  the  Italians,  534—539. 

Poggio  Bracciolini,  successful  researches  of,  in 
finding  ancient  manuscripts,  544. 

Pole  (Michael  de  la,  earl  of  Suffolk),  impeached  by 
the  English  parliament,  385. 

Police,  state  of,  improved  towards  the  close  of  the 
dark  ages,  502. 

Polygamy  obtained  in  France  during  the  reign  of 
Charlemagne,  292,  and  note. 

Popes,  commencement  of  their  power,  269  ;  patri- 
archate of  Rome,  270;  their  gradual  assumption 
of  power,  ib. ;  character  of  Gregory  I.,  271 ;  false 
decretals  ascribed  to  the  early  popes,  273  ;  en- 
croachments of  the  popes  on  the  hierarchy,  274 ; 
and  upon  civil  governments,  274,  275  >  excom- 


munications, 275  ;  interdicts,  276  ;  further  usur- 
pations of  the  popes,  276,  277  ;  their  degeneracy 
in  the  tenth  century,  277 ;  corruption  of  morals, 
ib. ;  neglect  of  the  rules  of  celibacy,  278  ;  simony, 
279  ;  investitures,  280  ;  imperial  confirmation  of 
popes,  ib. ;  decree  of  Nicolas  II.,  28J  ;  character 
of  Hildebrand,  or  Gregory  VII.,  ib. ;  his  differ- 
ences with  the  Emperor  Henry  IV.,  ib. ;  com- 
promised by  a  concordat  of  Calixtus,  283 ;  gen- 
eral conduct  of  Gregory  VII.,  285;  authority  of 
the  papal  legates,  286  ;  Adrian  IV.,  ib. ;  Innocent 
III.,  287  ;  his  extraordinary  pretensions,  ib. ;  the 
supremacy  claimed  by  the  popes,  supported  by 
promulgating  the  canon  law,  290;  by  the  mendi- 
cant orders,  291 ;  by  dispensations  of  marriage, 
292  ;  and  by  dispensations  from  promissory  oaths, 
293,  294 ;  encroachments  of  the  popes  on  the  free- 
dom of  ecclesiastical  elections,  294;  by  mandats 
or  requests  for  the  collation  of  inferior  benefices, 
ib. ;  by  provisions,  reserves,  &c.,  295 ;  their  tax- 
ations of  the  clergy,  296 ;  disaffection  thus  pro- 
duced against  the  church  of  Rome,  297  ;  disputes 
of  Boniface  VIII.  with  the  King  of  England,  302 ; 
and  of  France,  ib. ;  contest  of  popes  with  Louis 
of  Bavaria,  304 ;  spirit  of  resistance  to  papal 
usurpations,  305 ;  rapacity  of  the  Avignon  popes, 
306 ;  return  of  the  popes  to  Rome,  307,  308  ;  con- 
tested election  of  Urban  VI.  and  Clement  VII., 
308;  of  Gregory  XII.  and  Benedict  XIII.,  308, 
309 ;  both  deposed  by  the  council  of  Pisa,  309 ; 
John  XXIII.  deposed  by  the  council  of  Constance, 
ib. ;  real  designs  of  these  councils  as  they  re- 
spected the  popes,  310;  council  of  Basle,  311; 
concordats  of  Aschaffenburg,  313,  314 ;  papal  en- 
croachments on  the  church  of  Castile,  314 ; 
checks  on  the  papal  authority  in  France,  ib. ; 
their  usurpations  checked  in  the  Gallican  church, 
ib. ;  decline  of  the  papal  influence  in  Italy,  317, 
318. 

Population  of  the  free  cities  of  Lombardy  during 
the  middle  ages,  143,  144  ;  of  Aragon,  219,  note  ; 
of  Florence,  166,  note;  of  London,  365,  note ;  of 
Bruges,  475. 

Poulains,  or  mongrel  Christians  of  Syria,  34,  note. 

Pragmatic  sanction  of  St.  Louis,  provisions  of,  295. 

Prerogative  (royal),  defined,  423,  424  ;  limited  in 
England  during  the  reign  of  Henry  III.,  345;  no- 
tice of  its  abuses,  424,  425. 

Priests,  rapacity  of,  in  the  dark  ages,  467,  468. 

Principalities  (petty)  in  Germany,  origin  of,  235. 

Printing,  account  of  the  invention  of,  548  ;  notices 
of  early  printed  books,  549. 

Private  war,  right  of,  a  privilege  of  the  vassals  of 
France,  93,  94;  attempts  of  Charlemagne  and 
other  sovereigns  to  suppress  it,  ib. ;  prevails  in 
Aragon,  225  ;  and  in  Germany,  240 ;  suppressed 
by  the  diet  of  Worms,  ib. ;  was  never  legal  in 
England,  352. 

Privilege  of  parliament,  when  fully  established, 
400—405. 

Privilege  of  union  in  Aragon,  account  of,  219 ;  when 
abolished,  220. 

Privileges  of  knighthood,  517. 

Promissory  oaths,  dispensations  of,  granted  by  the 
popes,  293,  294. 

Pronunciation  of  the  Latin  language,  454—459. 

Protests  in  parliament,  when  first  introduced,  378. 

Provence  (county  of),  historical  notice  of,  63,  note  ; 
account  of  the  troubadours  of,  530. 

Provincial  governors,  influence  of,  in  England  du- 
ring the  Anglo-Saxon  government,  321. 

Provincial  states  in  France,  106 ;  in  the  German 
empire,  239. 

Provisions  (papal),  notice  of,  295. 

Provisors  (statute  of),  observations  on,  312,  313. 

Purveyance,  a  branch  of  the  ancient  royal  preroga- 
tive in  England,  424 ;  its  abuses,  ib. 


INDEX. 


565 


R. 

Rapacity  of  the  Avignon  popes,  306. 

Rapine,  prevalent  habit  of,  in  England,  during  the 
middle  ages,  433. 

Ravenna  (exarchate  of),  conquered  by  the  Lorn 
bards,  20  ;  reconquered  by  Pepin,  and  conferred 
upon  the  pope,  ib. 

Raymond  VI.,  count  of  Toulouse,  disasters  of,  29, 
30. 

Redress  of  grievances,  attempted  to  be  made  a  con 
dition  of  granting  supplies  by  the  house  of  com 
mons,  394. 

Regency  in  England,  historical  instances  of,  441 
during  the  absences  of  the  kings  in  France,  ib.  ; 
at  the  accession  of  Henry  III.,  ib. ;  of  Edward  I., 
ib. ;  and  Edward  III.,  442  ;  of  Richard  II.,  ib. ; 
of  Henry  VI.,  442—445. 

Regency  in  France,  right  of  the  presumptive  heir 
to,  48,  note. 

Reliefs,  origin  of,  77,  78  ;  their  nature,  78 ;  and 
value,  ib. ;  equivalent  to  the  heriots  of  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  331. 

Religion,  contributed  to  the  preservation  of  litera- 
ture during  the  dark,  ages,  461,  462;  connexion 
of,  with  chivalry,  511. 

Representation  (parliamentary),  origin  and  prog- 
ress of,  359 ;  a  probable  instance  of,  in  the  reign 
of  William  the  Conqueror,  ib. ;  a  more  decided 
example  in  the  fifteenth  year  of  John,  359,  360  ; 
another  in  the  ninth  year  of  Henry  III.,  360 ;  and 
in  the  thirty-eighth  of  Henry  III.,  ib. ;  especially 
in  the  forty-ninth  of  Henry  III.,  ib. ;  burgesses 
and  citizens,  when  first  summoned  to  parliament, 
366,  367  ;  causes  of  summoning  them,  370. 

Reprisal,  law  of,  482. 

Retainers,  custom  of  having,  in  noble  families, 
432. 

Revenues  of  the  church,  under  the  Roman  empire, 
261 ;  increased  after  its  subversion,  261,  262 ; 
were  sometimes  improperly  acquired,  ib. ;  other 
sources  of  revenues— tithes,  263. 

Revenues  of  the  kings  of  France,  sources  of,  94  ; 
augmented  by  exactions  from  the  Jews,  95  ;  by 
debasing  the  coin,  ib. ;  direct  taxation,  96  ;  of  the 
various  sovereigns  of  Europe  in  the  fifteenth  cen- 
tury, 192,  note. 

Revolution  in  England,  of  1399  and  1688— parallel 
between,  392,  393. 

Richard  I.  (Coeur  de  Lion),  crusade  of,  35  ;  refused 
to  abolish  the  right  of  private  war,  94,  note. 

Richard  II.,  disputes  between,  and  the  parliament 
of  England,  381—384 ;  sketch  of  his  character, 
384;  acquires  more  power  on  his  majority,  ib.  ; 
proceedings  of  parliament  in  the  tenth  year  of 
his  reign,  385 ;  appoints  a  commission  of  reform, 
385,  386  ;  wretched  state  of  the  country  during 
his  reign,  386 ;  remarks  on  the  conduct  of  the 
king,  386,  387  ;  answers  of  the  judges  to  certain 
questions  proposed  by  him,  387 ;  subsequent  rev- 
olution, ib. ;  greater  harmony  between  the  king 
and  parliament,  388;  disunion  among  the  lead- 
ing peers,  ib. ;  prosecution  of  Haxey  for  propo- 
sing in  the  house  of  commons  an  obnoxious  libel, 
389 ;  arbitrary  measures  of  the  king,  389,  390  ; 
appoints  a  commission  to  sit  after  parliament  had 
been  dissolved,  390 ;  tyranny  of  Richard,  391  ; 
necessity  for  deposing  him,  ib.  ;  retrospect  of  the 
progress  of  the  constitution  under  Richard  JI.,393. 

Richard  (earl  of  Cornwall),  elected  emperor  of 
Germany,  232  ;  his  character,  ib. 

Richard  (duke  of  York),  made  protector  of  Eng- 
land during  the  mental  derangement  of  Henry 
VI.,  444  ;  claims  the  crown,  446 ;  civil  wars  of 
the  Lancastrians  and  Yorkists,  447. 

Richemont  (the  count  de),  retrieves  the  affairs  of 
France,  53  54. 


Ricos  hombres,  or  great  barons  of  Aragon,  privileges 
of,  218. 

Rienzi  (Nicola  de),  revolution  effected  by,  at  Rome, 
154,  155;  his  death,  155. 

Ripuary  law,  difference  between  it  and  the  Salique- 
law,  65. 

Robbery,  when  made  a  capital  offence  in  France, 
66,  note ;  prevalence  of,  in  England,  433  ;  robbers 
there  frequently  purchased  pardons,  433,  434. 

Rochelle,  fidelity  of  the  citizens  of,  to  the  King  of 
France,  45. 

Rodolph,  count  of  Hapsburg,  elected  Emperor  of 
Germany,  234 ;  invests  his  son  with  the  dutchy 
of  Austria,  ib. ;  state  of  the  empire  after  his 
death,  235. 

Romagna,  province  of,  ceded  to  the  popes,  153. 

Roman  empire,  subversion  of,  17 ;  partitioned  among 
various  barbarous  nations,  ib. ;  state  of  the  church 
under  the  empire,  261  ;  causes  of  the  decline  of 
learning  in  it,  451—460. 

Roman  de  la  Rose,  account  of,  533. 

Romance  language,  gradual  change  of  Latin  into, 
458  ;  divided  into  two  dialects,  529,  530  ;  account 
of  the  Provengal  dialect,  530 ;  and  of  the  French 
or  northern  romance  dialect,  531. 

Rome,  state  of,  at  the  close  of  the  ninth  century, 
126,  127 ;  internal  state  of,  in  the  middle  ages, 
153,  154;  power  of  the  senators,  154;  revolution 
effected  there  by  the  tribune  Rienzi,  ib. ;  subse- 
quent affairs  of,  155. 

—  (bishops  of),  nature  of  their  primacy,  269, 270 ; 
originally  were  patriarchs,  270.  See  Popes. 

Roye  (town),  singular  clause  in  the  charter  of,  119, 


S. 

Salique-law,  whether  it  excluded  women  from  the 
throne  of  France,  38  ;  excluded  them  from  pri- 
vate succession  in  some  cases,  65  ;  question  ari- 
sing out  of  this  law,  37 ;  date  of  the  Salique-law, 
65,  note. 

Sanctuary,  privilege  of,  accorded  to  monasteries, 
467. 

Saracens,  first  conquests  of,  in  the  east,  251 ;  and 
in  Africa,  ib. ;  they  invade  France,  and  are  de- 
feated by  Charles  Martel,  19 ;  ravage  that  coun- 
try again,  25 ;  driven  out  of  Italy  and  Sicily  by 
the  Normans,  128,  129;  the  probable  inventors 
of  gunpowder,  184;  Spain  conquered  by  them, 
198,  25)  ;  decline  of  the  Saracens,  252 ;  separa- 
tion of  Spain  and  Africa  from  them,  253  ;  decline 
of  the  khalifs  in  the  east,  253,  254  ;  Saracenic 
architecture,  not  the  parent  of  Gothic  architec- 
ture, 493,  note. 

Saragosa  (city  of),  captured  from  the  Moors,  199. 

Sardinia  (island),  conquered  by  the  Pisans,  166 ; 
from  whom  it  was  taken  by  the  King  of  Aragon, 
167. 

Saxons,  savage  state  of,  before  their  conquest  of 
England,  327,  328. 

conquered  by  Charlemagne,  21. 


Saxony,  emperors  of  the  house  of,  viz.,  Otho  I., 

126,  227  ;  Henry  II.,  127,  228. 
Scabini,  a  species  of  judges,  jurisdiction  of,  108. 
Scandinavian  sea-kings,  notice  of,  319. 
Scholastic  philosophy,  derived  from  the  Arabs,  526, 

note;   account  of  the  principal  schoolmen  and 

their  principles,  526—529. 
Schools  (public),  first  established  by  Charlemagne, 

523. 
Scriptures,  versions  of,  made  in  the  eighth  and 

ninth  centuries,  507,508;  the  general  reading  of 

them  not  prohibited  until  the  thirteenth  century, 

508. 

Sects,  religious,  sketch  of,  during  the  dark  agee, 
03    M anichees,  ib. ;  Paulicians,  their  tenets  and 


666 


INDEX. 


persecutions,  504,  and  notes ;  the  Albigenses,  504, 
505 ;  proofs  that  they  held  Manichean  tenets, 
505,  and  notes  ;  origin  of  the  Waldenses,  ib.,  and 
note,  507,  note ;  their  tenets,  506,  and  note ;  the 
Catharists,  ib. :  other  anonymous  sects  of  the 
same  period,  507,  508;  the  Lollards  of  England, 
508  ;  Hussites  of  Bohemia,  508,  509. 

Selden  (Mr.),  theory  of,  concerning  the  nature  of 
baronies,  357 ;  observations  thereon,  357,  358. 

Serfs,  state  of,  in  the  feudal  system,  89 — 92 ;  pre- 
dial servitude  not  abolished  in  France  until  the 
revolution,  91,  note ;  became  free  by  escaping  to 
chartered  towns,  119,  note.  See  Villeins. 

Sforza  Attendolo,  rivalry  of,  with  Braccio  di  Mon- 
tone,  185. 

Sforza  (Francesco)  acquires  the  dutchy  of  Milan, 
185.  186. 

Sheriff,  power  of,  in  omitting  boroughs  that  had 
sent  members  to  parliament,  407. 

Sicily  (island  of),  conquered  by  the  Normans  under 
Roger  Guiscard,  129;  whom  Leo  IX.  creates 
King  of  Sicily,  ib. ;  state  of  affairs  after  his  death, 
136;  rebellion  of  the  Sicilians  against  Charles, 
count  of  Anjou,  186;  massacre  of  the  French, 
called  the  Sicilian  vespers,  ib. 

Sigismund  (king  of  Hungary),  reign  of,  245. 

Silk,  manufacture  of,  when  introduced  into  Italy, 
480. 

Silver  passed  chiefly  by  weight  in  the  first  ages  of 
the  French  monarchy,  93. 

Simony  of  the  clergy  in  the  eleventh  century, 
282. 

Sismondi  (M.),  observations  on  his  Histoire  des 
Republiques  Italiennes,  125,  126,  note. 

Sithcundman  or  petty  gentleman,  rank  of,  among 
the  Anglo-Saxons,  331. 

Slave-trade  carried  on  during  the  dark  ages,  473. 

Soccage  and  soccagers,  probable  derivation  of  the 
terms,  352,  353,  and  notes  ;  the  question  consid- 
ered whether  freeholders  in  soccage  were  liable 
to  contribute  to  the  wages  of  knights  in  parlia- 
ment, 408,  note. 

Society,  different  classes  of,  under  the  feudal  sys- 
tem, 85  ;  nobility,  85—87 ;  clergy,  88 ;  freemen, 
ib. ;  serfs  or  villeins,  89 — 92 ;  moral  state  of,  im- 
proved by  the  feudal  system,  124,  125 ;  ignorance 
of  all  classes,  459—461  ;  their  superstition  and 
fanaticism,  462  ;  degraded  state  of  morals,  469  ; 
love  of  field-sports,  470  ;  state  of  internal  trade, 
472  ;  and  of  foreign  commerce,  473. 

,  general  view  of  the  degraded  state  of,  from 

the  decline  of  the  Roman  empire  to  the  end  of 
the  eleventh  century,  450—474 ;  commercial  im- 
provement of  society,  474—485;  refinement  in 
manners,  485 — 501  ;  improvement  of  the  moral 
character  of  Europe,  501  ;  its  causes — elevation 
of  the  lower  ranks,  502 ;  improved  state  of  the 
police,  ib. ;  religious  sects,  503;  institution  of 
chivalry,  509—520  ;  the  encouragement  of  litera- 
ture, 520—541  ;  particularly  by  the  revival  of  an- 
cient learning,  542  ;  the  invention  of  linen  paper, 
542,  543 ;  and  the  invention  of  the  art  of  print- 
ing, 548,  549. 

Soldiers.     See  Mercenary  troops. 

Spain,  northern  part  of,  conquered  by  Charle- 
magne, 21  ;  extent  of  the  feudal  system  in,  84. 

,  history  of,  to  the  conquest  of  "Granada,  197  ; 

kingdom  of  the  Visigoths,  ib. ;  conquered  by  the 
Saracens,  198;  decline  of  the  Moorish  empire, 
ib. ;  formation  of  the  kingdom  of  Leon,  ib. ';  of 
"  Navarre,  ib. ;  of  Aragon,  J99  ;  and  of  Castile,  ib. ; 
capture  of  Toledo  and  Saragosa,  ib. ;  mode  of 
settling  the  new  conquests,  ib. ;  chartered  towns 
or  communities,  200,  201  ;  military  orders  insti- 
tuted, 201  ;  final  union  of  the  kingdoms  of  Leon 
and  Castile,  ib. ;  conquest  of  Andalusia  and  Va- 
lencia, ib. ;  expulsion  of  the  Moors,  why  long  de- 


layed, 202 ;  civil  disturbances  of  Castile,  203 ; 
reign  of  Peter  the  Cruel,  ib. ;  house  of  Trasta- 
mare,  204;  John  II.,  ib. ;  Henry  IV.,  205;  con- 
stitution of  Castile,  206 ;  succession  of  the  crown, 
ib. ;  national  councils,  ib. ;  the  cortes,  207;  right 
of  taxation,  208,  209  ;  forms  of  the  cortes,  211  ; 
their  rights  in  legislation,  ib. ;  council  of  Castile, 
2J3  ;  administration  of  justice,  213,  214  ;  violent 
actions  of  some  of  the  kings  of  Castile,  21 4 ;  con- 
federacies of  the  nobility,  215 ;  affairs  of  Aragon, 
ib. ;  disputed  succession  to  the  crown  after  the 
death  of  Martin,  216;  constitution  of  Aragon, 
218 ;  liberties  of  the  Aragonese  kingdom,  218, 
219 ;  office  of  the  justiciary,  220  ;  rights  of  legis- 
lation and  taxation,  223  ;  cortes  of  Aragon,  224 ; 
government  of  Valencia  and  Catalonia,  ib. ;  un- 
ion of  Castile  and  Aragon.  225;  conquest  of 
Granada,  225,  226 ;  notice  of  Spanish  literature 
during  the  dark  ages,  534. 

States-general,  convoked  by  Philip  the  Fair,  101, 
102 ;  representatives  from  the  towns  introduced 
by  him,  101,  and  note ;  motives  for  this  conduct, 
102  ;  the  rights  of  the  states-general  as  to  taxa- 
tion, ib. ;  states-general  of  1355  and  1356,  103, 
104  ;  never  possessed  any  legislative  power,  103, 
note ;  under  Charles  VII.,  105  ;  proceedings  of 
states-general  of  Tours,  106,  107. 

Statute  of  treasons  explained,  76,  notes. 

Statute  law  (English),  observations  on,  348,  349. 

Statutes,  distinction  between  them  and  ordinances, 
376,  377  ;  were  sometimes  left  to  be  drawn  up 
by  the  judges  after  a  dissolution  of  parliament, 
395;  fraudulently  altered  in  consequence,  396. 

Stephen,  wretched  state  of  England  during  the 
reign  of,  338. 

Stratford  (archbishop),  case  of,  355,  356,  notes. 

Students,  number  of,  at  the  universities  of  Oxford, 
Bologna,  and  Paris,  524. 

Subinfeudation,  origin  of,  72. 

Subsidies  (parliamentary),  by  whom  assessed,  360  ; 
how  granted,  430.  See  Supply. 

Succession  to  the  throne,  in  Castile,  206;  in  Ara- 
gon, 218  ;  among  the  Anglo-Saxons,  320 ;  hered- 
itary succession  established  during  the  Anglo- 
Norman  reign,  349,  350. 

Sumptuary  laws,  observation  on,  486,  487. 

Superstition  of  the  dark  ages,  one  cause  of  the  de- 
cline of  learning  in  the  Roman  empire,  462  ;  sin- 
gular instances  of  superstition,  ib. ;  mischiefs 
thence  arising,  465  ;  yet  not  unattended  with 
good,  466. 

Supplies,  granting  of,  claimed  by  the  house  of  com- 
mons, 393  ;  application  of,  directed  by  that  house, 
394 ;  attempt  of  the  house  to  make  supply  de- 
pend on  redress  of  grievances,  ib. 

Supremacy  of  the  state  maintained  by  the  sover- 
eigns of  Europe,  267  ;  especially  by  Charle- 
magne, ib. ;  progress  of  the  papal  supremacy, 
274—290 ;  review  of  the  circumstances  which 
favoured  it,  290—299  ;  endeavours  made  to  re- 
press it  in  England,  299—301. 

Surnames,  when  first  used,  85. 

Swabia  (house  of),  emperors  of:— Conrad  III., 
230  ;  Frederick  Barbarossa,  ib.  ;  Philip,  231 ; 
Otho,  139,  231  ;  Frederick  If.,  139—142. 

Swisserland,  sketch  of  the  early  history  of,  246  ; 
insurrection  of  the  Swiss  against  the  tyranny  of 
Albert,  archduke  of  Austria,  246,  247  ;  formation 
of  the  Swiss  confederacy,  247,  248;  excellence 
of  the  Swiss  troops,  248 ;  the  independence  of 
the  Swiss  confederacy  ratified,  248,  249. 

Swords,  when  first  generally  worn,  463,  note. 

T. 

Tactics  (military),  of  the  fourteenth  century,  ac- 
count of,  182,  183;  invention  of  gunpowder  and 


INDEX. 


567 


firearms,  184,  165 ;  use  of  infantry  not  fully  es- 
tablished until  the  sixteenth  century,  185. 

Taille,  perpetual,  when  imposed  in  France,  56. 

Tallage,  oppressive,  of  the  Norman  kings  of  Eng- 
land, 339. 

Tartars  of  Timur,  incursions  of,  in  Asia  and  Eu- 
rope, 258. 

Taxation,  excessive,  effects  of,  47 ;  taxation  origi- 
nated in  the  feudal  aids,  80  ;  immunity  from  tax- 
ation claimed  by  the  nobles  of  France,  94  ;  direct 
taxation  a  source  of  the  royal  revenues,  96  ; 
rights  of  the  states-general  as  to  taxation,  102  ; 
last  struggle  of  the  French  nation  against  arbi- 
trary taxation.  107  ;  right  of  taxation  in  Castile, 
in  whom  vested,  and  in  what  manner  regulated, 
208—210 ;  taxation  of  the  clergy  by  the  popes, 
296,  297. 

Taxes,  levied  without  convoking  the  states-general 
by  John  and  Charles  V.,  105  ;  remedial  ordinance 
concerning  them  by  Charles  VI.,  ib. ;  levied  by 
his  own  authority  by  Louis  XL,  106  ;  what  taxes 
levied  in  England  under  the  Norman  kings,  338, 
339. 

Tenants  in  chief  by  knight's  service,  whether  par- 
liamentary barons  by  virtue  of  their  tenures,  357, 
358 ;  whether  they  attended  parliament  under 
Henry  Iff.,  358,  359. 

Tenures  (feudal),  gradual  establishment  of,  69 — 
73 ;  nature  of  tenure  by  grand  sergeantry,  190, 
note. 

Terence,  observations  on  the  versification  of,  455. 

Territorial  jurisdiction,  origin  and  progress  of,  in 
France,  108,  109  ;  its  division  and  administra- 
tion, 109. 

Thanes,  two  classes  of,  among  the  Anglo-Saxons, 
321 ;  were  judges  of  civil  controversies,  325  ;  for- 
feited their  military  freeholds  by  misconduct  in 
battle,  330  ;  the  term  synonymous  in  its  deriva- 
tion to  vassal,  330,  331. 

Tithes,  payment  of,  when  and  in  what  manner  -es- 
tablished, 263,  264. 

Toledo  (city  of)  captured  from  the  Moors,  199. 

Torture  never  known  in  England,  nor  recognised 
to  be  law,  428,  and  note. 

Tournaments,  influence  of,  on  chivalry,  516,  517. 

Tours,  proceedings  of  the  states-general  of,  106, 

Towns,  progress  of,  in  England,  to  the  twelfth  cen- 

•  tury,  362,  363  ;  when  let  in  fee-farm,  363,  364 ; 
charters  of  incorporation  granted  to  them,  364, 
•365  ;  their  prosperity  in  the  twelfth  century,  365. 

Trade  (internal),  state  of,  in  the  dark  ages,  472, 473. 

Trade  (foreigrt>.     See  Commerce. 

Treaty  of  Bretigni,  43  ;  of  Calais,  44 ;  of  Troyes,  51. 

Trial  by  combat.     See  Combat. 

Trial  by  jury.     See  Jury. 

Troubadours  of  Provence,  account  of,  530;  their 
poetical  character  considered,  530,  531. 

Turks,  progress  of,  255 ;  first  crusade  against  them, 
ib. ;  they  conquer  Constantinople,  259  ;  suspen- 
sion of  their  conquests,  260,  261. 

Tuscany,  league  of,  formed  to  support  the  see  of 
Rome,  138 ;  state  of,  in  the  middle  ages,  espe- 
cially the  cities  of  Florence,  156;  and  of  Pisa, 
166. 

Tyranny  of  the  Norman  government  in  England, 
"337,  338. 

Ty thing,  real  nature  of,  328,  329. 

Tything-man,  cowers  of,  324. 

U. 

Uladislaus,  king  of  Hungary,  reign  of,  245. 

Universities,  when  first  established,  523  ;  account 
of  the  university  of  Paris,  ib. ;  Oxford,  524 ;  of 
Bologna,  ib. ;  encouragement  given  to  universi- 
ties, ib. ;  causes  of  their  celebrity,  526—529. 


Urban  VI.  (pope),  contested  election  of,  308. 

Usurpations  (papal),  account  of,  274 — 277. 

Usury  of  the  Jews,  account  of,  95,  ordinance 
against  it,  100  ;  sentiments  and  regulations  con- 
cerning it,  484,  485,  and  note. 

V. 

Valencia  (kingdom  of),  constitution  of,  224,  225. 

Varlets,  education  of,  516. 

Vassal  and  lord,  mutual  duties  of,  75;  particular 
obligations  of  a  vassal,  76  ;  he  could  not  alienate 
his  lands  without  his  lord's  consent,  78. 

Vavassors,  rank  of,  87. 

Vel,  the  Latin  particle,  used  instead  of  et,  96,  note 

Velly  (the  historian  of  France),  character  of,  63, 64, 
note. 

Venice  (republic  of),  origin  of,  171 ;  her  dependance 
on  the  Greek  empire,  172  ;  conquest  of  Dalmatia, 
ib. ;  acquisitions  in  the  Levant,  ib. ;  form  of  gov 
eminent,  173 ;  powers  of  the  doge,  ib. ;  and  of 
the  great  council,  ib. ;  other  councils,  174 ;  re- 
strictions of  the  ducal  power,  ib. ;  tyranny  of  the 
council  of  ten,  175;  reflections  on  the  govern 
ment  of  Venice,  175,  176. 

,  war  of  this  republic  with  Genoa,  168 — 170 ; 

the  Genoese  besieged  in  Chioggia,  and  obliged 
to  surrender,  169,  170  ;  territorial  acquisitions  of 
Venice,  177;  her  wars  with  Milan,  178;  account 
of  her  commercial  prosperity,  4g9,  4gO;  traded 
with  the  Crimea, 'and  with  China,  480,  and  note. 

Versification  of  the  ancient  Latin  poets,  observa- 
tions on,  455. 

Vienna,  description  of,  in  the  fifteenth  century, 
487,  488,  note. 

Villaret  (the  French  historian),  character  of,  63,  64, 
note. 

Villanage,  prevalence  of,  89  ;  causes  of  it,  89,  90  ; 
its  gradual  abolition,  91,  92;  nature  of  the  vil- 
lanage  of  the  English  peasantry,  and  its  gradual 
extinction,  435 — 441 ;  was  rare  in  Scotland,  440, 
note. 

Villeins,  different  classes  of,  89;  their  condition 
and  duties,  90,  91 ;  enfranchised  by  testament, 
91,  note ;  but  not  without  the  superior  lord's  con- 
sent, ib.,  note;  in  what  cases  they  could  or  could 
not  be  witnesses,  ib.,  note;  their  condition  by  the 
laws  of  William  the  Conqueror,  322 ;  and  during 
subsequent  reigns,  435—441. 

Villein  tenure  oflands,  92. 

Virgin,  superstitious  devotions  to,  465,  466,  and 
notes. 

Virtues  deemed  essential  to  chivalry,  514. 

Visconti  family,  acquire  sovereign  power  at  Milan, 
151 ;  their  sovereignty  gradually  acknowledged, 
151,  152;  created  dukes  of  Milan,  152;  tyranny 
of  several  princes  of  this  family,  165. 

Visigoths,  kingdom  of,  in  Spain,  197. 

W. 

Wages  of  members  of  parliament,  rates  of,  and  how 
raised,  408,  and  notes  ;  of  labourers  in  England, 
better  in  the  reign  of  Edward  III.  than  now,  500, 
501. 

Waldenses,  origin  of,  505,  506,  and  note ;  their  te- 
nets, 506,  and  note. 

Wales,  ancient  condition  of,  and  its  inhabitants, 
434,  note ;  members  of  parliament,  when  sum 
moned  from  that  country,  ib. 

Walter  de  Brienne  (duke  of  Athens),  notice  of,  159, 
160 ;  elected  signior  of  Florence,  159 ;  his  tyran- 
nical government,  160 ;  abdicates  his  office,  ib. 

Wamba  (king  of  the  Visigoths),  whether  deposed 
by  the  bishops,  268,  note. 

Wardship,  custom  of,  explained,  80. 

Warna,  notice  of  the  battle  of,  245. 


568 


INDEX. 


Weavers  (Flemish)  settle  in  England,  475,  note, 
476,  note. 

Wenceslaus  (emperor  of  Germany)  deposed,  236, 
237. 

Weregild,  or  commutation  for  murder,  rates  of,  66 ; 
amount  of  thanes  or  nobles  among  the  Anglo- 
Saxons,  321 ;  for  a  ceorl  or  peasant,  ib. 

Whitelocke,  observation  of,  on  the  bulk  of  our  stat- 
ute law,  349,  note;  his  mistake  concerning  the 
three  estates  of  the  realm  determined,  403,  404, 
notes. 

Wicliffe  (John),  influence  of  the  principles  of,  in 
restraining  the  power  of  the  clergy  in  England, 
313  ;  their  probable  influence  in  effecting  the  abo- 
lition of  villanage,  439. 

William  (duke  of  Normandy),  conquers  England, 
332;  his  conduct  at  first  moderate,  333;  after- 
ward more  tyrannical,  ib. ;  confiscates  English 
property,  334;  devastates  Yorkshire  and  the  New 
Forest,  ib. ;  his  domains,  335 ;  his  mercenary 
troops,  ib. ;  establishes  the  feudal  system  in  Eng- 
land, ib. ;  preservation  of  public  peace  during  his 
reign,  336 ;  account  of  his  laws,  340. 

Wmton,  statute  of,  434. 

Wisbuy,  ordinances  of,  482. 

Wittenagemot,  or  assembly  of  wise  men,  how  com- 
posed, 322,  323 ;  qualifications  for  a  seat  in  that 
council,  323. 


Women,  excluded  from  the  throne  of  France  by 
the  Salique-law,  38;  and  from  inheriting  the 
lands  assigned  to  the  Salian  Franks  on  their  con- 
quest of  Gaul,  65;  but  not  from  lands  subse- 
quently acquired,  ib. ;  how  treated  by  the  ancient 
Germans,  ib.,  note  ;  did  not  inherit  fiefs,  82,  note. 

Wool  (unwrought),  exported  from  England,  475 
476;  penalties  on  such  exportation,  476,  477, 
note. 

Woollen  manufactures  of  Flanders,  474;  causes  of 
their  being  carried  into  England,  474,  475,  note  ; 
introduced  there  by  the  Flemings,  475,  note; 
progress  of  the  English  woollen  manufactures, 
476  ;  regulations  concerning  their  export,  ib. 

Worms.     See  Diet  of  Worms. 

Writing,  an  accomplishment  possessed  by  few  in 
the  dark  ages,  459. 

Y. 

Yorkists,  civil  wars  between,  and  the  Lancastri- 
ans, 447. 

Yorkshire  devastated  by  William  the  Conqueror, 
334. 


Zisca  (John),  character  and  achievements  of,  244 


THE    END. 


OVERDUE.  $'-°°    °*    THE 


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